We make digital work!

'Digitalization, platforms and big data are boosting the economy’ stated Secretary General Maarten Camps (Ministry of Economic Affairs) last Monday during the Cobbenhagen Summit in Tilburg. With the current healthy climate in the Netherlands, we are able to walk ahead of others. We need to take advantage of the opportunities and practices which digitalization offers us.

How can we keep utilize the opportunities of digitalization according to Camps? By preparing our labor force even better for changes. This means teaching digital skills at elementary schools, but also investing in sustainable employability by employers and employees. By giving Big Data and digital platforms an important position in generating new digital innovations. And at last, by creating plenty of space for improvement.

Digitalization also arises questions. Questions about privacy, security and ownership of data. These questions are new for the government. Questions which we, as association of the demand side of IT, can help the government with.

It is our daily business to prepare ourselves for a digital future, to be able to contribute to the development and welfare in the Netherlands. Our members act in the heart of the society and have valuable data in there possession (like banks and hospitals). It is up to our members to utilize the opportunities of this data and innovate with it, without it being at the expense of privacy and security. At the same time, the company must stay flexible to cope with the changing world around it. This ask for investing in good employees and a new way of innovating. 

Like Camps, we also see the necessity of collaboration between relevant partners, to utilize the opportunities of digitalization. It is for this reason we have signed the Manifesto for a sustainable digital society in November 2016. In this Manifesto, we plead (together with other parties from the business) for five necessary actions to show digital leadership, to proactively shape the future of the Netherlands. The five actions are:

1. Invest in the fundamentals: education and development of knowledge;
2. Pick the social benefits: accelerated digitalization of the domains healthcare, mobility, energy, education, cities and government;
3. Further increase the earnings: give frontrunners an extra push;
4. Attention for the threats (employment, cyber resilience and privacy) and opportunities of digitalization;
5. Create connections and leadership: by a ‘ministerial digital top team’.

We would gladly talk with the government and other interested parties about our digital future. Together we can make the difference!

Kind regards,

Marcel Krom 
Chairman CIO Platform Nederland

You can read the full keynote (in Dutch) of SG Maarten Camps here.

Would you like to talk about the above? We invite you to get in contact with us! Please send an e-mail to our General Director Ronald Verbeek through ronald@cio-platform.nl.