Opportunity for Digital Transformation: New Technologies Help Companies Reduce the Impact of the Pan
32 POSITIV 3/2020
Senior Key Account Manager, S&T CZ
An IT graduate from VŠB–Technical
University of Ostrava, born in Ostrava. He
has worked in IT for over 25 years, and
was a programmer and consultant, project
and service manager until he found his
job in sales. At S&T CZ, he draws upon
his vast experience and understanding of
companies in the Moravian-Silesian Region,
which he helps to make the best use of
digitization tools.
Why should local businesses never cease in
digitization despite the coming recession?
The pandemic has slowed down general
progress only partially. The trend of
digitization, however, keeps accelerating
worldwide. Great number of companies
have grasped their opportunity to win some
advantage, or discovered that digitization is
the only way to maintain their income. We
still hold our position amongst the leading
innovators in Europe right after Germany.
However, compared to the USA or China,
we are a way behind. Slowing down progress
may seriously hurt Czech industries.
Companies might lose their foreign
investments and their competitiveness too.
We must not let that happen.
Can you give us an example of the
digitization of a particular process?
Many companies, for example, still
quite depend on manually-entered data.
If a shopfloor assistant enters the
production operations data into the
system only at the end of the shift,
the data are significantly delayed.
Such system is very dated in situations
which require an immediate response.
The digitization of such a process will
allow much faster decisions with more
accurate data. The company is also
able to improve calculation of product
profitability, optimize the stock, and tune
up the usage of machinery (OEE). Instead
of economizing the innovations, the
enterprise may then truly economize their
operation where it makes sense.
CEO of SAP Division, S&T CZ
Working at the company since 2000, he
gained experience as consultant, solution
architect and project manager. Focused
on SAP technologies for over 25 years,
he currently leads a team of consultants
from Brno, helping to design complex
architectural solutions and improve
processes from production to logistics
and finance.
How can S&T CZ help companies in our
region in their development in these
difficult times?
We can help reduce their dependence
on the availability and quality of staff.
Automated production data collection
can speed up the data input to the system
to mere seconds, improve measurement
of efficiency and bottlenecks. Digitization
tunes up the warehousing and dispatching
processes, which streamlines work
organization, fastens response and helps
to optimize stocks. Employees of the
back office appreciate digitized invoices,
contracts and other documents. Those
now become available on business trips
or from home. Approving is possible
from anywhere via smartphone or web
app, even an accountant can now work
with his files remotely. The journey of an
invoice until its payment could be thus
made up to three times faster.
What do you recommend to those who
still hesitate to digitize?
The times are changing quickly. Those
who were quite behind may soon become
leaders. And vice versa. Especially the
recent months have shown us growing
difference between companies who at
least started digitization and are able
to adapt dynamically, and those who
focused on other things. Do not wonder
whether you should innovate: rather
consider where to start with innovation.
Your investment does not necessarily
need to be big. We are here to consult
suitable solutions for your enterprise.
Get in touch at
marek.skuta@sntcz.cz or
petr.dolezal@sntcz.cz.