Why SMEs are the biggest winners of automation
Large corporations have entire IT departments optimizing processes. As an SME with 15–50 employees, you don't have that luxury. But that's exactly what makes you more agile: where a corporation needs months for a project, you can see results in weeks.
Here are 7 processes that consume time in almost every SME – and that can be significantly accelerated with intelligent automation.
1. Answering customer inquiries
The problem: Your team answers the same questions every day – delivery status, pricing, availability, return policies. Each inquiry costs 5–15 minutes.
The solution: An AI system reads incoming emails and chat messages, identifies the request, and answers standard questions immediately. Complex cases are forwarded to the right person with all relevant information attached.
Typical time savings: 15–25 hours per week with 30+ daily inquiries.
2. Processing receipts and invoices
The problem: Invoices arrive by email, mail, and phone photos. Someone has to review them, assign them, and enter them in Bexio or Abacus. Monotonous, error-prone, time-consuming.
The solution: An AI system automatically identifies the supplier, amount, and category, assigns the booking, and prepares the entry in your accounting software. You only review special cases.
Typical time savings: 20+ hours per week, 90% fewer data entry errors.
3. Sorting and answering emails
The problem: Your inbox is a mix of customer inquiries, internal messages, spam, and important orders. Sorting alone costs time – and sometimes things slip through the cracks.
The solution: An AI system automatically categorizes incoming emails: customer inquiry, invoice, application, internal. Standard replies are prepared, urgent messages are prioritized.
Typical time savings: 5–10 hours per week.
4. Preparing quotes
The problem: A customer makes an inquiry, and someone has to analyze the request, look up prices, create the quote, and format it. This often takes hours – especially for custom requests.
The solution: An AI system analyzes the inquiry, suggests matching services and prices, and creates a draft quote. Your sales team only needs to review and personalize.
Typical time savings: 30–60 minutes per quote.
5. Syncing data between systems
The problem: Customer data in the CRM, orders in the ERP, communication in Outlook. Your team manually copies information between systems. Duplicate entries and outdated data are the result.
The solution: An AI system connects your existing tools and keeps data synchronized automatically. New customer information from emails is updated directly in the CRM.
Typical time savings: 5–10 hours per week, significantly fewer errors.
6. Scheduling and reminders
The problem: Scheduling appointments, rescheduling, confirming – the back-and-forth by email or phone eats up time. And sometimes a follow-up gets forgotten.
The solution: An AI system coordinates appointments automatically, sends reminders and follow-ups. It recognizes from emails when an appointment should be scheduled.
Typical time savings: 3–5 hours per week.
7. Internal knowledge queries
The problem: "Where's the current price list?" "What's the rule for special cases again?" "Ask Peter, he knows." – Internal knowledge lives in individual people's heads.
The solution: An AI system searches your documents, emails, and manuals and answers internal questions instantly. Like a search engine, but specifically for your company.
Typical time savings: 2–5 hours per week, faster onboarding for new employees.
The math: What does this add up to?
If you automate just three of these seven processes, you typically save 30–50 hours per week. That's almost a full-time position.
At an average hourly rate of CHF 60 (including social contributions), that's CHF 7,200–12,000 per month in freed-up capacity.
The question isn't whether automation is worth it – it's which process is slowing you down the most.
How to start?
You don't have to automate everything at once. Most SMEs start with one process, see the results, and then expand step by step.
Not sure where to begin? In a 30-minute consultation, we'll identify the process with the greatest potential together – free and non-binding.
