Digitalisation is not just Industry 4.0. There are many areas that can be improved with projects and applications focused on fully digital processes and mobility. From transport to healthcare to administration. You don't need a perfectly designed in-house process to do this. Most important of all is the willingness to step out of the ordinary and do things differently. More intuitively.
Do you still see large factories with synchronised production rather than a success story from Czech agriculture? That will change in a little while, don't worry and keep reading. Or scroll down for story's video.
One success story says more than 1000 words. So let's start there. This time, the main roles of this mutually enriching story will be played by B2A, a software company from Zlín, and DAGROS, s.r.o., a wholesale and retail company for agricultural machinery.
Every machine that DAGROS sells needs back-up and regular servicing. Until recently, the company used special software for this purpose, but as the company's activities grew, it no longer met the requirements for functionality and variability - so it was time for a change.
DAGROS was looking for a way to digitize its operations. The company has been keeping its accounting and inventory records in ABRA since the beginning, so they wanted to connect it to their service activities as well. The ideal solution soon emerged. "We were recommended B2A. They introduced us to their B2A Service app, which at first glance was a good fit for our service activities," recalls Zdeněk Šilar, co-owner of DAGROS, s.r.o., about the beginning of the cooperation.
This was followed by a joint debugging of functionalities to simplify the company's entire service process from start to finish.
The application for digital solutions for recording service actions and operations leads to faster and more efficient processes and replaces paper documentation between the service agent and the customer. It is methodically divided into 3 interconnected areas - work queue, activity records and stock status. The service worker thus has an overview of all planned service activities determined by location and identification of the equipment to be serviced.
For each machine, the technician sees detailed information - the contract number, address and description of the required activity. In the activity register, he can record the materials used, the time logged, the number of kilometres travelled, and even whether the work is on-call or overtime. The automatically signed service report can then be emailed directly to the customer "at the click of a button".
The application is fully in online mode, where it displays all incorporated information immediately in the ERP, with which it most often communicates via Wi-Fi within the local and external infrastructure. iPads can be equipped with a SIM card and thus extend its range also outside the Wi-Fi network and help work truly mobile.
B2A has the best experience in "digital in practice".
"Will it be too complicated?"
"Can employees of all ages adapt to such a change?"
These are the questions that the company's CEO Petr Kubicek receives most often. And he just smiles… This process is not really complicated. B2A embarked on digitalization because they perceived a huge gap between the technologies people used in their private lives and those they used at work.
"I often hear that first we need to get the processes in order, set up backbone systems, learn to work with data that has not been used before, get the paperwork in order… and then once everything is perfect, it's time to digitalize, to transform the business. I have good news for all these cases - even "imperfection" can be worked with perfectly," says B2A CEO Petr Kubicek.
Instead of focusing on processes that don't yet work, B2A focuses on the desires and priorities of specific people in specific roles and builds software layers that match their exact requirements. As a result, the company is able to collect and process the most important data much more intuitively and quickly - whether it's related to the work of a foreman, controller, doctor, assistant or even top management.
"Our dream is to simplify and enrich people's lives with technologies that add tremendous value. The ones that they understand well and adapt naturally," adds Kubíček. According to him, satisfied employees naturally become the drivers of further company development.
And it seems to really work in each case B2A encountered.
In just a few weeks, the iPad becomes the most natural part of a company's DNA instead of paper and pencil.
Smart apps save time, mental capacity and ultimately money. Paperless administration makes the entire process much greener, prevents administrative overload - and brings greater logic, simplicity and intuitiveness to all internal processes.
"We are gradually seeing great improvements in both service technicians and service administration," says Zdeněk Šilar, co-owner of DAGROS, s.r.o., who praises especially the order in documentation and the overview of all current, past and future service operations.
We can only wish that this newfound time will bring DAGROS many future successes and innovations!
