--- titel: "Situational Awareness · The Concept · SACOSI" url: https://sacosi.ch/en/concept seite: /en/concept stand: 2026-09-24 beschreibung: "Situational Awareness in five minutes: the film series, the six dimensions of the situation, four steps and the tools. IT that fits the business, not the reverse." --- > Knowledge version of the page https://sacosi.ch/en/concept. It contains the full text, including what is shortened or collapsible on the page itself. Publisher: SACOSI, Situational Awareness Consulting by Ivo Schönberner, Zürich. # Situational Awareness. IT that knows the situation. ## The film series. Four films, each about one minute. Film 01 · Everyone wants something different Film 01 Everyone wants something different CEO, CFO, IT and staff: four interests, one IT. 1:09 · play Film 02 The investor asks about IT Due diligence: what an investor wants to know about IT. approx. 1:00 · in production Film 03 The audit is coming Quality management, auditor and the question of evidence. approx. 1:00 · in production Film 04 From ten people, IT is no longer a laptop Growth, regulation, CAPEX and OPEX. approx. 1:00 · in production Film 05 The buyer asks who knows the password Succession: what a buyer does not see about IT before signing. approx. 1:00 · in production ### Transcript: Everyone wants something different - **Mara, IT:** I'm Mara. I do IT here. And everyone wants something different from me. - **Daniel, CEO:** Mara, next year we're opening two new branches. We can make that work, right? - **Mara:** He's not talking about laptops. He's talking about the company. - **Sandra, CFO:** And what's the cost? This time up front, please - not in December. - **Mara:** Sandra doesn't want technology. She wants predictability. - **Jonas, Shipping:** I just want to ship packages. Not type everything twice. - **Mara:** Fair. - **Mara:** Those aren't IT wishes. That's the company's situation. And IT has to fit that - not the other way round. - **Mara:** So we build a situation picture. All interests on one page. - **Jonas:** Oh, that actually works. - **Mara:** That's called Situational Awareness. Situation first. Then IT. Films created with AI assistance. Characters, voices and companies are fictional. ## What it is. When a company adapts to its IT, something is the wrong way round. Situational Awareness reverses that. First comes the company's situation, with its goals, its finances and the expectations of its investors. Then comes IT that meets exactly that. ## Situational Awareness. In numbers. ### Dimensions Goals, vision, core processes, finances, stakeholders, obligations. Every IT is measured against these. ### Steps Capture, understand, anticipate, lead and hand over. 0 → 2’200 ### Employees Discover Airlines, 2021 to 2026, carried throughout by IT am Main. < 4 ### Months until independent IT for FraAlliance, the joint venture between Fraport and Lufthansa. 1995 ### Endsley The three-stage model of Situational Awareness from human factors research. ## The situation is more than IT. Six dimensions make up the situation picture. IT is measured against them, not the other way round. L1 The company's goals L1 ### The company's goals Where does the company want to go in the next one to three years: growth, markets, profitability, exit or stability. L2 ### Leadership's vision What the board of directors, executive management and founders intend for the company, including what is not yet in any strategy document. L3 ### Core processes The processes by which the company earns its money. They determine what IT must support, not the other way round. L4 ### Financial situation Liquidity, budget, cost structure and financing stage. IT that the company cannot afford is not a solution. L5 ### Stakeholders and investors What shareholders and partners, investors, the board of directors, supervisory bodies, customers and employees expect, and where these interests conflict. L6 ### Obligations and risks Regulation, contracts, security requirements and the risks the company cannot afford. IT ### Only then: IT. It is designed to meet the goals of executive management, investors and stakeholders, and so that the company can afford it. ## Four steps. One result that lasts. 