Roland Staehli, WebAccountPlus (Holding) AG CEO and Founder: “With our solution accounting companies reduce administrative work and improve the quality of advisory.”

Every successful product or service on the market today has a history of thorough market research on rivals and consumers. It is both the first and most crucial phase of creating any product strategy.

The most effective tool for assessing your competition is market analysis. It can be useful in assessing any new rivals that might be vying for market dominance and it can also aid in gauging how your rivals will respond when you launch a new product or service.

Globally there are various companies delivering excellent market analysis services, but WebAccountPlus (Holding) AG stands out from the rest. The initiators of WebAccountPlus invested more than 5.5 years in preparatory work until the venture was finally officially founded as a holding company in November 2021. A comprehensive market analysis and assessment at home and abroad, reading specialist books and magazines, various studies and reflecting and consolidating the experiences made from its various customer mandates in the areas of corporate customers and custody have increasingly strengthened WebAccountPlus’ idea, “To create something big and sustainable”.

Of course, the countless discussions, interviews, and queries from WebAccountPlus’ circle of colleagues and acquaintances (often late into the night) also encouraged it to successively sharpen this vision, to present digitization for corporate customers not only on beautiful paper but also to present it really implement and create a “WinWin” situation for everyone involved – for example, for the bank advisor. The whole concept was meticulously designed from the start, the architecture was thought through from A-Z and the incomplete current market offerings in the area of digitization were constantly questioned with an intensive competition and actual analysis, existing good things were taken into account and new things were created from scratch.

Today WebAccountPlus offers to all its customers and partners, regardless of geographic location, company size or industry, a tailor-made perfect solution with a 360° overall company view that is second to none.

In conversation with Roland Staehli, CEO and Founder of WebAccountPlus (Holding) AG

Q. What was the motivation behind starting WebAccountPlus (Holding) AG?

Everyone had been talking about digitalisation for years - but they always meant mobile banking, payments, credit cards and mostly private customers. When we think how much money companies spend with Consultants on colourful Power Point slides without getting any actual added value, it made us sick. It seems no one really wants to take responsibility or risks and build something new. Always just quick, quick and partial solutions. Even before we have established WebAccountPlus (Holding) AG we did lots of researches to consider the business needs from the perspective of an SME, Bank Advisor, Insurance, Accounting Company, Asset Manager, Rating Agencies, Governments, World Bank, and UN Organizations. So we wanted to build something great and sustainable for the whole world so all participant of the corporate world could benefit. And that is why we can offer today in an all-in-package fully digitized SME-Solution and Advisory Suite which automates everything – not only accounting. We have built the world’s first Corporate Eco System.

Q. Can you explain about your services in brief?

Fullhouse-Accounting Services with all necessary Software for an SME such as local Accounting System, CRM, Expense and Invoice Management, Multi-Banking, Cash Management, Asset Management, Analytics, HR, Strategy Tool, ESG-Rating, Company Valuation, Industry comparison local, regional, country or continent and much more as well as our Digital Corporate Advisor (DCA) for a monthly Fix Price all included.

Q. How do you deal with the “never ending change” in digital transformation?

Well - For the first time ever in the world, it is possible to fully and sustainably digitize the entire SME ecosystem from Physical Inbox to Invoices, Expenses, Accounting, Multi-Banking, Cash Management, Asset Management, HR and Analytics to Consulting and Advisory. This also includes all printed documents for the Output Management.

In Corporate and Business Banking for instance we are years ahead with our approach. With the possibility to handle any Loan Applications from SMEs in few seconds based on real time company data (financials, sales, trends, KPI’s, strategy figures etc.) we have created extra value. This impacts an automated loan monitoring in real-time as well. On the banking or insurance side it is possible to automated product proposals the same way. Banks will save Millions of USD per year and could professionalize their Advisory to a complete new level.

Whenever a new market player launches new products in the corporate field we could start partnering and integrate those systems with accessing via SSO with low effort.

Q. Specialized consulting services come with an expensive price tag. How do you maintain your affordability and profitability?

We have rationalized and digitized the whole SME and Business Banking world including advisory. Saying that our prices are fare below average. You have to think in new dimensions. We are not IT Consultants – we bring the complete solution in one package including Accounting Services. It is mainly a Business Consulting for very specific cases where human experts are required. All the rest is covered by our own developed and configured DCA – Digital Corporate Advisor.

Q. Expertise is the first and biggest advantage of a right consultant. How do you source the right talents to maintain the quality of your services?

