All sectors · DACH

We count six hurdles visible from outside: no customer area, only a generic address, a form without reference number, fax as a contact route, outdated documents, and the company's own note that orders are handed over by hand. Across all sectors in DACH the average is 2.8 hurdles (95 %: 2.7 to 2.8), measured across 1,258 companies.

Most common is no customer area (64 %), followed by only a generic address (62 %). 3 % of companies show no visible hurdle at all.

Across sectors the range runs from 2.1 hurdles (Logistics) to 3.1 (Machining). This gap is robust.

Swiss companies show 2.2 hurdles on average, German ones 2.9; 18 % in Switzerland and 5 % in Germany offer a portal or shop.

Companies currently hiring office staff show 3.0 hurdles on average, the others 2.9. More hurdles mean more people sorting enquiries by hand.

Across all sectors in DACH, 108 companies are currently hiring for back office, order processing, accounting or project coordination, 271 roles in total. We re-confirmed 67 of them on the website in recent weeks; the rest may already be filled.

Among these companies, 71 % use Microsoft 365, 38 % state that orders are handed over by hand, and 10 % offer customers a portal or shop.

Handover by hand at companies hiring office staff: 38 % (± 9 points), 19 points more than at companies without office roles (19 %). The gap exceeds measurement uncertainty.

Most sought are Order processing and back office (70), Project management (52), Site management (39). These are exactly the roles where enquiries, orders and follow-ups converge.

Across all sectors in DACH we checked 1,313 of 1,496 companies for features. 69 % of companies with an identified mail route use Microsoft 365 (± 3 points). 4 % show a customer portal; the gap between tool and customer route is 65 points.

Equipment grows with size: 4 % of companies with 10 bis 49 staff show a portal, versus 15 % at 250 und mehr. We detect 2.9 versus 4.0 systems per company on average.

285 companies state their size themselves, on the website or in the register. Only these can be compared by size.

Handover by hand at 50 to 249 staff: 41 % (± 9 points), 20 points more than companies with 250 or more (21 %). The gap exceeds measurement uncertainty.

Compared with small companies: 41 % (± 9 points). That is within measurement accuracy of 10 to 49 staff (26 %).

In tools, however, the middle almost matches the large: 74 % use Microsoft 365 versus 67 %.

For 154 companies across all sectors in DACH we know the authorised representatives from the commercial register. In 49 of them the same person has been in office for 15 years or more, 17 years on median. 78 companies registered a change in recent years; their handover has already happened.

One might expect companies facing a handover to lag on the customer route. The data does not show that: 3.2 hurdles with long-serving leadership, 3.3 with newer leadership. Succession is its own issue, not a sign of less digitalisation.

This holds for the part of the dataset with a register match and recorded leadership, 10 % of all companies. Swiss companies are barely included because their register is accessed differently.

In the last half-year we read 142 trade articles across all sectors and classified them by topic. 51 are about digitalisation. Meanwhile 7 % of 1,313 checked companies offer customers a portal or shop.

Automation grew most (5 to 11 % of articles), followed by Costs (4 to 9 %). At 142 articles per half-year none of these movements is statistically robust; they show a direction, not proof.

A company's MX record in DNS reveals where its mail lives. 755 German companies have an identifiable mail route; 70 % of them use a US-based provider, mostly Microsoft 365.

In Switzerland: 99 % (± 2 points), 29 points more than Germany (70 %). The gap exceeds measurement uncertainty.

37 companies run Exchange on premises. That is US software too, but the data stays in-house. Running your own mail means keeping it up to date yourself (see the security chapter).

25 companies in the dataset visibly run their own Exchange server. 19 reveal their version. 10 run Exchange 2013, 2016 or 2019; these versions receive no security updates since 14 October 2025 (2013: since April 2023). 9 have moved to the current Exchange SE.

The number is small, so we show no percentages and no sector split. It does show a pattern that authorities also describe.

We compare postcode areas with at least 30 companies . That is 7 areas; our dataset is densest in southern Bavaria and central Switzerland.

Microsoft 365 ranges from 43 % (DE-82 · um Gauting) to 91 % (CH-60 · um Luzern). The gap is robust and points to regional IT providers rather than company attitudes.

Customer-route hurdles range between 1.9 and 3.1 across areas.

From trade articles and association pages we recorded rules with a fixed deadline and grouped them by subject. 8 fall within the next four months: EU Machinery Regulation (20 Oct 2026), Heating Costs Ordinance (31 Dec 2026), EU Machinery Regulation (1 Jan 2027), E-invoicing (1 Jan 2027).

We read publicly available sources: company websites (home, legal notice, contact, careers), DNS and mail routes, public certificate logs, commercial registers and the Swiss UID register, job ads, and trade media and association pages per sector. Every finding is stored with its source.

The dataset covers 1,496 companies, mostly in southern Bavaria and central Switzerland. It is our research, not a representative sample; sectors and regions are covered with different density. That is why every number carries its denominator.

We show shares only from 30 companies in the denominator, below that as "x of n". Cells under 3 companies are not published, company names never. Every share carries a 95 % Wilson band. We call a difference higher or lower only when the bands do not overlap.

Not found does not mean not there. Internal systems without a trace online are invisible; ERP, CRM and portals are therefore underestimated, hurdles rather complete because they are publicly visible. Register data can be outdated.

The worker measures daily; this page takes over values hourly. From the second reading onwards we show trends.