Digitalisation of growing companies: Fine-tuned business processes. Data in one place. Savings and efficiency.

There is a lot of talk about it, no two people understand it in exactly the same way, and some people don't think of the term as anything at all. How do we at HELIsmile view "digitalisation in companies"?

"Professionally", in the context of digitalisation in a company, we talk about the integration of modern technologies into the daily running of an organisation.

But what does this actually mean? At HELIsmile, we most often address the following areas:

• Recording and tracking orders and monitoring production.
• Full integration of online ordering systems and e-shops (for B2B and B2C clients) with the information system.
• Digitization of material receipt and issue and complete tracking of material inventory.
• Automatic invoice retrieval and online approval.
• Support for salesmen, warehouse workers and other employees by accessing the information system from the web application (from mobile, tablet and computer).
• Online ordering system for customers.
• Training support for employees.
• Production planning.
• Financial and other reports available to management, employees and customers (with regard to their permissions to access various information).
• Automation of the creation of quotations for clients.
• Digitisation of workflows, intranet for internal information management available to all employees (subject to their authorisation to access various information).

So, these are all processes that each of us can imagine.

But it's not enough just to replace paper with a tablet, Excel with a web app - to replace "old methods with new ones". It's a good idea to take a comprehensive look at your company's processes and optimise them using new technologies and applications. However, a well-executed digitalisation also changes the company processes themselves, which is why true digitalisation is quite complex.

The result of properly executed digitalisation is not a number of new apps, touch screens and other conveniences. The result is automation, reduced errors, time savings and the resulting increase in company efficiency. Which is precisely calculated thanks to data analysis.

 

What is good for one is useless for the other, or "Don't use a sledgehammer to crack a nut"

There are an incredible number of different single-purpose applications and complex solutions on the market. But smaller companies are looking for affordable yet customized solutions. That's why we've selected the ones we think are the best value for money. And we then work with these tools. The HELIOS information system is most widely used by small and medium-sized companies. The PrestaShop e-commerce platform is free and wonderfully customizable. The UMBRACO information display environment is robust and uses the same technologies as the HELIOS information system. Everything fits together and the result is affordable and functional solutions.

 

I don't know where to start or rather take it one step at a time rather than paralysing the company with a complex change

The offers are pouring in from all sides. Large complex solutions are expensive and complex, so you often use individual applications. Often, they don't communicate with each other. And over time, you tend to add work. Or, you don't go digital at all. Or, conversely, you try to get everything in place right away.

 

What's right?

We always try to analyse processes and make suggestions for improvement in a comprehensive way. A number of recommendations then emerge from the analysis. Introduce a new information system that will also manage production, closely link the information system with the e-shop, introduce communication through notifications, build an intranet for seamless sharing of information for individual employees and reports for company management, link to document extraction software, and so on. If we replaced all systems at once, overnight, instead of digital transformation, we would paralyze the company. Employees would probably not be able to accept the huge amount of change.

So we recommend planning the entire digitization process. But divide the rollout into stages.

 

When to start?

Now. For most proposed solutions, the benefits and financial returns can be calculated. So why not reap the benefits as soon as possible?

 

What else to look out for?

Closely related to digitalisation are the topics of data security and data backup. Cybersecurity is much talked about but quite underestimated in smaller companies. But that's a topic for another article.

 

Whether you're a business, engineering, food processing, with or without manufacturing, or any other kind of company, let's take a look together at how to fine-tune your processes and make the most of automation and digitalisation. Let's do it together.