Written by Edel Corrigan, IrishTimes.com

Image courtesy of IrishTimes.com

The Covid-19 pandemic accelerated digitalisation programmes for many organisations and the economic slowdown is likely to have a similar effect. How have Irish businesses been using digitalisation to improve their competitiveness and what are we likely to see in 2023 and beyond?

What is digitalisation?

There are lots of different definitions for digitalisation, says Patricia Callan, director of financial services Ireland, Ibec. “When we think about digitalisation, we think of it as the integration of digital technologies into a company’s existing processes, with the goal of improving customer experience and/or business performance.”

Mark Jordan, chief strategy officer, Skillnet says the act of digitalisation enables businesses to use digital technologies to convert from manual processes or information management to support, growth, competitiveness and new opportunities.

How Covid expedited the move toward digitalisation

Organisations across most industry sectors had to adapt to entirely new business processes/running the business without any warning and overnight, says Matt Glowatz, assistant professor at University College Dublin (UCD). “Many organisations were not prepared for that shift of operations at all, which posed a huge challenge for managers keeping the business afloat.

Read the full article here. This article first appeared on IrishTimes.com on December 21st, 2022.