--- titel: "Situational Awareness: IT that fits the business · SACOSI" url: https://sacosi.ch/en/situational-awareness seite: /en/situational-awareness stand: 2026-09-24 beschreibung: "Situational Awareness by Ivo Schönberner: capture goals, vision, core processes, finances and investors, then build IT that meets exactly these goals." --- > Knowledge version of the page https://sacosi.ch/en/situational-awareness. It contains the full text, including what is shortened or collapsible on the page itself. Publisher: SACOSI, Situational Awareness Consulting by Ivo Schönberner, Zürich. # IT that knows the situation of the business. **Short answer:** Situational Awareness is my advisory product. It reverses the usual order: first, the entire situation of the company is captured: company goals, the vision of the leadership, core processes, financial situation and the interests of investors and stakeholders. Only then is IT built that meets exactly these goals, thinks ahead, and strengthens the business. The end result is a running IT that your own team can take over. For executive management, investors and family offices in Switzerland and Germany, with a focus on start-ups, scale-ups and ventures. ## I am … Situational Awareness is a method, but every role has a different pain point. Choose your role: the page shows what the method solves for you, which tools help, and how you get started. CEO ### I am CEO. Does our IT carry our growth plan, and what does it do to the value of the company? **Pain** - IT slows down new locations, markets and products, and no one can say why on a single page. - In a due diligence review, gaps show up as a discount. - Larger customers demand security evidence before they sign. **What the method solves** - A situation picture on one page: which IT carries which goal. - Decision templates with options, costs and risks instead of technical reports. - Growth without IT surprises, documented for investors and buyers. **Matching tools** - **SWOT analysis:** strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the company, not of the IT. The IT questions are derived from it. - **Matrices:** stakeholder matrix by influence and interest, RACI matrix for responsibilities, prioritisation matrix by impact and effort. - **Decision log:** every decision with trigger, options, rationale, approval and date. **Download** **Situation Briefing 01** · Situational Awareness from the CEO's perspective. In preparation. **Film** [Watch film 01: Everyone wants something different (1:09)](https://sacosi.ch/en/concept#film) CFO ### I am CFO. What does IT really cost, who approved it, and does the model fit our financing? **Pain** - Contracts and subscriptions are scattered, costs show up in December instead of in the plan. - Investment or ongoing expenditure follows habit, not the exit horizon and financing strategy. - Outages, security incidents and fines feature in no plan until they happen. **What the method solves** - Every IT line item with business purpose, owner and financing form. - Approvals in the decision log, traceable for audit and the board of directors. - CAPEX and OPEX chosen deliberately: matched to exit horizon, investor type, liquidity and financing stage. **Matching tools** - **Decision log:** every decision with trigger, options, rationale, approval and date. - **Matrices:** stakeholder matrix by influence and interest, RACI matrix for responsibilities, prioritisation matrix by impact and effort. - **Process map:** management, core and support processes on one page. Shows which activities earn the money and what the IT has to carry. **Download** **Situation Briefing 02** · Situational Awareness from the CFO's perspective. In preparation. **Film** [Watch film 01: Everyone wants something different (1:09)](https://sacosi.ch/en/concept#film) Investor / Family Office ### I am an investor or family office. Which IT risks am I buying into, and what does it cost to fix them? **Pain** - A holding has IT questions, and no one in the company has an overview of the situation. - A large consultancy is too heavy for the question. - IT risks and costs across different holdings are not comparable. - It is unclear whether capitalised IT investments (CAPEX) in a holding are even reflected at exit, or whether they weigh on the multiple instead. **What the method solves** - IT due diligence before entry, situation picture in the first weeks after. - Measures prioritised by value impact and effort. - Come in, resolve, hand over documented, without lasting dependency on the advisor. - Clarity on whether a holding operates conformant or is certified, and what the difference is worth in a due diligence review. **Matching tools** - **SWOT analysis:** strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the company, not of the IT. The IT questions are derived from it. - **Matrices:** stakeholder matrix by influence and interest, RACI matrix for responsibilities, prioritisation matrix by impact and effort. - **Auditable documentation:** conformant, for example with ISO 27001 and ISO 9001: versioned, with approvals and evidence, in a system an auditor can review. **Download** **Situation Briefing 03** · Situational Awareness from the investor's perspective. In preparation. **Film** Film 02 · The investor asks about IT. In production. IT management ### I lead the IT. How do I keep operations stable while everyone wants something new at the same time? **Pain** - Requirements from executive management, business units and customers conflict with each other. - Knowledge