Digitalization consulting for Swiss SMEs.

It makes visible where time is lost in the business and turns that into a few concrete steps. We talk to the people who do the work, look at the lists, forms and programs, and map how an order, an enquiry or a job report moves through the business today.

Three things it is not. It is not IT support: printers, networks and workstations stay with your IT partner. It is not corporate strategy consulting with slides on business models: we work on processes someone will do differently tomorrow. And it is not marketing consulting: how to get more enquiries is covered by digital marketing consulting. This is about what happens after the enquiry.

It pays off where a task comes up often, details are entered more than once, or information gets stuck in one place. Typical signs: a spreadsheet several people maintain in parallel, paper job reports retyped in the office, enquiries arriving by phone, email and WhatsApp with no single place to collect them.

It does not pay off when a task occurs only a few times a month, when the process itself is not settled yet, or when the real problem is unclear responsibility. Then a template, a tidy filing structure or a clear decision does more than any software. We say so in the first conversation, even when it argues against a project.

Usually the steps between enquiry and invoice: orders, job reports, reporting and bookings. Three examples from our own projects show what that looks like.

• Orders and jobs in a trade business. For Karo Kanaltechnik we built dedicated operations software with areas for the office, the technicians and a portal for clients, plus a price calculator on the website. The web app and the iOS app for iPhone and iPad are built and in testing. More under software for trades.
• Reporting instead of spreadsheets. For CJ Recruitment we built a candidate reporting tool: instead of spreadsheets, staff and management see the same live data in one overview.
• Bookings in hospitality. Han Kitchen takes reservations online in three steps. The team manages them in an installable web app with a push notification for every new booking, planning, a guest list and CSV export. See also restaurant booking system.

What all three share: none started with a wish for «digitalization», each started with a process that cost time. More solutions from our projects are collected under Solutions.

In five steps: a first conversation, a process review, a decision per process, one small first step, then delivery and operation. Every step produces something you can keep working with, even without us.

The first conversation is free and settles whether there is anything to advise on. The process review produces a map of your processes with volumes: how often, how long, who is involved. That leads to a decision per process. Instead of tackling everything at once we start with a first step that is felt quickly, often as a web app or prototype. Only when it works in daily use does the next one follow. For operation there is maintenance at a fixed monthly price.

For most processes standard software is the right answer; a custom solution pays off where your process differs from the norm and many people work with it every day. Accounting, payroll and email you buy. The order handling of a specialist business, a portal for your clients or reporting that pulls data from several sources is often better built.

We walk through that calculation for CRM systems under CRM: buy or build. What custom development involves is described under custom software Switzerland, what it costs under software costs Switzerland.

AI helps with text work on clear templates: drafting quotes, summarising, pre-sorting enquiries. It does not help while a process is unsettled or the data sits scattered in heads and paper folders. Then classic digitalization comes first, and AI after it.

How we check and rank AI use cases is described under AI consulting. Concrete examples for small businesses are collected in AI for SMEs, automating whole processes in AI automation for SMEs.

The Swiss federal government collects information and offers on SME digitalization on its SME portal. You will find guides, checklists and pointers to federal and cantonal programmes there: kmu.admin.ch, digitalisation. Whether any support applies to your project is best clarified with the responsible office directly. We deliberately make no statements about funding amounts.

By four things: you own the code, you can get out of the solution again, operation is settled, and there are projects you can look at.

• Rights to code and data. The contract states that the source code and database belong to you and that you have access.
• A way out. Data can be exported at any time and another partner can take over.
• Operation and maintenance. Settled upfront: who installs updates, who responds to a fault and what it costs per month.
• Real projects. Ask to see running solutions, not just slides. Ours are under Works.