Sommerau Elektro & Benetics AI: 800 reports a month, all spoken

• Trade: Electrical (service, renovation, new build, solar)
• Locations: Arosa & Chur (Graubünden), Switzerland
• Team: 20 employees
• Website: https://sommerau-mm.ch

Sommerau Elektro MM AG is a Swiss electrical contractor with a wide range of work – from a single service call to a complete new build. That is exactly what makes clean reporting hard: every job runs differently. About a year ago, Sommerau moved its entire reporting over to Benetics AI. Today that adds up to around 800 reports a month.

Before: by hand, and often twice

“Before Benetics it was pretty basic – we wrote everything by hand.” The job came into the office, went out to the crew, and then got written up by hand a second time.

An off-the-shelf tool was never an option. “There is plenty of software out there, but usually the way it looks and the way it runs are already decided for you.” Sommerau wanted something they could shape themselves – and that holds everything in one place, from the estimate through to the final costing.

Why it works: talking instead of typing – and everyone joins in

The hard question is never the software, it is the people. At Sommerau the crew runs from a 16-year-old apprentice to a 63-year-old.

“We just did it,” Riccardo says – and then gives the honest version: a four to five month process, practising together, plenty of patience. The breakthrough came with the voice assistant. Once the hurdle of simply talking into a phone was gone, it was easy for everyone – whatever language or dialect they speak. The technician talks, the Benetics AI app does the rest.

What Sommerau gets out of it

• The full picture, at any time. “I can see at any moment what is really going on” – reports, completed work, even on-site meetings Riccardo was not part of. Jobsite and office see the same thing.
• Nothing gets lost. Change orders are properly documented and therefore billable – work that is not documented is work that is not invoiced.
• No double entry. The open interface keeps time tracking and job costing running. “But it starts with capture. If people do not write the report, no integration helps.”

Riccardo’s takeaway

“One platform that really covers everything – so you have to pick up as little as possible twice. That is what saved us the most.” – Riccardo d’Agostini, Project Manager, Sommerau Elektro MM AG