What companies should permanently take away from accelerated digitalization

Acceleration and sustainable change are not the same thing

Individual video conferencing systems, short-term online shops, or hastily digitized forms did not become permanently relevant. Above all, four capabilities endured: digital connectivity, clear responsibilities, accessible knowledge, and resilient processes. Companies that merely preserved the tools introduced at the time adopted improvisation. Companies that reorganized their ways of working gained a more resilient foundation.

Starting point

In the spring of 2020, many companies had to make decisions within a few days that would previously have taken months or years. Employees worked from home. Consulting, sales, service, and coordination were moved to digital channels. Documents had to be available outside the office. Customer appointments became video conferences. On-site processes were replaced by digital alternatives.

This acceleration was real. The OECD Digital Economy Outlook 2020 described how the pandemic amplified existing opportunities and challenges of digital transformation. Eurofound documented a sharp increase in teleworking. At the same time, the European Commission's DESI 2020 showed that companies and states entered this situation with very different prerequisites.

However, the speed led to a problematic conclusion: What could be activated in the short term during the crisis was often already considered a successful digital transformation.

That was too early.

A functional video conference does not yet prove distributed collaboration. A cloud folder is not yet a knowledge system. An additional form is not yet a continuous process. An online shop does not yet create a resilient digital sales logic.

The crisis made technical possibilities visible. However, it did not automatically answer how these possibilities should be permanently embedded in roles, processes, responsibility, and corporate goals.

What lies behind the problem

Improvisation and transformation fulfill different tasks

Improvisation protects the ability to act under time pressure. It may be incomplete as long as it closes an acute gap. Transformation pursues a different goal. It converts a new way of working into a resilient state that is understandable, secure, economical and capable of further development.

In 2020, these two levels were often mixed up.

Short-term access to files may have been necessary. However, it was permanently necessary to clarify:

• which documents are binding,
• who maintains it,
• who is allowed to access it,
• how changes are tracked,
• how confidential information is protected,
• how a failure or change of provider is handled.

The same applied to digital customer contacts. A video or chat channel could replace a personal meeting. However, this did not yet mean that the offer, consultation, decision-making process, and follow-up were designed cohesively.

Visible tools masked invisible prerequisites

Companies first saw the new applications. Less visible were the organizational conditions that determined their usefulness.

These included:

• clear responsibilities,
• available and understandable information,
• documented processes,
• technical accesses,
• appropriate safety rules,
• Decision-making powers,
• accessible contact persons,
• Options for feedback and correction.

Where these foundations were already in place, digital work could be stabilized more quickly. Where they were missing, technology had to cover up organizational ambiguity.

The state of emergency set the wrong standards

Under crisis pressure, longer working hours, provisional handovers, media breaks, and personal additional burdens were accepted. This was understandable as a transition. As a permanent operating model, it was unsuitable.

The ILO already pointed out in 2020 that teleworking is not solely a technical issue. Work organization, communication, working hours, health, equipment, and leadership had to be considered together.

This made it clear early on: A digital solution is not viable simply because a process somehow continues to run with exceptional personal effort.

Strategic Classification

Digital connectivity remained permanent

Digital connectivity means that people, information, systems and decisions remain connected even if a familiar location or channel fails.

This includes not only technical access. A company is digitally connectable if employees know where binding information is located, how they make decisions, who is responsible for exceptions, and which channels apply for which purpose.

The pandemic made this ability a question of resilience. Companies could no longer hold customers, employees, and partners together solely through personal proximity, paper, or individual people.

The need for clear responsibility remained permanent

Distributed work made ambiguities visible faster.

If no one knew who was approving information, it remained pending. If a decision was only made informally at the desk next door, the path to it suddenly disappeared. If knowledge was tied to individual people, their unavailability became a process risk.

Digital collaboration therefore requires not less leadership, but more precise responsibility. Roles do not have to become bureaucratic. They must be traceable.

Knowledge remained as a basis for work in the long term

In 2020, it became clear how dependent companies are on accessible knowledge.

Work instructions, customer information, product data, responsibilities, templates, and decisions had to be available regardless of the office. Many companies realized that their documents were stored digitally but not really organized.

The crucial question was no longer just: Is the file available?

It read:

• Is it findable?
• Is it current?
• Is it understandable?
• Is it binding?
• Is their origin traceable?
• Can the respective person use it?

This marked the beginning of a transition from mere digitization of documents to more conscious knowledge organization.

