Custom or off-the-shelf business software? How to choose in 2026.

At a glance

• There are four routes: stick with Excel, off-the-shelf software, AI added to the software you already have, or custom business software. Keeping what you have is a serious option.
• For Swiss companies, the biggest brake on AI is scattered, poor-quality data.
• Among business software users in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, 57% consider AI very important, but only 1.8% use it extensively or regularly.
• Before you sign, get it in writing who owns the code and the data.

Take a six-person joinery, for example. Jobs are tracked in an Excel file, quotes live in Word and hours go into a notebook hanging on the workshop wall. It all works, because Paola in the office knows where everything is. Then Paola is off sick for three weeks, and for the first time the owner wonders whether it’s time for off-the-shelf business software or something custom-built.

In reality there are four routes, and one of them is changing nothing.

When Excel is no longer enough: the signs

Excel isn’t the enemy. For a three-person business with a handful of regular clients, a well-kept spreadsheet is often the right choice. It becomes a problem when things like this start happening:

• the same information is typed in two or three times: in the quote, the job sheet and the invoice;
• only one person knows where everything is, and when they’re away, the office slows down;
• a simple question, like “how much have we invoiced this client this year?”, takes half an hour to answer;
• there are three versions of the same file, and nobody is sure which one is the latest;
• your software forces you to work its way, and the team works around it with separate spreadsheets.

If two or more of these sound familiar, it’s worth looking at the alternatives. If none do, you can stop reading here.

For a sense of scale, you have to look across the border. In the European Union in 2025, 41% of businesses with 10 to 49 employees used integrated business software (ERP), compared with 89% of large companies1. Switzerland isn’t included, and neither are companies with fewer than ten people, which make up 89.8% of all businesses here2. In our experience, for many of them the “business software” is a mix of Excel sheets, emails and notebooks.

Four routes, not two

The choice is usually presented as “off-the-shelf or custom”. In practice, there are four routes.

The four routes compared

Route	When it makes sense	The repetitive work	Costs and code
Excel and paper	A few people, a few clients, nobody retypes anything	You do it	Your people’s time
Off-the-shelf software	Your work looks like that of many companies in your sector	You do it, with some help	Licences or a subscription, modules, integrations. The vendor owns the code
AI in the software you have	Your software works and the team knows how to use it	AI prepares, you approve	Your existing software, plus the automation. The software still belongs to the vendor
Custom business software	You juggle Excel, paper and programs that don’t talk to each other	The software prepares, with AI where needed, and you approve	Maintenance and, if there is one, a fee. The code is yours, if the contract says so

Keeping what you have

It’s the route nobody will sell you, because there’s nothing to invoice. Sometimes tidying up is enough: one file instead of three, a shared folder, a clear rule on who updates what.

Off-the-shelf business software

A ready-made program, with a licence or a subscription. You’re up and running quickly, with low upfront costs. The risk is adapting your business to the software, instead of the other way round.

AI in the software you have

If your software works, you keep it and add AI to it: it reads emails and PDFs, fills in records and flags anything that doesn’t add up. It might be bexio, Odoo, FileMaker or even just Excel. Nobody has to learn a new program, and it’s the fastest route.

Custom business software

It’s built around the way you work, with the screens you need and the terms your team actually uses. It also makes sense when your work follows rules only you know. You don’t build it all at once: you start with the module that matters most and expand when you need to.

The cost the quote doesn’t show

For more than twenty years, the German firm Trovarit has asked users every two years to rate their business software. The survey published in September 2026 gathered 1,538 ratings from companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Users remain satisfied, though slightly less so than in 2024. Among everyday problems, running costs come first (23%), followed by integration with other programs (19%)3.

These are exactly the costs the quote doesn’t show. Before you choose, list them all:

• licences or subscriptions for all the users and modules you actually need;
• migrating the data from your current setup, and who does it;
• integrations with accounting, e-banking, email and your website;
• the hours it takes to learn the program, multiplied by the number of people;
• every future change: who makes it and at what price;
• the hours your team will still spend retyping data.

Then add it all up over five years, not just the first. Software that’s cheap at the start but leaves you retyping data for five years isn’t cheap.

AI in business software: much talked about, little used

The same survey sums it up in two figures.

