ICT improvements in the Italian business sector
Istat, the Italian National Statistical Institute, collects data about population and families, companies and institutions, education, economy and environment every year.
Considering the digital transformation of italian companies, significant changes have occurred, especially during the last two years.
According to the last Istat report, during 2020 the digitalization of Italian companies seems to be increased, albeit slowly and not uniformly.
For example, an important fact highlighted is that 82% of companies with at least 10 employees don’t adopt more than 6 technologies (the half of total technologies considered by the European indicator of digitalization).
This percentage shows that italian small and medium-sized companies use technology everyday, but just 50% of the total digital technologies they could use, in order to enhance their business and performance.
Probably due to the pandemic, 2020 saw a high increase of computer use and internet connections among employees, but the digitalization process has been going on for several years.
53,2% of workers use a computer with Internet access, in contrast to 49,9% of 2019.
This growth was registered mainly in the retail trade sector (58%), followed by the wood and paper industry (45,5%), the catering industry (26,7%) and metallurgy (43,2%).
In companies with at least 10 employees and with a fixed broadband, the maximum connection speed grows with the company size.
Sicilia, Basilicata and Campania count the highest number of Internet-connected companies with a download speed of at least 100 Mbps.
Overall, Italian companies that have a connection speed of at least 30 Mbps are 75% among small and medium-sized enterprises with 10–249 employees, and 90,5% among bigger industries with more than 249 employees.
In terms of Digital Intensity Index, which consists of 12 specific technologies which measure the level of digitalization, one remarkable aspect highlighted by the Istat report is the deep gap between the presence of ICT specialists and the robotics and the use of middle-high level cloud services.
According to the 12 Digital Intensity Index factors, companies with a maximum of 99 employees registered a connection speed of at least 30 Mbit/s, electronic invoices, web sites and specific online services.
Instead, high-level cloud services, the intensity of computer and mobile device use and the presence of ICT specialists are more frequent in companies with at least 100 employees.
More advanced technologies such as robotics, big data analysis and 3D printing were registered mostly in highly-digitalized companies.
During 2020, 8,6% of companies with at least 10 employees declared to have used big data coming from social media (46,5% of companies), geolocation information (45,3%), and intelligent devices or digital sensors (31,1%).
Big data is used mostly by big companies: only the 6,2% of small businesses analyzed remarkable information.
One of the most relevant aspects pointed out by Istat Report is that 4 big companies out of 10 sold their products online during 2019.
A significant improvement is registered in the catering industry: in 2019, companies that sold their products and services online claimed to have used their web sites and APP in 76,8% of cases, and e-marketplace and other APP used by several companies in 64,3% of cases.
Although the Italian companies digitalization is growing, during 2020 a decrease of ICT experts was registered in companies with at least 10 employees (only 12,6%).
If we compare those most recent results with the Istat data related to the 2016–2018 period, it’s possible to highlight some key points.
First of all, between 2016 and 2018 just 9,7% of companies and enterprises sold their products and services through digital platforms.
Overall, in the same period, 77,5% of companies invested in digitalization: 73,2% of small companies, in contrast to 97,1% of bigger companies that count 500 and more employees.
Moreover, digital technologies such as cloud services, 3D printing, big data analysis, 4G or 5G Internet connection and robotics didn’t reach high percentages: respectively 51,8%, 3,6%, 4,2%, 32,4% and 4,5%.
The digitalization of Italian public institutions differs greatly from the industrial ones.
From what we can learn from the 2017 report, the public institutions find several obstacles.
In fact, they complain about the lack of financial assets, ICT qualified staff, integration between digital applications and coordination between different sectors.
To give an example, in 2017 just 5,9% of Italian public institutions analyzed big data and only 41,9% used social media to communicate.
In conclusion, despite some improvements and upgrades in the business sector, Italian companies and enterprises should invest even more in ICT experts and digital technologies in order to enhance their products and services for end consumers and to keep up with foreign markets.
