On October 22, Tallinn hosted a business forum entitled “2021: Reboot” organized by the business news agency Delovye Vedomosti. Kirill Krabu, Chairman of the Board of Krabu Grupp, in a panel discussion on digitalization, noted that the main attention should be paid to the processes that precede the main work – the stage of data collection and preparation for digital transformation.

Most businesses planning a digital transition face a lack of data. The information required for digitalization is, as a rule, fragmented and located on different media – from Excel spreadsheets to notes in various material data carriers:notebooks, logs and the like. Therefore, it is necessary to start the process of digitalization, first of all, with the adequate collection and systematization of this data.

“There is a widespread belief that digitalization is the introduction of information systems. In fact, it is not quite true. Rather, we’re talking about the convenience of saving data and automating appropriate actions. But to get to that, you first have to think all the way to the end. It has already happened more than once that enterprises spent considerable funds on the implementation of a particular system, but in the end it turned out that right from the outset the wrong problem was being solved. This entailed wasted money and time – in significant amounts, since we are talking about IT development,” said Kirill Krabu.

In order to approach digitalization the right way, you need to start collecting and organizing data – for example, the time and cost of operations, their relationship to turnover and profitability. This will provide an opportunity for more informed decisions and process optimization. Systematic viewpoint is important here, since it can already identify bottlenecks and opportunities for efficiency gains.

“There have been situations when a company has implemented the most advanced system, but this did not improve the efficiency of work in any way. The reason could lie in a completely different place – for example, somewhere in the middle of the process there could be a person who, during a lunch break, was turned off from the production process, blocking the work of the entire value chain for an hour, which, meanwhile, must continue its production process, regardless of the location of this person. If this happens at the plant, it can mean significant losses due to downtime,” Kirill Krabu gave an example.

It is worth digitalizing the most frequently performed operations (billing or registering calls), the most automated actions (redirecting documents and data, forwarding mail, automatic replies, calendar tasks), as well as operations requiring the distribution of the same data (workflow: commercial offers, work plans, orders, invoices).

At times, the result of the study may be the answer that no digitalization is required in this particular area – you just need to correct the process. But in order to understand this, the key factor is still to collect information at the earliest stages.

One of the main activities of Krabu Grupp is digital transformation consultancy and providing auxiliary services to support enterprises along the way. Research in recent years shows that enterprises that have not undergone digital transformation process in the near future may face serious difficulties in competing with market participants who have already implemented digital technologies. Krabu Grupp currently offers IT consulting and digital transformation support services in three service packages: basic, extended and full, designed for the sustainable implementation of digital solutions for enterprises with different levels of IT maturity.

Please, contact us and get a free consultation on the digital transformation of your business.