Basel Area Business & Innovation is the agency for location promotion and innovation support that helps companies, institutions and startups to be successful in the Basel economic region. Its CEO Christof Klöpper, can now look back on a successful 2022: "Both in terms of newly established companies and startups, we achieved excellent figures in 2022." Even a new record value was reached by the number of company startups supported by the agency. 96 startups took advantage of its services in the founding process. This is 20 more than in the previous year. Most of the newly founded companies operate in the life sciences (21), followed by the services (18), construction (11) and ICT (10) sectors. A large proportion of the young companies benefited from advice provided by the Venture Mentoring Program, which is characterized by industry-, customer- and technology-specific support. Among others, the Basel-based cleantech company Kuori took advantage of this offer. Since its founding in spring 2022, Kuori has already been able to close financing in the amount of 2.3 million euros and has thus made a very respectable start.

High settlement figures confirm attractiveness of Basel Area

The attractiveness of Basel as a location was also demonstrated last year by the stable high number of companies settling in the area. Of the 35 companies that have newly settled in the Basel Area, almost two-thirds are active in the life sciences sector. Of these 24 companies, 5 belong to the field of digital health innovations. The companies that have settled in the cantons of Basel-Landschaft, Basel-Stadt and Jura with the support of Basel Area Business & Innovation come from 16 countries. Of these, 14 come from Europe (e.g. Tenpoint Therapeutics), 7 from Asia (e.g. Acro Biosystems) and 6 from the USA (e.g. LifeMine Therapeutics). There were 8 arrivals from cantons outside the Basel Area. Domenico Scala, President of Basel Area Business & Innovation, sums up: "Companies, large and small, find everything they need for healthy development in our economic region. The entire value chain is here, from startups to established companies. We have venture capital, government support and functioning interfaces between business and research."

Source: www.baselarea.swiss

Nutanix, a company specializing in hybrid multi-cloud computing, has announced the results of its fifth global Enterprise Cloud Index (ECI) presented. The study measures the progress of enterprises in cloud adoption. According to the ECI, companies are using increasingly diverse IT environments, which presents them with the challenge of managing and controlling their data across environments. As a result, the majority of IT teams are deploying more than one IT infrastructure - a trend that is likely to increase in the future. At the same time, they struggle with data visibility across environments: Only 40 percent say they have a complete overview of where their data is stored.

More and more multiple IT environments

"In the coming years, hundreds of millions of applications will be developed that will generate unprecedented amounts of data," said Lee Caswell, SVP, Product and Solutions Marketing at Nutanix. "Enterprises are wrestling with current application and data management between the edge, various clouds and their core infrastructure. This year's ECI report paints a picture of the situation that our customers continue to mirror to us: The market needs a cloud operating model that enables the development, operation, use and governance of hybrid multi-cloud environments to support all types of applications - today as well as tomorrow."

Over the past five years, the responses of study participants have moved overwhelmingly in the direction of using multiple IT environments. In 2018, more than half of respondents said they planned to one day run all workloads without exception in either a private cloud or the public cloud. But instead of working to consolidate to that infrastructure or IT operating model, as seemed desirable in 2018, most organizations today see the absolute necessity - as well as the associated benefits - of running workloads equally in the public cloud, on-premises and at the edge.

Central control of cloud environments

Meanwhile, enterprises are looking to make the hybrid operating model more efficient, especially in managing IT environments from the edge to the core infrastructure. Increasingly diverse cloud delivery models create tremendous complexity in managing application data across cloud environments. As a result, comprehensive tools that help organizations deploy, migrate, manage, monitor and secure applications and data in a unified way from a central management console are becoming increasingly important for IT. Accordingly, almost all respondents said they would benefit from a centralized and unified control console to manage their applications and data across cloud environments.

