---
titel: "NextEra Copilot: digital due diligence · SACOSI"
url: https://sacosi.ch/en/nextera-copilot
seite: /en/nextera-copilot
stand: 2026-09-27
beschreibung: "Digitalisation audit for selling, handing over or buying a company: each core process rated from 1 to 5, plus a departure plan for the handover."
---

> Knowledge version of the page https://sacosi.ch/en/nextera-copilot. It contains the full text, including what is shortened or collapsible on the page itself. Publisher: SACOSI, Situational Awareness Consulting by Ivo Schönberner, Zürich.

# How digital is this company really?

**Short answer:** NextEra Copilot is a digitalisation audit for companies that are sold, handed over or bought. It examines what classic due diligence misses: how digitalised and documented the processes really are. Each core process receives a level from 1 to 5; the result is an overall score and a departure plan for the handover.

## For everyone who hands over, takes over or buys a company.

Wherever a company changes hands, or is preparing to.

- **Owners who sell:** make the value visible and close gaps before approaching buyers.
- **Owners handing over:** to the next generation, with knowledge in the system instead of in heads.
- **Successors:** take over with a plan instead of in the fog.
- **Buyers and investors:** see risks and dependencies before signing.

## What classic due diligence misses.

Finances, law, tax, contracts and personnel are examined. How the company actually works usually is not. Yet important processes often depend on individual key people, and documentation is missing or out of date. Three dangers arise when a handover happens without structure:

- **Operational breaks:** A key person drops out, and it turns out there are no reliable processes, only “this is how we always do it”.
- **Destruction of value:** What looked stable in the sale proves fragile after the handover: unplanned investments, hasty restructuring and a falling company value.
- **Strategic paralysis:** Instead of shaping the future, the new management spends months searching for information, understanding dependencies and putting out fires.

## Degree of digitalisation from 1 to 5.

Each core process receives a level. Together they result in the overall score.

1. **In someone’s head** (gut feeling): Processes live in heads, nothing is written down.
2. **Documented** (procedure and checklist): Processes are written down but run manually.
3. **Standardised** (measured and managed): Binding standards with key figures, comparable and controllable.
4. **Automated** (including partial AI): Stable steps run automatically, tools are connected. Partial AI counts here.
5. **AI-autonomous** (self-directed): An AI runs core processes on its own, people set goals and guardrails.

Partial use of AI counts as level 4. Level 5 means autonomy. Level 5 requires what [AI implementation](https://sacosi.ch/en/ai-implementation) describes: foundation, processes, structured data and a curated data location.

## Three questions per process. One departure plan.

Each process is rated by three measures: criticality × frequency of use × documentation and digitalisation.

- **Criticality:** What happens if it fails: a nuisance or a standstill?
- **Frequency of use:** A hundred times a day or a few times a year?
- **Documentation and digitalisation:** In a head or in a clean system?

Whatever is highly critical, frequently used and poorly documented comes first. That is where the operational risk sits that becomes particularly dangerous in a handover. This produces the departure plan:

1. Document the highly critical processes.
2. Digitalise frequently used processes.
3. Automate where it makes sense.

In parallel, the audit records who carries which knowledge, which competences exist and where bottlenecks threaten.

## What you have in hand at the end.

The method is based on ISO 9001: workshops, interviews with key people, a visit to the operation and a review of documents, extended by further risk-relevant topics such as insurance, vehicle fleet and IT.

- **Score per process:** Level 1 to 5 for each core process and an overall score, with reasons.
- **Departure plan:** Measures with owners and deadlines, ready for Excel or Jira. Not a report that disappears in a drawer.
- **Skills matrix:** Which knowledge depends on which people, and where bottlenecks threaten.
- **Role-based succession:** Roles broken down into competence blocks instead of a one-to-one replacement. This strengthens the function instead of merely replacing the person.

## The audit in a short film.

A short film in German, with voice-over: https://sacosi.ch/video/nextera-copilot-audit.mp4

## Many handovers, few successors.

These figures apply to Germany. The sources do not give comparable figures for Switzerland.

- **around 190’000** family businesses in Germany face a handover between 2022 and 2026 (IfM Bonn).
- **54 %** of owners of German SMEs were 55 or older in 2024 (KfW).
- **+22 %** more people aged 67 and over in Germany between 2020 and 2035, from 16 to around 20 million (Destatis).

Sources (German-language documents):

- [Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (IfM) Bonn: Unternehmensübertragungen](https://www.ifm-bonn.org/statistiken/unternehmensuebertragungen-und-nachfolgen/unternehmensuebertragungen)
- [KfW: Nachfolge-Monitoring Mittelstand 2024 (Fokus Volkswirtschaft Nr. 481, Januar 2025)](https://www.kfw.de/PDF/Download-Center/Konzernthemen/Research/PDF-Dokumente-Fokus-Volkswirtschaft/Fokus-2025/Fokus-Nr.-481-Januar-2025-Nachfolge.pdf)
- [Statistisches Bundesamt (Destatis): Pressemitteilung vom 30.09.2021, Menschen ab 67 Jahren](https://www.destatis.de/DE/Presse/Pressemitteilungen/2021/09/PD21_459_12411.html)

## For regulated financial companies.

For FINMA-authorised asset managers, trustees and family offices, the core model is extended by checkpoints from FINMA circulars and the Swiss data protection law. The rules that apply are listed under [Regulation](https://sacosi.ch/en/regulation).

## Questions about NextEra Copilot.

### What is NextEra Copilot?

NextEra Copilot is a digitalisation audit, a digital due diligence. It assesses how digitalised and documented the processes of a company really are: each core process receives a level from 1 to 5, which results in an overall score. It is aimed at owners who sell or hand over, at successors and at buyers.

### Why is the degree of digitalisation not part of a normal due diligence?

Classic due diligence examines finances, law, tax, contracts and personnel. It says little about how a company actually works: whether processes live in heads or in the system, whether they run manually or automatically, and whether the business works without the owner. That is exactly what determines risk and the ability to hand over.

### What does the scale from 1 to 5 mean?

Level 1: the process lives only in someone’s head. Level 2: it is documented. Level 3: it is standardised and managed with key figures. Level 4: it is automated; partial use of AI counts here. Level 5: an AI runs it autonomously. Each core process is rated individually, which results in the overall score.

### What is the departure plan?

Each process is rated by criticality, frequency of use and quality of documentation and digitalisation. Whatever is highly critical, frequently used and poorly documented comes first: document first, then digitalise, automate where it makes sense. The plan contains tasks with owners and deadlines and can be taken over into Excel or Jira.

### How does this help with a sale, a handover or an acquisition?

Sellers can show that the company is run in a structured way and close gaps before approaching buyers. Successors start with a plan instead of in the fog. Buyers see risks and dependencies before signing, not only afterwards.

### What does ISO 9001 have to do with it?

The method is based on ISO 9001, the international standard for quality and process management. Its process approach serves as the framework for capturing the existing structures and rating them in a traceable way. Certification is not the goal of the audit.

### Does partial use of AI already count as level 5?

No. Level 5 means that an AI takes over a core process on its own and people only set goals and guardrails. If AI is used selectively as a tool, that counts as automation, level 4. The line is autonomy, not the use of AI as such.

## Is a sale, handover or acquisition coming up?

Thirty minutes, no pitch. You describe the situation, I ask questions. Afterwards, we both know whether a situation picture is worthwhile.

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