What innovation potential does the term “digitalisation” hold? It’s about much more than just improving organisation and workflows.
Have you switched to digital construction files yet?
Drawings, bills of materials, diagrams, meeting notes, bills of quantities, photos and acceptance reports: In a digital construction file, all data and information relating to a project are always available wherever needed. Clients can be digitally integrated in their projects and kept continuously informed about progress. As a result, lines of communication are shorter, and the speedier decision-making processes save time, money and stress.
One consequence of digitisation is the low-paper office
Many business operators dream of a completely paperless office. But even now, it’s possible to have a workplace that uses less paper. Get started by setting up a digital order acceptance process and issuing digital invoices following completion of the project. Ideally, these and any work steps in between will be standardised and can therefore also be digitalised. All documents occurring during order processing are either created digitally in the first place or are scanned and filed in the system fully automatically.
Forget about stacks of paper on your desk, ring binders full of files or even mislaid documents. Everything is within easy reach and there’s no more laborious hunting for paperwork. And anything that does still turn up as a hard copy is immediately scanned or photographed and added to the digital file. A working life without those mountains of paper is much simpler and leaves you more time to devote to your clients and their projects.
Mobile working means working productively!
At every company today, the working hours and locations of staff, equipment and machinery should only be captured digitally. Only then can they immediately be included automatically in the digital construction file AND the digital accounting system. Digitalisation thus “automatically” produces the “high-resolution data” that provides business owners with important insights for real-time and retrospective overviews.
But the reverse is equally as true: The planning and implementation of even complex future projects are much easier if they are based, for example, on GNSS (global navigation satellite system) data that are as accurate as possible. If your staff and business partners and/or collaborators are then incorporated into the digital system as well, the entire team can track a construction site in real time, and intervene “live” if necessary.
Automation in bookkeeping frees the mind!
Bookkeeping is one of those strategic “tools” that help business operators do their job: It’s where facts, figures and data are “re-cast” into the knowledge base from which they gain insights and make operational and strategic decisions.
Here too, digitalisation saves time and money. The automated accounting of payment receipts creates transparency and simplifies the reminder process. Lists of recommendations for the settling of due accounts produced automatically by the financial software help to ensure that payment deadlines are not missed, and cash discounts are fully exploited. Digital accounting systems even learn from past processes, meaning that cloud-based AI is also making its way into skilled trade enterprises. With an automated, digital bookkeeping environment, you can avoid all the usual stress associated with having to do bookkeeping tasks “after hours”.
Summary
Digitalisation optimises every process. After all, it’s not just about avoiding paper. The comprehensive continuous generation, storage and analysis of data from the entire company helps entrepreneurs to run their businesses in the most effective way. With the help of current data and continuous evaluation, they can take prompt remedial action.
If the data is put into context, linked and evaluated intelligently, the business operator and employees have access to specific knowledge in a meaningful form. Processes, and their analysis and optimisation, should therefore be at the forefront of digitalisation efforts. The industrial sector has been taking this approach for some time now, and operators of skilled trade businesses would do well to follow suit.
All recordings from the forum Digitalisation@GaLaBau – Digital Practice Live in Action are available in the playlist on the GaLaBau YouTube channel.
