In the landscape of Italian digital transformation, there is often talk of grand strategic visions and technological revolutions, and less and less about how to ensure that the implemented solutions genuinely work in the day-to-day operations of companies. It is precisely on this ground that Innovaway, a company born in Naples oltre un quarto di secolo fa e oggi in piena metamorfosi per consolidare la propria identità di service provider capable of operating far beyond regional borders. The company, led by Antonio Burinato, current General Manager and with previous experience at Deloitte and Capgemini, represents an emblematic case of how dimensional growth must necessarily be accompanied by a strategic redefinition of its competitive positioning.
The numbers of the expansion are eloquent: from 2017 to today, the company has tripled its size through organic growth and quadrupled its overall dimensions, including acquisitions. This escalation required a profound reflection on the company's DNA, which the management identifies with a culture of customer service and continuous operational support. "When I say change our skin, I mean becoming a company capable not only of supporting customers in using digital technology, but also of designing, planning, and implementing solutions with them," confirms Burinato.
The concept is summarized with a particularly effective phrase: Innovaway employees are defined "i Blue collar della Digital Transformation", underlining how the role goes beyond design to focus on daily operational management. This pragmatic approach translates into a business model where systems integration is functional to the provision of continuous services, flipping the traditional perspective of many IT consulting firms that tend to focus on the design phase and then leave the ordinary management to the client.
The company's geographical distribution reflects this national vocation: of the 800 total employees, less than half still work at the historic Naples headquarters, while the rest are distributed between Milan, Rome, and Turin. A significant figure reveals that, despite the greater concentration of personnel in Campania, less than 5% of revenues come from the region. This Italian structure is flanked by an operational center in Albania with about a hundred resources, configuring a distributed delivery model that combines the front-end on the national territory with strategically located operational capabilities.
The customer portfolio testifies to the credibility acquired in the most demanding sectors. The Intesa Sanpaolo group represents the main private client, with such a strategic relationship that it includes a five-year contract with a guaranteed minimum of 44 million euros. Services range from supporting bank branches and the operations of the online bank Isybank, to BPO services for the insurance division and Fideuram. In some areas, Innovaway has positioned itself as the sole supplier of the banking group, an element that constitutes a formidable calling card in the market. "Last year, we also started working with Intesa Sanpaolo on another somewhat underestimated topic," explains the manager, "that of Quality Assurance, a systematic process to ensure that products, services, and processes meet certain quality standards, both internal and external."
The public administration represents another pillar of activity, with approximately 25 million euros of services provided. Public clients include INPS for application development and complex projects such as the central layer for the governance of telemedicine for Agenas, carried out in collaboration with Engineering. The entry into the Temporary Groupings of Companies has allowed it to secure four Consip conventions, an essential instrument for operating stably with the PA: one on digital healthcare with Engineering as the lead company, and two others on System Management and management and maintenance services with TIM as the leader.
For companies that deal with service integration, the topic of security cannot be overlooked, the approach to security. According to Innovaway's General Manager, the focus shifts from simple prevention to ensuring operational continuity that transcends the specific threat. The key concept is the convergence between two paths that were once distinct: cyber security and business resilience. "The topic of cyber and the topic of resilience are two paths that are converging," he explained.
The historic strategy of perimeter protection, the defense wall around the company network, is no longer sufficient. The idea that a boundary can be enough to keep every threat out is obsolete. "It has somewhat ended in the last 10 years. The issue of perimeter protection, now considered a consolidated but no longer sufficient means of protection against cyber attacks," he added. Innovaway's objective is, therefore, to ensure that the client's infrastructure, regardless of threats, is capable of absorbing the impact and recovering quickly, guaranteeing business continuity. "Cyber protection as a guarantee of operational continuity" is the philosophy guiding the company's action, which focuses on strengthening the infrastructure to make it intrinsically resilient. This strategy transforms cyber security from a mere cost of protection into a fundamental investment for operational stability and reliability.
On the artificial intelligence front, the approach is clearly pragmatic. Aware that it cannot compete in the development of advanced machine learning models, the company prefers to talk about Augmented Intelligence rather than Artificial Intelligence. The objective is to integrate these technologies into its service model to enhance it, focusing on the return on investment and practical adoption in corporate operations. As highlighted by the management, the debate on these topics is still open, but the direction is clear: using AI to optimize costs and free up human resources from repetitive activities, allowing them to dedicate themselves to more qualified and customer-relationship-oriented components.
Technological partnerships constitute a crucial element of the strategy. While maintaining an agnostic approach towards cloud platforms and working with those chosen by clients, Innovaway has forged strategic alliances with suppliers that strengthen its offering. HCL Software recognized the company as the best European managed services partner, while collaborations with OpenText, Rubrik for backup security (also used with the Lombardy Region), and Huawei for the supply of digital equipment to universities through the CRUI convention, testify to its ability to oversee complementary technological fields.
The ambition for the medium term is to reach 100 million euros in revenue, a goal that requires organic growth less dependent on labor intensity, thanks to technological adoption. "The fragmentation index of the Italian market in the IT sector is still quite high, so there is still room for consolidation, even if some that occurred in the past are starting to show signs of difficulty. Aggregation is no longer enough; you must have a clear DNA, a clear presence in the company. Therefore, the huge amount of work we have done in the industrial plan is to underline, remark, and highlight that,"
The acquisition strategy does not follow what Burinato describes as a "sticker collection" [or "collection of trading cards"], but aims to integrate specific skills that reinforce the distinctive positioning. The manager summarizes the company philosophy with a simple but direct formulation: "do one thing and do it better and better." In a market that often favors the breadth of the offering over the depth of expertise, this choice of focus represents a bet on specialization as a competitive factor in the long term.
