In a context of constant transformation, technology becomes a central axis for the competitiveness of SMEs. In the previous Bizztech Summit 2025, which will be held on August 5 at the Sheraton Buenos Aires Hotel, Diego Kaplan and Maximiliano Roa, members of the event organizing committee, share their vision of the main challenges and opportunities posed by innovation as an ally of companies to make the leap in a hypercompetitive market.
How important is the technology for the business of an SME?
Diego Kaplan: Total. Today, not capitalizing on the potential of technology is like running a bike motorcycle race. In Argentina, more than 90% of companies are SMEs and technology meets a democratizing role: it allows to compete in agility, efficiency and scale. In the 21st century, David’s Honda in front of Goliath is technology.
What are the main challenges to make that technological leap in an SME?
Diego Kaplan: The problem is not the lack of tools, but how to use them. The difficult thing for many SMEs is to address innovation as a real impact process. Technology by itself does not generate value. Businesses need a strategy: define a specific problem, discover an effective tool to address it and a technology provider that can be dynamically integrated to generate results quickly. And that, in the daily operation, often costs.
Maximiliano Roa: The Time to Market. If a company adopts technology too soon, you can waste resources. If it is late, it can be offside. For an SME, “try to see what works” is not an option. Each investment has to generate value from the first moment.
What technologies are making the difference today?
Maximiliano Roa: Without a doubt, artificial intelligence. We are facing a change of era, as was the industrial revolution. IA allows access to information that was impossible to process, make better decisions, lower costs and optimize resources; covering sectors ranging from human resources, decision making, to commercial management. But beyond that, the central thing is that it redefines roles within organizations: people go on to occupy more strategic places.
Diego Kaplan: The AI comes to change everything but it is the tip of the iceberg. Today there are end to end solutions that are sold as a service to solve everyday problems of a business: payments, conciliations, HR digital management, customer service, digital ecosystems that integrate physical stores and e-commerce, CRM 360 ° platforms, cybersecurity. And also to create new businesses: the predictive, blockchain applied to the business, advanced analytics. Part of what we are looking for in Bizztech is just connecting those solutions with those who need them most.
What concrete impact are seeing on SMEs that adopt technology?
Maximiliano Roa: A SME can compete with a large company if you know how to use the right tools well. Hypersegment, automate, climb. In simple terms: Technology allows to cancel the advantage of scale. This is not new. In the 480 BC, some 7,000 Greeks led by Leónidas, King of Sparta, arrested the progress of about 100,000 Persians (a ratio of 13 to 1). As? Taking advantage of the narrow step of the thermopylars, where the Persians could not deploy all their strength. The movie “300” tells it epic, but it is a great metaphor for the present.
Diego Kaplan: We go to a scenario where manual or expensive processes are replaced by tools that lower costs and improve the quality of the service or product. That gives SME more predictability, control and competitiveness. In a hypercompetitive environment, technology is not a luxury: it is a strategic need. That is the bet of Bizztech Summit: show that innovation is possible, accessible and, above all, transformative.
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