aumico AG currently focuses on two target groups. The first of these groups is accountants, who are responsible for preparing the annual financial statements of 90% of SMEs. The second group is medium-sized SMEs with their own finance departments that prepare the reports and annual financial statements for their companies and subsidiaries in Switzerland and abroad.
Involving SME-relevant stakeholders such as banks and tax authorities makes downstream processes more efficient, and even allows aumico to offer new SME-relevant services such as financing and company valuations.
Questions for Chris Zurbrügg, CEO of aumico AG:
What is your vision for your company?
Our vision is to develop a platform that connects SMEs with the relevant internal and external stakeholders. Companies have their financial data in a secure place and can access it anytime, anywhere. Our focus is on annual financial statements, which are required by banks or tax authorities, as well as on financial reports for internal stakeholders such as the board of directors and management. We aim to use intelligent software to make the processes surrounding these financial reports more efficient and generate benefits for both SMEs and accountants. These could include cost savings through more efficient processes, for example, or simplified access to financing or advice.
In your view, which countries have the greatest (export) potential?
Countries with strong players in ERP and accounting solutions that pursue strategic partnerships in the area of financial reporting have the greatest potential as far as we’re concerned. We are the perfect complement for these providers, and our simple, flexible solution allows us to optimize reporting and the creation of annual financial statements for their customers. Essentially, we are interested in all countries where companies have to prepare mandatory annual financial statements for the authorities. We can easily add to the country standards in our application and tap into new markets. We are currently focusing on German-speaking Europe, as well as England and South Africa.
What are your next steps in terms of internationalization?
Starting next year, we will be taking over some of the reports from Germany’s largest provider of accounting solutions, meaning that we will be partially replacing their current reporting system for Germany and Austria. We are also working on optimizing financial reporting for Swiss SMEs with foreign subsidiaries. We are harmonizing the reporting process and automating annual financial statements in accordance with foreign standards. These also need to be prepared for the parent company in accordance with the Swiss Code of Obligations, before then being consolidated within the group. We are constantly looking for new collaborations with major international accounting solutions so we can integrate into their marketplaces. This makes us more accessible to SMEs and accountants who use these accounting solutions.
Which product/service/company achievement are you particularly proud of?
We launched the automated creation of annual financial statements on the Swiss market. We are constantly developing this product to make the process even easier. Inquiries have shown us that financial reporting is also a very interesting topic for SMEs. Many companies use Excel for their reporting. The underlying data comes from their accounting functions – usually at account level. We have developed aumico in such a way that users can set up their own reporting structures. This makes aumico much more flexible and attractive to all of the SMEs that currently use Excel. I’m very proud of this feature and excited to see how it will develop further.
How can S-GE support your company? What are the challenges you’re currently facing?
With its valuable foreign relationships, S-GE can help us to develop relevant contacts in foreign markets. One example that comes to mind here is tax authorities. Of course, there are many other opportunities for entering new markets which are attractive to us. Our current challenge is to quickly evaluate the potential of foreign markets and decide whether it is worthwhile investing our time there, since our resources are limited.