The process perspective remained permanent

Individual digital measures could help in the short term. Lasting effect only emerged when the entire process was considered.

A digital order intake is of little use if the downstream review remains manual and unclear. Online consulting only helps to a limited extent if offers, approvals, and tracking continue to be separated from each other. A new communication tool does not improve collaboration if no one knows which information is bindingly recorded there.

The structural lesson from 2020 was therefore not "more digital". It stated: Work must function as a coherent process across the boundaries of location, channel, and tool.

Perspective from practice

A similar pattern emerged in many companies. The initial technical conversion was faster than expected. After that, the more difficult phase began.

Duplicate storage was created. Agreements were distributed across email, chat, and video conferencing. Decisions were not documented. Customer data was maintained in multiple systems. Employees developed personal detours to keep operations running.

These solutions were not fundamentally wrong. They were proof of capability.

They became problematic where the provisional state was not reviewed later. Then an exception became a permanent dependency. The burden remained with individual employees. The number of tools grew. At the same time, the overview decreased.

Therefore, the correct conclusion from 2020 was not to retain every innovation from that time. A subsequent order was sensible:

1. What closed a real gap?
2. What was only necessary because of the state of emergency?
3. Which new working method improves normal operations?
4. What risks or additional burdens have arisen?
5. Which roles, rules, and systems need to be adjusted?

The transition model from improvisation to resilient digitalization

Framework of action

1. Explicitly name provisional solutions

A short-term alternative solution should be documented as such. This includes purpose, responsible person, permitted use, and a deadline for review.

What remains visible as a temporary solution can be consciously improved or terminated later. What remains unnamed often becomes an unchecked standard.

2. Consider the entire work process

Not the tool, but the process is the meaningful unit of inspection.

Companies should understand:

• which triggers a process,
• which information is needed,
• who decides,
• where handovers take place,
• what exceptional cases exist,
• how the result is documented,
• by which quality and impact can be recognized.

This makes media breaks and person-dependent detours visible.

3. Connect responsibility with the way of working

Digital processes require at least one functional and one technical responsibility. For sensitive data or legally relevant procedures, additional review roles are added.

The number of roles is not decisive. What is decisive is that employees know who decides on purpose, content, access, changes, and exceptions.

4. Make knowledge accessible and binding

Important information should not only be stored but also maintained. This includes clear naming, source, status of updates, responsibility, and access rules.

This order not only helps with distributed work. It also improves onboarding, service, quality assurance, and later automation.

5. Test new ways of working in normal operation

A crisis solution should not be evaluated solely on whether it worked under pressure.

Also to be checked are:

• Burden on employees,
• Understandability for customers,
• Security and data protection,
• Dependence on individual providers,
• Costs in continuous operation,
• Integrability,
• Possibility of an orderly exit.

What companies should not do

Companies should neither romanticize 2020 nor consider it proof that change is only possible under external pressure.

The speed at the time was partly due to suspended coordination, higher personal workload, and accepted interim solutions. This pace is not a general benchmark for sustainable transformation.

It would be equally wrong to return to the previous state as soon as personal work is possible again. This would mean losing the gained connectivity and new access routes.

The viable path lies between both extremes: preserve what can be structurally improved, and end what only works as a temporary solution.

Consequences for companies

The most important lesson from accelerated digitalization is organizational.

Digital transformation is not demonstrated by the number of tools introduced in a short time. It is demonstrated by whether a company can organize its work understandably, connectedly, and accountably even under changed conditions.

Therefore, permanently relevant are:

• digital accessibility,
• clear roles,
• maintained knowledge,
• robust processes,
• secure technical foundations,
• regular review.

These capabilities do not make a company invulnerable. However, they increase its ability to respond to changes without having to improvise anew every time.

Subject-matter connection

Transitioning provisional digitalization into a robust working method

Transformation support begins after the acute technical transition. It examines which measures are sustainable, where roles or knowledge are missing, and which processes need to be organized. The goal is not a complete rebuild, but a comprehensible connection between corporate goals, working methods, responsibilities, and digital systems.

Review established digital working methods in a structured way

Author

About Göke Frerichs

Göke Frerichs has been combining digital strategy, communication, technology, and implementation since 1999. As a digital strategist and Smart Digital Creative, he supports owner-managed B2B companies in developing clear and reliable digital systems from individual measures. His perspective is based on many years of consulting and implementation experience in the DACH region and North America.

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