Our new world is a world of complete connectivity. At Lider and Hrvatski Telekom, we have always known that technology and digital tools connect us and enable us to strengthen relationships, share information, ideas, solutions, resources, to function, show solidarity, empathy, and help those in need. For many of us, life has radically changed: we work from home, many outdoor activities have been replaced by digital content, schoolchildren attend classes outside of school desks, and we communicate with loved ones exclusively by phone and through many digital applications. Thanks to a stable and fast network, many digital services, a greater amount of free data traffic, and support that we continue to provide 24 hours a day, seven days a week, we enable all our users to work, communicate, love, and entertain themselves online without leaving their homes. Connectivity allows us to live completely online both privately and professionally. When we are connected, everything is possible.
For more than fifty days, 700,000 people have been working from home, nearly 500,000 schoolchildren are learning in 49,000 virtual classrooms, and Croatian cities are silent. Business operations have faced unprecedented challenges, for which some, thanks to investments in digitalization and digital transformation, were better prepared than others. One such company is Croatian Post.
‒ We were fortunate to have implemented several projects in recent years without which adapting to business in the new conditions would have been significantly more difficult, from equipping all our postal workers with mobile devices that they use instead of delivery books to e-office operations that today allow us to conduct a large part of administrative approvals digitally, from internal manipulation of invoices to preparing files for the Management – says the CEO of Croatian Post Ivan Čulo, emphasizing that the pandemic forced us to expand the use of technology to levels that no one expected until this moment.
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A few years ago, the Post acquired 2,500 smartphones and introduced the Digital Postman application, based on the mobile network of Hrvatski Telekom, without which it would have been difficult to meet citizens’ demands for contactless delivery of packages. It also invested in the online store Žuti klik, which offered products from family farms among other standard assortments. Although online trading in peppers and onions may have seemed unusual in normal times, the crisis conditions showed that including family farms on that platform was a business success. The turnover of Žuti klik during the corona period increased by 600 percent. This does not mean that the company did not financially feel the complete halt of operations in the country. Its revenues in March fell by 11 percent compared to the plan. Therefore, it activated its crisis plan and cut costs by 13 percent. The health challenge and the protection of 10,000 employees were also obstacles for which urgent solutions had to be sought: new behavior rules had to be introduced, protective equipment procured, social distance ensured, and working hours of branches adjusted.
‒ Our business did not stop. We are one of those activities that have been conducting the crisis from the beginning in the field, under special protection conditions and working in shifts and smaller teams. Communication at the level of Management – management – administration was literally moved online in a few days. Without the technology and tools we are currently using, it would have been difficult for us to conduct business at all during these past months, especially considering the unfortunate earthquake that hit Zagreb and the significant damage to the building in Jurišićeva, where the entire management worked. Without technology, we would not have been able to continue working – Čulo is convinced.
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The severely damaged building in Jurišićeva forced three hundred employees from administration, management, and the Board to work from home. After that earthquake on March 22, everyone immediately got in touch, called, and communicated to adequately prepare for the additional changes that this event would cause in business. Digital tools enabled nothing to stop; daily meetings, implementation of new projects, and communication continued to flow normally, but they also helped restore the disrupted sense of security. The CEO of HP reveals exactly what they used to function normally.
– Of course, we used various tariffs, of course, we used the Office package, today a basic working tool not only in the Post but also in other companies. From that package for internal communication, for conducting meetings, we primarily used Microsoft Teams. We are still using it today and will probably continue for a long time. The e-office project that we started implementing a year and a half ago has helped us a lot. We are currently in the final phase of that project which has allowed management at home to prepare everything necessary for decision-making in the Management. I can emphasize that e-office operations are one of the key applications and tools that were necessary for us to continue working without having to be physically present – explains the general manager of the Post, who is also particularly pleased that employees and citizens, regardless of age, are very open to new technologies and quickly accept all technological innovations. Some employees, in fact, have thirty or forty years of service.