The rest are watching from the sidelines: around 41% of companies are still gathering information, 10% are preparing a concrete project and 27% have no plans3.

The technology isn’t what’s holding things back. In May 2026, EY asked 604 people at Swiss companies what is slowing AI down: top of the list is poor-quality data scattered across different places (20%), followed by security and data protection (19%), then a lack of specialists (18%)4. The sample leans towards large companies (more than half of respondents work at companies with over 1,000 employees), but in an SME the problem of scattered data shows up every day.

AI works well when the data lives in one place. Get organised first, then automate.

In practice, AI inside business software reads an order that arrives by email and turns it into line items with your price list codes. It prepares a reorder when stock drops below the threshold. It answers a question like “which orders are running late?” and shows you where it got the data. It prepares; a person approves. To choose the first task to hand over to it, use the three-question test from our guide to AI automation for SMEs.

Custom business software: who owns the code and the data

Whichever route you choose, the data remains yours, and so does the responsibility.

• Ten years. Accounting records and documents must be kept for ten years. They can be stored electronically, provided they remain consistent with the underlying transactions and can be read at any time (Code of Obligations, Art. 958f)5. If you change software three years from now, you still need to be able to open today’s data.
• The provider that processes data for you. Under the revised Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP, nLPD in Italian), anyone processing personal data on your behalf, such as the provider of your cloud software, must be bound by a contract, must guarantee data security and may only pass the work on to others with your authorisation (Art. 9)6.
• The fine is personal. Anyone who intentionally entrusts data to a provider without these conditions in place faces a fine of up to CHF 250,000, prosecuted on complaint (Art. 61)6. As a rule, it’s the responsible individual who is fined, not the company.

This isn’t legal advice: for your specific case, ask your fiduciary or a lawyer.

Then there’s the code. With off-the-shelf software it belongs to the vendor, and that’s normal. With custom software, ask in writing who owns it. With us, it stays yours: if one day you want someone else to look after it, you can.

Two real examples: Vini Rovio and Officine Cameroni

Officine Cameroni: construction sites, no AI

Officine Cameroni, in Barbengo, works on several construction sites at once. Planning lived in Excel, and every change had to be recalculated by hand. The software we delivered sets the hours needed on each site against the hours available, across permanent staff, external crews and casual workers, by week, month and year. An overloaded week shows up immediately, even after something unexpected, and the software suggests how to replan the work; what to move is up to the planner.

There’s no AI here, and none was needed: what it took was solid calculations and data in one place. Proof that not everything needs AI.

Vini Rovio: everything in one dashboard

At the Vini Rovio winery, sales, tastings, events, the diary and the catalogue each ran separately. Today the website in four languages, the online shop and the day-to-day management all sit in a single dashboard. Tastings are booked from a calendar of available slots, the winery confirms and the email goes out in the customer’s language. Nobody has to call a developer to change anything.

You’ll find both projects, with screenshots, on our automation projects page.

If you’re not sure which of the four routes is right for you, start with your spreadsheets. In a free 30-minute consultation, at your office if you’re in Ticino or online, we’ll look at how you work and tell you which route makes sense. Even when that means keeping what you have.

Sources

1. Larger enterprises used more e-business apps in 2025. Eurostat, 20 May 2026. EU enterprises with at least 10 employees.
2. Schweizer KMU: Eine Analyse der aktuellen Zahlen, Ausgabe 2026 (in German). OBT and the University of St. Gallen (KMU-HSG), 2026. Provisional Federal Statistical Office STATENT data for 2023.
3. Studie ERP in der Praxis 2026/27: ERP-Anwender bleiben zufrieden, doch die Kritik wird lauter (in German). Trovarit AG press release, published by itiko.de, 21 September 2026. 1,538 installations rated in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
4. Artificial intelligence widely established in Swiss companies, but many are still in the early stages of scaling. EY Switzerland, survey of 604 respondents, 27 May 2026.
5. Swiss Code of Obligations (CO), SR 220. Fedlex. Art. 958f, keeping and retention of accounting records.
6. Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP), SR 235.1. Fedlex, in force since 1 September 2023. Art. 9 and 61.

Written by Alexandru Ciobanu. Sources checked on 22 September 2026. If you spot a figure that doesn’t add up, email us at info@digitam.ch.