Numbers from relegation LUISA GRION
> ROME – We are in the digital delay, we live on the edge of the network, we end up regularly in the queue to all European charts that measure the degree of confidence in the country with new technologies. This is nothing new, so for years for families as for businesses: the novelty is that the digital divide is a luxury we can no longer afford. And because, again, they ask Europe and its commitments to the Digital Agenda 2020 (the spread of fast Internet to unify the standards of the market), and because if you filled the “spread” of the crisis not you leave.
The delay costs. According to a study by Censis between the inability to produce services, using e-commerce and electronic money, streamline databases of public administration we lose 3.6 billion euro a year. Almost ten million a day down the drain that could be invested in innovation. Now the government has put on the table a plan from 6 billion to close the gap “of at least three years” (words of Prime Minister) that we have on the European average of access speed. It counts on the multiplier effect, because the second digital Confindustria (the association of businesses created to promote the “jump” technology), the gap of lack of investment compared to the EU average is 25 billion. But the problem is not only the lack of infrastructure and the slowness of the band, is also the head of the enterprises.
Companies active in trading online – compared Nations
| Country | |
|---|---|
| Italy | 5% |
| Germany | 22% |
| UK | 19% |
| France | 11% |
| European Media | 14% |
numbers. We start from the numbers of the delay: Italians who use the Internet between 16 and 74 years of age are 58 percent, the European average is 75, but France, the UK and Germany are all between 80 and 90 percent. Half the population has insufficient digital skills, 27 percent has none. For broadband (2 megabits per second), the coverage is almost complete, but the ultra (30Mbps) is only accessible to 21 percent of households, compared with 62 of the EU average. Only 5 percent of small businesses – which in Italy account for 80 percent of employment and 67 of the value added, data from the OECD in 2014 – sells online. In the rest of Europe to get to 40 percent. It is a collection of black jerseys that a study published in Brussels a few days ago (index Desi: Digital economy and society index) summarizes assigning us the 25th place in the ranking of EU countries, worse than us only Greece, Romania, Bulgaria. A black picture that the crisis has worsened, as a study prepared by Confindustria digital and Politecnico di Milano points out that from 2009 to 2013 the Italian digital market has fallen by 7 billion, less than 10 percent.
Problema infrastructure and beyond. The investments for technological innovation in Italy represent 4.8 percent of GDP compared with 6.8 in the EU 28 countries, the media largely superseded by Germany and France and dubbed by the United Kingdom. Was not to be: until the late ’90s Italy invested in ICT over Japan and how the Germans; then just as Europe began to multiply the commitment we have we reduced (by 35 percent, according to Confindustria digital). But the “spread” was also fueled by the reluctance of companies, in search of competitiveness, have turned attention to the cuts to labor costs and relocation.
Innovation needed. Now that choice is not enough: growth through innovation. “In the last few years – the study says Confindustria / Politecnico di Milano – Italian companies have grown more technology in terms of turnover and employment more than those with low technology investment: more than 13 percent of sales between 2010 and 2012, more than 10 percent of jobs (2010-2013) the delta between the first and second. The Italian Companies that use the Cloud have grown faster than those who do not use it: 12 percent more turnover (2010-2012) and most 9 percent of jobs. “
Helping companies. But to hook the train of the digital system Italian, workers say, must be supported: the vast majority of companies have less than ten employees and needs an introduction to ultra-wideband. Instructions for use and for the opportunities, provided by tutors able to modernize processes and increase demand. While waiting for the government’s plan and the implementation of rules laid down by decrees ever born (those of “Destination Italy”, for example, which provided vouchers to finance to fund digital projects of small and medium enterprises), something is moving. In the coming days the same Confindustria Digital will launch a road shows “ in many Italian cities to promote innovation in small businesses, the same is doing Unioncamere.” The digital divide is also linked to cultural barriers due to small size of almost all enterprises – admits Claudio Gagliardi, general secretary of the association – why the Chambers of Commerce have launched a series of initiatives with exceptional partners, such as Google, with whom we have brought a hundred young people in contact with companies to help them take advantage of the presence on the network. “For those who want to be there time to make the jump are tight: later this month, for example, already triggers an obligation of electronic invoice to all public administrations.
