ŠAVŠ/TAČR Digital Czechia in a Digital Europe

88

implemented and completed a digitalization project in the last three years. In the case of 10 to 50 employees, it was 35% of companies, and in the case of more than 50 employees, 45% of companies. 20 When setting the potential degree of support, the system must take this information into account and provide a higher degree of assistance to smaller firms, which usually endure a higher financial constraint due to lower turnover. A very similar principle undoubtedly applies to the distinction between the sectors in which SMEs operate. As mentioned above, the degree of financial complexity of the implementation of digitalization projects thus differs significantly even with regard to different industries. Therefore, the level of possible financial support must necessarily reflect such a fact. Implementing a digitalization project for a machining company with 40 employees is necessarily more challenging than implementing a digitalization project within a five-member accounting firm – despite the fact that statistically companies with a lower number of employees are relatively less likely to successfully digitalize their services/production. All these factors must be taken into account in the case of creating a more efficient infrastructure to support Czech SMEs.

20 Zimmermann Volker, Digitalization in German SMEs: state of implementation and investment.