World Champion Austria Digitisation
The “digital dividend” gives businesses an added value A study by the Federation of Austrian Industries and Accenture clearly shows that digitisation boosts growth, added value, jobs and new investments.
The results The Federation of Austrian Industries and Accenture prove with their study “The Digital Dividend” that digitisation boosts economic growth, creates and secures jobs, increases the added value and the vertical range of manufacture and investments. “Digitisation pays off as it leads to a direct, measurable business success. There is a digital dividend,” explains Michael Zettel, Country Managing Director of Accenture Austria: “The higher the digital maturity the better a business performs.” Christian Helmenstein, head economist at the Federation of Austrian Industries, adds: “Speaking in numbers, digitised businesses record a three-fold higher growth in turnover compared to non-digitised companies. The increase in turnover per level of digitisation amounts to 8.3 percent.”
The digital maturity was divided into four categories for the study: Stage 0 is “digitally blind”. The majority of data storage and information transfer is done on paper. Stage 1 means “digital mapping” – IT is used as a tool for work. Stage 2 is called “act digitally’’. These companies use their data, have digital process optimisation, but humans still make the decisions. Stage 3, the final stage, stands for being “digitally autonomous”. Data-based products and services are sold, all processes are automated and based on data, decisions can also be made automatically. Digital business models are found in this stage. The 112 businesses surveyed in the study were categorised accordingly. The average growth in turnover at stage 0 was at 3.9 percent, 13 percent at stage 1 and 15.3 percent each at stages 2 and 3.
© Daniel Mikkelsen
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he Federation of Austrian Industries and Accenture already showed with their last study “Raise the Curve – More resilience and growth through digitisation” that Austrian businesses have used digitisation successfully to overcome the Covid pandemic: The more digitised a company is the better it manages the Covid-induced economic crisis. The Federation of Austrian Industries and Accenture have joined forces once more to look at the (medium-term) connection between a company’s digital maturity and its business success. The Economica Institute for Economic Research contributed statistical and econometrical analyses. The results are based on a survey of 112 companies of different sizes across different sectors, in particular the metal industry, machine construction, the chemical industry and the construction industry. Austria’s flagship industries outside the automation-oriented electronics and automotive sector are thus represented strongly in order to support general conclusions on a wide range of sectors.
Michaela Zalesak, researcher at the Economica Institute
