Technology isn’t important for its own sake, it is a competitive factor

Vodafone Hungary has launched its Ready Business Index, an online questionnaire that enterprises can use to measure their own and competitors’ digital development level. Our magazine asked István Király, Vodafone Hungary’s enterprise business unit director about this and other issues.

T.M.: – What has been the feedback like so far from enterprises filling out the questionnaire?

István Király
business unit director
Vodafone Magyarország,

– Before the Ready Business Index was launched, we had done research with the participation of nearly 500 managers. This revealed that many Hungarian SMEs have a digital integration level below the European average. It turned out that almost one third of respondents had no online presence at all, not to mention using technologies such as cloud-based services.

T.M.: – In which stage of the digital development do we find Hungarian SMEs? How important is digitalisation for them from the perspectives of efficiency and competitiveness?

– There is a great digital gap between business that are in touch with the world of multinational companies to a certain extent and those who only produce for the local market. Only one quarter of Hungarian businesses is open to adopting new technologies.

T.M.: – How can Vodafone Hungary help enterprises that are less developed than they want to be and are below the level of competitors too?

– Vodafone Ready Business Index is a free online questionnaire that serves two purposes: it shows businesses how prepared they are digitally, and at the same time it would also like to give advice to enterprises which have already realised the importance of going digital, but don’t know how to start. We can offer many tailor-made solutions to partners.

T.M.: – What are Vodafone Hungary’s expectations as regard the technological switch of Hungarian companies in the medium and the long term?

– There are SMEs which have already understood: if they want to operate more efficiently, simply and with lower costs, they need to embrace the digital technology in their everyday work. We think that more and more businesses will be interested in digital solutions. With the help of the Ready Business Index they can learn how to take the first steps. (x)