Translated from german original by Danny Klas
(sources marked with [DE] lead to german content)

How do you assess the current state of digitization of your company? According to the Digital Office Index 2018, 72 percent of companies using digital solutions in the office, say business performance has improved.

Working in the digital office

Digital transformation includes new ways of working concepts and assists employees in their daily work. Utilizing individual and collective knowledge in a way it can be accessed by everyone in the company is just as important as a more efficient and simpler communication with customers and business partners.

Communication tools such as collaboration platforms, Social intranets or blogs are all good examples of modern applications that save time and improve efficiency. Connected work enables an effective knowledge sharing exchange.

With holistic information management, individual users no longer have to search for relevant information in many different systems. They can access these through an interface of all available sources. An organizational system is created in which employees can easily find and reuse the documents – and knowledge – of their colleagues even years later.

Future-oriented working is a matter of attitude, not location: it is becoming less common that activities are defined geographically; They are spread over different locations and times and may even shift directly to the customer, business partner or supplier.

— Thomas Kuckelkorn, PR & Communication at BCT Deutschland GmbH

Almost every second company intends to invest even more into the digital office

A statement that is supported when looking at the size of the companies surveyed:

This shows how important the digital office is to remain competitive, regardless of the company’s size. Practical approaches and content have been summarized for you in the panagenda services videos “Removing Barriers“, “Modernizing Applications” and “Customer Orientation“.

The digital office is paying off

You can say that the companies that invest in digitizing their business processes have a home-grown competitive advantage over those that do not. Investments pay off. This is confirmed by the majority of companies that implement digital office solutions.

— Nils Britze, Speaker Digital Business Processes Bitkom e.V.

This is also confirmed by the results of the survey:

  • 72 percent of companies using digital solutions in the office say that since the launch, performance of internal office and administrative processes has improved.
  • 69 percent of companies say automation has also increased
  • 68 percent see improved fulfilment of compliance guidelines
  • 66 percent confirm an increase in customer satisfaction
  • 46 percent enjoy increased transparency as well as improved data security

These statistics are based on the Bitkom Digital Office Index 2018 [DE], a representative telephone survey of 1106 participating companies conducted by Bitkom Research on behalf of the digital association Bitkom.

Office 4.0 – What does the digital office of the future offer?

In addition to new concepts and opportunities, the digital office not only brings new potential in the area of mobility, communication and information exchange.

Rather, it’s about providing people with an optimal environment in their daily work. This also includes a certain comfort. The reduction of repetitive tasks through smart solutions and greater satisfaction through easier handling of specific personal needs are good examples of this.

Digitizing various processes help reduce static work environments. This makes the modern workplace more interactive, faster and more flexible. Intelligent, personalized assistance systems promote creativity and productivity and promote a dynamic response to new challenges.

Although it may sound futuristic, it’s already being implemented successfully by a wide variety of companies.

Sources:
Nils Britze: https://www.bitkom.org/Themen/Technologie/Digital-Office/Arbeiten-im-Buero-der-Zukunft.html
Teresa Maria Tropf: https://www.bitkom.org/Presse/Presseinformation/Fast-jedes-zweite-Unternehmen-will-mehr-ins-digitale-Buero-investieren.html