01 ### What is really happening in the business? Company goals, leadership's vision, core processes, financial situation, the interests of investors and stakeholders, obligations. Captured from the people who run and finance the business, not in the server room. Result Situation picture, SWOT, process map 02 ### Where does IT help the goals, and where does it stand in the way? Every friction between goals, processes, budget and system is named, assessed by its effect on the business and finances, and brought to a decision. Result Process flows, matrices, decision log 03 ### What IT will support the business in twelve to 36 months? The target picture follows the goals of executive management and investors. Technology is chosen once it is clear what it must support and what it may cost. Result Target picture and roadmap 04 ### Who will carry it once I am gone? Implement, scale, hand over cleanly: Grow. Scale. Let go. Documented in a conformant, auditable system, so that an internal team and any auditor can take over. Result Running IT, audit-proof documentation, handover ## Tools executive management already knows. No IT jargon. And everything documented in a conformant, auditable system. ### SWOT analysis Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the company, not of IT. The IT questions are derived from this. ### Process map Management, core and support processes on a single page. Shows which processes earn the money and what IT must support. ### Process flows The critical processes in detail, with roles, handovers, systems and media breaks, for example in BPMN notation. ### Matrices Stakeholder matrix by influence and interest, RACI matrix for responsibilities, prioritisation matrix by effect and effort. ### Decision log Every decision with its trigger, options, rationale, approval and date. ### Auditable documentation Maintained conformant to standards, for example ISO 27001 and ISO 9001: versioned, with approvals and evidence, in a system an auditor can examine. ## Real engagements. Real impact. Discover Airlines · 2021 to 2026 ### From zero to around 2’200 employees. IT built up from an empty office, network connectivity for the Operations Control Center, a handover to the Lufthansa Group's corporate IT prepared from the start. Delivered with IT am Main. FraAlliance · 2022 ### Independent IT in under four months. Two corporate worlds connected, central identity, compliance requirements of the Lufthansa Group. Delivered with IT am Main. ## One concept. Four engagement models. [Fractional CTO Start-ups and scale-ups Find out more](https://sacosi.ch/en/fractional-cto)[IT Architect Companies up to 1’000 employees Find out more](https://sacosi.ch/en/it-architecture)[Project Leader Enterprise, corporate groups, joint ventures Find out more](https://sacosi.ch/en/project-leadership)[Sparring Partner Boards of directors, executive management, investors Find out more](https://sacosi.ch/en/situational-awareness#sparring) ## The next step. Thirty minutes, no presentation. You describe the situation, I ask questions. ### Book a call Choose a slot directly in my calendar. ### Write an email Describe the situation in a few sentences, I reply personally. ### Call Zürich +41 78 251 09 69Frankfurt +49 152 27602667 ## Questions? Answers. ### What is the advisory product Situational Awareness? Situational Awareness is Ivo Schönberner's advisory product. It aligns a company's IT with its entire situation, that is, with company goals, leadership's vision, core processes, financial situation and the interests of investors and stakeholders: in four steps, from capturing the situation through the fit analysis and the target picture to implementation and handover to an internal team. ### What belongs in a situation picture under Situational Awareness? Six dimensions: the company's goals, leadership's vision, the core processes, the financial situation, the interests of investors and other stakeholders, and obligations and risks. IT is deliberately not part of the situation, but is measured against it. ### Why does the financial situation belong in IT advisory work? Because IT ties up money and can save money. Liquidity, budget, cost structure and financing stage decide which architecture is viable. A technically ideal solution that overburdens the company financially does not meet executive management's goals. ### How does Situational Awareness take investors and stakeholders into account? Their expectations are explicitly captured in the situation picture, for example growth targets, exit readiness, due-diligence readiness or requirements set by shareholders. IT is designed to support these goals measurably, and conflicting goals between stakeholders are put forward openly for a decision. ### What tools does Situational Awareness work with? With proven management tools instead of IT jargon: a SWOT analysis of the company, a process map, process flows of the core processes (for example in BPMN), stakeholder, RACI and prioritisation matrices, and a decision log. From these, the target picture and roadmap for IT are derived. ### How does the documentation become audit-proof? All results are maintained conformant to standards, for example to the requirements of ISO 27001 and ISO 9001: versioned, with approvals, owners and evidence, in an auditable system instead of scattered files. This allows an auditor to trace every decision, even after the handover.