The managing director of the system integrator who turns two years from the "new course": "In Italy still too many barriers that prevent us from bridging the gap between the skills actually on the market and those necessary for companies" 10 Jun 2022 Antonello Salerno
"Investing in skills is the only way to growth. In Italy there are still many barriers that prevent the gap between the digital skills actually available and those that would be needed by the market. Precisely for this reason, training, also thanks to the incentives of the PNRR, must become a strategic opportunity for young people and companies in terms of business. The goal we must set ourselves is to redefine some priorities, and I believe that digital skills are the first step to be taken for the rebirth of the country". This was underlined in an interview with CorCom by Francesco Sirabella, managing director of Revobyte, a 3560-degree system integrator specialized in information technology. Index of topics Sirabella, why invest in digital skills, and in particular those related to cybersecurity? Firstly, because, despite the push for digital transformation that we have witnessed in the last two years, the problem of people's poor digital skills remains. This extraordinary acceleration also due to the new digital ways of working is putting everyone at stake with regard to skills. Precisely for this reason, training must become a strategic opportunity for change. Talking about digital skills today means talking about training "in and for" digital, enabling the transformation of processes and work in companies. And an important focus in this area concerns the cybersecurity galaxy: in recent months we have the country and its productive fabric have suffered from hacker attacks of great impact, aggravated by the fact that specialized figures are rare and increasingly coveted and sought after. Training courses can really give an important boost in this regard. Following the wave of skills, we too, today more than ever, are giving increasing importance to the so-called "lifelong learning" and to the upskilling and newskilling processes, because we strongly believe in updating skills and continuous learning. Revobyte is celebrating its first two years of activity in these days: what assessment can be made of the path taken so far? In these two years Revobyte has had the opportunity to grow not only in terms of turnover, on which we have recorded an increase of more than 40%, but also in human capital. "Starting from people" can not only be a slogan, but should be the engine that drives companies, especially those that deal with technology, since it is unrealistic to think of replacing human skills and competences with automation or artificial intelligence. People are the capital from which to start: their well-being improves productivity. So motivation, trust and satisfaction of the corporate community are the keys to success. The new organization that I have restructured and recalibrated with commitment is also based on the concepts of welfare, work-life balance and smart working. In addition, we have expanded our presence on the market through the acquisition of new and prestigious customers, both in the enterprise and in the public administration: this is the case, for example, of the Ministry of Defense, NATO, Enea. All this, also linked to the fact that the ongoing digital acceleration, has brought with it greater risks for cybersecurity: the number of attacks has tripled since the beginning of the pandemic and addressing these issues with great attention also for next year has become a priority. In addition, talking about the future means talking about the cloud: Eurostat data places Italy in fifth place in the European ranking for the use of the cloud by companies, and our goal is to be recognized as a reference system integrator in this area. We want to propose an innovative model, which focuses on the constant presence alongside customers, trying to grasp and anticipate the needs and to fill and solve the digital criticalities, putting in place the flexibility and professionalism of our technicians. In recent weeks, the first cycle of courses of the Revobyte Academy has ended : what were the results, and how to have in mind to continue? With the Revobyte Academy we have taken up the challenge on training launched by the government and we have managed not only to train young talents, but to hire them all. It is a project of which we are very proud, which has managed to shorten the distances between the digital skills shortage and the labor market. We responded in a concrete way to the appeal launched a few months ago by Minister Vittorio Colao to contribute in a concrete way to the restart of the country by hiring qualified young people. It was an intense training course that allowed young talents to train for free on the new technologies most requested by the market and to practice through on-the-job training. We are working these days for the realization of a second edition. You recently opened an office in Milan: what is the strategic meaning of this new opening? The new headquarters in via Nino Bixio will guarantee even more efficient support and service to our customers. But our goal is not only to grow: we want to continue to raise our service towards quality and efficiency. The Milanese start-up inaugurated last September represents the manifesto of our vision for the future: with an office in the North we can accompany and follow customers even more closely and guarantee them stability and solidity in the process of technological transformation. As a system integrator no longer just Roman, we can offer customers with more compliance and offer them our expertise. The PNRR will be a fundamental tool for companies that are investing in digital transformation: how do you plan to intercept this "wave of change"? The PNRR is a huge opportunity for Italy and for companies, especially those of ICT, which will have to be able to concretely seize this funding to give an active boost to the innovation process. The main challenge in my opinion is to be well present on the territory intercepting opportunities and new scenarios through the network. The secret will be not to undergo innovation, but to drive it. Among your partners there are some "giants" of digital in the international field: what added value can you draw from these collaborations? We focus on a broad portfolio and consolidated partnerships to push for growth, combining the system integrator approach with the consulting one. We advise our customers on the most innovative partners and digital solutions most in line with their business needs, investing more and more in the technical skills of our specialists. The significant expansion of the scope of partnerships, together with the consolidation of relationships with some of the world's leading technology vendors , allows us to increase the overall value of our offer and to give further substance to our technical expertise. Obviously this "forces" us to continuously invest in the updating of our specialists by acquiring new and relevant certifications. In particular, with some of these partners we are also building a structured link to manage together some complex projects related to the "pushed" digitization of companies and strategic bodies for the competitiveness of the country-system, within the PNRR. This is the case of Cisco, but not only. In the future we will aim to intensify this model, from which can come a mutual enrichment for all the actors involved and, ultimately, the raising of the Italian technological level as a whole.