According to a survey conducted by the Basel Chamber of Commerce, only one third of companies in the region are working on digitalization projects – and only 4 per cent have already completed one.
“In discussions with our members, we have found that companies are well aware of digitalization and the associated need to act,” said Franz A. Saladin, director of the Basel Chamber of Commerce. “But while the big consulting firms have been quick to act, SMEs are uncertain about how to deal with this issue.”
In order to remedy this situation, the Basel Chamber of Commerce launched the initiative Are you digital? in August. It offers companies one or two-day seminars where they receive professional advice on how to evaluate the costs and benefits of digitalization in their own company. The Basel Chamber of Commerce covers three-quarters of the costs of the ‘digital check-up’ for its members.
According to Saladin, over 16,000 visitors have come to the Are you digital? website and 26 companies have registered for a seminar in the first three months of the initiative. For Raurica Wald AG from Muttenz in the canton of Basel-Landschaft, the seminar “broadens the horizon for new business opportunities,” said the company’s director Stephan Rüdlinger. But the check-up also showed that there are “already a number of challenges to overcome in terms of infrastructure and security issues”.