sits in individual heads, cover is difficult. - Priorities lack backing from executive management. - Development, test and production are not cleanly separated, and every change is a risk to ongoing operations. **What the method solves** - Priorities that executive management backs, because they are derived from the situation. - A target architecture that carries the planned growth. - Documentation that makes operations, cover and handover possible. - Separate development, test and production systems, and tenant separation from the start, instead of an expensive rebuild later. **Matching tools** - **Process flows:** the critical activities 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 impact and effort. - **Auditable documentation:** conformant, for example with ISO 27001 and ISO 9001: versioned, with approvals and evidence, in a system an auditor can review. **Download** **Situation Briefing 04** · Situational Awareness from the perspective of IT management. In preparation. **Film** [Watch film 01: Everyone wants something different (1:09)](https://sacosi.ch/en/concept#film) QM / Compliance ### I am responsible for quality and compliance. Which standard applies to us, and where is the evidence that we meet it? **Pain** - Standards and laws from several countries overlap. - Evidence sits in chats, folders and people's heads. - The next audit is coming up. **What the method solves** - An obligations list by industry, market and activity. - A roadmap sequenced by risk and business impact. - Evidence versioned and approved, in an auditable system. **Matching tools** - **Auditable documentation:** conformant, for example with ISO 27001 and ISO 9001: versioned, with approvals and evidence, in a system an auditor can review. - **Decision log:** every decision with trigger, options, rationale, approval and date. - **Process map:** management, core and support processes on one page. Shows which activities earn the money and what the IT has to carry. **Download** **Situation Briefing 05** · Situational Awareness from the perspective of QM and compliance. In preparation. **Film** Film 03 · The audit is coming. In production. Founder / Scale-up ### I am founding or running a scale-up. From what point is IT more than buying laptops for us? **Pain** - From around ten employees, IT no longer fits in one head. - Customers and investors ask about security and data protection. - What is built today for twenty people has to carry a hundred in a year. - Development, test, production and customer tenants grow together under time pressure, instead of being separated from the start. **What the method solves** - IT processes that grow with the company, without legacy issues. - Knowing early which regulations come with new markets and customers. - Interim technical leadership, until a permanent CTO takes over. - Separate environments and tenant separation from the start, before a rebuild becomes expensive. **Matching tools** - **Process map:** management, core and support processes on one page. Shows which activities earn the money and what the IT has to carry. - **Decision log:** every decision with trigger, options, rationale, approval and date. - **SWOT analysis:** strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the company, not of the IT. The IT questions are derived from it. **Download** **Situation Briefing 06** · Situational Awareness from the perspective of founders and scale-ups. In preparation. **Film** Film 04 · From ten people, IT is no longer a laptop. In production. Succession / Handover ### I am facing a succession, handover or acquisition. What does a successor or buyer really take on if they cannot see the IT? **Pain** - A successor or buyer has no picture of the state of the IT and technology, of the investment backlog, licence and contract legacy. - A financial due diligence review checks figures, not whether the company depends on individual people and their undocumented knowledge. - Security legacy issues and dependency on individual providers only become visible after the handover, once no one can ask any more. **What the method solves** - IT situation picture before the handover: condition, risks and investment backlog on one page, for both the party handing over and the buyer. - Technical due diligence as a complement to the financial one: what the balance sheet does not show. - Key-person dependency map: which knowledge is tied to which person, and what documenting it costs. **Matching tools** - **Process map:** management, core and support processes on one page. Shows which activities earn the money and what the IT has to carry. - **Matrices:** stakeholder matrix by influence and interest, RACI matrix for responsibilities, prioritisation matrix by impact and effort. - **Auditable documentation:** conformant, for example with ISO 27001 and ISO 9001: versioned, with approvals and evidence, in a system an auditor can review. **Download** **Situation Briefing 07** · Situational Awareness from the succession perspective. In preparation. **Film** Film 05 · The buyer asks who knows the password. In production. ## What does Situational Awareness mean in IT? Situational Awareness means being aware of the situation: knowing what is happening around you, what it means, and how it will develop. The term comes from aviation. The researcher Mica R. Endsley described it in 1995 in three stages: - **Perceiving**: recognising the elements of a situation - **Understanding**: grasping what they mean together - **Projecting**: deriving how the situation will