One of the most pressing tasks facing Spanish businesses today – particularly small and medium-sized enterprises, alongside the self-employed – is the shift towards the digital transition, also known as digitalisation. Digitalisation boosts productivity, increases your chances of being competitive in new markets, improves workflows by automating repetitive tasks, enhances your internal and external communication channels, and modernises your marketing strategies, among other things.

Both the state and the productive sector are keenly aware of the amount of work to be done. According to the Digitalisation and Sustainable Development in SMEs in Spain report, published by the Foundation for the Strategic Analysis and Development of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises back in July 2022, just 22% of Spain’s SMEs use advanced digitalisation technologies. Even though the benefits of connectivity and the need to make companies go digital are widely understood in the business world, there’s still a long road to travel. And a lot of funding to be found.

The digitalisation professionals supporting Spanish firms

The NextGenerationEU fund has helped develop a programme, which allows Spanish companies and the self-employed to begin the digitalisation process they so desperately need, particularly with so-called digital kits, a scheme that Spain’s Ministry of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation has funded to the tune of over €3 billion. Thanks to this cash injection, micro-businesses, SMEs and companies employing up to 49 members of staff can access grants ranging from €2,000 to €12,000.

Since the initiative was launched, demand for digitalisation professionals has skyrocketed, particularly among those who specialise in the fields of data science, user experience and programming. This is something Malt can attest to, a company that puts organisations and sole traders in contact with freelance professionals. They confirm there’s an abundance of freelance professionals working in the digitalisation and technological transition industries. In fact, Malt say their database has half a million freelancers and 600,000 clients on it from across eight different European countries.

According to Jacobo Bermúdez de Castro, Malt Spain’s Managing Director, “these independent experts are all professionals with an average of nine years’ experience in areas such as information technology, marketing and communications, they’re audiovisual specialists (photographers, videographers, audio technicians, video game specialists), graphic designers and specialists in strategy and consulting”.

The local/regional government push towards digitalisation

Despite the fact that European funding is essential and a key factor in promoting digitalisation in the world of business, there won’t be any significant breakthroughs in productive industries without local and regional governments taking decisive action. A good example in Spain can be found in Extremadura. The region recently won the Best Public Initiative Prize, awarded by the College of Telecommunications Engineers and the Association of Telecommunications Graduates and Technical Engineers, “for their support in rolling out local fibre optic networks in municipalities, districts and smaller local authorities across Extremadura”.

Extremadura recently unveiled the Digital Innovation Hub, designed as a one-stop shop for training, innovative technologies and business development services for Extremadura’s companies, which received funding of €4 million. Other initiatives have also been introduced with digitalisation at their core, such as the i-Rural Fair, organised by the Spanish region of Castilla La Mancha and Portugal, highlighting the need to value, share and promote the ICT products and services that both the public and private sectors – as well as local authorities – can make more widely available in rural settings.