Spain: Cybersecurity is one of the main points of improvement for companies

The changes brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic greatly accelerated the digital transformation of companies, which had to adapt their work structures to a remote environment and digitize their workflows. This accelerated transformation has caused a series of weaknesses in companies, especially among micro-enterprises and SMEs that were not used to a remote infrastructure and that already had few resources and budget. These are the results of the Digital Transformation Survey* conducted by Keypoint Intelligence on behalf of Konica Minolta.

Data security, data protection (GDPR), remote work and shortage of IT staff are the main challenges

Cybersecurity threats have been a growing problem in recent years, and recent trends have only made this challenge greater: the abrupt shift to remote work and increased reliance on digital frameworks, coupled with infrastructure and training gaps. of employees and companies in handling such workflows has fostered an atmosphere where cybercriminals can thrive. This is also reflected in the study: Data security was mentioned as the biggest challenge by 34% of companies.

Almost four years after the introduction of the GDPR in May 2018, the study also concludes that data protection (GDPR) is still an issue for 28% of companies. Not only large companies, those with more than 250 employees, must comply with the requirements of the GDPR, but also small and medium-sized ones.

Looking at other results of the study, we found that around a quarter still have problems with remote work in terms of IT infrastructure/services (26%) and with remote work in terms of applications/software (25%). Additionally, 25% agreed that keeping up with new technology is a big challenge. At the same time, 23% indicate that there is a shortage of specialized IT personnel who can solve these problems.

Most companies have already adapted some kind of cloud solution.

One of the digitization initiatives that has also seen a big push during the pandemic is the move to the cloud, especially as it is essential for hybrid and decentralized work. 72% of the organizations surveyed had already adapted some type of cloud solution and therefore had already undertaken initiatives towards digitization. In the future, companies see the cloud as the most important infrastructure for their collaboration management (78%), process management (76%), print management (69%) and content management (65%).

Information and document management

When it comes to the current state of document and information management, it is no exaggeration to say that chaos reigns. Document storage is still not well organized in 66% of organizations. Many use too many disparate platforms in their workflows, creating plenty of opportunities for silos and productivity roadblocks. But most are planning some kind of consolidation (85%).

Micro-enterprises trailing behind in terms of digital transformation

While the study goes on to show that digital transformation is a top priority for 45% of companies, this varies by company size, for example only 35% of micro-businesses make transformation a priority. The reduced focus of micro-enterprises on digital transformation is also noticeable in their digital transformation initiatives. 11% of micro-businesses have not yet started to implement resources and technology related to digital transformation. But only 4% of companies overall have not embarked on digital transformation efforts, meaning that 96% are already at some stage of digitization. Therefore, microenterprises are clearly lagging behind in this regard.