develop Pilots, air traffic controllers and control centres train exactly these three stages, because errors rarely arise from a lack of technology, but from a wrong picture of the situation. IT is no different. Many projects fail not because of software or budget, but because no one understood the situation of the business before building anything. Situational Awareness transfers the three stages to the situation of a company, that is, to goals, leadership, processes, finances and stakeholders, derives the IT from that, and adds a fourth stage: implement and hand over. ## What belongs to the situation of a company? The situation covers far more than IT: goals, vision, core processes, finances, stakeholders and obligations. IT is not part of the situation; it is measured against it. L1 ### Company goals Where the company wants to be in the next one to three years: growth, markets, profitability, exit or stability. L2 ### Vision of the leadership What the board of directors, executive management and founders intend for the company, including what is not yet in any strategy paper. L3 ### Core processes The activities with which the company earns its money. They determine what the IT has to carry, not the other way round. L4 ### Financial situation Liquidity, budget, cost structure and financing stage. An IT that the company cannot afford is not a solution. L5 ### Stakeholders and investors What shareholders and members, 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. From this follows the yardstick for every IT decision: **Does it meet the goals of executive management and investors, and can the company afford it?** A technically elegant solution that misses the goals or overstretches liquidity is not, in this sense, good IT. This also includes the financing form: whether an IT investment is capitalised as CAPEX or expensed as OPEX follows no fixed rule, but the exit horizon, the valuation logic and the investor type. More on this under [Executive management](https://sacosi.ch/en/leadership#finanzierung). Where interests conflict, for example the investors' pace of growth against security requirements, or budget limits against the founders' vision, the conflict is not concealed technically but put forward openly for a decision. ## Which interests must IT reconcile? The interests of the CEO, the CFO, IT management, quality management, supervisory bodies and investors. They often conflict, and that is exactly why they belong on one page. ### CEO: growth and company value Does the IT carry the plan for the next 24 months, and does it increase or reduce the value of the company? ### CFO: overview, control, CAPEX and OPEX matched to the financing strategy What does IT really cost, who approved it, and does the model fit our financing? ### IT management: calm and stable operations How do I keep operations stable while everyone wants something new at the same time? ### Quality management: compliance Which standard applies to us, and where is the evidence that we meet it? ### Supervisory bodies and auditors: evidence Can you prove what you claim, versioned and approved? ### Investors: know the risk, protect the value Which IT risks am I buying into, and what does it cost to fix them? In addition, there are standards and laws depending on industry and market: ISO 27001 and ISO 9001, TISAX in the automotive supply chain, the medical device regulations of Switzerland and the EU, the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection, the GDPR, NIS2 and the EU AI Act. The classification is set out under [Regulation](https://sacosi.ch/en/regulation). ## IT has to fit the business, not the business the IT. When a company adapts its activities to a system, it pays for it every day: with workarounds, shadow lists and dependency on individual people. Typical signs that the business is being forced into the IT: - Alongside the official system, employees keep their own lists, because the real process is not reflected there. - Processes are rebuilt because a tool demands it, not because the business needs it. - Decisions about IT are made in chats and in people's heads and can no longer be traced a year later. - Regulation such as ISO 27001, the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP), the GDPR or industry requirements is bolted onto the IT after the fact. - No one can explain on one page which IT carries which business goal. An IT with situational awareness reverses this. It is derived from the activities, knows the company's obligations from the outset, and adapts as the business changes. ## How does an engagement proceed? An engagement has four steps. Each ends with a result you keep, even if we do not continue working together afterwards. 01 · Situation picture, SWOT, process map ### Capture the situation What is really happening in the business? Company goals, vision of the leadership, core processes, financial situation, interests of investors and stakeholders, obligations. Captured from the people who run and finance the business, not in the server room. 02 · Process flows, matrices, decision log ### Understand the situation Where does the IT help the goals, and where does it stand in the way? Every point of friction between goals, processes, budget and system is named, assessed by its impact on the business and finances, and brought to a decision. 