Digitization, Digitalization, or Digital Transformation? Where does your company stand — and how can FIT EDIH help?

In conversations about technology, we often use digitization, digitalization, and digital transformation as if they mean the same thing.

They don't, and the difference between them is more than semantic — it defines where your company actually is and what kind of support it needs.

In Romania's Centru Region, the context makes this distinction especially relevant. Only 5–8% of local SMEs currently use advanced digital tools like IoT, cloud platforms, or ERP software. Just 35% of businesses require even basic computer skills when hiring. The digital maturity gap is real, and closing it requires understanding what stage you're actually at.

Digitization — converting information from analog to digital

Digitization is about data. You're taking something physical and making it digital: scanning contracts, switching to electronic invoices, replacing handwritten reports with digital forms. The format of information changes, but the underlying process and business model stay the same. It's a necessary starting point, but it doesn't improve how you work — it just moves your existing workflow onto a screen.

Digitalization — using technology to improve how you work

Digitalization is about processes. You're using digital tools to optimize, automate, and streamline operations — implementing a CRM, integrating an ERP across departments, automating accounting workflows, setting up online booking systems. The business model remains largely the same, but the organization becomes more efficient, faster, and less dependent on manual effort.

Most SMEs in the Centru Region sit at this level, often at a basic or intermediate stage, with limited use of more advanced technologies like AI, IoT, or Big Data.

Digital Transformation — rethinking your business model

Digital transformation is about strategy. Technology stops being a support tool and becomes the foundation of how the company creates and delivers value. This is the shift Netflix made from DVD rentals to streaming, or what Siemens did by moving from selling machines to selling performance-as-a-service. What changes is not just the workflow but the revenue model, the value proposition, the organizational structure, and the relationship with the customer. This is where long-term competitiveness is built.

A practical way to see the difference

Take a manufacturer in the Centru Region.

Digitization means replacing paper quality reports with digital forms.

Digitalization means installing IoT sensors for real-time production monitoring.

Digital transformation means moving from selling equipment to offering predictive maintenance as a subscription service.

The technology evolves at each step, but more importantly, so does the business logic behind it.

Where FIT EDIH fits in

FIT EDIH — Futures of Innovation Technologies European Digital Innovation Hub — is the only European Digital Innovation Hub in Romania's Centru Region, funded through the EU's Digital Europe Programme and operational since 2022. It's coordinated by us at Iceberg+, a Brașov-based innovation and tech transfer company, and brings together a consortium of 12 public and private organizations: universities, industry clusters, SME associations, and technology companies, covering five of the region's six counties.

Since launching, the hub has supported over 131 SMEs and public service organizations and helped unlock a €4 million regional funding scheme providing grants to 124 SMEs and 17 municipalities across Centru.

Its focus areas — Smart City, Manufacturing, and eHealth — were chosen to align directly with the region's Smart Specialization Strategy and with the EU's Digital Decade 2030 objectives.

The hub offers four core services:

Digital Maturity Assessment gives organizations a clear picture of where they stand digitally before making any investment decisions — identifying gaps, prioritizing actions, and providing a structured starting point for transformation.

Test Before Invest allows SMEs and public entities to experiment with technologies like AI, IoT, or Big Data in a controlled environment — through labs, testbeds, and expert consulting — before committing resources.

Digital Skills and Training covers both foundational digital literacy and advanced, domain-specific competencies across the three focus areas, delivered through workshops, courses, and hands-on sessions developed with both academic and industry partners.

Access to Finance, through the FIT4Finance component, helps organizations navigate EU and national funding programmes, structure digitalization projects, and improve their investment readiness — turning viable ideas into fundable ones.

A second phase, FIT EDIH 2.0, is already planned for 2026–2029, aiming to expand the number of organizations served, introduce services around emerging technologies such as advanced AI and cybersecurity, and deepen the international partnerships built during the first cycle.

The right question to ask

The starting point isn't "Are you using technology?" It's understanding which stage you're at and what the logical next step looks like.

Whether your organization is just beginning to digitize its operations or is ready to rethink its business model entirely, the pathway is different — and the support needed is different too.

That's precisely what FIT EDIH was designed for.