Dare to go digital with leftover budget

Digitalisation

Some budget left over? Wonderful. Then why not dare a small step towards digitalisation? Take a process that has been stuck in its rut for years, break it up and move your business and the process forward. Before it gathers any more dust.

Folder number 14

Monday morning in a perfectly ordinary company. The inspection reports come in from the shop floor, on paper as every week. The colleague from quality assurance types them into an Excel list. The list is printed. And filed. In folder number 14.

“We could do that digitally, couldn't we?” says the new colleague.

Silence.

“We tried that back in 2019,” says the boss. “Then something came up.”

In 2021 the budget was gone. In 2023 the big ERP project came along. And in 2025 nobody asked any more. Folder number 14 got a neighbour. Then another one.

In November the boss looks at the figures. There is still something left. Not much, but enough for a small step. He hesitates. Picks up the phone. Puts it down again. And then calls after all.

A few weeks later, someone on the shop floor types the measurements straight into a tablet. The colleague from quality assurance no longer types anything up. And folder number 14? It keeps gathering dust. But this time in peace.

The usual obstacles and what is left of them

• “No time.” We understand. That is why you do not tackle the whole company, just one single process.
• “Too expensive.” The leftover budget is already there. And for many, it simply disappears at the end of the year.
• “We've always done it this way.” Exactly.
• “Our IT is fully booked.” We take care of it. Your IT is welcome to watch.
• “Nothing is documented here.” It hardly is anywhere. We ask the people who run the process every day. They know it best anyway.

What a small step can be

Small does not mean unimportant. Small means it gets finished. A few examples from everyday work.

• A paper form becomes an input screen on a tablet or phone.
• An Excel list that three people are writing in at the same time becomes a small application. How that works is described under From Excel to your own application.
• Data that are typed in twice today are entered once. And correctly.
• The report someone clicks together every Friday is produced at the push of a button.

And AI?

Many people want AI now. Understandable, it can take a lot of work off your hands. But unfortunately only with what is available digitally. If your knowledge sits in folders, in people's heads and in twelve versions of the same Excel file, AI has nothing to work with. Then it cannot take the field to make your work easier either.

So anyone aiming for AI starts with digitalisation. Every process you make digital today is food for tomorrow's AI. Where AI already fits for you today, we are happy to clarify in our AI consulting.

How to start with your leftover budget

1. Pick a process. The one everyone groans about. You already know which one.
2. Initial consultation. You show us how it works today. Form, list, folder, everything is welcome.
3. Fixed price. To get started, there are our starter packages with a fixed price and a clear result. They fit nicely into a leftover budget.
4. First version. You try it out with your real data. Whatever is missing, you write straight into the program.

And when the budget is full again next year, you already know what comes next.