Bitkom study: How digital do German companies work?

The pandemic has noticeably accelerated the digitization of German companies. Based on a current survey, the industry association Bitkom estimates these developments in this year’s study “Digital Office – How digital do German companies work?” as a sustainable one. The industry association has been examining the so-called Digital Office Index every two years since 2016. This year, 1,102 companies with more than 20 employees from all economic sectors were surveyed. The focus of the study was on the effects of the past two pandemic years.

Doubts about the benefits of digitization are disappearing

The last reservations about the economic benefits of digitization now seem to have been dispelled: 49 percent of the companies surveyed state that the corona pandemic has triggered a sustained digitization push of their business model, almost as many of the companies (44 percent) also think such effects to have observed their own business processes.

The trend towards the digital is particularly evident in the communications sector. Today, 72 percent of the companies surveyed use video conferencing – in 2018, in the last pre-pandemic edition of the study, it was just 48 percent. Bitkom was able to see the opposite effect with analogue communication channels: only 40 percent of companies now communicate by fax (22 percent less than in 2018) and only 48 percent by letter post (23 percent less than in 2018).

While simple digital tools such as video conferences and chats have already established themselves, more complex functions such as collaboration with external parties and knowledge and document management are still used relatively rarely.

Increase in the Digital Office Index

With the so-called Digital Office Index, Bitkom measures the digitization of office and administrative processes on a scale from 1 to 100. On average, the index rose from 55 points in 2020 to 59 points in 2022. In its report, Bitkom compares the companies surveyed by industry and company size. In terms of sector, banks and financial service providers are ahead with 61 points, while public administration comes last with 52 points. In terms of company size, large companies (68 points) perform better on average than medium-sized companies (63 points) or small companies (58 points).

Source: Bitkom