Think digitally

Print smartly and save

Which changes are we preparing to save on printing and reduce paper?

e will install new printers in the second half of the year, and printing rules have been revised. “We drew inspiration from the Volkswagen Group brand, where similar programmes had been running for a long time”, says Luboš Patka from FIO – IT Services, whose department is in charge of the change. The main changes are the distances between the printers and the types of devices used, as well as the transition from direct queues to the use of Print2Me. 

The changes primarily relate to the office environment. Printers will now be placed farther apart (50 metres instead of 20), and employees who like to stretch at work and do something for their health will be grateful for the few extra steps they take to collect their printed documents. The changes will also affect the placement of the A3 printers (see box), and instead of direct printing, the Print2Me print queue on multifunctional printers will be set as the default. After all, you can start using this print queue now. The advantage is that you can choose any company printer after sending the document to be printed. “If you detect an error in the document or change your mind about printing, you can easily remove the document from the queue, and unnecessary paper will no longer accumulate on the printing tray. Another advantage of Print2Me secure printing is that if you print confidential or secret documents, the system easily ensures that they do not fall into the wrong hands – everything is printed only when a user authenticates the action at the multifunctional printer”, explains Kateřina Švástová from FCZ/1 – Planning and Management of Fixed Costs.

How does the queue printing work, exactly? You send the print job (document) to the Print2Me virtual printer in your PC. You log into any multifunctional printer using your MFA card or your username and the LDAP password. After successful verification, you choose which documents you want to print or delete. Štěpán Vorlíček

Up the stairs to the large printers

The changes will also affect the location of devices used for A3 printing. They are more than twice as expensive to run and maintain as the classical “A4” versions and are used much less frequently. Only 500,000 of the total of 46 million pages printed annually are sized A3 (just over 1%). Therefore, it is enough when three floors of offices share such a printer.

Consider every single page you print

Is it really necessary to print the document? Do you need the data on paper? Everyone needs to consider this before clicking OK in the print window. We can all help to reduce printer maintenance costs and expenses for ink and paper. In modern times, there is a digital alternative for most matters, and printing is simply an established habit. Consequently, let’s learn to use online tools, read documents electronically, approve internal documents via the DigiSignature @SMART app, etc.

Logistics experts consider the environment

Brand Logistics employees have already rushed to save paper – they are striving to digitise processes and reduce printing in offices as much as possible. Today, there are 10 comprehensive digitisation projects under way to save paper. One example could be the cancellation of printing labels for the transport of internal pallets, which is replaced by the iTLS (Internal Transport Control System). In this way, Logistics has saved 874,000 sheets of paper per year. Among other things, there are also the so-called Months without Printing, and during their pilot versions, paper consumption in the Brand Logistics department fell more than 33,000 sheets.

ŠKODA Space

ow do I log in from a private computer, phone or tablet? Where can I find the number of uncompleted tasks? And which features are waiting to be run? These were your ŠKODA Space–related questions during quarantine.

Many of you struggled to connect from private devices. One of the most common reasons was not knowing the LDAP password. If you don’t have it or you don’t even know how to get it, follow Jiří Brynda’s instructions from the Internal Communication department: “Useful apps such as payroll or the menu are also available from private computers and mobile phones. However, at ŠKODA Space, everyone first has to enter a username and password. If you don’t know it, use the ‘Forgot your password?’ feature to have a link sent to your work or private e-mail, which will help you to restore it. But this is where the snag comes in: Frequently, we find out that employees don’t have a registered private e-mail address or their mobile phone in SAP, which is key for access from home. Thus, they have to go to their HR specialist or to the accounting office to ask for these two data points to be entered in the system”, he recommends. Štěpán Vorlíček

Hot news

LDAP password

You no longer need to renew it every 30 days. The deadline has been prolonged to one year. 

Favourite apps

The number has risen from 9 to 15. 

Task list

The red number now indicates the number of incomplete tasks.

News on the main page

Here, too, there are now more than before – 10 instead of six.

What’s coming up

We are working on a better search process with advanced content filtering options.

Developers are improving searches in forms and documents to eliminate clicking through on the old portal. 

Organisational structure documentation for individual areas and departments is also being prepared. 

Purchasing robots 

The Purchasing area has also contributed to simplifying routine tasks for people

obotic data processing or RPA (robotic process automation) is already being used by some departments, and the Purchasing department is launching it during these weeks. “This is an intermediate step in switching to artificial intelligence, and we’re going to use the technology for several administrative activities, especially support. They are routine, tedious and uninteresting for employees, which may lead to mistakes and people overlooking problems. A machine doesn’t do this”, says Pavlína Rábová, SVP expert from the indirect B area regarding the main advantage of this novelty. The first process, which is already under way, compares the prices of platform parts between the carmaker and the VW Group to enable them to be updated. RPA technology can also enter Web applications, corporate systems, handle Word and Excel, compile and prepare, for example, recurrent e-mail messages and send them. It is also possible to establish various lists and compare or perform analyses with each other according to pre-defined assignments. We are working on a robot to draw up contracts and prepare proposals so that buyers do not have to carry this out manually. It will modify the contracts and monitor their accuracy. “We expect robotic data processing to lead to beneficial savings in terms of time and effort that employees can devote to other, new tasks. We offer help to our buyers so that they can get rid of repetitive administrative duties and have more space for the more fundamental ones, such as purchasing strategies and price negotiations with suppliers”, Rábová adds.

The BA – General Purchasing department has introduced a chatbot for its current and new suppliers. Using a classical window and a “conversation”, the chatbot guides them to the right place on the Web or connects them with the employee they need to deal with. The Purchasing department is also planning to make use of Data Mining technology. It processes large amounts of data by clearly visualising the real process, which makes it possible to detect undesirable deviations and implement appropriate measures. Data mining will enable the carmaker to speed up the process, improve data quality and save on orders. The introduction is scheduled to take place before the end of 2020. Štěpán Vorlíček