Why does digitization have to be so hard? It’ s a question asked by many companies that – courtesy of the pandemic – find themselves grappling with this issue. Some managers have had to learn it the hard way: that an enterprise-wide transformation into a digital IT landscape does not solely involve the implementation of individual software tools, and they are now faced with the Herculean task of ensuring that they do not fail to catch up with the digital pioneers. Because these define the benchmark of the goals and can reap the rewards of their efforts, which are reflected in stable revenue growth.
But how does this large gap come about? Aren’t the software solutions the same for everyone? What is the reason that some companies achieve a top position and others, despite enormous investments, are still lagging behind?
A study by Red Hat and Harvard Business Review Analytics Services provides some clarity and reveals which challenges companies need to actively address in order to successfully implement a digital transformation. The priority here is clear: increasing productivity and efficiency, continuity and resilience are classic goals. Added to this are the agility of business processes and improvement of customer relationships, as well as the concrete use of the results from the systematic analyses. This means that everyone in the company is required to support and drive the changes that accompany a digital transformation. The study shows that this objective is a driver of successful digitization. It is worth noting that it is not just the size of the IT budget that shows an indirect link to success, but the right technologies coupled with expertise and an architecture that puts people at the forefront of the company’s considerations. In concrete terms, this means that employees make a decisive contribution to entering the digital world by accepting and using suitable tools. This also includes the cooperation of man and machine, which ideally works harmoniously and integrated across all departmental boundaries.
The fact that this ideal world is not reserved for large corporations is demonstrated by PROMATIS. Based just on the outskirts of the Black Forest, the medium-sized IT service provider operates internationally and is well known in the industry. Although PROMATIS, with 160 employees, is considered to be relatively small in size, innovation is firmly anchored in all areas of the organization. This can be seen in the creative IT development projects, which are developed in cooperation with leading universities and yet demonstrate a high level of practical relevance, so that customers benefit directly from the advantages. The focus is on a holistic view of business processes both for the implementation of complex software solutions at customers and in the internal approach. As an expert for Business Process Management solutions, PROMATIS applies the processes in its internal workflows on a daily basis. This is demonstrated, for example, in a seamless integration of sales and marketing tools for a standardized and yet personalized customer relationship. In doing so, the main tasks of each department are taken into account, unnecessary complexity is avoided, and transparency is achieved across departments. This digital process landscape is expanded to include the transfer of relevant company data (which originates from both the ERP and CRM systems) to the central planning tool. Here, the relevant information from all areas of the company is accumulated according to predefined KPIs and fed directly into the balanced scorecard so that strategic goals based on real-time data can be kept track of simply and easily.
Another tool that enormously facilitates the workflow of the project-driven PROMATIS is a special workforce tool that coordinates the resources in the international projects. The skills of the employees are recorded multilingually and systematically directly by the HR department and permanently expanded by the acquired qualifications. These can be acquired in the Learning Center – integrated into the digital corporate landscape – in a modular fashion in special training units according to requirements and qualifications. Project managers thus have a tool available online to select suitable experts according to the project tasks and to schedule them directly in the project tools, which in turn is beneficial for transparent communication with the customer during the course of the project. This holistic approach brings transparency to the processes, enables a focus on the core tasks and puts the strengths of each individual employee in the foreground of the considerations.
Open communication is actively practiced within the PROMATIS network, which includes not only the branches in Germany, but also the national companies in Austria, Switzerland and the USA, as well as other partner companies such as Horus. However, this openness is also reflected in an authentic presentation to the outside world, always taking into account the interests of the employees who are behind the company’s developments or actively driving them forward.
PROMATIS received the result of its efforts this year when it was named the number one digital pioneer among IT service providers by the F.A.Z Institute.
This achieved “gold medal” triggered a feeling of elation among all PROMATIS employees, especially since it is a reward for digital transformation efforts. In other words, it shows that a strategically designed digital transformation can succeed through the active, creative and committed cooperation of all those involved.
Author: Sabine Rudolf
Image: © ipopba / istockphoto.com