Key findings of the study

• Most organizations use more than one type of IT infrastructure, and almost all agree that using a central platform to manage them consistently would be ideal: the majority of IT teams (60 percent) use more than one IT infrastructure - whether a mix of private and public cloud environments, multiple public clouds, or the combination of an on-premises and hosted data center. According to respondents, this proportion is expected to rise to nearly three-quarters (74 percent) in the next one to three years. However, this trend also creates challenges: 94 percent of respondents said they would benefit from having a centralized place to manage their applications and data across different environments.
• Data security and management considerations drive IT infrastructure decisions: Data is at the heart of enterprise infrastructure decisions. The most important aspects here are data security and
  -protection, and data recovery and sovereignty. While 94 percent of respondents agreed that full transparency is important, only 40 percent said they have complete visibility into where their data resides.
• Controlling cloud costs is one of the biggest challenges in IT management: 85 percent of respondents see cloud costs as a challenge in IT management and more than a third (34 percent) rate them as a "significant" challenge. In particular, application migration across cloud environments is currently a big problem for enterprises, with 86 percent of respondents believing that migrating applications across cloud boundaries can be complex and costly. In addition, nearly half of respondents (46 percent) plan to bring some applications back into their own data center to reduce cloud costs over the next twelve months.
• Nearly all respondents (96 percent) have started using open source Kubernetes orchestration: However, they also indicated that developing and configuring the underlying infrastructure, storage, and database services were among the biggest challenges of their Kubernetes deployments.
• Sustainability is now a priority in IT: For nearly all respondents (92 percent), the issue of sustainability is more important in their company today than it was a year ago. This shift in priorities is primarily the result of corporate initiatives in the area of Environment, Social and Governance or ESG for short (63 percent), supply chain disruption (59 percent) and customer purchasing decisions (48 percent).

Source: Nutanix

The software company Abacus Research AG strengthened its position as the leading Swiss manufacturer of business and ERP software for SMEs and public administrations again last year. In 2022, 516 companies newly opted for Abacus software in the traditional license business. Demand for subscriptions for program use from the cloud has also continued to grow, according to the company. Here, Abacus recorded a 20.9 percent increase in sales. In the case of employee self-service functions tailored to company employees, revenue growth was an encouraging 49.3 percent, according to the company. In total, more than 696,000 subscriptions had been taken out for SME employees by the end of 2022. At the same time, the number of employees at Abacus Research AG rose by 87 to 574 last year. At the end of the year, the entire group, including the subsidiaries in Biel, Thalwil and Germany, had 723 employees.

The most successful Abacus sales partner in 2022 in terms of total sales was Axept Business Software AG, as in the previous year, followed by OBT and BDO. The first prize for the most new sales also went to Axept Business Software, followed by OBT and Customize. The special prize for the most successful sales partner in the AbaImmo area went to Aandarta, followed by OFISA SA and BDO.

Claudio Hintermann, CEO of Abacus Research AG, comments on last year's business performance as follows: "SMEs want to make their processes more efficient in a wide variety of areas and are dependent on IT solutions for automation to do so. This trend is reflected in our good business results. To this end, we have invested heavily in innovations in recent years."

Source: Abacus Research AG

Global payment practices have recently deteriorated more sharply than in the previous seven years combined: In 2022, invoices were paid after an average of 59 days - five days later than in the previous year. Even before that, global payment behavior - with the exception of 2020 - had gradually deteriorated, albeit far less markedly: between 2015 and 2021, the "days of sales outstanding" (DSO), i.e. the period between invoicing and payment, deteriorated by a total of four days. This is the conclusion of the latest study by credit insurer Allianz Trade. "Payment morale is an important predictor of delayed payments and defaults, as well as insolvencies," says Maxime Lemerle, chief insolvency analyst at Allianz Trade. "The longer companies have to wait for their money, the more likely they are to end up sitting on unpaid invoices. Suppliers' role as an invisible bank comes into full play, increasing liquidity risks in the system." 17 % of companies worldwide are not paid for 90 days, and a total of 42 % are paid more than 60 days.

Switzerland: Still relatively good payers

In contrast to some Western European countries, Swiss companies were able to keep payment delays in check. At 57 days in 2022, payment morale remained stable compared to the previous year. "The Swiss have always been said to have a good payment morale," says Jan Möllmann, CEO of Allianz Trade in Switzerland. "The current figures confirm this reputation, even in these difficult times. Nevertheless, this is no guarantee. We are seeing more and more large-scale insolvencies. These can quickly become dangerous for suppliers. That's why they would do well to keep a close eye on the environment and act in good time. Otherwise, the bill will not be paid at all in the end."

