As is often said, technology has not only come into our lives to stay, but to make it a lifestyle. Beyond the entertainment that it was capable of providing to society and the multiple possibilities of communication that it provided, technology is currently presented as a conciliatory and determining tool for developing all types of activity and for becoming the philosopher's stone of the future business.
With the arrival of the pandemic and the consequent health emergency, digital solutions came into our working lives so that companies did not stop and so that millions of workers could continue developing their activity. Quite a challenge that could be achieved thanks to a digital base and the essential role of telecommunications operators.
And although connectivity and remote work have been achieved with a greater or lesser degree of satisfaction, this is still not enough. Small and medium-sized companies need to step on the accelerator to continue digitizing themselves and thus be able to take advantage of the advantages that this will entail, in the practically imminent future, and satisfy the new needs of customers and suppliers.
For this reason, ‘La Vanguardia’ and PIMEC have organized Pymesconnect, a series of conferences - which receive the collaboration of Telefónica and Banc Sabadell - aimed at these business units to make the leap to digital.
In this first installment, the Digital Kit has been addressed, the economic program managed by the Government of Spain, through European Funds, to provide companies (with less than fifty workers) with digital resources to promote their modernization and profitability. A solution that should assume the new habits that society has adopted due to the pandemic. The event, held at the Torre Glòries in Barcelona, also wanted to offer some advice and guidelines to promote the digitization of business.
Òscar Ferrer, general director of La Vanguardia, puts the path of the newspaper as an example of transformation and adaptation to new times. “After almost a century and a half of history, the family that owns the head of the Godó group took advantage of the threat that digital transformation posed to a paper newspaper and turned it into a great opportunity to gain more audience, establish itself as the best-selling newspaper in Catalonia, to be second in the rest of Spain and to become the leader in the Spanish digital press”, says Ferrer.
The success stories that reflect the efforts of large companies to face the new times should become motivating elements for small businesses, micro-businesses and self-employed workers to reinvent themselves.
The modernization of these modest companies and the implantation of their resources would not be possible either if the technological infrastructures were not up to the task. In this sense, David Cucurull, manager of SMEs at Telefónica in Catalonia, assures that the network today is capable of doing so because home confinement made it possible, in a few months, to accelerate the processes of transformation and marketing of digital services to levels expected for the year 2025. "Now, we cannot wait for another pandemic to continue taking steps forward, without a high-speed network there is no digitization and we already have this," encourages Cucurull.
To demonstrate the extraordinary connectivity that our country has, the person in charge of Telefónica assures that towns such as Olot, Manresa or Vic have a fiber optic network greater than capitals such as London or Berlin. The pandemic made it possible for fiber to reach 25 million homes by the end of 2020, compared to 1.2 million in 2013.
And given these spirits to digitize, how could it be otherwise, not everything goes. Companies do not have to go digital for the mere fact of doing so, but they must consider what they want to be when they grow up. "What business model do they want to be, what customers do they want to reach, what should their suppliers be like and what type of company do they want to be," explains José Manuel Pedregal, Director of Companies at Banco Sabadell.
"Now as workers, we no longer want to relate to the company as before, we want to do it differently, with flexibility and being able to be in the workplace from anywhere," he adds. This will require an investment with which the banking sector wants to commit.
At Pymesconnect, everyone agrees that the digitization of companies will lead to the fourth industrial revolution. Aleix Valls, an expert in Digital Transformation and Innovation, as well as CEO and founder of the LiquiD company, believes that digitization will reach each and every one of the companies that want to compete and continue to report benefits to their owners. From the great businessman to the most modest of professionals who run a small business.
For the expert, a butcher, he will be able to go digital without too much complication using Whatsapp in his business. An app that will allow you to collect orders, interact and market with your customers and answer any questions and queries they may have regarding your product. “The instant messaging platform can be the best CRM for a butcher, the strategy to manage all the relationships of a company with its client, but, on the other hand, it will not be the best for another butcher shop specialized in select meat and aging at 60 days, to give an example”, explains Valls.
The transformation of companies is already on the agendas of governments around the world. For this reason, PIMEC welcomes the promotion of programs, such as the Digital Kit, for the digitization of small businesses, micro-businesses and self-employed workers. Precisely, in attracting this aid, the role of the Catalan employers has been decisive in universalizing the possibility of taking advantage of this subsidy by all those companies with up to fifty workers. This was recognized by Alberto Martínez, general director of Red.es, the public company that manages the Digital Kit. In this sense, Juanjo Berbel, president of PIMEC Digital, defines the participation of this body as the essential link for proper coordination between the public sector, which represents the State, and the private sector, which are the companies. And from the efforts of all the actors, the importance of these solutions for businesses appears, since by equipping them with technology and resources, it will be possible to digitize 97% of the business fabric.
The Digital Kit is an opportunity for companies with less than 50 workers to obtain financial aid of up to 12,000 euros to provide technological resources to their businesses. This subsidy is part of the European Funds for Regional Development endowed with 3,067 million euros. It is estimated that between eight hundred thousand and one million SMEs will be able to apply for it.
“The aim has been to bring as close as possible the possibility that all the companies that want to can apply for the aid”, explains Albert Martínez, head of Red.es. To do this, bureaucracy has been reduced to the maximum and it has been with this that "the Administration has been the first to digitize itself to make the task easier for all those interested".
To request help, the Government has inhabited a portal where the interested party has all the information at their disposal. It is about Acelera pyme, through which the company will be able to know the degree of digitization of its business to obtain specific help.
The Digital Kit is intended for three segments of beneficiaries. The first contemplates small companies with between 10 and less than 50 employees with a budget of 12,000 euros. The second is intended for small or micro-enterprises between 3 and 10 workers and an amount of 6,000 euros. Finally, the third segment includes small companies or micro-companies with between 1 and less than 3 employees and people in a situation of self-employment with 2,000 euros.
For the first of the segments, the call was opened on March 15 when the six-month period for submitting applications began. The following segments will do so soon.
This is an exceptional opportunity for SMEs to develop an implementation of digital solutions in their businesses. "An opportunity that will allow us to sell and be present anywhere in the world," says Martínez.
The first day of Pymesconnect also featured the participation of Laura Abadal, Director of Marketing and Communication at Forcadell Real Estate Consultants, who described how the company introduced technology and the digitization of its resources as a model of success.
