Research from Virgin Media Business says that one out of five Irish businesses have invested over €100,000 in digital technology during the pandemic, while 87% overall have made some investment in digital.

The survey was carried out by Amárach Research and also indicates that a further one-third of the firms intend to invest €100,000 or more in digital in the next two years.

The major findings:

• The main areas of investment are IT hardware or infrastructure (32%), IT software and applications (31%), followed by cloud storage or services (12%) and e-commerce and marketplace technologies (12%).
• one in four SMEs surveyed said they’re selling more online this year than last year, and this trend is expected to continue.
•  Six in ten of all the businesses surveyed said they expect to have more online sales a year from now than at present.

Virgin Media also announced the five businesses that successfully completed a digital transformation in their Backing Business initiative in the Munster region. 

The five selected businesses received a total of €100,000 in support and have benefited from the expertise and insights of each of the Virgin Media‘Backing Business partners, including Digital Business Ireland, Milk Bottle Labs, Permanent TSB and their Local Enterprise Office.

In Association with

The five Backing Business winners are:

• Cork branded homeware company Fervor + Hue with a collection of select-piece furniture, soft furnishings, lighting, wall art and more.

• Grounded Pottery in Kerry, which makes handcrafted, ceramic reusable travel cups with designs inspired by the Irish countryside.  

• Lucy Erridge — An artist working with watercolours to create paintings inspired by nature and wildlife.

• Rívesci in Tipperary, which produces hand-made condiments.

• Waterford company Dust + Rock, whose ‘Wrist Pocket’ is a different take on an everyday purse “with added functionality and peace of mind due to its really clever design”.

Virgin Media Business director Aidan D’Arcy commented: “More than ever, a strong online presence and ability to trade is critical to ensuring your business can thrive. Proper e-commerce functionality can help position your business on a global stage and, having just completed their own digital transformation, thanks to Virgin Media’s Backing Business initiative, these five businesses are now showcasing what can be achieved."

Photo: Stephen Jiang from Fervor and  Hue with minister Robert Troy. (Pic:Brian McEvoy)