Confindustria:” The network has put fear “ LUISA GRION
ROME – ” Just with the alibis and with the cry on for the last places in the ranking: the digital divide can be recovered and in five years you can create 800 000 jobs. ” For Elio Catania, president of Confindustria digital, 2015 may be the year of change and “competitive transformation.” Italy could really engage the recovery and not stop to growth in decimals of GDP, but aim for one, two points more: “And ‘within our reach.” A renaissance driven by high tech.
President, where does this optimism?
“From the fact that for the first time in this country, I see the right attention the problem: there is “leadership” and there ‘execution’. Political will and implementation: for now on paper, I hope also in deeds. “
The paper to which it relates is the government’s plan for the ultra-wideband? Just to retrieve a gap that is worth 25 billion?
“It ‘a step in the right direction. Eventually it was realized that to restart the country, in addition to the reform of the tax, labor, justice and indeed, even before all this, it takes the digital. The government’s plan is just the beginning, but it’s a good start because it is not just about the ultra-wideband and infrastructure development, but also a range of services that will transform culturally Italy. From the switch off of the public administration, billing, born digital processes essential to stimulate the demand for technology that is the real ‘divides’ Italian, but operations that need to be dropped from above. Therefore the policy choices. “
We wanted a premier forty years to do it?
” Maybe yes, the digital natives have less fears ahead to change and there are many changes to do and require great commitment. Right now there is a lot of attention to the issue, we hope that does not drop, we hope that the strengths and technostructures not prevail: if it were, if we stopped to ads, would be a disaster, because the digital growth, now, is not an opportunity, but a matter of survival. This is demonstrated by the fact that, among small businesses, 83 percent of those failed last year did not even have a website. Now we can no longer afford the mistakes of the past. And to think that we started well, until the millennium we invested in ICT and how much more than the others, then everything changed. “
What happened?
” And ‘Internet arrived, and put us afraid. “
The network blocked us?
” Paradoxically yes. The network is not preservation technology, asks to get back into play. To give the best of himself wants radical innovations in processes, organization, skills. Prevailed resistance “.
Now why should things change? We are a country of small businesses, such as getting them to jump into digital?
” They have no choice and should not be left alone. This is the country of the many strengths, but also of the many start-up created by young people. To make them grow we must give them the opportunity to turn their ideas into industrial products: small businesses and our famous districts should do these start up their tanks. Would benefit from the new: it is from this mix of old and new skills that will share recovery and employment “.
In reality, however, we have locations in search of a labor costs lower and lower.
“It ‘a trend in decline in the US say:’ manifacturing is back ‘, the work back home. Difficult in countries with low labor costs will the skills required to ensure the necessary breakthrough. “
Not even we have it.
” No, we need new and we have to create them, but there is still time to do so, given that the American studies say that the work that will go to the mainstream in the next fifteen years have yet to be invented. “
In the meantime, what recommend to study at a guy who wants to find work?
“Engineering, statistics, economics. Best if all three together. “
” Forced to live again in the days of the fax “ LUIGI OIL
MILAN – There are administrative tasks to be met, such as the transmission of the guests present in the accommodation. And opportunities business to be exploited, starting from e-commerce. In addition to the features that make life easier, such as access to online banking. All activities that can be carried out today from the comfort of the office chair. Provided, however, to have the tools available. The experience of many entrepreneurs, however, tells of a difficult situation that penalizes those who do business primarily outside of major population centers.
