Digitalisation in an SME: where do you start?

Digitalisation is a word that puts off many SME owners. It sounds like a big project with a big budget, new systems and months of disruption in the company. In practice good digitalisation starts small: with one task that takes too much time today. That is followed by a solution that staff take for granted after a few weeks.

The goal is less manual work, fewer errors and a better overview. New technology is a means to that end.

Map your processes first

Before you look at a package or a tool, you need to know how the work runs today. Take the main processes in your company and write out the steps. For most SMEs there are a handful:

• from enquiry to quote;
• from order to delivery;
• from service to invoice and payment;
• the planning of people and resources;
• customer follow-up after delivery.

For each step, note who does it, which tool is used (paper, email, spreadsheet, a software package) and roughly how much time it takes. Mark every step where data is retyped, where someone waits for someone else or where things often go wrong.

Do this together with the people who do the work. They know where the detours are. Often these are in different places from where the owner expects.

Choose the first task

After mapping you have a list of bottlenecks. The temptation to tackle them all at once is strong. Choose one.

A good first task meets four conditions:

1. It occurs often. A task that comes back every day pays off faster than a task that happens once a year.
2. It is clearly defined. You can say exactly where it starts and where it ends.
3. The result is measurable. You know how much time it takes today, so you can compare after the change.
4. It touches few other systems. The fewer integrations needed, the smaller the risk.

Typical first tasks in Belgian SMEs are processing website enquiries automatically, drawing up quotes from a template, recording hours worked digitally or reading purchase invoices into the accounts automatically.

Once that first task succeeds, you have gained two things: time and confidence. That confidence makes the next step much easier.

Bring the team along

Most digitalisation projects that fail get stuck on adoption. Staff who were not involved see a new system as extra work. They stick to their old way of working and only half fill in the new system.

Three things help.

Involve the users from the start. Let the people who carry out the task have a say in the solution. They see sooner whether something works in practice.

Explain why. Say which problem you are solving and what it means for them. Less retyping, fewer phone calls to look up information, fewer late evenings at month end.

Plan a transition period. Set aside a few weeks in which the new system is used with support close at hand. Collect questions and adjust where needed. Then agree that the old system goes, so that two versions do not carry on side by side.

Also appoint one person as the internal point of contact. Choose someone who knows the process and can help colleagues. Technical knowledge is secondary here.

What you can do now

• Choose one process and write out every step together with the people who carry it out, with the tool and the time per step.
• In that overview, mark the one task that occurs often, is clearly defined and takes a measurable amount of time.

From Ghent we guide SMEs across Belgium through those first steps. On our page about digitalisation you can read how we build a project, while hetdesignbureau.be provides a website that fits that new way of working.