03 · Target picture and roadmap ### Project the situation forward Which IT carries 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 has to carry and what it may cost. 04 · Running IT, audit-ready documentation, handover ### Lead and hand over Who carries it once I leave? Implement, scale, hand over cleanly: Grow. Scale. Let go. Documented conformant in an auditable system, so that an internal team and any auditor can take over. ## Which tools are used to capture the situation? With tools that executive management and investors know, not IT jargon. Every result is documented conformant and auditable. ### SWOT analysis Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the company, not of the IT. The IT questions are derived from it. ### Process map Management, core and support processes on one page. Shows which activities earn the money and what the IT has to carry. ### Process flows The critical activities 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 impact and effort. ### Decision log Every decision with trigger, options, rationale, approval and date. ### Auditable documentation Conformant, for example with ISO 27001 and ISO 9001: versioned, with approvals and evidence, in a system an auditor can review. The documentation is not an appendix at the end; it arises with every step. It sits in an auditable system, versioned, with approvals and evidence. What that looks like in practice is shown by IT am Main itself: the company has been certified to ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 since January 2025. ## What do you get in the end? Not a slide collection, but working tools your company continues to use. - **Situation picture on one page:** company goals, vision of the leadership, core processes, financial situation, interests of investors and stakeholders, obligations, and the current IT, so that executive management understands it in five minutes. - **Fit analysis:** where the IT carries the goals of leadership and investors and where it does not, each with impact on business and finances and with effort. - **Decision log:** every architecture decision with trigger, options, rationale and date. - **Target picture and roadmap:** which IT carries the business in twelve to 36 months and in what order it is built. - **SWOT, process map, process flows and matrices:** the working basis on which leadership, business units and IT see the same situation. - **Auditable documentation:** conformant, versioned and approved, reviewable for auditors and investors. - **Handover:** an operations manual and a team that runs the IT without me. - **Playbooks (documented procedures, SOPs):** runbooks, SOPs, handover documentation and contingency procedures with which the internal team runs operations without an advisor. Target picture, roadmap and decision log together form the game plan. ## Who is Situational Awareness for? For companies where IT and business are drifting apart, and for everyone who has to answer for that. - **Executive management** wondering why they should concern themselves with IT: the CEO looking at growth and company value, the CFO looking at cost, control and financing strategy. [For executive management](https://sacosi.ch/en/leadership). - **Investors and family offices** whose holdings have IT questions and who need someone to come in, resolve them, and leave again. [For investors](https://sacosi.ch/en/investors). - **Start-ups, scale-ups and ventures** that notice, from around ten employees, that IT is no longer a laptop. [IT for scale-ups](https://sacosi.ch/en/scale-ups). - **Quality management and compliance** that need evidence for standards and laws. [Regulation](https://sacosi.ch/en/regulation). - **Industries with high criticality:** energy, manufacturing, MedTech and aviation. [Industries](https://sacosi.ch/en/industries). - **Corporate groups and joint ventures** with complex IT programmes: [Project leadership](https://sacosi.ch/en/project-leadership). And, in its shortest form, sparring: an independent second opinion before a decision, usually over a few sessions. ## What Situational Awareness is not - **Not a tool.** No software is sold. The technology follows the situation. - **Not a certificate.** I use standards such as ISO 27001 or ITIL where they serve the business, not as an end in themselves. - **Not a standing engagement.** The goal is the handover. In the best case, I make myself redundant. - **Not taking over responsibility.** Your company makes the decisions. I prepare them, document them and implement them. ## Where the method comes from Situational Awareness grew out of engagements in which IT had to deliver under time pressure and regulation. At Discover Airlines, IT am Main built the IT from scratch from 2021 and carried it through growth to around 2’200 employees, including the network connection of the Operations Control Center, with the handover to the Lufthansa Group's corporate IT prepared in advance (2021 to 2026). For FraAlliance, the joint venture of Fraport and Lufthansa, an independent IT connecting two corporate worlds was built in under four months. IT am Main, the company I run as managing director, implemented both. ## Terms - **Situational Awareness:** perceiving, understanding and projecting a situation (Endsley 1995). Here: the name of the advisory product. - **Situation picture:** a one-page representation of the six dimensions of a company (goals, vision of the leadership, core processes, financial situation, stakeholders and investors, obligations and risks) and the current IT. - **Fit analysis:** a comparison of where the IT meets the goals of the company and its stakeholders and where friction arises. - **Stakeholder:** everyone with a legitimate interest in the company: