Aleksandr Buinoi, the Founder, CTO, and CFO of Skysales LTD and the developer of the Skysmart software solution explains the consequences and opportunities created by a digital shift.
The cloud services market is one of the fastest-growing segments of the IT industry. According to Financial Express, it is predicted to grow from USD 676.29 billion in 2024 to USD 2,291.59 billion by 2032, with a CAGR of 16,5% within said period. In a similar fashion, International Data Corporation (IDC) predicts the global spending on public cloud services to double by 2028, and CRN points out that AI is one of the primary factors behind the surge of an enterprise cloud market, which reached $84 billion during the third quarter of 2024. The growth illustrates the increasing role the IT infrastructure plays in the operation and development of any business, no matter what sector it belongs to. The growing trends towards digitalization, implementing machine learning technologies, and various forms of automation make it obvious that efficient, scalable, and reliable IT infrastructure plays a crucial role.
In comparison to the past years, when its role often remained limited to a particular set of tasks, currently providing digital services, processing and analyzing large amounts of data, or employing other digital services, such as the above-mentioned cloud storage, becomes an inevitable part at all stages and aspects of a company’s operations. The growing number of businesses transition from exploring new technological opportunities to implementing them in practice, trying to use predictive analysis to get a competitive edge or to automate routine tasks.
If the automation is implemented properly, it will eliminate the routine work and focus on the more important and strategic tasks of growing the business. For example, the transition to the extensive usage of digital systems became one of the key factors that brought Skysales LTD to a new level. The company founded in Estonia in 2014 focuses on providing a convenient solution for businesses looking to purchase a variety of IT-related products. Since then, the company has grown from an initial investment of 5000 EUR to 15 million EUR in annual sales and has established contacts with businesses all across the EU. This looks impressive in comparison with other European companies operating in the same field, For instance, a prominent Switzerland IT distributor ALSO Holding AG reported sales of 9,959 billion EUR in 2023, which was a slight decline after about 11 billion EUR in 2022. and One of the foundations of this success is the fact that from the very beginning, I was building a strategy with an understanding that to operate efficiently and provide clients with the best service, a company needs to process the growing amount of data, and automate solutions are an answer to this challenge.
For instance, to improve the way product data are processed at Skysales, I developed and implemented a solution called Skysmart. It can be used to conduct a deep analysis of products that can be purchased through different channels to determine which of them will yield a good sale and how much of each one it is necessary to keep in the inventory. Prior to that, the necessity for a manual analysis remained a limiting factor, preventing the company from expanding its inventory and sales volume. For instance, a manual analysis of each position to estimate, if it has a good sales potential and how many items the company needs to have in stock, takes a minute or two, working through 10 000 positions, which is an absolutely realistic number, will take about 250 hours. However, a solution such as Skysmart can do it within a couple of hours. It allowed us to collect and analyze information from various sales channels, drastically reducing the need for manual analysis. In addition, it allows us to estimate the potential of each product more precisely, finding the optimal stock volume. The resources that were freed up, were redirected to the more creative tasks, helping the company to grow and eventually become one of the top 500 out of 200,000 European sellers on Amazon.
The example described above provides a vivid illustration of how the proper organization of the IT infrastructure along with using the tools suitable for a particular task can drastically increase performance, reducing time and financial expenditures. It can be expected that in the coming years and even months, more and more companies will recognize the need for the digital shift and will attempt to implement these changes to remain competitive in their field. This bears two important consequences: firstly, the companies who miss out on the right moment will be soon left behind, and secondly, the demand for professionals able to implement such changes will continue to rise. To implement such projects as Skysmart efficiently, one needs to possess both technical knowledge and understanding of how the business works. Consequently, while working on Skysmart in 2022, I decided to freshen up my Python skills, studied the documentation on the marketplace API and developed the system by myself. Possessing at least some level of programming knowledge is a huge advantage for business leaders in the current days, as it helps them to use the resources at hand in the best way.
Another factor that will push more companies towards digitizing their operation and modernizing the IT infrastructure is the growing proliferation of artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions. AI is employed in different aspects of company operations, from interactions with customers to internal analytics and data-based decision-making. General-purpose AI solutions, such as ones from OpenAI and Anthropic, are adapted and fine-tuned for specific business-purposes, and some companies already offer AI tools for specific tasks. For instance, Amazon recently debuted Amelia, its AI assistant designed specifically for marketplace sellers.
While many businesses see potential benefits they can get from the technology, they also remain cautious about its risks, such as the security of their data or the dependence on online services. The development of the in-house AI solution becomes a decent alternative, however, developing and maintaining it often creates an increased demand for new hardware, as it requires powerful computational resources.
It should be noted that the increasing role of artificial intelligence and machine learning technology makes the leap the company can make by implementing them in its operation even more impressive. Even before the technology has advanced to its current level, implementing the proper IT and digital solutions can open new horizons for the company. An example of this effect can be seen in another Estonian company, namely ELKO Eesti OÜ, where I worked since 2014 in the position of a B2B customer manager and a development manager. There, I participated in implementation of B2C delivery services and software for the automated processing of direct-to-customer orders. The innovation helped ELKO to increase customer satisfaction, improve operational efficiency, and boost the client base, bringing it to the position of one of the largest IT distributors in Eastern Europe. With the modern level of technological advancements, a similar effect can be achieved in a more amplified form.
Companies should understand that they are at the beginning of a digital shift. While the changes are already significant, there is more to come, and the businesses that will prepare in advance by implementing modern technological solutions, enhancing the digital aspect of their operation, and keeping up with technological advancements, will get a crucial advantage. In these circumstances, the business leaders should focus on finding the best points to apply emerging technologies in their operations to get a competitive advantage. They should avoid pursuing innovation for the sake of innovation, but find the elements of new technology that provide the best answer to the challenges their company is facing and bring the company to a new level through implementing them in practice.
