5 Tips for digitization

The digital transformation requires a new corporate culture. Unify recommends companies to deal intensively with the new way people work. Increasingly, employees are mobile and go about their tasks from different locations after.

Unify communications specialist sees digitization as one of the elementary stages of development for companies. How strong this change embossing the organization in the company, shows a degree of digital association Bitkom see according to which around three quarters of the companies surveyed, an acceleration in communicating with customers (79 %), or its own employees (75 %). According to the investigation flexibility (63 %) and efficiency (55 %) are also rising.

However, most decision-makers are also aware that the digital transformation requires a new corporate culture. Traditional working models would increasingly call into question. Employees want to be more flexible in order to bring private and professional life better balance can. Teams, groups or entire departments can be internationally composed and distributed over several continents. If companies want to keep their promise of digitization for all employees and the economic benefit for themselves, they should, according to Unify note the following points.


1. Infrastructure must be prepared for digitizing

In communications, it means, for example, the telephony to Voice over IP (VoIP) switch, so that the voice can be integrated into the data stream. There must be a complete environment are not immediately replaced. However, where new acquisitions are planned, companies should definitely pay attention to existing standards, so that the systems are ready for the future. One example is WebRTC, a new standard for real-time communication via a web browser - the way there once installed, it will continue to be difficult and potentially expensive to change swing again.

2. Give employees the right tools at your fingertips

The young talents of tomorrow, today grow up with smartphone, tablet and Co.. Accordingly, they are accustomed to intuitive Apps and round the clock availability of convenient communication tools. They expect quite naturally also in the workplace. Companies should therefore be careful to give their employees the right tools at hand. So another advantage of digitization is used: The employees have more fun at work. According to the BITKOM study, 36 % of small businesses had observed this positive development, with the big companies there were 27 %.

3. Transparency is mandatory

Digitization brings in many companies big changes. In order not to confuse the workforce, companies should clearly communicate from the outset, what changes and where the benefits for employees are. This ensures that all stakeholders at an early stage have the ability to adapt to the new world of work in their own businesses and to profit from it. This also means that employees be trained adequately and make them fit for digitization. The digital transformation it makes way already for more clarity: More than half (52 %) of respondents from the Bitkom company stated that decision-making in the digital businesses to become more transparent.

4. New forms of work require a new corporate culture

This finding is indeed arrived in three quarters of all companies, in many cases, however, more in the head. In practice, there is often still a strong presence culture before - is considered powerful, who sits particularly well in office. For many managers this is a simple yardstick - a quick glance into the open-plan office and already it is clear who shows initiative. Here it must be absolutely clear that presence does not represent quality alone. Or in other words: the quality of the work does not depend on when, or from where it will be done.

5. Digital Transformation is a top priority
A major threat to the success of the digital transformation is to outsource the topic in the IT department. Rather, the change must come from the top and are driven by the executive suite. This gives the topic the necessary weight and ensures that the whole company really strikes a new path. Digitalization thus receives a strategic dimension and can be part of the vision of the company.

"Those who still assumes today, the digital transformation could take place safely without him, will find themselves in a very short time outside the global playing field. When digitizing it comes long ago no longer about "whether", but only to the 'how', "says Klaus Stöckert, General Manager Central Europe and CEO of Unify. "Is particularly evident the change in communication. The way people communicate and collaborate has an enormous direct effect on the labor market and thus on the motivation of employees. This only works with the right tools and the right partners. Companies of all sizes should leave this carefully to make their digital future success. "