Video conferencing, collaboration tools, electronic invoices and digital document management - the Corona pandemic has seen a digitalisation surge in many German companies. But how sustainable is this and how do companies assess their digitisation progress a good two years after the start of the pandemic? Which digital office tools are still being used? What role does paper still play in German offices today? Where are the biggest hurdles in digitisation and what about the willingness to invest in digital office and business processes? To answer these and other questions, the digital association Bitkom commissioned a representative survey of more than 1,100 companies from all sectors.
The Digital Office Index (DOI) illustrates the digitalisation of office and administrative processes, their progress and effects. It was formed on the basis of a total of 58 indicators from this study. On a scale of 0 ("not digitised at all") to 100 ("fully digitised"), the Digital Office Index reaches a value of 59 points this year.
However, there are differences between large and small companies. Large companies with 500 or more employees achieve an index value of 68 points, for medium-sized companies with 100 to 499 employees the index value is 63, for smaller companies with less than 100 employees it is only 58 points.
Overall, one in five companies (39 percent) can count themselves among the pioneers in terms of digitalisation. 36 percent report average progress in digitisation. This means that three quarters of the companies with more than 20 employees are well on their way in developing the digital office this year. However, 23 percent are below average in their digitisation efforts and 2 percent are among the laggards.