The COVID-19 pandemic has given an additional impetus to the already accelerating process of the digital transformation of business around the world. Large enterprises invest heavily in digital transformation, ordering the development of unique technological solutions. What about small and medium-sized enterprises that cannot afford such expenses? These issues were discussed on StrategEast Live session “Digital transformation of SMEs in Eurasia”.

Ihar Kruhlik, SME digital development, EPAM Systems noted that, according to studies conducted back in 2016, 70% of SMEs planned to digitalize their business. But time has shown that there is a large gap between the plans and their implementation. “At EPAM, our task is to lead enterprises along the right path. We see that there are common patterns in successful cases of digital transformation,” continued Mr. Kruhlik. Both the management and the shareholders should have a unified vision of what kind of enterprise they want to receive as a result of transformation. They should be ready to formulate this not in their internal corporate language, but in a language understandable to a performer. And most importantly – they should see digital transformation not as expenses, but as investments.

According to Eric Hontz, CIPE, Deputy Regional Director for Europe and Eurasia, the COVID-19 pandemic has turned digital transformation from a desirable process for SMEs to a vital one. Only those SMEs that learned to work with clients without meeting him/her face to face – and this required a deep digitalization of business processes – were able to successfully survive the lockdown.

Speaking about the role that the state should take on in the process of digital transformation of SMEs, Ketevan Meparishvili, Regional Manager of Asia at TWINO noted that in Georgia there was a unique situation when state institutions went much further in digital transformation than private enterprises. And today, it is government structures that can become a successful role model of digital transformation for SMEs. At the same time, the state will have to take the leading role in building the framework, create human resources and build capacity for the digital business ecosystem.

Answering the question by the panel moderator Sebastian Molineus, Regional Director for the South Caucasus Europe and Central Asia at the World Bank, on whether there are ready-made solutions for SMEs digitalization in the market, Mr. Kruhlik explained: “Today there are so many standard, shelf solutions, designed for digital transformation, that it is no longer a problem for SMEs to find a free standard solution, but rather  to choose one solution over thousands which suits this particular business.”