23/11/20New Bitkom study: Digital Office leads to more satisfied customers

In about half of all companies surveyed, every second office and administrative process is still paper-based. However, this is changing, due to the Corona pandemic the digital office is on the rise. The digital workplace has now become synonymous with operational capability and cooperation. These, and other results, were the findings of the new Digital Office Index 2020. And if we take a look at CRM and Customer Centricity, we can see some interesting developments.

bitkom study digital office index 2020

Some of you may remember the situation at the start of the pandemic: Many companies around the world were forced to shift their whole infrastructure from the workplace to home office within a short time. Today, the representative study run by the digital association Bitkom shows how the pandemic has forced a stronger shift towards a digital-based office and digital administrative processes and also how it is driving digitalization.

The survey conducted during May and June of 2020 among 1,104 German-based companies with more than 20 employees, across all sectors, clearly showed that CRM solutions play a major role. After all, in the digital office all customer-related information and data flows into one, cross-departmental solution.


Digital instead of paper mountains
According to the Digital Office Index 2020, the facts are clear: Besides ERP and ECM solutions, CRM solutions form the most important basis for the digitalization of office and administrative processes: In total, more than 60 percent of all companies deploy a CRM application. This relieves employees of routine tasks, consequently providing them with more time for what matters – the needs of their customers. Using a CRM solution also has some wonderful side-effects, 64 percent of the companies said they were better able to meet the requirements of compliance regulations when using CRM, 58 percent have seen an improvement in their data security and 32 percent have used the opportunity that CRM has given them to expand into new business areas or to renew existing ones.


Increased customer satisfaction thanks to CRM
The digital office is not just making companies more future-proof, but it is also making them more efficient and less fragile. And it is worth noting that in 71 percent of the companies involved in this study, it was clear that customer satisfaction improved significantly since digital solutions for their office and administrative processes were introduced. In 65 percent of cases, specific processes were automated, thus easing the burden on employees.


Increasing willingness to invest
In the past, the two biggest hurdles to increasing digitalization were the investment requirements and fears that data would not be adequately protected. Now, almost every fourth company admits that they have increased their investments in the digitalization of their office and administrative processes when compared to 2019. Investments in hard- and software, especially digital solutions for the centralized management of customer and contact data have increased significantly despite the Corona-related austerity measures. Almost every third company (30 percent) already uses a 360 degree customer dossier, 22 percent are planning on introducing one.

It is great to hear that so many companies are already enjoying their positive experience with the digital office and that they can harness this potential in their everyday work, while at the same time reducing the mountains of paper, letters and files. The Digital Office Index 2020 confirms that many companies are already actively deploying CRM solutions and that these solutions are helping them to be particularly successful. This has shown that consequent digitalization has helped companies to become less fragile – which is definitely a huge plus in these difficult times. "We are convinced that companies can transition quickly into the digital office with the help of standardized CRM solutions", says Marcus Bär, Member of the Board of Directors of CAS CRM and Member of the Board of Directors of the Digital Office Steering Committee at Bitkom e.V.


About the Digital Office Index 2020
The Digital Office Index (DOI) clarifies the digitalization of office and administrative processes as well as demonstrating the effects and impacts of its progress. The study was based on a total of 58 indicators. On a scale of 0 ("not at all digitalized") to 100 ("fully-digitalized") the Digital Office Index returned a score of 55 points this year.

It is worth noting, of course, that there is a considerable gap between large and small companies. Large companies with at least 500 employees tend to score 67 points on the index; whereas for companies with 100 to 499 employees the score is usually around 59; and finally, for smaller companies with fewer than 100 employees the score is about 53 points.

In total then, we can count every fifth company (19 percent) among the leaders when it comes to digitalization. In fact, 44 percent have logged above average progress regarding digitalization. This demonstrates that a good two thirds of all German companies are on the right path when it comes to developing the digital office in 2020. Furthermore, 26 percent of companies have shown that their digitalization efforts are below average; while 11 percent were classed as stragglers.

Regardless of where you might currently find yourself: take advantage of the current subsidies and special offers to expand your digitalization strategy. To find out more, click here: CAS Software digitalization grant. 

The new Bitkom study for download: Digital Office Index 2020


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