Accenture: cloud and security essential for SMEs
Telecommunications companies are still not very present in the growing segments of the information and communication technologies market, with a market share of specific solutions that is decidedly less than 10%.
40% of those involved in the Accenture study, however, have initiated or planned digital transformation projects to innovate the Supply Chain, automate production activities and improve customer relationship channels.
This is an important opportunity to be seized for telecommunications companies which, with a new positioning on the Enterprise market, may be able to offer PMs I Italian sophisticated solutions - previously the prerogative of large companies - supporting their digital evolution. In Italy, the telecommunications sector continues to show negative revenue growth rates mainly in the Consumer segment.
Similar signals have also begun to appear in the Enterprise segment, which is also in an important situation linked to the digital transformation of Italian companies. According to the latest IDC data published by Assintel in the 2020 Report, the Italian ICT market stands at a value of over 31 billion euros at the end of 2019; driving forces are the so-called Digital Enablers (Cloud, Security, Analytics, IoT) where the cloud in particular continues to maintain growth rates of over 20%.
"In Italy, SMEs represent almost 70% of GDP, but their investments in Information and Communications Technology are worth only half of the total amount" said Michele Marrone, Head of Media, Communications & Technology at Accenture Italy .
“This is a structural imbalance, typical of the Italian economy, which makes our country less competitive than the others. However, the recent health emergency has accelerated the interest of these companies in Cloud & Security technologies and their propensity to invest in more advanced solutions.
Digitization, especially for SMEs, has become the "conditio sine qua non ”to increase business, competitiveness and the ability to adapt to increasingly accelerated economic cycles. It is necessary to promote a path for SMEs that must frame technologies as a strategic factor ".
To further increase this opportunity, the data collected following the onset of the pandemic show us that 60% of companies would like to invest in advanced SaaS services (such as AI, Big Data, Analytics) within the next two years, and as many as 76% plan to raise their security levels through a Security Operation Center.
But, on the one hand, SMEs believe it is strategic to equip themselves with digital tools, on the other hand they have not yet been able to implement truly cutting-edge solutions, facing a real "digital gap".
This situation is caused by several factors : on the one hand there is a delay in the renewal of digital talents and skills within companies which, as recent Istat data show, struggle to identify and select the most suitable profiles, or to dedicate resources to on the other hand, there is also a lack of supply, both in terms of solutions and established partners, with more than half of the companies preferring to reduce the number of providers to rely on and 50% of them who would like to interact more with their telecommunications provider through a consultancy relationship rather than exclusively through self-service channels.
Added to this is a lower understanding of the real value and impact on business obtainable from investments in more advanced and complex solutions in particular in the Security field, where more than a third of the companies interviewed declared that they did not perceive a real increase in vulnerability to cyber attacks.
The push implemented by Remote Working, however, seems to have accelerated the importance of security, where 71% of SMEs said they wanted to undertake training courses for their employees. entities aimed at improving the recognition of cyber threats.
"We believe that telcos, strong in their knowledge of the economic fabric, a widespread presence on the Italian territory, availability of contiguous technological infrastructures with the Cloud and Security enablers and the inherent in managing mission critical services, they may be the most suitable players to support SMEs in this path "continued Michele Marrone.
" Telcos can therefore position themselves as orchestrators of an ecosystem that integrates third-party services and software parties, provide training and specialized skills and guide the digitalization strategies of businesses, enhancing the ability of SMEs to collaborate in industrial districts, which represent the backbone of the Italian economy ".
