(Finance) – Despite the long tail of the pandemic and the outbreak of new international crises, the PMI Italian confirm that they have been able to react to crisis external. Only 14% of SMEs said they were unable to introduce actions to deal with the difficulties encountered following the increase in energy costs, and only 10% did not have the tools to respond to the supply difficulties. During 2022, 26% of Italian SMEs increased their investments in digital compared to the previous year, but a strong cultural gap remains, with 35% of companies struggling to recognize digitization as having a central role within the reference economic sector.
These are some of the data presented today by theDigital Innovation Observatory in SMEs of the School of Management of the Politecnico di Milano on the occasion of the conference “SMEs towards digital maturity: the compass is in the ecosystem”.
“Small and medium-sized Italian enterprises make up about 5% of active enterprises in the country and are characterized by a high heterogeneity, for example in terms of structure, activity, organization, strategic vision. This is reflected in differences in performance, but also in the approach to innovation and, in particular, to digital transformation” he declares Paul GhezziGeneral Manager of Infocamere.
With the dual purpose of quantifying the weight of SMEs in supply chains productive and to investigate the role of digital in supply chain relations, the Observatory, in the context of a collaboration with InfoCamere, has identified and mapped this year three other particularly relevant supply chains for Made in Italy: AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction), mechanics and mechatronics, vehicles motorized road and related services.
SMEs of mechanics And mechatronics, represent more than half (59%) of supply chain revenues, as well as employees (62%) through 12,000 active SMEs (or 19% of the total). The chain of vehicles motor on rubber And services connected it is made up of 5,500 active SMEs (5% of the total) which represent 29% of employees, generating 36% of revenues. Finally, the AEC follows, with over 26,000 active companies (3% of the entire sector) and 33% of both revenues and employees.
“The Observatory has identified 4 digital maturity profiles based on 3 representative variables of the SMEs’ approach to digitalisation: digital culture, digital transformation of processes, collaboration with external actors” he declares Claudius Rorato, Director of the Digital Innovation Observatory in SMEs. “The minority of SMEs has a convinced (36%) or advanced (9%) profile. As a result, just over half of SMEs (55%) show a timid (39%) or even skeptical (16%) attitude towards digital transformation, especially lacking a holistic approach and long-term strategic vision. However, it cannot be overlooked that in the last year the energy crisis and the need to deal with contingent situations have temporarily slowed down the digitization process of some realities”.