ZPP Newsletter
Warsaw, 2nd November 2023
Report by the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers and Symfonia
on the 2023 SME digitisation level “Digitisation of the SME sector in Poland”
According to a study conducted by Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers, 10 months before the obligation to use the National e-Invoice System KSeF enters into force, only 60% of Polish companies see the need for deeper digitisation, while 38% of them use only basic tools in business. The group that declares the lowest level of digitisation are micro-entrepreneurs, almost 40% of whom claim that they do not use any digital tools.
Mere moments before the introduction of the mandatory use of the National e-Invoice System (Krajowy System e-Faktur – KSeF), the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers, in cooperation with Symfonia, published a report “Digitisation of the SME sector in Poland”. The aim of the study was to investigate both the awareness and level of digitisation of economic entities in 2023.
Piotr Ciski, President of the Board at Symfonia: “We focused on SMEs in our study, because they are the backbone of the Polish economy. The upcoming mandatory full digitisation of invoices will also cover other market segments. We are the sole EU member state to introduce KSeF for all fiscal documents, without any limits on amounts or settlement areas. This is a massive challenge for Polish entrepreneurs, which impacts not only IT systems, but also internal processes related to, among others, the circulation and acceptance of cost invoices. We at Symfonia have many years of experience in the field of electronic invoicing. It was us who introduced the first structured invoice on the Polish market, which is why we share our knowledge. We have been conducting an extensive educational campaign in cooperation with the Accountants Association in Poland and the Union of Entrepreneurs and Employers. We have launched a free KSeF hotline and implemented a series of training courses as part of the Symfonia Academy, which are used on a daily basis by our clients as well as people who work on our competitors’ systems.”
The introduction of KSeF will allow public administration to have real-time insight into each economic transaction, because they will be processed in a central e-invoicing system. This requires entrepreneurs to change processes and adapt tools to new requirements. The National e-Invoice System is a fully cloud-based solution, which means that the entire market will naturally transfer some of its business processes to the cloud.
Meanwhile, as the new report shows, only 14% of surveyed SMEs declare the use of cloud computing, and 13% use of process management systems, including ERP (enterprise resource planning) – in neither category, does the share of micro-enterprises exceed 10%. Only 3% of respondents declare the use of AI-powered solutions in everyday business operations.
The study shows that 44% of respondents indicate increased work efficiency as the main benefit of digitisation. As many as 33% have observed a reduction of the harmful impact on the environment. Only 19% of respondents perceive digitisation as a tool with potential to increase company revenues.
Nevertheless, almost half of respondents (46%) are afraid of the costs related to digitisation. Moreover, there are also concerns of a purely human nature: 16% of employees declare reluctance to change.
Full version of the report available for download right HERE.
