Digitalization has been for a while and still is one of the European Union’s main priorities and directions of investments. However, the pandemic has undoubtedly become a digital transformational catalyst in the world. “Probably never before have all areas of our lives: education, health, work and others been so dependent on digital technologies,” – said Zigmantas Dargevičius, the President of Kaunas Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Crafts, in his opening speech of the conference “Skaitmenizuok’is” (en. Digitalize).
Kaunas Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Crafts together with partner INFOBALT organized conference where professionals shared their knowledge and advices on digital transformation, digital opportunities of industry, data protection and cyber security.
“It’s not the price that matters most when it comes to technology,” – INFOBALT Director Mindaugas Ubartas was saying. According to him, although forecasting the future is an ungrateful process, it still can be forecasted that 42 percent of Lithuanian workplaces will be automated in the future. The highest automation is expected in the fields of transport, warehousing, production, construction and administration, the lowest – in the field of education. “Digitalization is a basis of many processes, the countries which will be the first to use digital opportunities will gain a competitive advantage,”- he said. Mr. Ubartas also notes that businesses need significantly more productivity and the public sector needs more efficiency. Nevertheless, Lithuania has every opportunity to be the most efficient country in the world.
Linas Pečiūra, the Head of Crayon Services and Cloud Solutions Team in the Baltic States, was speaking about Lithuania’s competitive edge. He says that in order to maintain our competitiveness we have to “run” twice as fast as others. In his presentation, L. Pečiūra singled out the main trends of digital transformation: employee empowerment, performance optimization, customer service and product / service transformation.
Dovydas Zinkevičius, the Head of Columbus Lietuva, was a little stricter when talking about the current situation in the digital field. According to him, the European Union is losing in the production segment. D. Zinkevičius also notes that it is quite difficult for Lithuanians to cooperate, because we do not know how to brag about our achievements and it is difficult for us to show ourselves better than others.
When it comes to digitization and automation, cyber security and data protection must not be forgotten either, noted Mindaugas Civilka, the Partner of GSC Baltic Partners. He says that even now, when the topic of cyber security is at stake, it is still very difficult to convey the idea of investment in cybersecurity to CEOs. This is explained by the fact that leaders often do not bring an understanding of information technology security from their own families. “Like any other sociological phenomenon, information technology literacy must be born in society,” – M. Civilka said at the conference.
With the help of the Internet of Things, the whole world and things can be intelligently interconnected. Eduardas Matvejevas, the Director of Innovation at Iamus, introduced the Internet of Things and revealed that by applying it to industry, businesses can increase production line utilization and production yield, optimize equipment repair costs, improve quality control, reduce human error, optimize planning and documentation, increase security and manage production remotely.
During the conference, the leaders of DOLETA and BOD Lenses shared their success stories. “A couple of decades ago, we transferred the designing of windows from Excel to computer programs. If until the optimization all the details, sections and etc. of the window had to be laid out by hand, using the program we shortened the process ten times – some operations from an hour to a minute,” – Mindaugas Skardžius, the CEO of Doleta, was sharing his experience with the participants.
“Digitization is the future of Lithuania and we have to invest in it,” – concluded Vytautas Tuminas, the Head of BOD Lenses, at the end of the conference and added that modernization of production is the only way to strengthen competitive advantage.
