In the interview with Leonard Zimmermann, founder and managing director of Smartflow Consulting GmbH near Munich
In our increasingly digitalized world, the efficiency of business processes is crucial to a company’s success. Microsoft has created an integrated suite of business applications called Microsoft Power Platform specifically for this type of process optimization. Smartflow Consulting is an innovative company based in Munich that specializes in process optimization and digitalization using these very tools. Under the motto “Prozesse besser machen!” (Making processes better!), they have established themselves as a leading partner for companies looking to boost their efficiency and continuously optimize their business processes.
The Microsoft Power Platform enables companies to create custom solutions for data analysis, workflow automation, application development, and more. With Power BI, companies can visualize and analyze data to make informed decisions, while Power Apps and Power Automate allow the creation of custom applications and automations without requiring programming knowledge.
Leonard Zimmermann is an information systems graduate with many years of experience in IT, management consulting, and process optimization. The company leverages the Microsoft Power Platform to deliver business intelligence solutions with Power BI & Fabric, apps & automation with Power Apps & Power Automate, as well as associated training & coaching for the entire Power Platform. In our interview, we will discuss the role of Microsoft Power Platform as a game-changer in process optimization, explore what makes Smartflow Consulting a strong partner for companies in digitalization, and identify the key success factors for successful automation and digitalization projects.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Why is it particularly important and attractive for companies in today’s digitalized world to invest in more efficient processes?
Leonard Zimmermann: Efficient and well-structured processes are one of the most important competitive factors for many companies. When it comes to offering competitive prices or implementing a profitable business model, optimized processes are the decisive lever. Our customers want to reduce the amount of working time spent on processes, accelerate workflows, and improve the quality and standardization of processes and their outcomes—with our help.
Smartflow Consulting specializes in digital and digitalizable business processes, particularly those that process or analyze data. We use the Microsoft Power Platform as our technical toolkit.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: The Microsoft Power Platform is considered a game-changer in process optimization. Could you explain what specific benefits and features this platform offers companies and why it has such a major impact on process optimization?
Leonard Zimmermann: The Microsoft Power Platform is, in our view, the perfect tool for digitalization and automation in companies. It enables the development of individual business apps, the setup of automation scripts for data processing, and the creation of business intelligence dashboards. A decisive advantage is the low-code approach of the Microsoft Power Platform, which allows solutions to be created with less financial and time investment and makes the positive effects for companies tangible and measurable more quickly. This can optimize processes in various areas of a company along the entire value chain. Particularly interesting are processes where data needs to be captured or exchanged between people and IT systems, such as approval, decision-making, coordination, and planning processes or data collection processes.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Smartflow Consulting has established itself as a service provider for companies in the field of digitalization. What are the special features or unique selling points of your company that make it a strong partner for companies looking to optimize their business processes?
Leonard Zimmermann: Our goal is not only to develop tailored IT solutions but also to support our customers in designing their processes. In digitalization projects, processes and IT must be considered together. Our bridge approach connects the process perspective with the potential of technology. A major advantage for our customers is the knowledge transfer we provide by incorporating best practices from other industries or companies into the solution design. Over time, you learn what works best.
Additionally, we repeatedly encounter very similar use cases in different companies. Where possible, we try to implement solutions already developed in other projects.
Overall, we aim to achieve the best effects for our customers with as little investment as possible. This turns many processes into profitable automation potentials that were previously not considered for automation from a cost-benefit perspective.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: In your opinion, what are the key success factors for successful automation and digitalization projects? Are there proven practices or strategies that companies should follow to ensure their projects are successfully implemented?
Leonard Zimmermann: According to our experience, it is crucial to start with the current ("as-is") processes. By examining a company's current processes, you can better uncover dependencies, complexities, and potentials than if you immediately begin designing the target ("to-be") structure. A positive side effect is that you engage in close exchange with all process stakeholders and gain a better understanding of their requirements and perspectives.
Another very important point is the fundamental planning at the beginning of the project. The popularity of agile approaches can lead to simply starting quickly without gaining an overview of all requirements and dependencies. Our approach is to consistently identify potential stumbling blocks at the outset and gain a fundamental overview of the requirements. For example, we clarify the basic process architecture and determine which IT systems need to be connected and how this can be achieved. Details such as the fields of a form or the color of a button should then, of course, be clarified spontaneously and in an agile manner.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: How do you see the future development of process optimization in an increasingly digitalized world? Are there specific trends or technologies that you believe will play an important role in the coming years?
Leonard Zimmermann: Digitalization drivers such as the Microsoft Power Platform will continue to gain significantly in importance. Microsoft has identified this product area as a growth field and is continuously integrating new technologies such as artificial intelligence into the Microsoft Power Platform.
Especially for small and medium-sized enterprises that do not want to map all processes in large ERP tools, this development offers a great opportunity to elevate their processes to a new level with moderate effort.
New trends and technologies such as AI naturally play a role here and open up a new range of interesting use cases. However, our experience shows that a large part of the automation potential in companies can already be realized using existing and established technologies. AI acts as a catalyst here, as it enables existing technologies to be applied more quickly and efficiently, for example by using AI directly in the development process.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Given the constantly growing volumes of data and the complexity of business processes, how can companies make optimal use of the Microsoft Power Platform to remain competitive in the future and further increase their efficiency?
Leonard Zimmermann: The advantage of the Microsoft Power Platform in handling large volumes of data and complex business processes lies in the fact that in projects we do not have to map the entire complexity at once, as is the case, for example, with SAP implementations. Instead, we can proceed incrementally and automate individual (partial) processes or map specific data sets in the form of business intelligence dashboards using Power BI. The major advantage here is the rapid achievement of effects and the increased flexibility in designing the digitalization roadmap.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: What role do you think the continuous further development of employees and teams plays in the successful implementation and use of automation and digitalization solutions?
Leonard Zimmermann: Business applications based on Power Apps or business intelligence dashboards based on Power BI are usually no greater challenge for end users than the normal use of digital technologies. They can be designed to be very intuitive and user-friendly.
When it comes to developing such solutions, experience from our training & coaching offering shows that an IT background is definitely helpful for achieving a steeper learning curve. However, this learning curve usually extends over several years. For this reason, it only makes sense for companies to invest in these skills if there is a wide range of use cases that are to be implemented with these skills. Knowledge transfer, which we offer our customers so that their developers can benefit from our experience, is a great help in this regard.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: What measures do you recommend companies take to ensure that their employees have the necessary skills and knowledge to fully exploit the potential of the Microsoft Power Platform and adapt to future challenges?
Leonard Zimmermann: The first impulse here is to think about training and coaching, which also plays a very important accompanying role. However, even more important is to implement the first smaller pilot projects as quickly and pragmatically as possible. Microsoft license packages usually include everything you need license-wise to get started. Almost every company has at least one simple use case, such as an approval process or checklists, on which you can quickly and pragmatically test the whole thing.
The impact on the way processes are viewed within a company is enormous. As soon as you have automated the first process with employees from a specialist department, they begin to view their daily work much more through the lens of automation potential and identify further opportunities. It is precisely these forces and dynamics that need to be activated.
We are here to reliably accompany companies on exactly this journey.
DIGITAL FUTUREmag: Thank you very much for this exciting and at the same time important topic for optimizing processes, especially in medium-sized companies.