The conceptions of digitalization in business of small and medium-sized enterprises in Ylivieska and nearby

A survey to SMEs in Ylivieska region was conducted as part of a thesis work. The objective of the thesis was to find out how cybersecurity or the lack thereof affects SMEs abilities to increase the use of digital tools and services in their business. The goal was also to find out what kind of support or services SMEs think they would need in terms of digitalization and cyber security.

The results show that SMEs already use many digital services, but cybersecurity threats are keeping the companies from adopting new digital services. Still, many companies could not name what kind of services they would need in order to be more comfortable with digitalization. The ones that could were interested in training on cybersecurity risks and risk management. Some said that they are not dealing with the IT management themselves but have outsourced their services.

In light of these results it seems that trainings and seminars are desired to raise the cybersecurity awareness in SMEs.