UniCredit and Microsoft support digitalisation
Thursday 12 May 2022
"Together4Digital" aims to concretely support Italian companies by providing them with financial resources, skills and digital tools for economic and sustainable growth in line with the NRRP.
The Together4Digital (available in Italian only) initiative is enriched with new tools and dedicated funding lines to accelerate the digital transformation paths of Italian SMEs: one of the key objectives National Resilience and Recovery Plan through Transition 4.0 plan.
It consists of a well-structured path that is designed to enable and support companies with skills, technology and tools for their sustainable, digital and financial growth. Today the initiative is enriched by important features that ease usability, making the joint value proposition more usable and more valuable:
- Microsoft offers specialized advice, technology and digital solutions through their partner Var Group on the platform (available in Italian only). Starting from May 2022, companies willing to launch their transformation will freely benefit of a Solution Assessment driven by experts who assess their digital skills and suggest tailored action plans with a focus on the proper cyber security posture. In addition, e-skills training will be available according to specific needs.
- UniCredit offers financial support for digital investment, personalised assistance and education on financing tools through its Banking Academy. All companies are also granted access to WarrantHub's tailored advice on subsidised finance and tax issues, to verify if companies are eligible and have the necessary requirements to access NRRP funds.
The UniCredit and Microsoft partnership responds to the urgent and concrete need to support Italian companies in their digital transformation.
Niccolò Ubertalli, Head of UniCredit Italia commented: “The DESI digitalisation index tells us that, between 2015 and 2020, Italy is among the European countries that have recorded the greatest growth in the overall score obtained with an increase of 45%: a small step on the long path our country must walk in order to fully catch up with those that are technologically more advanced. The 'Together4Digital' initiative is part of the task force launched by the bank to support the NRRP: in line with the national plan, which provides significant resources for businesses’ digital transition, in recent months we have already supported 2,300 projects with over EUR 400 million in new funding. The collaboration between UniCredit and Microsoft aims to further intensify our commitment by seeking to promote both the modernisation of production and distribution processes and the consolidation of digital skills, through an initial assessment by Microsoft and a subsequent involvement by UniCredit to support innovative investments by businesses.”
Silvia Candiani, CEO Microsoft Italy, stated: “While Italian SMEs have made some progress in terms of digitalisation over the last two years, driven by trends such as electronic invoicing, the spread of cloud computing services and the use of digital collaboration and sharing systems, they are still lagging behind other countries in terms of innovation, jeopardising one of the country's levers of economic growth. To take full advantage of the benefits of technology to support the development of our businesses in such a rapidly changing market environment, we have decided to strengthen our partnership with UniCredit. Together, we will provide SMEs with quick and simple services and solutions to assess their degree of 'digitalisation', to access the ad hoc digital transformation route with dedicated funding paths and targeted staff training on innovation. By combining our areas of expertise, we will be able to help more than 100,000 companies across Italy to think about their future in digital".