shareholders and members, investors, executive management, supervisory bodies, customers, employees. - **Decision log:** an ongoing record of all architecture decisions with rationale, also known as an Architecture Decision Record (ADR). - **Fractional CTO:** technical leadership on a part-time or interim basis, typically for start-ups and scale-ups without a permanent CTO. - **SWOT analysis:** Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats: the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a company. - **Process map:** an overview of all management, core and support processes of a company on one page. - **RACI matrix:** an assignment of who is responsible for a task (Responsible), who decides (Accountable), who is involved (Consulted) and who is informed (Informed). - **Auditable documentation:** documentation kept to a standard such as ISO 27001 or ISO 9001: versioned, approved, with evidence and reviewable for auditors. - **Grow. Scale. Let go.:** build up, scale, hand over: the guiding theme for step 04. - **Playbooks (documented procedures, SOPs):** documented IT and operational procedures: runbooks, SOPs, handover documentation and contingency procedures, so that an internal team can run operations without an advisor. ## Sources - Endsley, M. R. (1995). Toward a Theory of Situation Awareness in Dynamic Systems. *Human Factors*, 37(1), 32–64. (independent research) - Reference cases Discover Airlines and FraAlliance, released by the customers for IT am Main, as of June 2026. (own source) ## Questions about Situational Awareness. ### What is the advisory product Situational Awareness? Situational Awareness is Ivo Schönberner's advisory product. It aligns a company's IT with the entire situation, that is, with company goals, the vision of the leadership, core processes, the 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, the vision of the leadership, 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; it is measured against it. ### Why does the financial situation belong in an IT advisory engagement? Because IT ties up money and can save money. Liquidity, budget, cost structure and financing stage determine which architecture is viable. A technically ideal solution that overstretches the company financially does not meet the goals of executive management. ### How does Situational Awareness take investors and stakeholders into account? Their expectations are explicitly captured in the situation picture, for example growth goals, exit readiness, due-diligence maturity or requirements from shareholders. The IT is designed to support these goals measurably, and conflicting goals between stakeholders are put forward openly for a decision. ### Which 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. The target picture and roadmap for the IT are derived from these. ### How is the documentation made audit-ready? All results are kept conformant, 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 lets an auditor trace every decision, even after the handover. ### Where does the term Situational Awareness come from? From aviation and human-factors research. Mica R. Endsley defined situational awareness in 1995 as the perception of the elements of a situation, the comprehension of their meaning, and the projection of their future status. Pilots and air traffic controllers train exactly these three stages. ### How can you tell that the business is being forced into the IT? Typical signs: employees keep shadow lists alongside the system, processes are rebuilt because a tool demands it, decisions hang on individual people, and no one can explain on one page which IT carries which business goal. ### What do you get at the end of an engagement? A situation picture on one page, a fit analysis with a decision log, a target picture with a roadmap and, if desired, the implemented IT with a documented handover to the internal team, including playbooks (documented procedures, SOPs) for operations and contingencies. ### How long does a situation picture take? That depends on size, locations and regulation. Scope and timeframe are set in the initial conversation and fixed in writing afterwards. ### Is Situational Awareness a framework or a certification? No. It is a way of working with defined results. Existing standards such as ISO 27001 or ITIL are used where they serve the business, but not introduced as an end in themselves. ### For which company sizes is Situational Awareness suitable? From a start-up with ten people to a company with around 1’000 employees, plus programmes in corporate groups and joint ventures. What matters is not the size, but that IT and business are drifting apart. ### Who bears responsibility during the engagement? Responsibility for decisions stays with the company. Ivo Schönberner prepares decisions, documents them in the decision log, and implements what is decided. ### Does Ivo Schönberner work independently of vendors? Yes. The technology follows the business. Microsoft 365, Mac and Windows, cloud or locally run AI are chosen for fit, not for partner status. ### What does Situational Awareness cost? There is no off-the-shelf package. Billing is by day rate or monthly engagement, depending on the engagement model and scope. You clarify the framework in the first conversation. ## How is your situation? Thirty minutes, no pitch. You describe the situation, I ask questions. Afterwards, we both know whether a situation picture is worthwhile. CH +41 78 251 09 69 DE +49 152 27602667 ZRH 47.3769°N · FRA 50.1109°N · German, English