Study: Less Than Half of Greece’s Businesses Have Digital Transformation Plan

Photo source: Grant Thorton Greece

Less than half of Greece’s businesses have a clear digital transformation strategy in place, found a study released this week by Grant Thorton Greece.

The biggest challenge, analysts say, for enterprises besides the cost and the changes to operations is the lack of specialized human resources that will support their digital transformation.

The study, which was conducted on a sample of 400 business across the country, 240 of which in Northern Greece, was presented during a special event in Thessaloniki by Christos Vargemezis, assurance partner at Grant Thorton Greece.

Key takeaways of the study include:

– three in 10 businesses are planning to invest more than 150,000 euros in digital transformation plans in the next three years

– four in 10 enterprises are exploring funding options (EU or local) to support digital transformation actions

– among those planning to invest in a strategy, cyber security is the first priority followed by data utilization

– 76 percent of businesses have a cybersecurity policy in place

– 23 percent of businesses do not encrypt sensitive data

Photo source: Grant Thorton Greece

– 22 percent have no crises management plans

– 50 percent offer employees regular training every six months

– 7 in 10 businesses are leveraging data analytics technologies and cloud services

– 70 percent acknowledged that robotics and automation are an opportunity to increase productivity

– 66 percent see robotics and automation as an opportunity for better utilization of human resources and improved internal organization

– 23 percent of respondents believe robotics and automation pose a threat and may lead to job cuts

– 88 percent of digitization practices are found in the financial, management, and accounting departments of companies, followed by sales, procurement, and warehouse management

Photo source: Grant Thorton Greece

“The research findings highlight the need for a more holistic approach to the issue, from the level of policy and protocols to the training of employees,” said Vargemezis, adding that investments in technology and digital transformation, while remaining at high levels, seem to be slowing down.

He goes on to add that obstacles to adopting more complex digital systems include the cost of new technologies and the need for more structured and comprehensive changes to business processes as well as finding specially trained staff who will be able to execute these.