Digital Office: 5 challenges to consider early

Digital office has been an integral part of daily media coverage and strategic discussions within offices themselves as well as the executive floors for years. It stands for a networked, largely paperless office in which manual extra work has long been a thing of the past. New efficiencies, unrivalled digital potentials as well as security, transparency and traceability are among the drivers of digital work. But the trend is not only hiding expectations of a better digital future for work. It sets new standards and demands a rethinking on all sides: IT, management and users.

1. Set on a digital strategy instead of digitization zeal

Digitization in the company often goes hand in hand with strong external pressure and fear that the competition could catch up with one’s company, gain a better or even a standalone market position. On the one hand, this can lead to a rigidity in digitization efforts, on the other hand, overzealousness and the attempt to achieve quick wins can encourage a quick grip on a solution or tool to solve a single problem. In the best case, this can lead to a positive attitude towards digital tools; in the worst case, however, it can result in a rugged IT landscape that entails considerable administrative effort. If the desired business success does not become visible soon afterwards, the motivation is gone – but the reason for digitization is far from fulfilled.

Therefore, the digital strategy should no longer be determined by the possibilities of a tool. Decision makers should rather choose a solution that grows with the company’s requirements and remains agile, and is able to integrate both existing and future systems. Otherwise the term digital office remains only a synonym for inefficient, partially digitized processes, while the digital potential stays unused. The new strategy should build on a comprehensive digital approach and be project-based. Furthermore, the chosen digitization companions should give the company the opportunity to react to technological and market-related changes.

2. Reduce complexity of the IT landscape

Whereas in the past individual solutions had to be installed for a specialist area or problem – keyword DMS – today’s technology is much more advanced. Scalable digitization platforms combine the functionality of DMS, workflow and data management, act as an interface between existing investments such as ERP and CRM systems and thus reduce the complexity of the “silo landscape”. Only this communication between individual applications and systems enables comprehensive digital transformation in which “seamless” digital processes and workflows become possible. As complicated as this may sound, the first digital processes can be as simple.

However, if rugged tools, one-trick ponies or cloud applications continue to be added, the overloaded iT infrastructure cannot help to build efficient “lean” processes. These inefficiencies are pushing the digital office a long way off.

3. Implement for the status quo, plan for the future

In order to be able to continue working efficiently tomorrow, the integration of a solution for comprehensive business digitization should always be oriented to the current requirements of the company and the existing workflows – while leaving room for development and supporting it. This makes it possible to start in small stages, for example, to digitally map individual processes and still proceed cost-effectively. This concept also puts SMEs in an excellent position for digital transformation.

If a solution is chosen at one point that does not allow the exchange of data and information with other systems or allows hardly any flexibility, even minimal changes in the workflow can entail considerable effort – not to mention a potential change in the business model due to new requirements in the market.

4. Do not align digital processes on basis of a document

Projects that are already relatively straightforward, such as digital invoice receipt verification, demonstrate the advantages of an integrative approach that targets the exchange of information throughout the entire company: the comparison with order data is either automatic or supported by powerful dialogs. If all tasks, persons involved and

authorizations are not only taken into account but also documented by the system, even demanding data protection regulations such as EU GDPR no longer represent an obstacle: Process flows can be automated and retrieved at any time, the time invested for the preparation of audits is reduced to a minimum, complete reports are only a few clicks away.

The added value becomes visible with the first digital activities. If data and documents are automatically checked, converted, assigned to certain users and processed, the additional manual effort is reduced and the person responsible does not have to “jump back and forth” between loose systems. The result is true digital and automated processes with a control authority that creates traceability. Interfaces that synchronize data, for example, and offer own, expandable functions at the same time can bring digital office to a new level. However, if digitization efforts are oriented towards familiar, analogue working methods with, for example, documents, work with the data produced can be made more difficult and processes that “start” without documents cannot be efficiently mapped digitally. The document as such will no longer play an important role in future digital work. The information contained in the process as well as in the individual processing steps and documents is used much more efficiently through new digital networking.

5. Many employees on boarding easier

The digital office is full of possibilities – also and especially for employees. But if they have to switch between too many applications, completely change the way they work or abandon proven tools, fear of the unknown and dissatisfaction can become an efficiency inhibitor. The solution is user-centered and user-friendly applications as well as intensive communication at the start of the project. Employees must be invited to the development process: They know the processes, problems and interfaces very well. If their know-how is taken into account and placed on a central interface that distributes all tasks according to the roles and rights stored, new systems can also benefit from a reduced acceptance threshold. After all, the best ideas can fail because they are not used by the employee. And then the dream of the digital office has still not arrived in the business world.

We would like to meet you at the IMWorld 2018 Event!

If you would like to see our vision of digital office come to live, visit us at our IMWorld stand! We kindly invite you to the Workshop we are organising during the event. You will be able to find all the details in time, before the event!