Rompetrol digitalization journey began many years ago. Organizations that are further along the digital transformation and cloud migration scales are likely to be best positioned in terms of integrating these technologies into effective and agile response plans.
We’ve invested a lot in our infrastructure and security services, we’ve migrated many of our services to cloud in order to allow faster access for the end user. We have managed upgrade in different areas of our processes using technology such as Human Resources, Finance, and Service Improvement.
Also, in the last year we’ve held dozens of workshops and had communication campaigns for security awareness and to increase digital adoption of tools like OneDrive, SharePoint, Yammer, MS Teams.
With all these measures in place, we had no impact in our business processes when our employees started to work from home, because of the pandemic.
Actually, this context was a real opportunity to check how everything works and continuously strive to improve our digitalization processes and develop and upgrade the existent systems and programs.
In HR area we have developed the archive system which allows us a quick access to all files remotely. Also, in Finance department, our colleagues successfully managed to implement the flow automatization process for invoices.
Recently, new tools designed to simplify the interaction between humans and computers have hit the market: Chatbots or Virtual Assistants. This was a strong motivation for our Services Improvement department to ensure the implementation of this type of software which uses artificial intelligence and can simulate a conversation (or a chat) with a user in natural language through messaging applications, websites, mobile apps or through the telephone. Rompetrol developed a Chatbot dedicated for our employees, who need information regarding HR topics and can download documents, such as different certificates, Internal Regulation Procedure etc.
While the interpersonal skills needed to be successful (communication, teamwork, leadership) are universal, their applicability in a virtual environment requires adaptation. From this point of view the employees were flexible, embraced the transition quickly and they have adapted to the new processes that were digitalized.
Our leaders, who usually engage with their teams through informal face-to-face interactions, were mindful of creating a similar type of interaction for their team members. They have maintained the communication at a highest level through programs such as Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business.As we mentioned before, the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t really influenced our digital transformation due to the fact that we had already in place the technology. For us, the actual context, gave us the incentive to develop and improve our systems.
Once the pandemic’s spread began to emerge, it quickly became clear that conferences and events had to be cancelled. Emerging from this reality is a new focus on virtual events and online learning. The next steps for our company are exploring ways to find the best strategies and implement online methods in order to offer to our employees the possibility to develop their skills through e-learning programs.