What is digitalization?
Digitalization means using technology to simplify time-consuming analog tasks. Today, companies can use new technologies, like task management and workflow automation tools, to work more efficiently and make life easier for their teams. Tools like these enable you to:
Automate repetitive tasks
Avoid the stress and frustration of tedious workflows
Improve accuracy and prevent errors
Collaborate and share workloads more effectively
Even if your company is already using digital tools like email and Excel spreadsheets, there are now so many more advanced solutions you can use to work faster and more efficiently.
Suppose your team relies on email and spreadsheets to collaborate. Soon, you wind up with endless email threads. Finding information feels like looking for a needle in a haystack. Someone may forget to CC: you, which means you’re no longer in the loop. You also might wind up with multiple versions of the same file circulating within the team. In other words: there’s a lot that could go wrong.
Using a centralized project management tool will help you avoid these issues. It ensures your team has access to the correct, most up-to-date information in real-time. There’s no more monster email threads, no more digging around for information, and no more risk of the team falling out of alignment because something got lost or overlooked.
This is just one way digitalization makes teamwork easier. We’ll explore more below to give you a clear idea of what else is possible.
Want to learn more about digitalization and digital transformation? Check out our blog post on digital transformation challenges and solutions, and learn how to navigate change management in your organization.
Digitalization: why now?
*Source: Gartner Newsroom
In addition to making life a lot easier, digitalization also gives your business a competitive advantage. Companies that are stuck using inefficient, outdated technologies simply can’t meet the demands of modern customers. They also can’t keep up with competitors who have already switched to faster digital alternatives.
That’s why nine out of 10 leaders at major companies now say that digitalization is essential for growth. Corporate spending on IT will increase by nearly 10% this year, with companies citing market pressures (51%) and competitive demands (41%) as their main motivators to digitalize.
Besides the business case, there’s also a deeper reason to digitalize. The United Nations Development Program considers digitalization a major priority for making society more equitable and sustainable by eliminating repetitive tasks and improving the way people work and live. The UN calls digital technology “a fundamental force for change in this century, reshaping economies, government, and civil society.” Digitalization has already transformed our world — and organizations everywhere need to keep pace.
SGW’s digitalization journey
To understand how digitalization improves operations, let’s look at how SGW Bad Oeynhausen, a medium-sized non-profit organization in the German public housing sector, transformed its business with digital tools.
Like many small- and mid-sized organizations, SGW was still using paper-based processes and emails to conduct most of its business.
Our Managing Director was overwhelmed with a flood of emails and tasks. Emails were sometimes printed out and had to be approved before they could be answered.
Helene Heck
Management Assistant, SGW
The organization wanted to work faster and more efficiently, while also switching to paperless processes. To make it happen, they started using MeisterTask’s digital task management tools. This enables them to easily manage workflows, including approval processes, via a convenient online platform. “With MeisterTask, we found the perfect solution to make communication efficient, sustainable, and environmentally friendly,” says Helene.
Where to start with digitalization?
If you’re like Helene from SGW, you probably see areas in your own company’s operations that could be done more efficiently. But where do you start?
With any digitalization project, it helps to break things down into manageable steps:
Set clear goals. First, think about what you want to improve. For many digitalization projects, the goal is to stop wasting time on tedious, repetitive work, so employees have more time for valuable, strategic tasks instead. Which areas of your team’s daily work would you like to improve?
Find a solution that matches your needs. There are lots of different solutions out there for any kind of digital workflow you want to create. The key is to compare different tools and see which one gives you the functionalities you need. It’s also important to choose tools that are intuitive and easy to use, so it’s easier to onboard your team members later.
Launch a pilot. Once you’ve chosen a tool that meets your needs, start using it within a small team or specific project. Keep track of how the tool improves the team’s work. Set a time limit of a few weeks or months, and then look back on how things went. If you’re closer to achieving the goal you set in step 1, it’s time to start rolling out the tool throughout your organization.
Gain buy-in throughout the company. Once a digital solution has proven its worth during the pilot stage, make it available to others in your organization. At this stage, providing support is key to ensuring everyone understands the change and maximizes the tool’s benefits.
The easiest workflows to digitalize
There’s a digital solution for virtually every business process. If you’re in the early stages of digital transformation, it can help to start with a workflow that’s easy to digitalize, such as:
Approvals & sign-offs: Replace email chains with automated routing for faster decision-making and auto-approve low-risk requests.
Client & employee onboarding: Automate form submissions, document signings and training scheduling.
Expense & reimbursement requests: Let employees upload receipts via mobile, automatically verify policy compliance and route approvals.
Meeting & event planning: Share appointment calendars, reserve spaces and send reminders to cut down on scheduling chaos.
PTO & time-off requests: Check time-off balances, auto-approve requests and prevent scheduling conflicts.
Compliance & document audits: Automate audit trails, track document expirations and ensure regulatory compliance.
How to digitalize workflows with MeisterTask
Digitalizing your workflows is easier than you might think. MeisterTask, for example, offers a full range of tools that help you speed up routine processes from managing tasks, resources, knowledge and projects, to collaborating and automating workflows.
A user-friendly solution like MeisterTask makes it easy to get started. MeisterTask is designed for simplicity, so anyone can quickly learn to use it and integrate it into their daily work.
Take an administrative workflow like preparing for a meeting. Traditionally, one person “owns” a meeting. They might write out an agenda on paper, or type it up using Word or Excel. If others want to contribute topics for the meeting, they have to email the meeting owner, who then has to collect everyone’s input and manually add it to the agenda. It burns up time, and there’s always a risk something will get left out.
By contrast, MeisterTask gives everyone in the team a shared meeting agenda that they can easily access online and directly add items themselves. The team can then use the same platform to document outcomes after the meeting, share feedback, schedule and assign follow-up tasks, create checklists and much more.
As you can imagine, this level of digitalization gives your team a more agile, flexible way of working. It saves time and hassle, and empowers the whole team to contribute, instead of making meeting admin a burden for just one person.
Helpful digitalization resources
Digitalization is an ongoing process. It helps to have plenty of useful resources to fall back on when you’re feeling stuck. Try using one of MeisterTask’s time-saving templates to fully digitalize your project. Our system uses intuitive Kanban boards and clear interfaces that make it easy for anyone to use, regardless of their technical skills.
We also host a vibrant online community, where you can interact with others, ask any question that’s on your mind, and find the answers you need. And our Business customers benefit from having a dedicated Account Manager and Customer Success Manager at their disposal to help them get the most benefit out of our digitalization tools.
