Why you should dare the digital transformation
It is no secret that the progress of digitalisation is taking place at different speeds in the individual countries and business sectors. However, the Corona pandemic in particular has once again made it clear whether and how one’s own company has invested in digital transformation. Many companies are now facing even greater challenges. Digital transformation is crucial to remain competitive – against competitors in the market, as well as to attract new employees.
Digital transformation through automation
The automation of processes is an essential step for the digital transformation of a company. Because
Data pools that are maintained in parallel and master data that are not linked lead to confusion and additional personnel costs. In this way, procedural and technical knowledge is distributed across several staff members and departments.
The result: workflows do not function automatically end-to-end, but require manual maintenance. As a result, error rates increase and outdated processes inhibit the flexibility and efficiency of the company.
Best Practice
Which price list applies to which customer and is valid for how long? If you have hundreds of customers in your B2B business, you need to know at all times which price lists are currently valid. Until now, employees of a global consumer goods manufacturer had to gather this information manually from a multitude of distributed Excel files. Reconciliations between Excel files were tedious, sometimes not possible and very error-prone. Data reconciliation with SAP was also time-consuming. Master data errors were difficult to find.
The aim of the revision was to simplify this manual price list work by defining the data source for the price list information. In addition, the time-consuming work should be greatly simplified and thus the usability and user experience increased.
the solution
Today, Excel files are created from one source and uploaded on demand to the connected systems. Depending on the customer, the solution automatically opens up individual downloads and formats of the price lists and contents. Changes to price lists are marked in colour, which makes it easier to advise customers and increases usability. The price list data is automatically matched with the SAP master data.
Get active
There are some concerns that speak against digitalisation. The fact that poor linkage would generate even more errors and ultimately cause you to lose data quality is one of them.
But: With a customised solution that not only automates your processes, but also fits your company and addresses your individual needs, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.
- Minimise the error-proneness and resource burden of manual processing
- Reduce data overload and data heterogeneity
- Create a functional workflow
- remain competitive – for (new) customers as well as for (new) employees
Ekaterina Ruzhekova
Ingo Schmall
