IT service providers and data centres are enablers of digitalisation in SMEs, says Matthias Blatz, Managing Director of Heidelberg iT. In this interview, he answers questions about the resulting trust and IT security requirements.
What challenges does digitalisation bring to SMEs now?
There is pressure from three sides for SMEs to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by digitalisation: Firstly, through changing customer behaviour, such as the desire for more digital offers and the associated requirements, which is done through specifications from suppliers and regulations from the legislator, and the challenge of accompanying one’s own employees in the digitalisation process.
Secondly, the necessity comes from the company itself. Employees would like to improve established processes by means of up to date information and communication technologies or would like flexibility and a modern IT workplace.
Success comes to those who develop an individual digitalisation strategy and create the framework conditions to implement it. This is where we come in as an IT and data centre service provider when it comes to high-performance data infrastructure and IT security.
How must IT service providers respond to these requirements?
We are the enablers of digitalisation. This means that IT service providers and data centre providers must enable SMEs in the areas of infrastructure, IT security and data security to achieve their digitalisation goals and to be able to implement new digital business models. This should be performed regardless of the industry and company size.
That’s why we at Heidelberg iT, in cooperation with our partners, offer needs-based models and IT services that warranty the availability and security of IT systems and simultaneously give companies a high degree of flexibility to react quickly to changes. As a regional provider of service data centres, the customer receives a wide range of services from colocation and managed services to the complete operation of corporate IT – GDPR-compliant and with full data sovereignty.
How do you address the issue of security and trust?
Awareness, awareness, awareness – We strongly recommend that corporate clients train their employees’ IT security awareness through regular awareness measures and raise it to a high level. In addition to outdated systems and inadequate security standards, cybercriminals still most often succeed in penetrating IT infrastructures through the human factor.
We address our recommendations directly to the Managing Directors of our client companies, because – despite having read it a hundred times – the company management has to make the topic of IT security a top priority. After all, cyber attacks can completely paralyse IT systems of companies and threaten their existence.
We create trust both through our own certifications including the TĂśViT certificate according to TSI.STANDARD and DIN EN 50600, a QM system following the ISO 9001 and the introduction of an information security management system (ISMS), as well as the possibility to gain insight into reference projects. This is achieved by making our team fit in terms of awareness just as we advise our clients to be.
We also offer our customers regular events on the topic of security, including cyber insurance which is a must for every company.
Mr Blatz, thank you very much for the interview!
