References & case studies

When consulting, experience and implementation fit together,
good results follow.

Case studies from ten industries, each with the starting point, the solution and a worked example in euros. Choose your industry and see what is possible in comparable businesses.

Projects over more than 25 years
1,000+
Projects over more than 25 years
Companies and institutions
350+
Companies and institutions
Industries with case studies
10
Industries with case studies

Case studies

Results from practice.

What changes when processes, data and people work together.

Case studies by industry

Opportunities exist in every industry.

Choose your industry. Each case study shows the problem, solution, result and a worked example including funding and payback.

32
Case studies
€109,742
Ø effect per year
€9,214
Ø funding
3.1 mo.
Ø payback
  • Screenshot of a configurator on screenMechanical & plant engineering
    Sales & CRMProduct configurator + CRM

    Quotations for special machines in one day instead of five

    Saxony · 60 employees

    Problem
    Every quotation went through engineering. Variants were calculated by hand, quotations took five to eight days, and enquiries went to faster competitors.
    Solution
    A quotation configurator maps the technical dependencies as a set of rules. The finished quotation lands in the CRM with all its data, and sales follows up automatically.
    Result
    Quotations go out on the same or the next day. Previously only the owner could do the final costing; today even the trainee can. Engineering has around a third more time for orders instead of quotations.
  • Service technician at the plantMechanical & plant engineering
    Scaling with AITicketing system + automation

    Maintenance contracts now renew almost by themselves

    Bavaria · 85 employees

    Problem
    Service requests came in by phone and email, maintenance appointments were kept in Excel. Contracts expired without anyone following up.
    Solution
    Service tickets and maintenance contracts run in the CRM. Customers automatically receive reminders and renewal offers, and technicians see their jobs on mobile.
    Result
    More maintenance contracts renewed, without an additional position in the internal sales team.
  • Internal sales team with a quotation draftMechanical & plant engineering
    Reducing cost pressureAI document recognition + ERP integration

    Spare-part enquiries without retyping

    Saxony · 40 employees

    Problem
    The internal sales team transferred every spare-part enquiry from emails and PDFs into the ERP by hand. During holidays, enquiries piled up.
    Solution
    An AI reads the enquiries, recognises part numbers and creates a quotation draft in the ERP. The internal sales team only checks and approves.
    Result
    Most enquiries are processed without retyping, with a response time of under one day.
  • Owner and successor in conversationMechanical & plant engineering
    Securing successionProcess documentation + CRM

    Costing knowledge taken out of the owner's head

    Thuringia · 35 employees

    Problem
    Costing and important customer relationships depended on the owner. For a sale or a handover, this meant a considerable discount.
    Solution
    Costing logic, customer history and core processes are documented and mapped in the system. The successor works with the same tools.
    Result
    Handover to the successor within nine months, without customers dropping away.
  • Bathroom planning on a tabletSkilled trades & construction
    Sales & CRMPlanning configurator for sanitary work + CRM

    From phone call to quotation in 48 hours

    Saxony · 22 employees

    Problem
    Enquiries came in by phone, WhatsApp and email. Some got lost, and quotations took up to two weeks.
    Solution
    Customers plan their bathroom online beforehand, the enquiry lands sorted in the CRM, and quotation templates shorten the costing.
    Result
    Quotations within 48 hours and noticeably more orders from the same enquiries.
  • Conservatory, exterior viewSkilled trades & construction
    Sales & CRMPlanning configurator + appointment booking

    Fewer wasted trips in conservatory sales

    Bavaria · 15 employees

    Problem
    Field sales drove to appointments where budget and expectations did not match.
    Solution
    Prospects put their conservatory together online and see a price range. Only then do they book an appointment.
    Result
    Noticeably fewer wasted trips; field sales sit with customers who really want to buy.

Your industry is not listed, or do you want to see your own figures? In the initial conversation we will show you a suitable project and run a rough calculation of your example.

Book an initial conversation →

How we calculate

How does the figure in the worked example come about?