This is the case of Henry Rabazzi, owner of a company agricultural Civitella Paganico (Grosseto). “In the territory not only we have to deal with the lack of broadband, but often become the acquirer also be able to establish an Internet connection.” Rabazzi, who is also chairman of the CIA (Italian Farmers Confederation) of Grosseto, noted in particular the difficulties of those who manage an activity farm in the countryside. “The legislation requires to report daily to the police the list of guests in accommodation, so every night there are entrepreneurs forced to wander for miles as dowsers looking for a minimum signal Internet”. One problem, which ensures, not only about this territory: “For some time we hear that the recovery goes from the promotion of the primary sector, the natural wealth of the country, but how to do it if you do not have the minimum infrastructure for doing business, starting from ‘channel access of electronic commerce? “.
By changing latitude, the problems remain similar. “Who is setting up in an industrial area deemed granted the presence of good connectivity. Yet here at Spar – just steps from giants like Safilo eyewear and Marcolin – access to the web is an enterprise,” stresses P. Ricci, President Sips Laundries. “I hear for years that we have entered the era of broadband, but the truth is that much of the country is stopped at the time of the fax.” The company, which deals with industrial laundry for hotels, struggling to accomplish basic tasks such as electronic invoices and payments via online banking. “The little that you can do is about the radio link to which we are connected, with costs fully borne by us,” laments Ricci. As for relations with the institutions, the entrepreneur remembers meeting many local politicians and have received ample assurances of rapid adaptation of the lines, which however has not yet been realized.
Milan is the most wired cities in Europe (data Censis), yet just walk a few kilometers in the province to realize that there are problems. As evidenced by Paolo Colombo, President of Tintex, textile company based in Mesero. “Here there is no trace of broadband, which prevents for example to have a dedicated phone line for remote assistance on the software. After all, it could be otherwise because the poles that carry the telephone line are wooden ones built in the seventies, “he says. “Telephone operators advertise speeds of up to 4 Mb, but just do some experiment on the speed test on the internet to see that at best you get to 2.7-2.8 Mb”. The entrepreneur said that he had tried in different time operators. “I have signed contracts with suppliers who advertised offers amazing, but – apart from finding a weaker signal than guaranteed in the contract – I was in big trouble during service interruptions due to bad weather. In fact, the management of the line remains in chief Telecom Italy, which in turn relies on the maintenance of subcontractors who have intervention times incompatible with those who do business. ” The law allows you to report outages to Corecom regional road that the entrepreneur has tried to walk without success. “I opened a dispute with a telephone operator who had reported a quality of service that does not correspond to the truth: they are five months and so far we have only received a communication to take charge of the practice,” he concludes.
Soru: “Internet of things, last train” LUISA GRION
ROME – To remedy past mistakes and aim to ” Internet of things. ” Renato Soru, MEP of the Democratic Party and founder of Tiscali, the way out of the digital divide, and hook the recovery is this. It is the philosophy that applies to his company, since today Tiscali, with “start up weekend” project Opencampus is also a business incubator free. “The products are built in Asia, programs and social networks are American, Europe, and particularly Italy must find a way to cover the third step: putting the Internet in the objects,” he says.
What does it mean?
“What if until now has been the man to network, now they do things. I will communicate data and receive: the classic example is the alarm that sounds earlier than usual because it has incorporated the information on the usual route is no traffic. The market is to be built and for us to be an opportunity to catch up. “
L ‘ignorance digital, the ultra-wideband deficient there will hinder in this run? Just the government’s plan to switch over?
“The digital divide of infrastructure is a solvable problem, there are now six billion investment, others can get from the ECB or from the floor Juncker. It ‘important that the government has decided to consider the digital as a central subject of the recovery, but they are not only the missing infrastructure to generate delays. ” Weigh more wrong choices, and we, in the past, we have made more than one. “
What is it about?
” To the fact that a some point we are distracted, we thought that the most important thing was to realize the passage, among the first in Europe, from analogue to digital TV, there concentrating energies that were placed elsewhere. “
Whose fault was it?
