How do we digitize Europtima?

A lot can be said about the construction industry, but it definitely is not open to process innovation. For this reason, I welcomed the announcement by leading Polish residential developers on the wide introduction of Microsoft platforms (Dynamics, 365 and Azure) in their business operations. Right after that, another thought hit me. EUROPTIMA migrated to the cloud a few years back. What benefits did we achieve? What sets us ahead in the field of digital delivery of services?

First, the cloud allows us to stay independent from location and is easy to scale. When the Covid-19 lockdowns began, we were ready in no time. As a matter of fact, EUROPTIMA’s culture does not attach people to places very firmly. An equipped person and Internet connection is what it takes to deliver most of our services. That, we knew long before pandemic.

Second. Moving to cloud requires certain changes of habit, awareness, listening/reading to what the system tells you. What is the cloud? It is a computer elsewhere. The data (whatever it is) needs to be retrieved from that location. The timing of that operation is dependent on your bandwidth and size of the file or data package. If you synchronise the data, you need to allow for this operation in order not to conflict with changes introduced by someone else. Nevertheless, it seems a small price for having most of the data “out there”, accessible not only as files to be worked on, but also subject to automatised operations that make our life easier.

When you realize the above, all it takes is to dig a little more into the applications that come with the Microsoft 365 package, look at repetitive actions taken by your business every day and connect the dots. At EUROPTIMA, we started small. First used SharePoint as data storage for all the operations and back office data. We organised the data in a sensible manner with controlled access. Then we investigated process automatizations. We automatised holiday applications for the staff spread over different locations. No emails, scans, signatures etc. More typical for large corporations with fancy ERP systems than mid-sized construction consultancy businesses. After that we built a system to track and support sales. In parallel, a culture of cloud collaboration was cultivated.

Meanwhile, EUROPTIMA developed a unique mobile application - TASCS. It is connected to the data stored in our SharePoint. It allows EUROPTIMA to offer the vital project details at every client’s fingertips. This arrangement is optimal for an agile company like EUROPTIMA. It allows us to be flexible and adjust to each project’s/ client’s requirements. It offers the client collaboration and data control capability not far from dedicated platforms. This approach is quite revolutionary when compared to the resources it requires and the cost it generates.

What are the challenges? Considering the process. We need to think where we want to reach before we make the first step. A clear vision of the system functionalities, tying it to every day’s work in the least disturbing way and sticking to it is a must. It is a must to stay away from trouble, disappointment and waste of time and money. In most cases it would be considered as a success in IT introduction into construction….

What’s next? Once you started the race you need to keep running with presistence to stay ahead. There is more to come. Definitely.