The digital sector of Friuli Venezia Giulia continues to expand and change skin. The Report FVG Digitale 2025 – The international dimension of digital enterprises in Friuli Venezia Giulia, presented by DITEDI – Digital Technologies Industrial District with the contribution of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Autonomous Region and in collaboration with scientific partners University of Trieste, University of Udine and Area Science Park, photographs it.

The report – now in its fifth edition – proposes the annual analysis on the state of the art and prospects of regional ICT companies, dedicating the 2025 deep dive to a strategic theme: the international dimension of the sector, between growth opportunities and structural knots still to be untied.

In 2025, the ICT companies active in Friuli Venezia Giulia are 2,281 and the total settlements reach 3,127, with a growth of +8% compared to 2024. Software and services remain the heart of the ecosystem (over 95% of the sector), while the hardware component – although on more contained absolute values – is the one that records the most marked dynamic in terms of numbers.

On the territorial level, Udine is confirmed as the main regional digital hub, followed by Pordenone, which maintains a relevant profile also thanks to the link with advanced manufacturing and automation. Trieste consolidates a strategic position, supported by its research system and specialization in fields such as data science and advanced technologies. The hub of Gorizia is more contained, with potential linked to the development of cross-border activities connected to GO!2025.

The analysis also signals a positive economic trend but not without pressures: revenues grow, but margins are more compressed, with operating costs and investments increasing. Also on the innovation front, an evolving trajectory emerges, with growth signals indicating a potential still in consolidation.

The 2025 focus highlights how internationalization represents a development trajectory still largely unexpressed for the ICT sector: only a limited share of companies shows a continuous presence on foreign markets.

During the presentation event, Guido Bortoluzzi, professor of Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship at the University of Trieste and Pro-Rector for relations with companies and the territory, moderated the roundtable with entrepreneurs and managers of the sector, with the participation of Alfa Sistemi, Beantech, EMC Gems, Esteco, MOLO17 and Video Systems.

Taking up the contents emerged in the discussion – dedicated to internationalization – Bortoluzzi emphasized how the IT sector presents a “two-speed” dynamic: strongly global upstream, on the front of platforms and enabling technologies (mainly American), and much more local downstream, in the market of providers and system integrators, often concentrated on the customization of solutions developed by large players. The roundtable, he observed, however confirmed that concrete models of international opening exist: from companies with very vertical products and business models – which are born already with a global projection – to “piggyback” internationalization, when the supplier follows the expansion abroad of its clients (for example by opening a branch near a new plant). Overall, he concluded, the international propensity of the sector remains moderate on the market, but more driven on the side of suppliers and platforms.

Among the guests of the roundtable also Carlo Poloni, CEO of Esteco. For the first academic spin-off of the University of Trieste “internationalization represents a necessity and a way of being”. “Our market – Poloni explained - has always been that of those who develop sophisticated industrial products regardless of where this happens. While maintaining the central core of development in Trieste, support for customers has always been global”.

The complete report is available on fvgdigitale.ditedi.it