The Corona crisis has hardly affected any industry as much as the out-of-home market. It has become very clear that the topic of digitalisation is the decisive lever for companies to remain competitive and fit for the future in today's economic world. Studies show that the degree of digitalisation directly influences the chances of business success.
"It's no surprise: companies with a high degree of digitalisation come through crises better," says Hagen Rickmann, Managing Director Business Customers at Telekom Deutschland.
The latest study on the "Digitalisation Index for SMEs 2020/2021" also confirms this. 74% of respondents confirm that digital measures pay off and have a positive impact on internal business processes. In addition, they strengthen the competitiveness of the company and increase customer satisfaction. Digitisation also helps to reduce costs and increase turnover. Yet 34% of SMEs have no digital skills (KfW Research 2020, Leifels A. (2020), 52% of SMEs are only "averagely" digitised (BMWi, Monitoring Report Wirtschaft DIGITAL 2017).
How digital is the out-of-home market? The pace of digitalisation is increasing, but not every business succeeds in this endeavour on its own: 33% of hospitality businesses say they need financial support to implement digitalisation projects.
Numerous federal and state initiatives offer financial subsidies, some of which are considerable, for the implementation of individual digitisation projects. Depending on the programme, funding of up to 100,000 euros and 75 % of the total costs is possible - depending on the project, company size and annual turnover.
In concrete terms, there are currently a large number of funding programmes, both at federal level and via the Länder. A brief overview of the current federal funding programmes:
These programmes offer financial support for SMEs that want to implement corresponding digitisation projects, such as investments in software/hardware and/or in employee qualification, as well as grants for consulting services or digitisation and innovation loans.
In addition to the federal support programmes, all federal states except Schleswig-Holstein currently offer additional direct support.
Would you like detailed information?
We would be happy to support you with a non-binding digital consultation. As your contact person, I can advise you on the search and selection of the right programme and work with you to develop the digitisation plan required for some funding programmes.
