Modern modeling tools with established and practical best practice solutions transform the challenge of digitization into an opportunity with unimagined potential for efficient process design.

In recent months, the digitization of processes has been discussed and reported on like no other topic. Crises, new legal requirements, ever-increasing demands and shortening time intervals are pushing companies to their limits in terms of optimally designing their processes to keep operations running. And ONLY keep them running, because expansions and optimization potentials continue to stand unnoticed on the sidelines, as resources are lacking in order to proceed in a planned, structured and efficient manner. “Never change a running system” – this credo may have been acceptable yesterday, but in a modern, dynamic corporate world focused on efficiency, a change in thinking is required to operate competitively in a global market. Reacting quickly to changes, taking an analytical look at the resulting effects, and developing targeted measures – these are the demands that companies place on an IT-based process landscape. The pressure on companies is intensified when legal guidelines have to be met. It can be helpful to shift the perspective a little. Looked at from the broadened perspective, the strict requirement reveals itself as an opportunity to tackle change and to design it strategically. Companies are aware of seizing this opportunity, but the implementation, the digitization of established and proven processes, which means also taking an analytical look at them and possibly even changing them, is still a major hurdle that must be overcome.

According to a survey conducted by the VDMA as part of an experience exchange regarding digitization in March 2021, 64% of respondents have partially digitized processes in place in their company. The upgrade to a completely electronic handling, especially of the invoicing processes, is treated with high priority. In this context, further aspects that arise from a critical examination of the processes are evaluated and, if necessary, modernized by means of new solutions. According to the survey, the focus here is on the digitization of production-related and administrative processes – areas that represent major challenges for optimized design. The complex area of the invoicing process is an example of this. Compliance with internal and legal requirements requires a sensitive and comprehensive view of the individual steps in order to identify problems in advance, eliminate weak points and ensure a smooth process. Modern modeling tools determine an exact inventory of the processes and the systems used, define the necessary requirements and show the possibilities of a digital implementation, and all of this with maximum flexibility both in terms of the company-specific requirements and the degree of digitization. Individual sub-areas, the presentation of which requires the necessary transparency with a high degree of detail, can be conveniently combined into an overall presentation. This integrated solution approach ensures connectivity and a continuous flow of information, a central component in the digitization of processes.

Today’s processes have to be intelligent, agile and elastic. The basis for this consists of conceptual models that represent the complexity of requirements, networking and flexibility as well as translate them into efficient processes. The result is workflows that bring optimized resource management as well as efficiency, cost optimization, quality maximization and sustainability to corporate processes.

Author: Sabine Rudolf