Achim Berg, President Bitkom. (picture alliance / dpa)
The digitalization of the economy in Germany has gained in importance as a result of coronavirus pandemic - but almost every third company has had to cut back on investments in this area. This is the key finding of a representative survey of companies with 20 or more employees in all industries conducted on behalf of the digital association Bitkom. "The coronavirus pandemic is clearly a digitalization driver for the German economy," said Bitkom President Achim Berg on Monday. "The good news is that the companies want to do something and drive digitalization forward. The bad news is that by no means everyone is capable of doing so.”
The survey also reveals differences depending on company size. According to the survey, only 10 percent of companies with 20 to 99 employees and 13 percent of companies with 100 to 499 employees have significantly increased their investments. In the companies with 500 to 1,999 employees, however, the figure was 24 percent, and 22 percent for those companies with 2,000 or more employees. "There is a danger that the digitalization push being caused by the coronavirus pandemic will lead to an even deeper split in the German economy: between companies that remain largely in the analog world and companies that are moving forward at a rapid pace with digitalization," said Berg.
The companies cited data protection (69 percent) as the greatest hurdle when it comes to digitalization. This is followed by technical security requirements (58 percent) and a lack of skilled workers (55 percent). A lack of financial resources is currently cited by 43 percent of companies as one of the hurdles; in April it was only 25 percent, and in 2019 only 20 percent.
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