Why Do SMEs Need Digitalization?

Imagine you run a 20-person tech company. Your team experiences these scenarios daily:

• The manager asks, “How are last month’s OKRs progressing?” — no one can answer immediately
• A project is behind schedule — but no one knows which step is blocked
• The weekly team meeting runs for 2 hours — but no clear conclusions or action items emerge
• New client data is scattered across every salesperson’s notebook — when someone leaves, you have to re-learn the client landscape
• A colleague is out for 3 days — nobody knows where their work left off

If 3 or more of these describe your situation, your company needs to go digital.

This isn’t a problem only large companies face. In fact, SMEs need digitalization even more — because your resources are limited, and every wasted minute hurts more. After helping several 10–50 person teams set up digital workspaces with Feishu, the most common result was: saving 15–20 hours of management time per week — equivalent to adding one extra person to the team.

If you want to get started quickly without months of trial and error, my Feishu Operations Template Bundle includes 20+ ready-to-use templates covering nearly every scenario you’ll need in your operations.

Feishu vs. Other Collaboration Tools

There are so many collaboration tools on the market — why do I recommend Feishu?

Direct Comparison Table

Why Feishu Wins on “All-in-One”

Most teams’ collaboration tool stack looks like a jigsaw puzzle: Slack for messaging, Google Docs for writing, Asana for projects, Calendly for scheduling, Airtable for databases. Nothing talks to anything, and employees switch between 5 platforms — and that switching itself is a massive time drain.

Feishu’s advantage is that it integrates all these features into a single platform. Your chat history, documents, meetings, projects, and calendar are all connected. When you mention “that project” in chat, you can open the project page directly; conclusions discussed in a meeting can be converted into assigned tasks with one click.

This isn’t about “having lots of features” — it’s about having your entire workflow connected.

7-Day Setup Plan

Don’t try to do everything at once. Here’s a battle-tested 7-day setup plan, focusing on one core module per day:

Day 1: Team Foundation Setup

Task Checklist:

• Create the Feishu workspace, set company logo and name
• Build department structure (Engineering, Product, Marketing, Sales, Operations)
• Import all members, set roles and permissions
• Create basic channels: #announcements, #general, #random

Time: ~1 hour

Day 1 is about laying the foundation. Many teams skip this and jump straight into features, but the quality of your base setup determines how well all subsequent tools integrate.

Day 2: OKR System Setup

Task Checklist:

• Create company-level OKR template (using our OKR template)
• Set up Q3/Q4 Objectives and Key Results
• Build department-level OKRs for each team
• Set OKR check-in frequency (weekly recommended)

Time: ~2 hours

OKR is the “command center” of your digital workspace. With OKRs in place, every project and task can be traced back to your company’s strategic goals. No more “what is this project even for?” confusion.

Day 3: Project Management Kanban

Task Checklist:

• Create a project Kanban board for each project
• Set project workflow: To Do → In Progress → In Review → Done
• Assign project owners and task owners
• Set project deadlines and milestones

Time: ~2 hours

Project management is one of Feishu’s most powerful features. Its built-in Kanban (project management tables in Lark Docs) lets you see the progress of all projects without switching to other tools.

Day 4: Meeting Management System

Task Checklist:

• Set recurring schedules for weekly standing meetings
• Create meeting templates (including: last week review, this week goals, issues discussion, action items)
• Set up automatic meeting minutes formatting
• Train the team to use the “task assignment” feature during meetings

Time: ~1.5 hours

Good meetings and good documentation are different things. A meeting is “where decisions are made”; meeting notes are “the evidence for tracking decisions.” With Feishu, you can generate structured meeting minutes directly during meetings and automatically create action item trackers.

Day 5: CRM Customer Management

Task Checklist:

• Create a customer database (using the CRM template)
• Set the customer status pipeline: Prospect → In Contact → Quoting → Closed
• Set customer assignment rules for the sales team
• Set up the sales dashboard

Time: ~2 hours

CRM is the most underestimated module in Feishu. Its spreadsheet functionality offers database management similar to Airtable, and it integrates seamlessly with chat and documents. Your sales team no longer needs to switch between Excel and CRM.