Every case study follows the same logic. This lets you compare projects and assess them for your own business.

Investment
Consulting and implementation, fixed scope.
Funding
A grant covered by the state. Up to €5,600 for the consulting and up to 60% for the implementation are possible.
Own contribution
Investment minus funding.
Effect per year
Costs saved or additional contribution margin, calculated conservatively.
Payback
Own contribution divided by the monthly effect.

Worked example

Investment
€30,000
− Funding (50%)
€15,000
= Own contribution
€15,000
Effect per year
€60,000

Payback

3 months

€15,000 ÷ (€60,000 ÷ 12) = 3 months

Your route to your own case study

How does your problem become a result in euros?

Three steps, each usable on its own, and each building on the previous one.

  1. 1

    Digital check-up

    In about 15 minutes you see which of the 5 levers is ahead in your business, with a first figure in euros.

    €30 plus VAT

  2. 2

    Strategy

    We analyse your strongest lever and draw up the business case with prioritised use cases.

    eligible for funding up to €5,600

  3. 3

    Implementation

    Together with your team, we implement the 4 use cases with the greatest leverage.

    Go-live in 8–12 weeks

Voices from client projects

What decision-makers say about working with us.

Quotes translated from the German originals.

Portrait of WIK Immobilien
Thank you for the changeover of our systems. We can now support our customers even more effectively. Many thanks
WIK ImmobilienClient testimonial
  • Portrait of Alexander Erdmann
    Alexander ErdmannCeleritas 8 GmbH
    We have already carried out several projects with ivato, with and without funding. We appreciate that ivato not only advises but can also implement technical projects straight away when it makes sense.
  • Portrait of Jürgen Brandt
    Jürgen BrandtERGO AG
    A heartfelt recommendation: unconventional approaches to the whole topic of digitalisation. Exciting ideas that everyone should think about. Thank you, Matthias!
  • Portrait of Marco Neef
    Marco NeefPaone GmbH
    Mr Schneider and his team are an absolute recommendation, especially in the field of consulting and automation, which is so important for our mid-sized company. Thank you very much!
  • Portrait of Prof. Gerhard Sahner
    Prof. Gerhard SahnerDresdner Cetelem Kreditbank
    Matthias Schneider is an entrepreneur through and through, with what is almost digital blood in his veins. Through analytical thinking and digital understanding, he and his team quickly grasp processes and map them digitally. Customer- and process-oriented, Matthias Schneider and his team made a substantial contribution to the success of our e-commerce business in several joint projects and supported me in expanding online sales during my time at Commerz Finanz and later at Klarna. I can recommend Matthias Schneider without reservation for rebuilding your own digital structure, and I very much look forward to reviving our collaboration.
  • Portrait of Matthias Lange
    Matthias LangeLEX Explosionsschutzberatung GmbH
    The perfect system if you don't want to lose time on experiments! Mr Schneider and his team accompanied me with advice and implementation after I started out on my own. For him, there is no such thing as “it can't be done”. In my field, that is an important point that often decides over great value. His team and his technical understanding contributed very strongly to our company developing into what it is now. Thank you, and here's to many more years of working together.
  • Portrait of Christian Ullrich & Daniel Gerlach
    Christian Ullrich & Daniel GerlachLatte Art World Champion / German Champion · Founders & Owners of Seven Hills Coffee Roasters GmbH
    Recommended without reservation.
  • Portrait of Felix Hofmann
    Felix Hofmannmedl GmbH
    Since the changeover of our ERP, CRM and delivery order processes, thousands of new customers have found the right contract and the right electricity and natural gas supply through the new digital channels.
  • Yves TschenscherAWO Lausitz Bundesverband
    Mr Schneider and his team support AWO Lausitz on our path into digitalisation. We can recommend Mr Schneider and his team with a clear conscience.
  • Portrait of Christian Dubiel
    Christian DubielSWBW GmbH
    Thanks to your support, ivato, we have created a powerful digitalised IT landscape with an internal and external focus. I hope you will continue to help us write the success story of our green industrial town on the lake.
  • Portrait of Alexander Wyk
    Alexander Wyk“4mal4” Versicherungen
    We appreciate the straightforward, solution-oriented way of working and the resourcefulness in our collaboration, and we are happy to recommend ivato.
  • PersoQua AGClient testimonial
    To meet growing demand and to make the process as effective as possible for everyone involved, we decided to digitise our processes. Together with Matthias Schneider and his team, we optimised our complex workflows and digitised them to a large extent. Automating the constantly recurring tasks and responsibilities in particular saves our consultants a great deal of time. We now achieve significantly more in less time and can therefore make an ever greater contribution in future. When it comes to digital processes, we can only warmly recommend Mr Schneider and the ivato team.
  • Dr. Tobias R.Managing director of a dental laboratory chain, 130 employees
    The finance dashboard finally helped us keep an overview. We used to be constantly in Excel; now I see all open items and cash flow up to date every day. In the head session with Lana Schneider, I only realised that numbers also mean freedom. To be honest, she gave me quite a talking-to. That was exactly what was needed.
  • Laura G.Head of customer service, e-commerce, 15 employees
    We have now been using the AI email assistant for a month. Support enquiries are sorted and answered automatically. That has certainly saved us two working hours a day, and customers finally get answers immediately.
  • Michael S.Managing director of a parts manufacturer, 40 employees
    I was sceptical about the whole AI topic, but the knowledge base was a hit. Everyone now finds what they need straight away: contracts, processes, SOPs. It saves me queries from the team every day, and I can finally get back to the business.
  • Sabine L.Owner of a consulting agency, 12 employees
    Within two weeks, we digitised our entire quotation process with the ivato team. We used to create everything manually; today it happens automatically, including digital signature. I certainly save an hour per quotation.
  • Christian M.Managing director of a trades business, 22 employees
    Scanning receipts via WhatsApp was the game changer for us. Everyone in the field sends in their receipts, and the AI sorts everything straight away. No more chaos of slips of paper, no more queries. In the CEO head coaching with Lana Schneider, it then clicked; sometimes you simply need the push to finally get moving.
  • Hartmut P.Spiess Urania GmbH
    As a traditional company whose roots go back to 1815, we are one of the market leaders in the production and use of copper salts in crop protection and industrial chemicals. Mr Schneider and his team have been accompanying us since 2008 in planning and implementing our digital strategy. We value ivato as a reliable and resourceful partner and can recommend Mr Schneider without reservation.

