(Finance) – Consolidate growth the digital market which in 2022 marks a +2.4%, with a total value of 77.1 billion euros. The most significant increase concerned ICT services (+8.5% and 14.8 billion euros), mainly supported by Cloud Computing and Cybersecurity services. Trends particularly positive results were recorded in the Digital Content and Advertising segment (+6.3% and 14.5 billion euros) and in Software and ICT Solutions (+6.2% and 8.6 billion euros). The market related to Devices and Systems showed a clear trend reversal after the consistent growth recorded in 2021. In fact, during 2022 it decreased by 1%. And finally the negative trend of TLC Network Services continued (-2.7%). If the progress of the digital market is partly held back by the more mature technological components, will instead be driven by the most innovative products and services, i.e. Digital Enablers and Transformers, whose average annual increase in period 2022-2026 should settle at 12.8%.
“The combination of more digital technologies and a greater speed of innovation than in the past is shaping a completely different industry, which will see increasingly connected and circular supply chains and supply chains. The enabling role of Digital Enablers in transforming production and processes, in creating new business models, competitive challenges, as well as new markets is fundamental. It is no coincidence that we are witnessing double-digit dynamics in the growth of Digital Enablers and Transformers: from Cloud Computing, to Cybersecurity platforms, to Big Data management solutions, essential for organizing and managing the architecture of the information assets of companies and public institutions and therefore a prerequisite for the adoption of tools for advanced analysis and data valorisation, among which Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain solutions stand out”. He said it Marco Gay, President of Anitec-Assinform, the Confindustria Association which brings together the main ICT companies, commenting on the annual publication on the trend of digital technology in Italy, conducted in collaboration with NetConsulting cube and presented today in Rome.
If the positive trend of the digital market is clear – continues Gay – phowever, critical issues remain, first of all the lack of digital skills and the heterogeneity in the diffusion of technologies between company size classes and between territories. The challenge for the digitization of SMEs is in its infancy but the national transition plan 4.0 and the PNRR constitute significant opportunities in this sense. Precisely the use of the resources allocated by the PNRR, together with the international economic context, represent two significant factors that will influence the immediate future of the digital market”.
Even more in detail: the growth trend of digital investments of small and medium-sized Italian companies remains slower than that recorded by large companies. In 2022 there was an increase of 2.5% for small businesses, 4.1% for medium-sized companies and 5.9% for large ones, confirming the correlation between company size and digital spending: the more contexts organizational structures increase in size, the greater the expenditure allocated to digitization. The geographical analysis of the Italian digital market instead identifies in the North-West and Central Regions the areas characterized by a greater spending capacity in technology, representing almost 62% of the total expenditure. At the national level, in 2023 the market is still expected to grow (+3.1%). The estimates for the following three years (2024-2025-2026) are oriented towards even more sustained growth and are based on the hypothesis of a lower impact of inflation and on a greater use of the economic resources made available by the PNRR for the digitization. An average annual growth of the digital market is therefore expected in the period 2022-2026 of 4.5%, reaching almost 92 billion euros in 2026.
“Efficient use of the funds made available by the PNRR is the first step in this direction – concludes Gay – but there is a need for an industrial policy that promotes the competitiveness of companies, which increases their productivity and strengthens collaboration within the supply chain. Furthermore, there is a need for pro-competitive regulatory interventions that push innovation, support the formation of human capital and support collaboration between companies to increase the scale and durability of investments. These are the levers that can allow the digital market to grow, to technologies to be enablers of transformation, to young people to be protagonists of today’s world and of what will come”.