Larger companies were able to respond better to the challenges of the corona pandemic.
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According to a survey by the consulting company EY, the corona pandemic has led to a surge in digitization among medium-sized companies of all sizes. According to this, digital technologies already play an important role in eight out of ten. They consider only three percent insignificant – in 2018 it was 20 percent.
Every second company would like to use cloud computing in the next two years, 43 percent are planning further automation steps. One fifth can imagine using artificial intelligence. 800 Austrian companies with 30 to 2,000 employees were surveyed.
However, the survey also showed that larger companies were able to cope better with the new challenges. Accordingly, they see the use of new digital technologies as an opportunity: While 56 percent of companies with an annual turnover of more than 100 million euros ascribe a major role to digital technologies, it is only one in four of companies with an annual turnover of less than 30 million euros.
This gap in digitization actually widened in the past year. “We have been observing a digital two-tier society in Austria for several years,” says Axel Preiss, Head of Management Consulting at EY Austria. It is therefore important for smaller companies not to miss the boat.
While the majority of respondents are satisfied with the performance of the digital infrastructure, there are problems in finding qualified personnel. According to this, only just under a third find sufficient employees with the appropriate skills.
