Recently, digitization has been a hot topic among German businesses. During the COVID-19 pandemic, those companies that went beyond just talking about the issue and acted quickly are now reaping the benefits. Others see that they need to follow suit. However, there is no need to feel overwhelmed by the challenge. Working digitally yourself and making digital work possible for your employees is no Herculean task.
Digitization is difficult to grasp. Everybody’s talking about it, but very few people have really understood what it means. This makes it seem even bigger than it actually is, and people are put off by all the talk about the digital revolution. That’s because it calls to mind the image of a wave which takes everything we know to be familiar and proven, and swallows it forever.
There have been many attempts to explain why, to date, medium-sized German enterprises, and even many large companies, have faced digitization like a deer in the headlights. Some businesses that are market leaders rely on their previous successes, convinced that everything will stay just as it is. Others see themselves so caught up in their daily business that they lack the time and space to think ahead. The fact that people generally find it hard to let go of old habits is another issue.
But standing still is going backwards – and other countries, particularly in Asia, have shown us what it means to think digitally, work digitally, and move forward digitally. Germany has a lot of catching up to do.
Smart transformation instead of radical change
But, at the same time, it is important to bear in mind that a state of panic is no basis for making good decisions. Digitization doesn’t require radical change, but rather clever transformation; continuous progress towards new ways of working; and a new way of thinking, in both production and administration. “You can write anything on paper,” as the saying goes, but it is also slow. Those companies that have digitized routing slips, travel expense accounting, or invoice archiving work more efficiently and faster as a result.
On top of that, digitization opens up exciting new perspectives. It is generally claimed that data is the new gold. However, because US companies such as Facebook, Google and Amazon ruthlessly exploit their users’ data to consolidate their market power, or countries elsewhere use data to keep their citizens under control, data has fallen into disrepute.
Cloud solutions like dataglobal CS open up prospects
Nonetheless, in the B2B business, information exchange in compliance with data protection standards can indeed be as valuable as gold. This not only applies to the relationship between service provider and customer. It also offers the potential for new partnerships with mutual benefit for the collaborative development of innovations. One requirement: the companies need to know what data they actually have; and, in a next step, how they can store their data securely and access it quickly, wherever and whenever it is needed.
Many businesses are still a long way from achieving something that sounds so logical and simple. A large proportion of German companies are not in a position to easily handle their own data. Software solutions, such as dataglobal CS, support data integration and data control with the aid of artificial intelligence. Their major advantage is that they allow any employee with access rights to access data and to work with it, anytime, and from anywhere in the world.
The pandemic as a stress test for digital transformation
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses have had to face the painful realization in lockdown just how far away they are from achieving their strategic goal of being a “digital enterprise.” Practically overnight, many organizations have found themselves facing a stress test, which has starkly revealed just how much more they have to do when it comes to digital transformation.
The companies who seamlessly sent their employees to work from home and could provide legally watertight external access to all necessary data had a clear competitive advantage. Their infrastructure proved to be crisis-proof because it allowed them to react with flexibility. This is of great value in the current situation – and will continue to be so in the future.
Digital company – attractive and efficient jobs
The lockdown could be a blueprint for a new way of working. Many people would like to keep the digital practices that have been tried and tested during the Coronavirus crisis: almost one in three employees (29 percent) would also like to continue to work from home over the long term, according to a report in the FAZ on April 21, 2020.
In actual fact, there are sound reasons why working from home is beneficial for both companies and employees:
- Time saving and better work-life balance
There is no daily commute between home and work. This increases productivity and creates quality time. Even if there is a risk that family life will “overtake” a concentrated work phase or that business calls will interrupt a relaxation phase, employees in the home office can balance work and private moments much better. The result: a higher level of life satisfaction. - Less stress
Working in a noisy open-plan office, annoying colleagues, hectic breaks in the canteen, daily traffic jams on the streets, including the constant search for a parking space or crowded local transportation – all these stress factors are eliminated. - Increased efficiency and flexibility
Norwegian researchers found that teams that work together virtually are sometimes even more productive than those that are located at the same site, according to this article in the Süddeutsche Zeitung on March 26, 2020. Those who work in the home office can also freely organize their working hours and coordinate appointments with doctors or tradesmen better. - Reduced costs
The company benefits from a noticeably reduced need for expensive office space and equipment. The employees save, among other things, the costs of daily commuting, eating in the canteen or restaurants, and of clothing and dry-cleaning.
Creating conditions for modern work
As a company, to refuse to consider this option entirely is a mistake, since your own ability to act will suffer just as much as your employees’ motivation. Because there is no silver bullet when it comes to sustainability, and because each company has its own needs and requirements, individual consultancy concepts and adaptable smart software are needed to support digital transformation.
This is where dataglobal CS comes in. Its tools include:
- Data integration
We seamlessly integrate your data from various sources, such as paper/files; business applications, e.g. ERP systems; office and communication applications e.g. Mail or SharePoint; and individual industry-specific applications, e.g. banking systems or construction files. - Understand and manage data
We analyze and refine your data. dataglobal CS supports companies in understanding their data, classifying them, linking them, and controlling them. With our automated data classification and artificial intelligence, we can easily provide the most valuable information – for people and business. - Digital processes
Based on your valuable data, we develop tailor-made digital processes and workflows with you, e.g. approval processes, document and invoice management (also with mobile document entry), contract management and much more. Reliable and lean processes ensure maximum efficiency. - Digital enterprise
We design the digital transformation together with you. Modern working becomes a reality, valuable data from a private Cloud are available and can be shared anywhere – mobile, simple, secure. Electronic files and dossiers, such as personnel files or production files, are available at all times to distributed teams – of course, in line with all compliance and revision regulations (GDPR, GDPdU, etc.).
Would you like more customized information about dataglobal CS? Then simply get in touch with our experts! We would be more than happy to answer your questions: request@dataglobal.com or call +49 (0)7131 1226 500
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