Digitalisation and business transformation

Digitisation is what we have all been doing for years – sending emails rather than letters, PDFs rather than printed brochures, storing our customer data on a spreadsheet instead of a card index, but digitalisation is more than this

It is using digital technology to transform a business. It can be applied to production, marketing, sales and, of course, distribution; one of the most common forms is shifting from bricks and mortar retail to e-commerce

There have been fundamental changes in the way people work over the past two years, and they are here to stay, according to Tommy Edlund, director of global sales at Konftel. The company, headquartered in Sweden, supplies video conferencing facilities to businesses and so has a front row seat in seeing how industry changes are panning out. “In many ways 2021 was a rollercoaster year, shaped by the pandemic and concerns over global warming,” he said. “Office workers around the world suddenly needed effective distance meeting solutions to continue to perform. 

“Since then, organisations across the globe have successfully transitioned to more hybrid ways of working. A new phase is emerging based on a permanent blend of office and home employment. We expect these trends to continue for the long term.” 

The company introduced a range of kits for in-room, PC-based, systems in July, recognising that use of Zoom and Teams from a PC for meetings is now commonplace. Previously, Konftel focused on meeting platforms set up in a conference room, where the user connected their laptop to the existing audio and camera system. “The in-room sector is growing significantly, and we expect the two distinct scenarios to eventually level off at around 50/50,” Tommy explained. “We are living in different times and a different world, especially around distance working. We won’t go back to the way things were before.” 

Embracing change

Such changes in working practices have a knock-on effect for everyone selling into offices which may now be largely empty. Simon Drakeford, CEO of the OE Group, and chairman of the UK office products trade association BOSS, has highlighted key product areas for the business supplies sector post pandemic. Home working, which is an aspect of the digitalisation of the workplace, would mean that the demand for home furniture and home computing would continue to grow. “The mix shift from off-line to on-line is seismic” he said, “and packaging for e-commerce across the board will be very important.”

Richard Sinclair, Office Power CEO, has seen the same shift. That’s why they have migrated their entire platform infrastructure to the cloud with Microsoft Azure. “We have witnessed online B2B purchasing accelerate over the last two years. Traditional reseller and wholesale business models now require advanced B2B e-commerce technology, and multi-channel reach, to drive sales and operational efficiencies.”

In a recent panel debate several very experienced industry figures were asked how they saw the future of the industry. Robert Baldrey of Aurelius (formerly CEO of EVO and Vasanta and finance director of Spicers) said: “The dynamic of the supply chain has changed…there are winners and losers and if you are supplying offices, as a lot of us do, there is a trend working against us. The impact that digitalisation has had on traditional office products has been a massive, accelerated effect.”

According to Ian Haywood, managing director of UKOS, “The market in our sector has been running at 65% to 70% of what it was pre-COVID, and I don’t see it going back to 100%, ever.” One response to these challenges is, of course to, digitalise yourself as a supplier; some of the areas where digitalisation can have a big impact are back-end systems, ecommerce presence and logistics management. 

Digitalisation in action #1: Professional Office Supplies

Professional Office Supplies launched a new website in early 2022.  A high percentage of their sales had always been in electronic data-interface and so their e-commerce platform was the interface between the company and their customers. “We adopted Evolution X (a B2B ecommerce platform from ES Tech Group) in order to provide a better online experience, aesthetically. However, that turned out to be only the beginning,” managing director Des McKeown explained. “Evolution X gave us the tools to promote, cross-sell and better communicate with our customers without the usual visits from sales representatives. We have seen an up-turn in sales among a certain type of customer and more enquiries about areas of our supply that customers weren’t aware of, across the board.

“The office products industry has long been plagued with awful data from wholesalers and suppliers, making e-commerce a very difficult thing to do well. Fusion Data (a content management, enrichment and syndication system for wholesalers and distributors) allows us to offer a much better shopping experience all-round. The content is fantastic, and the ability to sort, search and filter properly – as simple as this sounds – makes a huge difference to the end-user.

“The customer service team is very responsive and helpful. EvolutionX is a very robust and intuitive product; however, the few times I’ve had to call upon the customer service team they’ve been extremely diligent and professional, always keeping me up-to-date with any outstanding ticket as it is being resolved, and always to my satisfaction.

Digitalisation in action #2: Southall Special School

Southall Special School, based in Telford, used digitalisation to solve a variety of problems they were having in storing their school records. Pupils with special education needs have lengthy school records which need to be safely and securely stored for 25 years. Converting the records into digital format using a scanner, such as the ScanSnap iX1600 from Fujitsu, was the first stage – but the Fujitsu professional services team at Filestar took this a step further by combining the scanner with cloud-based document management software. 

Having these documents kept securely in the cloud offers many advantages. Firstly, the school no longer needs to hold a paper copy, saving filing space and eliminating the risk of damage or theft. Secondly, the documents can only be accessed by the correct personnel with the right permissions; every time the documents are accessed there is a full, auditable, trail of who has read what, and what they’ve done with the document. Documents can be quickly searched for, and retrieved using names, dates or keywords, saving time and administration resources. Digitalisation of their documentation system also made it easier to comply with GDPR requirements. 

The information requirements here would be similar in a clinic, GP surgery, accountancy practice and many other types of office – and the same benefits would apply to the storage and sharing of images, technical information and sales details for an online catalogue or ecommerce site.