Asia-Pacific: payment morale deteriorates most sharply

Customers in the Asia-Pacific region pay particularly late (65 days, +6 days). The main driver here is China, where payment behavior deteriorated particularly sharply in 2022 and DSOs increased by 10 days to 54 days. In the Middle East, companies still have to wait around 64 days for their money. In Western Europe, the average is 56 days (+3 days), in South America (+3 days) and Central and Eastern Europe (+4 days) 51 days each, and in the USA 49 days (+1 day).

The picture is also heterogeneous among the sectors. Payment practices have deteriorated particularly sharply in the transportation equipment sector (+15 days), raw materials (+10 days), electronics and software and IT (+8 days each), pharmaceuticals, food and construction (+7 days each). Overall, companies in the machinery and plant engineering sector (79 days), transportation equipment (77 days), electronics and construction (72 days each) have to wait the longest for their money.

Source: Alliance Trade

Do women generally have it worse in old age? Are there social structures for old people from the LGBTQ+ community? And are old people structurally disadvantaged in the workplace, even discriminated against because of their age? The list of topics of the think tank "Age is just a number... really?" of the non-profit association Swiss Diversity is extensive: "Age discrimination is the new sexism," says Ellen Kocher, guest speaker at the think tank and author of a book on the 50+ generation in Switzerland.

At this think tank, other well-known people met on March 20 at the University of Bern to discuss problems, trends and possible solutions around age discrimination. The participants came from a wide range of industries: Stefan Gal, Co-Lead Diversity at Swisscom, Michael Hoekstra, President of the City Council of Bern, and Ines Hartmann, Co-Director of the Competence Centre for D&I University of St. Gallen, were among them.

When gender or the past determines the future

"Old people still have the prejudice that they block new things and thus make innovation impossible," says Christiane Bisanzio, jury president of Swiss Diversity and co-founder of the think tank. But older people are not the only ones who have to contend with prejudice. Women, for example, often have poorer pensions in old age because, on the one hand, they are disadvantaged by the gender pay gap, and they are also still increasingly responsible for childcare and household chores. Work that is socially very valuable, but does not entail contributions to the 2nd pillar.

In most cases, however, it is worth looking at people's socioeconomic and cultural histories to understand age discrimination. People from financially weak households tend to be less educated and are more likely to find low-paying and physically demanding jobs later in life, such as in nursing or skilled trades. The consequence: in old age, bodies are broken down by physical exertion, and pensions are barely enough to live on for many.

The 4-day week: a solution for all generations?

In addition to all the problem areas, the Think Tank focused on possible solutions. One prominent example: the controversial 4-day week. "We are convinced that all generations would benefit from a 4-day week," says Bisanzio with conviction. The business community is not entirely averse to the new working time model either: "The health of employees in particular would benefit from a 4-day week - regardless of which generation they come from," says Bisanzio. Healthy employees are less likely to be absent from work. For companies, however, it is essential that productivity does not suffer as a result of a 4-day week.

Which solution it is in the end, however, is not too decisive for the association, and so Stephan Lendi, co-founder of Swiss Diversity and moderator of the think tank, ended the evening with the words: "It is important that the various problem areas of age discrimination are increasingly brought into the discourse. This year's theme, "Age," is ideal for this because it is intersectional and thus appeals to a broad target group, even within the various diversity fields."

Source and further information: Swiss Diversity

Neutrass, the owner-managed insurance broker based in central Switzerland and founded in 1988, is taking over Finance Partner AG in Willisau. "Through this merger, we are strengthening our position in the core region of Central Switzerland with expansion in the Sursee, Sempach and Willisau region," Neutrass CEO Pascal Walthert is pleased to announce. "In order to maintain a high level of service competence and commitment to customers and to work exclusively for customers in the future, I decided to merge with the strong and experienced partner Neutrass," says Werner Lustenberger, owner of Finance Partner AG in Willisau, explaining his move.

Ensure continuity

The business of insurance and pension brokers in Switzerland, like the entire financial industry, is undergoing a transformation. In view of increasingly complex regulatory requirements and rapidly growing digitalization, more and more brokers are combining to form larger entities. Finance Partner AG has grown step by step over the past decades.

