Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego’s 2026 report ‘Digitisation in the SME sector. What will accelerate the transformation?” exposes a fascinating, yet worrying paradox of Polish business. On the one hand, as many as 64% of companies declare that digitalisation is a high or very high priority for them. On the other, however, an impressive 91.5% of organisations do not measure the results of these activities, abandoning any performance indicators. Digital transformation therefore often resembles a flight in the dark. Companies are keen to invest in modern systems, spending between 106,000 and 300,000, but this is rarely followed by a profound overhaul of decision-making processes. The difficulty lies not in the scarcity of software on the market, but in the lack of digital imagination at the highest levels of management.
What emerges from reading the document is a picture of a market in which the main barrier to growth is the skills gap, understood, however, quite differently from what is commonly accepted. It is not the lack of technical skills among rank-and-file employees that is the biggest bottleneck, but the lack of technological insight among key decision-makers. Companies are still more willing to invest capital in infrastructure and off-the-shelf operating systems, forgetting the most important piece of the puzzle, which is staff capable of turning new tools into higher margins and better optimisation.
Moving from intuitive innovation implementation to professional change management requires a fundamental rebuilding of perspective. The first step is to abandon conjecture-based activities in favour of implementing hard analytics, even before the first invoice for IT services is settled. The inability to measure the success of a planned technology project should be a clear warning signal before it starts. Another issue is the approach to budget modelling itself. The report shows a clear dominance of own funds, which are used by more than sixty-three per cent of respondents. Basing development solely on earned cash is safe, but can mean a loss of momentum. External support instruments, including EU programmes and earmarked funds, can serve as powerful leverage, allowing the business to scale much faster and build a competitive advantage.
A change in optics in the area of cyber security is also extremely important. The protection of data and systems has long ceased to be solely the domain of IT departments. It is now an integral part of corporate risk management and an absolute guarantor of operational continuity. Treating investment in digital security as an unnecessary cost is a mistake that, in an age of increasing network threats, can weigh on the future of an entire organisation.
An in-depth analysis of the statistics provided by Bank Gospodarstwa Krajowego makes it possible to distinguish clear market segments. Almost 12% of companies are true digital leaders, while less than 10% remain completely technologically passive. An organisation with a leader profile does not stop at implementing a basic customer relationship management system. It uses the data it collects to anticipate market trends, automate routine processes and stay ahead of competitors’ moves. The largest group, accounting for 57% of the sector, is still in its infancy. Looking ahead to the next few years, this safe middle ground will begin to erode in the market and cost pressures from the leaders will become ruthless.
Digital maturity is not ultimately a product that can be acquired through a tender. It is a complex process of transforming the entire DNA of a company. Delegating responsibility for digitalisation solely to the technical divisions is commonplace, but from a strategic perspective deeply misguided. Allocating significant financial resources to new IT systems, while failing to invest in the development of management competencies, is a path fraught with unnecessary risk. The real transformation begins not in the state-of-the-art server room, but in the boardroom, where technology must finally begin to speak the language of profit, efficiency and long-term strategy.