    Source: ivato white paper 2022, p. 23

  • Fabian v. L.First Class & More
    As a pioneer of the digital info business, we help our discerning clientele obtain the best terms and advantages compared with conventional travel. Together we developed our complex digital platforms, with which we look after our customers online and have been able to expand our success as market leader. Matthias Schneider and his team contributed a decisive part to this.

    Source: ivato white paper 2022, p. 23

Frequently asked questions

Questions about case studies and results.

Your question is not here? In the initial conversation we take 30 minutes for your specific topic.

We have successfully supported more than 1,000 projects across many industries. The ten industries above are the most common. If yours is not among them, we will show you a comparable project in the initial conversation, usually from a business with similar processes.

Not one to one. Each case study shows the calculation logic: investment, funding, own contribution and effect per year. We calculate your own figures with your values in the Digital check-up or in the strategy consulting.

In the examples shown, the own contribution has usually paid back within a year. What matters is your starting process and the lever chosen. We clarify this in a business case in euros before any investment.

No. In the implementation we put the four use cases with the greatest economic leverage into practice, in eight to twelve weeks. You decide on further steps afterwards.

Then the project has to pay for itself without a grant, otherwise we do not recommend it. Funding only shortens the payback. Whether and how much is possible, we check with you before the project starts.

Yes, on request we put you in touch with a customer from a comparable industry, provided they agree.

Should your company be the next case study?

In the free initial conversation we look at your business, show a comparable project and run a rough calculation of your example, including funding.

Free · 20 minutes · online