We are experts with business and IT experience between 15 and 45 years to cover all relevant aspects in the Holding; the organization is completely structured – lots of our partners are close friends with a wide network in the Finance and IT industry in each continent of the world. Our IT partner is based in Slovakia and also a shareholder and the owner a close friend. For Software Development we only use State of the Art Tools with full traceability from Vision, Requirements, Architecture to Testing and Code. Through our network we have started with negotiations to setup local subsidiaries – and they make sure to get the right experts onboarded. For the configuration and customisation of our rules engine, we work on a project basis with one of the top 3 management consulting firms in the world.

Q. How do you market your services?

WebAccountPlus consists of a Holding based in Switzerland providing Patent Box, Software Development and SaaS mainly in the Swiss Cloud. As we are talking we immediately are looking for strong partners from the Financial Industry to establish in a joint venture local accounting factories country by country with high end advisory. Ideally with an existing Accounting Company or a Bank or Insurance. The local company again will then acquire or merge with additional accounting companies with its end clients. They all can use the Software Package almost unlimited as white label with no extra costs – all included in the accounting fees. So ideally an SME should not bother about digitalization, accounting or finances or its interpretation at all. He could fully focus on his core business.

Q. Do you have any new services ready to be launched?

Digital Letter Box (to replace physical letters), Analytics, Asset Management, Strategies to setup Balanced Score Cards with automated monitoring - this will come soon

Q. What does the future hold for your company and its customers? Are exciting things on the way?

We are seeking for collaboration with Governments globally to implement and rollout a Business Case with the Government owned Postal Offices to digitize the whole physical letters on incoming and outgoing side as started in Switzerland. Countries need to give green lights to open and invest in Scanning Centers – so all the local companies could benefit from a full digitization of its business. There are many other things in the pipeline which we will disclose at a later stage.

Future government requirements, compliance regulations, ESG ratings for SMEs, quota regulations, Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment are generated in real time without administrative effort and costs for the SME due to a fully verified and audited database at the push of a button. This will come soon. Overall - The secure and responsible handling of sensitive data is a top priority. We are not saying that we unconditionally support this global development. But the technology is there and ready to use. With Swiss innovation and Swiss quality. We will connect to other existing platforms; will integrate further tools around financing, and investment products – for instance Cross-Border Factoring, HR-Tool, Loyalty Programs, and Job Portal etc.

Meet the leaders behind the success of WebAccountPlus (Holding) AG

Roland Stähli / Chairman, CEO & Founder

45 years in Banking and 25 years in Computer Economics, Entrepreneur for 25 years, worked for Banks, Market Data Providers, Brokers, IT Companies in Switzerland, 5 years Africa (several countries), 4 years Austria and 2 years Germany – with a private footstep in Malaysia.

Patrick Schöni / Co-Founder / Board Member

Patrick is a Swiss fintech and crypto entrepreneur and digital leader with 20+ years of professional experience in the financial industry and a strong passion for combining business innovation with the latest technologies.

Dusan Sichrovsky / CTO / Board Member

Dipl.-Ing., Master of Electrotechnics and Informatics, Czech Technical University in Prague, Requirements Engineer, Software Architect, IT Project Manager, Agile software development metohodlogies, founder and CEO of a company ranked in Deloitte Technolgy Fast 50 CE 2021.

Dr. Peter Pop / Board Member

Ph.D Business Admin, Master Economics, Master Eletr. Engineering, Chartered Accountant, Corp. Finance, Member of the International Board of Directors, Weizmann Institute of Science, CEO Athena Security, Dubai with international expansion.

Chris Skinner (Executive Business Advisor)

Chris Skinner is known as one of the most influential person in technology and a best-selling author. He is an independent commentator on the financial markets and fintech through his blog, the Finanser.com, which is updated daily. He helped to found one of the first mobile banks in the world, and has advised CEOs and leaders from every continent of the world including the United Nations, the White House, the World Bank and the World Economic Forum.

René Heusser / Board Member

René is a Certified Digital Banker and Swiss certified business data processing specialist with over 40 years experience in Supply Chain Finance, Trade Finance, Banking and Payments in Europe, USA and South America.

Michael Scherer / Board Member Switzerland

Michael is a Banking and SME-Expert; he has special skills in leadership, banking B2B, sales B2C/B2B C-Level, Project Experience, Strategy Development.

“We support corporate customers in running their business in a more transparent, plannable and profitable manner".

“SMEs are globally the key drivers of the economy and prosperity and WebAccountPlus supports them to stay focused on their core business by reducing their repetitive administrative work to a minimum.”