SMEs, Istat: in 2022 69.9% of small and medium-sized enterprises adopt at least 4 digital activities out of 12

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(Finance) – The greater use of remote working which in 2022 involved more than 7 out of 10 companies has influenced the increase in the share of companies with at least 10 employees who have documents on IT security measures, practices or procedures (48, 3%, it was 34.4% in 2019; 37% the share in the EU27). There cybersecurity 45.1% of the largest companies are concerned, as they have taken out insurance against cyber incidents to defend themselves. Among smaller companies, the share is 14.4% (respectively 44.6% and 22.6% in the EU27). The adoption of robotics and the use of ICT specialists remain stable compared to 2020. In 2022, companies with 10 or more employees using robots will go from 8.8% in 2020 to 8.7% (6.3% the EU27 average). The percentage of companies with at least 10 employees who consider the environmental impact when choosing IT tools is equal to 74.9% (58.4% in the EU27). 59.9% of companies also combine the adoption of measures that affect the consumption of paper or ICT energy (48.7% in the EU27). 13.4% of companies with 10 or more employees employ ICT specialists (21% the EU27 average): they were 12.6% in 2020. This is the photograph taken by theIstat in the Business and ICT 2022 report.

SMEs are connecting more but the digital transition is proceeding slowly – With reference to the 12 indicators by class of employees that make up the Digital Intensity Index (DII), used to identify the areas in which Italian and European companies encounter greater difficulties, the greatest gaps are found, to the detriment of SMEs (companies with 10- 249 employees), in the presence of ICT specialists, in the decision to invest in ICT training during the previous year, in the use of online meetings and specialized documentation on the rules and measures to be followed on IT security. There is also a wide gap in the use of robots and in online sales of at least 1% of total turnover, which significantly reduces the overall share of companies with at least 10 employees who use these tools. Compared to 2019, the share of SMEs in which in the year 2022 more than 50% of employees have access to the Internet for work purposes has increased by almost 23%, equaling the growth rates of large companies (rising from 40% to 49% respectively and 47% to 58%). In the same period, the growth of employees of SMEs using devices connected to the Internet is more marked, which increases from 50% to 56%, eliminating the distance with large companies (55.2%). Fixed broadband with speeds of at least 30 Mbit/s is used by 82.8% of 10+ businesses against 96.1% of the larger ones. The quotas for connectivity of at least 1 Giga, respectively 13.2% and 27.1%, are more distant.

The indicators are not neutral with respect to the economic activities carried out by firms – For most of the indicators of connection, security and ICT training, the best performances are recorded by companies belonging to the sector of specialized and strategic ICT demand, such as that connected to energy supply (D), in which 86 operate, 4% of companies that have at least 50% of employees accessing the Internet (the average is 49.3%), 93.3% that have activated at least three ICT security measures (about 20 percentage points more than the average) and 38.3% who provided training in the ICT field to their employees (19.3% companies 10+). The performances of the technical professions (M) and information and communication services (J) sectors are similar; the latter are distinguished by the presence of ICT specialists (59.9% against an average of 13.4%) and the training carried out to update or develop the ICT skills of their employees (52.5% against 19.3%). Finally, manufacturing activities (C) emerge for the use of robotics (19.1% against an average of 8.7%) while with 36.8% those of accommodation and catering (I) are the first for the use of online sales for values ​​exceeding 1% of total turnover compared to 13.4% of companies with at least 10 employees. The DII, referring only to SMEs with a basic DII level, is one of the sub-indicators of the digital transition of companies measured by the Economy and Society Digitization Index (Desi) to which the “Digital Compass 2030” program also assigned a target (90%) to be achieved by 2030: In 2022, 69.9% of companies with 10-249 employees are at a basic level of digitization which envisages the adoption of at least 4 digital activities out of 12 but just 26.8% are at at least high defined levels of the indicator. On the contrary, for 97.1% of companies with at least 250 employees there is at least a basic level and 82.1% has reached at least a high level.

