Less than half of German businesses succeeding in digitalisation, the lowest rate in Europe, Kyocera study reveals
Organisations across Europe are moving evermore into a digital age, and German firms are lagging behind, Kyocera’s Business Digitalisation in Europe Outlook 2019 has found. The research, from one of the world’s leading document solutions companies, provides an in-depth insight into the way in which businesses across the continent are handling digital transformation processes.
The study surveyed 1,750 business representatives, ranging from self-employed freelancers to professionals from international corporations in seven European markets. Just 47% of German companies have digitalised at least half of their business documents, a rate lower than all other countries surveyed, including The Netherlands, Italy, Turkey, Spain, the United Kingdom and France.
In fact, 14% of German organisations admit to having barely digitalised any of their documents, a figure which is over three times that of The Netherlands and double that of Italy and Spain.
Moreover, the study reveals that the rate of automation of business processes, another way of finding greater productivity, is a figure that is expected to increase in years to come given that nine out of every ten companies claim that they would consider automating more processes over the next 12 months.
“We are seeing that German companies face a variety of challenges such as securing vital information and storing documentation and they should be more aware that easy solutions exist and are on the market in the form of document management solutions, such as Content Services,” explained Michael Powell, Expert Software Product Management at Kyocera Document Solutions Europe.
“Germany performs well in some departments, such as Procurement and Logistics, but significantly lags behind in both digitalisation and automation of areas such as Legal, where only 23% are mostly automated, compared to 57% in Spain. Such disparity between departments is reflective of the way in which companies are transitioning, and therefore still have some way to go.”
It is crucial that German enterprises adapt solutions such as Document Management Systems, Enterprise Content Management and Content Services in order to streamline their workflows in the hunt for efficiency. Despite 44% of European companies not being aware of the solutions, these products are already making a big impact across various departments and industries.
To this extent, using the technology to enhance automation is a strategic priority for 35% of organisations.
In fact, it is not only geographically where there is a significant difference in adoption rates as business size is also a factor. The rate at which companies automate the majority of their tasks reaches as high as 72% amongst larger companies with over 500 employees, compared to just 41% among small companies and freelancers.
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