Proud Swiss Company

With more than ten locations throughout Switzerland, Neutrass focuses on customer proximity and regional presence. Thus, the two company cultures fit together perfectly. Neutrass remains owner-managed, completely independent and focuses on Swiss values such as quality, reliability and competence. The insurance broker is committed to providing neutral and professional insurance and pension advice to small, medium and large companies as well as public institutions in the Lake Sempach region. With around 80 highly qualified employees, the company is one of the largest brokers in Switzerland and covers a broad range of specialist competencies, which are continuously and systematically strengthened.

A-broker status with insurance companies

Neutrass from Rotkreuz has been operating successfully as an independent broker for 35 years. The cooperation concluded on a brokerage basis with more than 70 renowned insurance companies and other financial service providers is the door opener for the optimal planning and coordination of insurance and pension wishes tailored to the needs of the customers. Due to its size, longevity and quality, the company enjoys a very high reputation among product and solution providers and the status of an A-broker. This enables Neutrass to negotiate more advantageous products, solutions and conditions for its SME and industrial clients from all sectors of the economy as well as public institutions.

Source and further information

The association EXPERTsuisse sees itself as a competence developer and certifier for its members. This is already reflected in the latest education program of the subsidiary EXPERTsuisse AG. In order to continue to successfully shape this development with its members up to and beyond the year 2025, the management team and its executive board have been continuously strengthened. In this context, the CEO role of EXPERTsuisse AG will now be transferred from Marius Klauser to Stefanie Specker as of April 1, 2023. "It is important to us that we can support the business model of EXPERTsuisse AG and the association, which has been professionalized and further developed over the past few years, even more robustly in terms of organization and personnel. Stefanie Specker has been working for us for over two years in the roles of CFO and CHRO, among others, and is therefore predestined to take on the CEO role," explains Peter Ritter, President of EXPERTsuisse.

"I am looking forward to my additional role as CEO of EXPERTsuisse AG. Our team is highly motivated to make the current projects - e.g. in education and IT - a success and to continue our success story together with our external dialogue partners," says Stefanie Specker, designated CEO of EXPERTsuisse AG. "It is a pleasure to hand over this responsible role into the hands of Stefanie Specker. We are not developing followers, but leaders. This allows for internal succession planning and for me an increased focus on political dossiers and strategic projects," says Marius Klauser, Director & Board Delegate of EXPERTsuisse.

Meanwhile, Luzia Hafen will take over from Marius Klauser in the role of Specialist Director Consulting & Business Service as of April 1, 2023. During Marius Klauser's sabbatical (August 2023 - January 2024), Sergio Ceresola will ad interim take over the director role and the role of the management of "allianz denkplatz schweiz", while Joachim Beil will ad interim take over the role of Head of Sustainability/Governance/Leadership. Michael Vonlanthen will continue to manage the education business with the important projects regarding the new expert courses for certified public accountants and certified tax experts. Marius Klauser will take over as Delegate of the Board of Directors and Director of EXPERTsuisse, Head of Sustainability/Governance/Leadership and Managing Director of "alliance think tank switzerland" return.

Source and further information: EXPERTsuisse

In Switzerland, Credit Suisse had to be forcibly merged with UBS - all with the active support of the Swiss National Bank. Both banks are given unrestricted access to the Swiss National Bank's facilities. For Pascal Hügli, bitcoin expert and lecturer on blockchain and cryptoassets at the HWZ, it is clear: "What the current situation brings to our attention: More and more people are just becoming aware that a bank deposit is an unsecured loan tied to a counterparty. From one day to the next, the search for alternatives is once again on - as it was at the beginning of the 2008 financial crisis."

Flight into Bitcoin because of banking crisis?

Pascal Hügli, who in addition to his lecturing activities is now also the owner of Insight DeFi is a content and consulting agency focused on cryptoassets, further notes that at the time, however, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin did not exist. This has no counterparty risk and can be held independently. However, the digital crypto asset was only created as a possible answer in the wake of the last financial crisis. As the past few days have shown, the narrative of Bitcoin as an alternative seems to be catching on, according to the Bitcoin expert.

For example, since the initial turmoil surrounding Silicon Valley Bank just over a week ago, the cryptoasset has risen in value by over 30% against the US dollar (at the time of publication of this post, it stood at over 25900 francs, albeit with a downward trend, editor's note). Gold has risen in price by about 6% over the similar time frame, while the Swiss franc has weakened against the US dollar. Bitcoin as an escape currency, then?

