ISGUS_News_2105_Edition_40

4 An important prerequisite for companies to be successful nationally and internationally is rule-based, free trade of values. In 2020, however, this has fundamentally changed – at least temporarily. Corona lockdowns restricted both individual employees and companies as a whole, and led to new, different ways of thinking in the SME sector. For SMEs, the most important thing was to secure innovation and competitiveness, to shape digital transformation and cover the demand for skilled workers in their own company. The fact that digital transformation is a key to ensuring competitiveness in the long run and being able to do business in a successful way despite the corona pande- mic was and is known to many. However, digitization projects have now been accelerated by COVID-19 in an unexpected way. The question is how the current developments affect the SME sector? The keywords ‘flexibility’ and ‘individuality’ are in focus. Many SME companies have made adjustments to their product or service offering as a result of the pandemic and they have shifted their business activities to a virtual, non-contact world. To bring about this transfor- ...on SME digitisation. Which measures were taken by SMEs to overcome the crisis and which influence did they have on digitization? Learn more… mation, flexibility was both a necessity and a given, due to shorter information paths. Additionally, individual customer requirements have gained in significance. Next to short-termmeasures, long-term thinking towards a digital corporate strategy is equally impor- tant. This naturally looks different depending on the goal pursued by each SME, but this rethinking offers the opportunity to create a future-proof business model that further promotes the company’s previous corporate development, evolving from a product provider to a so- lution provider. In addition, SMEs see high potential and importance in the digitization of administrative work. One of the big future challenges of determining indivi- dual customer needs can be facilitated by standardising administrative processes and workflows in a digital way. However, COVID-19 has not only changed working within the company itself, but has also made mobile working, in the form of home office, an important pillar. The basis for mobile work is digital technologies that can be used to digitise work processes. The digital infrastruc- ture as a result of the ongoing digital transformation allows employees to access their data from anywhere.