Day 6: Document Management and Knowledge Base

Task Checklist:

• Build the company knowledge base structure (organized by department and topic)
• Import existing documents (if any)
• Set document permission management
• Create an “New Hire Onboarding Guide” for each department

Time: ~1.5 hours

The knowledge base is the company’s “brain.” A good knowledge base lets new hires find everything they need on day one, without having to ask colleagues one by one.

Day 7: Automation Setup

Task Checklist:

• Set up automatic OKR progress reminders (every Friday)
• Set up automatic notifications for overdue projects
• Set up automatic new customer assignment
• Create common forms (leave requests, expense reports, procurement)

Time: ~2 hours

Day 7 is the most valuable day. Once automation is set up, it runs on its own without anyone needing to maintain it. That’s the true “return” of digitalization — not more tools, but “fewer repetitive management tasks.”

Essential Template Checklist

Based on my experience helping multiple teams, these 4 templates are the “minimum viable set” for SME operations:

1. OKR Tracking Template

Not just “writing down goals” — but building a complete OKR tracking loop:

• Company-level OKR dashboard
• Department-level OKR tracking tables
• Weekly OKR progress update template
• Quarterly OKR review template

With OKRs, you no longer need inefficient practices like “weekly progress check-ins.” Progress is automatically reflected in the OKR tables.

2. Project Management Template

• Project initialization checklist
• Project Kanban board (with custom status columns)
• Project risk tracking table
• Project closeout report template

The key to project management isn’t “listing tasks” — it’s “seeing the big picture.” A good template lets you assess a project’s health in 30 seconds.

3. Meeting Notes Template

• Pre-meeting template (auto-sent before the meeting)
• Meeting notes template (with action item tracking)
• Post-meeting follow-up table

The most overlooked aspect of meeting notes is “follow-up.” Action items generated after a meeting need a dedicated place to be tracked — they shouldn’t get lost in chat history.

4. CRM Customer Management Template

• Customer database (with company info, contacts, interaction history)
• Sales funnel dashboard
• Customer tier management
• Close review template

CRM’s most important role is “don’t let customer data live in just one person’s head.” When someone changes roles, takes leave, or even leaves the company, the customer data remains.

Our Feishu Operations Template Bundle includes all 4 of these templates plus 16 additional ones, priced at just $29 — far less than the cost of hiring a consultant for a month.

How to Set Up Automation Flows

The final and most critical step of digitalization is automation. Here are the three most commonly set up automation flows:

Automation 1: OKR Progress Auto-Tracking

Every Friday at 5 PM, automatically message each OKR owner: “Please update your OKR progress.” Sounds small, but it eliminates a massive amount of “reminding everyone to update OKRs” management overhead.

Setup: Use Feishu’s built-in Automation Bot — set a weekly trigger → find all OKR records that haven’t been updated → automatically send messages.

Automation 2: Project Overdue Auto-Notification

When a project deadline is within 3 days and the task is not yet complete, automatically notify the project owner and manager.

Setup: Set a conditional trigger → check project status and deadline → if the condition is met, send a message to relevant people.

Automation 3: New Customer Auto-Organization

When a salesperson adds a new customer record in the CRM, automatically:

1. Send a welcome message to the #sales channel
2. Assign the customer to the relevant salesperson
3. Generate a new customer introduction template

Setup: When a new row is added to the CRM table → trigger message notification and task assignment.

How Much Time Can the Feishu Templates Save You?

Let’s say you run a 20-person team. Here’s how much time is spent monthly on management tasks:

37 hours/month ≈ nearly one full-time employee’s capacity. Our template bundle is $49 — translating to less than $1.50 per hour. This isn’t an investment; it’s basically free.

More importantly, these templates aren’t just about “saving time” — they ensure your management processes are “just as good every time.” Not dependent on any one person’s ability, but guaranteed by the system.

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Reading time: ~15 minutes | Last updated: July 25, 2026