E-commerce among SMEs needed to improve position in DESI – The 2022 data for online sales of SMEs still does not reveal significant improvements in the share of companies involved but only in the values ​​exchanged: 13.0% of SMEs have made online sales for at least 1% of their total turnover (12.7% in 2021) and 17.7% of SMEs active in e-commerce achieved 13.5% of total revenues online (respectively 17.9% and 9.4% in 2021). In general, 18.3% of companies with at least 10 employees made online sales, invoicing 17.8% of total turnover, respectively 22.8% and 17.6% at the EU27 level. In terms of composition, the value of online sales is achieved above all in the commerce sector (35.6%), for 28% in the manufacturing sector (with a prevalence of automotive-related activities), and for a similar share in the energy sector . In terms of size, 60% of online value comes from sales of larger companies and 40% from SMEs. In the composition of companies that sell online, the sectors already identified are confirmed, apart from the energy sector where there are few companies. Furthermore, the catering and accommodation sectors emerge, covering more than a third (35%) of all companies active in e-commerce and which, for 95.1%, belong to the SME dimension. Italian companies with at least 10 employees who sell via the web are still among the first users in Europe of online platforms as intermediaries with 62.1% against an EU27 average of 44.4%.

Still limited use of advanced security measures – 74.4% of Italian companies with at least 10 employees use at least three ICT security measures, in line with the European average (74.0%). The incidence of smaller and less complex companies determines the strong diffusion of less sophisticated security measures, such as strong password authentication (83.9%, 82.2% in 2019) and data back-up ( 80.0%, 79.2% in 2019). Lower are the shares of companies that adopt advanced security measures, necessary, for example, for the analysis of security incidents such as the conservation of log files (44.6%, 40.6% in 2019) or preventive such as practices risk assessment (35.3%, was 33.8%) and the periodic execution of system security tests (31.8%, was 33.5%). The diffusion of more sophisticated measures is still limited, such as the use of encryption for data, documents or e-mails (from 20.4% in 2019 to 22.0%) and of biometric methods for identification and authentication of the user (from 4.5% to 8.2%). The increase in access to the Internet and the use of IT tools and software applications, even remotely, expose companies to the risks inherent in possible attacks or intrusions from the outside, with consequent unavailability of services, destruction or corruption of data or disclosure of confidential data . In 2022, 15.7% (10.1% in 2019) of companies with at least 10 employees and 33.1% of companies with at least 250 employees (21.7% in 2019) declared that they had had previous year at least one of these problems. At the sectoral level, 33.5% of companies active in the manufacture of coke and products deriving from refining have had cyber attacks with consequences on security; followed by those of the manufacture of pharmaceutical products (27.2%) and publishing activities (25.4%); the textile and clothing industry companies (10.0%) and postal service companies (7.9%) are at the bottom. 48.3% (34.4% in 2019) of companies have documents relating to measures, practices or procedures related to IT security which, for example, concern the training of employees on the safe use of IT tools or the evaluation of security adopted. Of these companies, 85.7% defined or updated these documents in the last two years. Finally, 16.4% of companies with at least 10 employees declared that they had insurance against ICT security-related incidents (13.0% in 2019).

Six out of ten companies are attentive to the consumption and environmental impact of ICT – The 2022 edition of the ICT Survey, for the first time, investigated the adoption of some simple measures that indirectly affect the environment, such as controlling paper consumption (68.0%) or the energy consumption of ICT equipment (52.2%). Italy, preceded only by Portugal, is at the top of the European ranking on two fronts. 74.9% of companies adopt green behavior in choosing technology, also assessing its environmental impact; moreover, 59.9% of companies combine the assessment of the environmental impact of ICT services or equipment, before selecting them, with the adoption of measures that affect the consumption of paper or energy from information technologies. When the company’s ICT equipment is no longer used, it must be disposed of: 86.9% of companies send it to the separate collection of electronic waste (including that carried out directly by its suppliers), 48.6% keep it in the In order to use spare parts or to prevent sensitive information from being disclosed, 25.0% resell them or return them if leased, or donate them. The variability of behavior depends more on the economic activity carried out by the companies than on their size class and, in general, the most attentive to the environment are those active in services. In particular, companies active in postal and courier services, telecommunications and accommodation services are more virtuous in terms of the environmental impact of ICT, while those in the publishing sector, manufacturing of pharmaceuticals and energy supply.

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