Process digitalisation
Digitalisation in smaller businesses rarely fails on technology. It fails on the size of the undertaking. I start with one process that currently costs time and make it traceable, before anyone starts talking about an overall strategy.
Where it usually starts
The processes where nobody is quite sure where anything currently sits.
- leave and time tracking on paper
- quotes from a spreadsheet template
- jobs forwarded by email
- service and inspection records in a binder
- purchases with no approval path
- reports somebody assembles monthly
What changes
The work does not disappear. The searching and the chasing do.
- every case has a status
- ownership is visible, not verbal
- data exists once instead of three times
- reporting falls out as a by-product
- cover works without a handover briefing
- audits do not mean digging through folders
How we go about it
In steps, each of which is useful on its own.
- pick one process, not all of them
- map the current state together
- name the two biggest time sinks
- build a usable version
- test it in real operation
- only then take the next process
Working languages: English and Czech
I work from Czechia for clients across Europe and further out. Everything runs in English — calls, documentation and handover — or in Czech if that suits you better. Time zone is CET, which overlaps a normal working day almost everywhere in Europe and the morning in the US.
FAQ
- Do we have to replace our current software?
- Usually not. What is normally missing is not a new system but the connection between the existing ones, plus a tool for the one process none of them covers. Replacement is the most expensive answer and rarely the right one.
- Our people have worked this way for years. Will they adopt it?
- Only if the new way is less effort than the old one, otherwise they will route around it. That is why I start with a process that annoys the people doing it, rather than the one that looks most important from management.
- Is there funding available for this?
- Depending on the country there are schemes for smaller businesses, and they change. I am not a grants advisor and will not pretend to be. A chamber of commerce or a specialist advisor will tell you reliably what currently applies.
- How long does the first step take?
- A single process is typically in use within four to eight weeks. That is deliberately small: a project that runs a year before anyone uses it almost always misses how the work really happens.
Which process annoys your team the most?
That is almost always the right place to start. Describe it and I will tell you whether it is worth the effort or whether a smaller change would do.
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