Investors want alternatives

For Hügli, the reason for the price reaction is as follows: "Bitcoin's strong rise in this short term is probably mainly due to the fact that Bitcoin investors anticipate the end of the interest rate upward cycle due to the circumstances." However, he believes that current events will increasingly legitimize bitcoin investing in the medium to long term. People will want alternatives, and in a digital world, there will be no getting around Bitcoin. Hügli already senses this trend in the first inquiries from family offices and asset managers who contact him these days.

In the record year 2022, the IT company Bechtle Schweiz AG recorded impressive organic growth of over 17 %. To ensure this success in the coming years, Managing Director Christian Speck delegates various tasks to a management team consisting of Patrick Fischbacher, Head of Sales, Kerstin Friedlin, Head of Finance & Administration, and Christoph Kleinsorg, Head of Services & IT Services.

Broader support for management

Patrick Fischbacher has already been responsible for sales in all regions of German-speaking Switzerland since May 2022. By joining the newly formed Board, the various needs of Bechtle Schweiz AG's customers are optimally represented and will thus be even more involved in all decisions, according to the statement.

Kerstin Friedlin joined the company on November 1, 2022, and is responsible for finance and administration. "Kerstin Friedlin has excellent knowledge of the industry and the market as well as the different business areas of our company. I am therefore very pleased that we are able to fill this newly created and important position with such an experienced and competent colleague," explains Christian Speck, Managing Director of Bechtle Schweiz AG.

Finally, Christoph Kleinsorg started as Head of Services and IT Services on February 1, 2023. According to Bechtle Switzerland, his representation on the Management Board reflects the central importance of the quality of solutions and services for Bechtle customers. Christian Speck comments, "This demonstrates our commitment to aligning our offering even better with the needs of our customers. I am convinced that Christoph Kleinsorg will excellently implement these tasks with his know-how and personality."

Time for other important tasks

Thanks to the reinforcement in the management team, Christian Speck is able to dedicate himself with priority to the strategic orientation of the company and the development of innovations. Crucial to this are committed and well-trained employees who work together with customers to find solutions. "In the future, I will focus even more on shaping our corporate culture, as this is very close to my personal heart," explains Christian Speck. "Our employees are our most valuable asset and only together with them will we achieve our ambitious goals."

Source and further information

The situation of Credit Suisse has worsened in recent days. Then, on Sunday, March 19, 2023, the takeover of the ailing bank by UBS was announced. It is well known that such takeovers do not remain without consequences for the employees. For the approximately 17,000 employees, there is an enormous amount at stake after the CS takeover - and thus also for our national economy, writes the Swiss Bank Employees Association SBPV in a statement. It is to be feared that, on the one hand, Credit Suisse is talking about significantly more jobs than was communicated last fall during the bank's strategic realignment. In addition, tens of thousands of jobs outside the banking industry would potentially be at risk. Therefore, the SBPV had already demanded on Saturday, March 18, 2023, the immediate establishment of a task force on the endangered jobs and contacted the CS managers. This task force should include representatives of the employer, the staff commission and the employee associations. Other stakeholders involved - be it other banks, the SNB or the federal government - were also invited to participate.

Focus on people after CS takeover

In the task force called for by SBC, the social partners in particular must define measures for the possible developments in order to limit job losses to the absolute minimum. Where this is not possible, the consequences of redundancies must be cushioned as best as possible beyond the social plan. In this process, the Bank Staff Association will bring its decades of experience and constructive cooperation with the CS Staff Commission to bear. It is now a matter of putting people first.

Credit Suisse has a good social plan. It is used in the event of restructuring and is intended to ensure through various measures that as many affected employees as possible find employment again internally or at other banks. This existing social plan is good and should be applied in any scenario, SBC wrote in a statement. However, additional measures are needed to cushion the dramatic economic consequences. Neither the thousands of dedicated CS employees who are successful in Switzerland nor the general public should foot the bill for the mistakes of the former management.

Existing social plan is not sufficient

In this extraordinary situation, where the future of the bank is at stake, the Courant normal is not enough, said SBA in unison with the Swiss Federation of Trade Unions SGB. The social plan can only be the starting point for the task force to take additional measures against an imminent massive cutback in the banking sector, it said. Neither the thousands of dedicated CS employees nor the general public should pay for the mistakes of the former management.

Source: SBPV