News & Future
The Dutch Digitalisation Strategy: Big Ambitions, Little Realism
- By Nidaros
Last March, the Dutch government presented its Digitalisation Strategy, an important cornerstone of the national digital policy. One of its main goals focuses specifically on SMEs: by 2030, 95% of small and medium-sized enterprises should apply at least a basic level of digitalisation.
A noble ambition — but when I looked at the figures, something stood out. We’re currently at 81.5%, which means we need to grow another 13.5 percentage points in five years. That sounds achievable, doesn’t it? The issue isn’t the ambition itself — it’s the approach. At the same time, the strategy acknowledges a “significant shortage of ICT specialists” and notes that the “competitive strength of the digital economy is under pressure.”
In other words: we want everyone to digitalise, but there aren’t enough people to make it happen.
Herkenbaar probleem
It’s a typically Dutch problem. We make great plans, set high goals, and then forget about feasibility.
It’s as if we’re saying: Everyone should learn to swim — but we don’t have any swimming instructors.
What strikes me most about this approach is the underlying assumption that digitalisation automatically requires more IT specialists. That every SME must build its own IT department, develop its own systems, and manage its own digital transformation.
But what if digitalisation didn’t require IT specialists at all
What if you could automate processes without writing a single line of code?
What if your systems could communicate without having to build APIs?
What if you could analyse data without hiring data scientists?
A Matter of Process
This, in my view, is the core of the misunderstanding. The Dutch Digitalisation Strategy treats digitalisation as a technological issue, while in reality, it’s a process issue. It’s not about whether you’re running the newest software or the latest cloud infrastructure. It’s about whether your business processes are designed to be smart and efficient.
At Nidaros, we see this every day. An accounting firm struggling with manual invoice entry doesn’t need a new CRM system — it needs a robot that processes invoices automatically. An organisation facing long customer service wait times doesn’t need a chatbot platform — it needs a system that automatically handles common questions.
The difference is fundamental. Digitalisation requires IT expertise, system management, and continuous support. Automation, on the other hand, requires process knowledge, result orientation, and one-time implementation. The first approach makes you dependent on specialists. The second makes you more self-sufficient.
Business-First
What the Dutch Digitalisation Strategy lacks is a business-first mindset. Instead of asking which technology we need, we should be asking which problems we want to solve. Instead of asking how many ICT professionals we need, we should ask how we can organise work more intelligently.
That shift in thinking makes all the difference. Because once you start with the problem, rather than the technology, you realise that much of what we call digitalisation isn’t digitalisation at all — it’s simply smart thinking about how work can be done better.
The Solutions Already Exist
The 95% goal is achievable — but only if we stop thinking in terms of technology adoption and start thinking in terms of process improvement.
The solutions already exist: Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). These are proven technologies that organisations can implement today — without their own IT department, without months-long projects, and without the risk of failure.
So, will we keep dreaming of a future where every company has its own IT department? Or will we build an SME sector where every company has well-structured processes? The choice, to me, seems obvious.
