To all small & medium businesses, now’s the time to plan your next big digital leap

I can imagine what you’re thinking: “We’ve all just made the biggest digital leap in decades - by massively enabling the digital workplace due to COVID-19 - and now, you expect us to already plan our next digital leap?” But that’s exactly what you should be doing.

Small & medium businesses (SMBs) and employees in all industries have digitized faster than ever before. In normal times, it would take 15 months to roll out a complete work-from-home plan. In these extraordinary times, it took companies on average 10.5 days.

As offices are opening up again, the reality for most companies is they can’t go back to business as usual. Employees now have this digital workplace experience and many don’t want to return to the way things were before:

• Before the pandemic, close to 7 in 10 employees (67.5%) worked from the office all the time. Post-pandemic, less than 1 in 2 (45.3%) intend to return to the office full time (Securex, 2021).
• 2 in 3 employees also state that they learned new skills during this period. At the top of the list? New digital skills (VBO - FEB, 2021).

The digital workplace has greatly accelerated digital transformation at companies but that is merely a first step!

The next step is to further drive applications towards the cloud and make sure all is secured. SMBs need to rethink which applications they really want to keep on-premise (if any), what they want to move to the public cloud and what they want in a private cloud, whilst thoroughly considering security and redundancy. That’s also what Autofix, a supplier of car parts, tools and products for garages, body shops and the automotive industry, has done, when they re-assessed their complete IT infrastructure and opted for a cloud-first strategy.

The question that follows is what’s next? How will you enable innovation through next generation technologies? What will be your next big leap in digitalization?

Getting ready for the next big digital leap

The next big digital leap you get to decide yourself and make no mistake: there is still ample opportunity for further digitalization for SMBs in every industry.

Recently, I was impressed when I concluded a real estate project. The whole process was done over video call and all the deeds (current and previous ones) were managed online and safely stored in the cloud. Clearly, notaries too have made the digital leap. Sector federation Fednot functions here as an IT shared service center for the whole sector, offering among other things a portal with around 50 IT applications. Trust and security are quintessential for notaries and this is guaranteed through the Secure Notarial Network (SNN), developed in cooperation with Proximus, which provides the necessary connectivity between the firms and the federation. Fednot has even set up a lab to closely follow developments in blockchain technology which could be useful for so-called smart contracts.

And there are plenty of other examples:

• Why not combine 5G and mixed reality like construction company Hooyberghs has done. Our partner in this project, Mr. Watts developed a digital application to visualize room layouts, floor plans, 3D models and digital twins to experience building designs on scale and in context. These designs are usually very large and contain a huge amount of information, making it impossible to render these on the HoLoLens itself. Thanks to a powerful server in the cloud, the result can be streamed in real-time. Over time, the high bandwidth, low latency and strong security features of 5G will provide the necessary stability to visualize the end result of a project, on site and remotely.
• Bebat, that annually collects 3,600 tons of used batteries, 90% of which it then recycles, uses sensors and IoT to track the fill rate of its containers and organize the collection of batteries even better. When a container is emptied at a location, they also empty any other containers in the area that are not quite full yet to avoid having to send another truck to the same region the next day. Transport planning becomes much more efficient that way. Bebat is growing from 1,200 to 20,000 connected containers. By the end of this year, they want to equip 80% of their pick-up points with the new system.
• Multigas also uses IoT to monitor the level of gas tanks. If the level in the gas tank drops below a certain threshold, Multigas schedules a new delivery. This way, the business continuity of their customers is guaranteed. The advantages in administration and logistics are clear: 40% fewer phone calls during peak times, 30% fewer kilometers per delivery, better planning overall combined with better insights into customer consumption.

How will you approach these pivotal times?

Why you should leap now

SMBs that take firm action on their next digital ambition can build a head start over their competitors. The big difference compared to when COVID-19 broke? This time, you digitize not because you have to but because you want to. This also means you can better plan, prepare and roll out your next big digital leap.

What you can do

As we are coming out of COVID-19, your next two main battlefields should be security and innovation. And I know, as an SMB, you face many hurdles:

• A lack of skills, resources and time
• Often a lack of IT department
• Fragmentation of technologies and vendors

With the right partner, you can overcome many of these hurdles and get the help you need so that you can focus on the day-to-day operations. Know that we can help you assess the right cloud strategy, do a co-creation workshop at our 5G innovation platform and so much more. Also our vast ecosystem of IT affiliates and our IT partners network is available for any digitalization need you may have.

Dear SMB, this time, you’re at the wheel. You’ve seen the resilience and perseverance of your employees and your organization. Harness this while preparing for the next big digital leap. Recent experiences have shown you what is possible. It’s up to you now to decide in which direction to jump.

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Do you already have a pretty good idea about your next leap? Or need some advice on your next digital leap? Let’s talk, leave a comment below!

Want to stay up to date on the latest in digitalization? Sign on to the Proximus for enterprises LinkedIn page.

More info on digital workplace best practices? Read our digital workplace e-book.

Sources:

www.securex.be/nl/blog/werkgevers/thuiswerk-behouden-na-corona | www.sdworx.be/nl-be/blog/hr-management/telewerk-na-covid

www.vbo-feb.be/actiedomeinen/hr--personeel/hr--personeel/1-jaar-onderzoek-rond-de-impact-van-corona-op-menselijk-kapitaal-in-organisaties_2021-06-22/