Digital transformation is good for companies, institutions and citizens, and is reflected in various contexts that “physiologically” involve professional AV installations.
The 30 billion euro and 0.7% trend growth recorded in 2018 by the ICT market are indeed largely due to the performance of the IT side and emerging technologies, which amount to 22.8 billion “crowning” the investments of enterprises in smart manufacturing, process and interconnected systems optimization, management and corporate communication.
What does digital transformation mean? The new Assintel Report quantifies it as 18 billion euro just in 2018 and two-digit growth rates between the Cloud (25%), the Internet of Things (18%), Artificial Intelligence (31%) and Big Data/Analytics (26%). But the most significant data for our community of systems integration deal with the IT business related to wearable devices, up 43% from 2017, and the surprising (though not that much) 72% increase in Virtual and Augmented Reality applications, now at full sail in the Italian digital route.
Reconfirming the trend stated by connected technologies and IoT, the positive growth of the technological market in 2019 will primarily be supported by expenditures for software (+5%) and IT services (+1.2%), while hardware and the telecom business will suffer; they are quoted at -1.4% and -0.6%, respectively. Furthermore, from the replies of the more than 1,000 companies interviewed by Assintel, a general desire has emerged to increase investments in ICT systems, with an exception on the part of micro and small businesses, 30% of which still lack any strategy for digital transformation.
Related to this slice of “yet-to-be-conquered” end users are the lack of digital and cross-sectional abilities within the company and the need to embrace a managerial corporate culture that is responsive to digital change. Confirming this is Giorgio Rapari, President of Assintel, thinking especially of the collaboration between SMBs and start-ups, the integration between Made in Italy sectors, which also involves micro and small businesses, and digital findings of the government.
Innovative companies, integrators and professionals of the digital transformation come forward! With or without the incentives of the Industrial 4.0 plan (probably still “safe” in the 2019 Budget Bill), the IT and AV markets cannot ignore the business opportunities arising from the advance, on every front, of the digital transformation.