Digital Transformation during COVID-19

The Alumni Voice Volume 5

Written by Andrea Bonaria – Chief Executive Officer at Digitransformer Ltd

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The world is constantly changing, and the challenges we collectively face often lead to innovation. A major development since the pandemic struck has been the increase in demand for business to offer e-commerce and improve their online presence. This rapid move towards digitisation for many companies has challenged their business model as well as led to innovation within the digital transformation space.

It was when my native Italy was in lockdown, when I was enduring isolation from friends and family, that I decided to start my entrepreneurial journey. The day after Italy entered lockdown, I began Digitransformer on 10 March, and we are now active across four countries, with ambitions to continue to grow. Digitransformer is a London and Milan based company, providing digital transformation and enabling technologies and solutions across all industries. We specialise in assisting SMEs from A to Z, by providing them full digital marketing services, bespoke e-commerce websites, and tailored made software.

With movement of people restricted and economies stalling, digitisation provides a business-continuity option when travelling and face-to-face interactions threaten our individual and collective health. We got to work building a strategy that demonstrates the importance of digitisation and a dynamic online presence, and we are confident Digitransformer will continue to deliver agile and innovation solutions to these challenges.

Whilst so much of our consumer habits are on-line, many European countries are lagging a long way behind the UK. Drawing on the skills I took from my time studying Global Management and Leadership at Regent’s, as well as what I have learnt from by family business background, I undertook an analysis of the Italian e-commerce market. The Italian e-commerce market value was 48.5 billion EUR in 2019 (+17% compared to 2018) yet pales in comparison to the UK e-commerce market value of 688.4 billion GBP. Thus, I concluded the pace of growth and the yet-untapped potential in the Italian market highlighted an exciting opportunity for Digitransformer.

Now after seven months, Digitransformer has built a client roster across the United Kingdom, Italy, San Marino and Romania, and we are hopeful to expand our services beyond Europe.

Digitransformer Ltd represents some of the most important values and skills I have learnt at Regent’s. At times I have had to be brave in decision making, resilient in the face of challenges, but also trusting in the knowledge and processes I learnt whilst studying. Ultimately, it shows that even though we are facing a difficult and dangerous time, it is important to keep seeking solutions, ways to improve parts of our lives we can control, and participate in our globalised world.