The digitalization of SMEs has been a pending task in recent years. It is a fact as relevant as the fact that 99.83% of Spanish companies are SMEs, representing a decisive weight in the total economy.

Investing in the digitization of businesses is essential because of its direct impact on business productivity, business growth and survival.

In Spain, although progress is being made in the digitization of SMEs, there is still a long way to go.

We have had the pleasure of having Cesar Tello, CEO of Adigital, who can better explain why digitization is so important and what is the process to achieve it.

1. In Adigital you work for the digitization of the economy as a lever for growth and social development. Why is digitization so important for growth and progress in society?

We have a lot of evidence of the importance of digitization in society, and even more after the pandemic, if it had not been for digitization we would not have been able to do online procedures in the last year, we would not have been able to maintain economic activities, not even the essential ones.

The World Bank confirms that the level of digitalization of a country is closely linked to higher levels of per capita income.

2. What are the main needs that you detect in order to be able to talk about digital economy and what role do SMEs play in this scenario?

The first thing to do is to teach them to go digital, to work with this business fabric in training and cultural transformation; to make them understand that if you add a digital layer to what they do, they can really grow and be more competitive.

It is important that SMEs believe in digitization by implementing small digitization projects and seeing how it improves their scope and benefits. That initial small project to show them that digitization is a positive thing and an opportunity.

Once you believe it, it is easier to find the way and the people who can help you so that you can create a roadmap to carry out this digital process.

3. What main recommendations would you give to SMEs that are in the process of digitalization or are considering it?

It depends a lot on the typology and the sector, but in any case, it is to start teaching companies that the use of data, internal or external, can give you a very similar capacity to what large companies or international competitors can have.

4. In general terms, is there any area where you would recommend companies to start their digitization?

The first step is the training of the people who lead the company. The most important thing is that the person who has to make decisions believes it. There has to be someone who transmits that culture to the people who work with them.

Secondly, talent. Understood as those people who know the business and who, supported by technology, can give you that competitive differentiation.

And thirdly, it is how to take advantage of the existing data environment to be able to make the right decisions and improve my offer. This is when technology comes in, and those external digitizing agents that explain the technology to them to reach their objectives.

5. What training or knowledge do you think SMEs should acquire to increase their competitiveness through digitization?

The SME must have the business knowledge, digitization does not necessarily have to give you a greater knowledge of the business, it can give you access to data that improve the knowledge.

What is important is to teach them to translate their operating model into a digitalization roadmap, to understand your business objectives and to understand how digitalization can make them bigger.

Secondly, how can I become a data-driven organization. That means that everyone in your organization should be thinking about how to get and use data to measure your goals and how you want to get there.

When you have that clear it's time to look for that technology, which almost 100% of the time will be in the cloud, and then find that person to help you implement this technology.

6. What are the obstacles that you think are holding SMEs back from going digital and what should public initiatives be like to help them overcome these obstacles?

I think the main obstacle is resources. You need financial resources, time, dedication and the external support of that digitizing agent to help you put that roadmap in place.

Finding the time, finding the dedication of economic resources for this plan is a challenge for companies, and that is why I believe that actions such as this one (Acelera pyme) are important for SMEs to see that it is possible and above all that there is an ecosystem and initiatives around them through which they can obtain the necessary means.

Public administrations, at a time like this, can provide the funds that will allow SMEs to digitize. Because digitization is urgent, SMEs have to take advantage of the next two years to take a clear step in this direction or they will have a very difficult time surviving.

7. In relation to SMEs dedicated to commerce or the retail sector, what aspects do you consider most necessary for their digitization and what demands do you think would be covered by digitization?

It is clear that commerce, especially local commerce, has a unique opportunity. Today, through platforms, marketplaces or aggregators, it is easy to have any product or service at home.

On the other hand, retail must also face the issue of sustainability. We are now very conscious. They must be able to give traceability to the sustainability of the products that are being sold and have the possibility to see how those products arrive at home.

They must also understand the digital channel as another channel, not as an additional store, but as a channel of interaction with customers that is additional to the physical one.

Nowadays, with all the applications available in the cloud to set up online stores, e-commerce logistics, secure payment methods, etc., there is no excuse.

8. For retailers, is there any investment in digitization that you think can mean a before and after for them?

I think the first thing is to make their products available online, this is fundamental. Small businesses are sometimes afraid of how to do it, or what it means to put an online store.

There are intermediate solutions such as marketplaces, which allow you to start having your products online. Not always having your own online store is necessarily the solution. Those marketplaces have a very good usability and selling there is really easy.