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The project led by Iveta Šimberová from the Faculty of Business and Management at BUT investigated how Czech small and medium enterprises are doing with digitalisation. Experts have built their own digital maturity model and had 200 companies rate their digital maturity. They would now like to have their independent model certified. In the future, it should be followed by other digitisation services.

The digital maturity of small and medium-sized enterprises in the Czech Republic is being mapped by an extensive project called Digital Transformation for Innovating Business Models of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in the Czech Republic. The Faculty of Business and Management at BUT was awarded the project in 2019 under the auspices of the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic. However, a number of other partners from both the academia and practice are involved. “For example, the Institute of Technology and Business in České Budějovice, the Research Institute for Innovation at the Czech Chamber of Commerce or the Association of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises are involved,” says Iveta Šimberová, who is responsible for the project on behalf of the Faculty of Business and Management.

The project’s theme was her idea. “Digitisation is all around us. It is no longer confined to expert articles, but it is also applied in the commercial sphere. There is a growing interest in it and I was still thinking about how to find out the level of digital maturity of Czech companies,” explains Šimberová.

An independent model will highlight the company’s weaknesses

Therefore, she has created, together with colleagues, a model that allows companies’ progress in digitisation to be measured. “Of course, there are already many other models on the market. However, they are usually created and offered by commercial companies and are essentially a sales promotion tool for their services. The advantage of our model is that it was created in academia, so it is more independent,” Šimberová adds.

The project also included two conferences at which the authors presented, tested and discussed the model with other experts from academia as well as with the companies themselves. “We have looked at the whole issue from a broader perspective and the project thus includes both basic and applied research,” says Iveta Šimberová.

The proven model was then offered in the form of a test on the digitalnipodnik.cz website, where companies can evaluate themselves. To date, two hundred of them have joined the project. “We offer a shorter and a longer test. The companies themselves are evaluating and assessing how they are doing. Of course, this is not a fit-all fix-all solution and it is not enough to fully assess whether a given enterprise is digitised. Several factors always play a role in digitisation. And it must also be said that digitisation is not desirable in all sectors. There are industries where, for example, customers demand that traditional ways of working be maintained,” says Šimberová.

The test will reveal to the companies how they are doing in each area by means of a “traffic light”. The authors distinguished the levels of digital maturity by colour. If a company is doing well, it gets a green light, and areas that need attention are red. In addition, the experts added comments. For example, the company can see how it compares to its competitors in the same field. “We enjoy it very much and we would like to finish the work so that it can be used after the project ends. Since most of us are academics, we are not currently able to cover the demand for consultations and continue working with companies, but we are trying to think of different ways to support these organisations,” says Šimberová, adding that their model should be certified by the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic this year. Chambers of Commerce and other institutions are also planning to use it. “We are discussing a possibility for the test to be one of the parameters used when deciding on subsidies for smaller enterprises,” she concludes.