DigiMeet 2023 - The desire for change, cooperation and a heathy team are the key messages of this year's event
This year's DigiMeet, now the third in a row, titled People are the center of digitization, was a success. With presentations of individual customer digitalization stories, case studies and a round table with Olympians: It takes a team to get good results, we tried to bring experiences and good practices closer to the participants, because we all face similar digitalization challenges.
DigiMeet was opened with a welcoming speech by Mikrocop's director Simona Kogovšek, who emphasized that by sharing experiences in the digitalization of business, we learn a lot and thereby more easiliy avoid challenges we did not foresee.
At Monday's meeting, Nataša Centa, an expert in the digitization of HR processes, and her guest Ksenija Montani, assistant director for IT and modern technologies from Lekarna Ljubljana discussed about the importance of accepting new things and the desire for change. For many years, Lekarna Ljubljana has been striving for the greatest possible informatization and digitalitation of operations, as they are aware that it contributes to greater employee engagement, faster communication and greater efficiency. When choosing the solution, the key criteria were compliance and standardization, as well as data security, traceability and the fact that it is a cloud solution.
Ksenija Montani on the positive effects of digitalized processes: "We have an overview of the execution of the process: where we are, what is next in line for execution and the expected completion time. A clear trail of who approved, defined or was aware a part of what process. Every type of analysis has become simple and fast."
On Tuesday, DigiMeet stage was taken by Anton Gazvoda, an expert in business digitalization and Boštjan Blokar, an IT expert and project manager at Port of Koper, who presented the experiences of our port. By digitalizing the documentation and selected procesess, they sped up the work and thus further emphasized their geostrategic advantage over other European ports, said Mr. Blokar. He also emphasized the importance of chemistry between the project team of the provider and the client, because with an understanding of the client's needs, the digitalization project runs more smoothly, and good cooperation between the two teams helps solving potential challenges on the project significantly easier and faster.
Boštjan Blokar: "When introducing new solutions into the business, we educate and encourage employees for whom the introduction represents a major change in their work to cooperate and test the solutions. It is very important to inform employees about the wider benefits of digitalization, because with this understanding it is easier for them to accept changes."
The third meeting was dedicated mainly to medium-sized and small companies, which can now test the solution InDoc EDGE, which is the first Slovenian solution for effective collaboration and working with documents that enables free trial. Ivo Vasev, product manager of InDoc EDGE and Karmen Jakob Logar, product marketing expert, presented the advantages of using such a solution and discussed their experience in finding and using such a digital solution with the director of MK Illumination, Damjan Zalokar. Mr. Zalokar said that, as a small company, they decided on a solution for the digitalization of business documents based on their own calculation of the costs and time they spent to search for documents. He said that the savings with the right solution can be large, and he also focused on the importance of personal data protection and certified e-storage. He concluded with the thought that cooperation with colleagues, external partners and customers is now much easier, as it takes place in a secure environment, where the risks of information loss are minimal.
"We calculated that with nine employees, we spend two salaries a year just to look for documents. We spend a lot of time searching for documents, so it makes more sense to find the right solution, invest this money in it and not waste time and nerves when you need the right document or information at a given moment," said Damijan Zalokar.
This year's DigiMeet ended with a very special round table, where our Olympians – Petra Majdič, Brigita Bukovec and Urška Žolnir Jugovar took over the conversation. The round table was moderated by Matej Praprotnik, a journalist from Radio Slovenia and cycling mayor of Ljubljana, who skillfully included the importance of teamwork in business in a conversation about the importance of a team in sport, be it group or individual, which was commented more into detail by Alenka Fic Mikolič, director of general affairs at Mikrocop.
Petra Majdič:"The fact is that all three of us are individual athletes, but we realize, and this was an interesting realization when we crossed international territory, that we cannot do it alone. You can reach a certain local level by yourself, but when you step on the international stage, you cannot do it alone. Individual sport yes, but without the top team support, I could not have achieved what I have."
Brigita Bukovec emphasized the importance of compatibility and matching with the coaches and the rest of the team, while Urška Žolnir Jugovar said that despite the fact that judo is treated as an individual sport, the judoist alone as an individual cannot achieve anything, because he has to fight against the opponent in training as well as in matches. He cannot do without teammates and coaches, and especially without the support of the family.
Alenka Fic Mikolič: "It is similar in the business world. You need the whole team to be able to build successful stories. You need psychological security, because you make mistakes in work processes. There is always someone from the team by your side who motivates you and sometimes pushes you out of your comfort zone and makes sure that you have a common goal in front of you. At times it is very difficult, because we all experience ups and downs, and this is where the team comes into play, because there is always someone who pulls the wagon forward. The team effort is what makes it easier for every team member."
The key take away idea of this year's DigiMeet, which was well summarized by the director of sales and marketing, Tjaša Poljšak at the closing meeting, is:
"The success of digitalization depends on our approach, motivation and mutual cooperation, and on the other hand, how the right solutions and the choice of the right partners can support us in this endavour."
To DigiMeet 2023 recordings (Slovene only).