“It was a wrong policy choice. Another wrong choice was to not immediately digitize public administration: the process was imposed, it did not happen. And not for infrastructural deficiencies, you could do a lot with the little there was. You lack the will. “
There is still time to recover?
” Yes, the market moves quickly, but surprises and what seems lost can be reborn. I think of Facebook: the formula seemed exhausted, now recognized a potential higher than that of Google. “
But as you get to the internet of things in a system dominated by small businesses?
“The problem is not the size, indeed, in the digital companies are born small and grow quickly. The problem lies in the fact that Italian companies are on average older. For young company means one that is not on the market for more than ten years. In Italy account for 22 percent of the total, in the US more than 50. In Europe there is still debate about places of
Work that digital destroys, instead of thinking of those who created “.
You with Tiscali has been an innovator, what would you say to a young entrepreneur who wants to create a start-up?
“That’s not enough to have a good idea, the most important thing is realizing it. And that success does not come in a moment, you have to be forward-looking and knowing how to build. “
Still do not realize it, because the great crisis of recent years has slowed down a bit ‘all. And then we, for example, we were able to maintain the share of world trade of our exports. The risk is that, now that the global economy seems about to leave, others take off and we will fall behind. Because the traditional development model of the Italian economy – the era of Brambilla – has run out. Unless some niches (fashion and precision mechanics, for example) the bulk of Italian industry is still made up of small companies, mavericks that move on global markets, each on his own, ready to battle especially on labor costs . But the world economy, meanwhile, has changed. A full mastery and easy use of the tools and opportunities of the digital world is, in fact, crucial to become a full member in the “value chains” along which they run, now, three-quarters of the trade world. The expansion of multinational companies has, in fact, imposed a vertical integration driven more productions, where it is crucial to be placed in a point where there’s finished, then they turn around, with the added value of its intervention, to the upper . The case Apple – who, of his own, does not produce materially nothing – it’s just the best known example. Missing out is lethal. From this point of view, the responsibilities are both in the public and private sectors. In fact, it is a vicious circle. Take the ultra-wideband universal. The continued delays impede encourage companies to modernize. And companies are not modern enough not pushed to press the government to the promise, in the end, be realized. However, in the digital delay, the infrastructure problem is only the tip of the iceberg. The effects of this spread are visible 360 degrees. As of creativity. Abroad, talented Italians are present in all the borders of the modern economy. At home, though, if you go to look at what they point to the long-awaited start-up Italian, you risk disappointment. A trip between their projects recorded many ideas for a daily life easier and more comfortable, but few cases of technological leap broad impact. Italy suffers a series of bad choices that are upstream of the spread digital. Just compare our country with Sweden. In the 80 – more or less like us – the Swedish economy experienced a sharp decline in competitiveness on world markets. But, unlike us, has responded with a strong push on High-tech. The shift towards high technology is not accidental. Sweden invests in research and development the 3.5-3.8 per cent of its GDP, we only 1-1.3 percent. It invests in human capital: there are more graduates in the workforce and more patents than people, than we can produce. But, in fact, we risk to remain behind. Ce indicates the comparison with France. Twenty years ago, the French were more or less like us, in some cases even more delayed than in Sweden. But, today, France invests in research and development, compared to its gross domestic product, the double of us. It has closed the gap with Sweden – in investments in the school and in the percentage of graduates on the labor force – which for us is, however, increased. And ‘a dramatic wake-up call. The only good news is that the French example shows that the spread is not a condemnation without escape.
of RICCI MAURIZIO
> ROME – The real tragedy of the spread digital is that it is not something fixed and static. The delay of Italy on land, telecommunications, connectivity, hardware and software is a kind of penalty sports: from fifty or a hundred yards back, in the race of modern economies. On the contrary, it is a dynamic damage, that is growing. It means to leave later, but with a ballast, a weight around his neck and feet that slows movements: the more time passes the more difficult it will not only reduce the delay, but prevent increases. 
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