The National Observatory of Technology and Society (ONTSI) has presented its report “Compass Digital Technologies in the Company”, which analyzes the digital transformation of Spanish businesses in key points as the most used technologies, the relationship with cybersecurity or how the environmental impact is addressed.
The report reflects progress in the digital transformation of Spanish companies in 2022, although differences by sector and size are reported.
Regarding the key technologies for digitization, Spain is advancing to achieve national and European strategies, although there is still a way to go. Among its goals and objectives, the European strategy for the Digital Decade establishes that at least 75% of companies have implemented cloud computing, artificial intelligence and big data analysis by 2030. In the medium term, the Digital Spain 2026 strategy states that in 2025 25% of the Spanish productive fabric reaches it.
In 2022, 31.8% of companies with 10 or more people employed in Spain use cloud systems13.9% analyze big data (2.8 points more than in 2021) and 11.8% use artificial intelligence (3.5 points more than in 2021). This places this segment halfway to the national objective, with the microenterprises those that need a greater boost in the adoption of these technologies, since they stand at 10.2% in cloud computing, 3.7% in big data and 4.6% in artificial intelligence.
Regarding sectors, they are ICT, information and communications and hosting services those that reach a higher degree of digital transformation, being at the other extreme construction and administrative activities and auxiliary services.
Improve the ICT preparation of companies with specialists in this field
Regarding the profile of the people employed, despite the fact that 4.3% of companies had some Difficulty filling vacancies for technology specialists, The report reflects an increase in these profiles in the workforce (it rises from 16.4% in 2021 to 17% in 2022), although only 1.2% of micro-enterprises have these profiles. In addition, in 2022 the companies that have women ICT specialists on their staff have increased by almost 6 points.
For the first time, statistics are available to analyze the environmental impact of ICT in Spanish companies. The first conclusion that can be drawn is that awareness of the relationship between the use of ICT and environmental sustainability is a fact in four out of ten Spanish companies. In 2022, 38.9% of companies and 22.9% of micro-enterprises had some measure to reduce the energy consumption of their equipment.
Digital transformation is changing the way we work. For example, in 2022, 82.3% of companies and 46.7% of micro-enterprises allow their staff to access remotely to corporate resources. Although most companies allow remote access to company resources, fewer allow their employees to telework, specifically 39.6% of companies and 16.6% of micro-enterprises.
The importance of cybersecurity
The intensification of the adoption of digital technologies together with these new ways of working places us in a new scenario in which security incidents can increase. The report shows that 15.5% of Spanish companies and 5.2% of micro-enterprises have reported a security incident.
Within this framework, more and more companies are becoming aware of the importance of safeguarding their data: 89.1% have some cybersecurity measure, especially those in the technology sector, the most used being separate backups, authentication with strong password and access control to the corporate network. However, it is important to continue improving cybersecurity, since only 44.2% of companies have implemented at least five of the eleven security measures analyzed, and 27.7% seven or more.
