22. February 2022
Digitisation as the key to future challenges
Who would have thought in 2020 that the Corona pandemic would still be with us faithfully two years later? Probably hardly anyone. After the first vaccine doses reached the vaccination centres in this country at the end of 2020, the dark skies on the horizon seemed to be slowly clearing – but fiddlesticks. Despite increasing vaccination rates, corona numbers continue to skyrocket relentlessly and are now reaching record levels. A renewed home office duty at the turn of the year came as little surprise.
Home office as a welcome change
While the first compulsory home office at the beginning of the year brought with it a lot of horrified and perplexed faces, the tide has turned for the better about a year later. The reason for this is video conferencing, lots of innovative collaboration tools and the further development of digital business models. So working from home does not only have negative sides. Quite the opposite: we save ways, valuable time and, on top of that, do something good for the environment. In addition, we always have everything together in a compact form without having to search for it in a paper chaos. Of course, this does not apply equally to all professions and industries. Nevertheless, the digitalisation push can be experienced across all sectors. In the wake of the pandemic, companies are increasingly dealing with digital technologies and digitising many of their processes in order to be able to carry out their tasks comfortably – regardless of time and place.
An end to digitisation in 2022?
In many companies, digitisation is currently running at full speed and is to be continued in the coming year – be it the use of digital communication and collaboration tools, the establishment of digital signatures or the dismantling of manual and paper-based processes. This is by no means surprising, because the competition never sleeps. Every second respondent (51 per cent) in a recent Bitkom study stated that competitors who jumped on the digitisation bandwagon early are now one step ahead due to their digital business processes.
“Digital technologies continue to make an important contribution to ensuring that work can be maintained in companies during the pandemic. For the most part, the experience has been so positive that companies want to continue on their path to the digital economy,” says Bitkom President Achim Berg.
Gather courage and seize opportunities
The last few Corona years have shown us how important digital processes are for the continued existence of our economic ability to act. Digitalisation can secure the existence of small and medium-sized enterprises in particular. Funding programmes from the federal and state governments, as well as discussions with digital pioneers and digitisation experts, can support companies in their transition from sluggish, analogue and paper-based processes to digital workflows.
“The pandemic has led to a sustained digitisation push in the German economy. The digitisation measures initiated out of necessity because of Corona have proven their worth in many places and will also be driven forward in a future normal operation. We have to take advantage of this digital awakening mood,” says Berg.
Ultimately, it is important to become aware of the numerous opportunities offered by digital workflows and to summon up all our courage to successfully master the challenges of our time with digital strategies. Achim Berg is very sure of this:
“Digitisation is not a problem to be solved. Digitisation is a permanent process and, above all, it is the key to mastering the great challenges of our time – from climate protection to securing competitive jobs and our prosperity.”
For more information, please contact: https://www.bitkom.org/Presse/Presseinformation/Digitalisierungsschub-in-Wirtschaft-wird-Pandemie-ueberdauern
Jana Treptow 
