AESTICO is a Swiss start-up from Zurich that has declared war on pen and paper in the construction industry. The digital measurement app saves project managers in the construction and trade sectors hours of office work.

The AESTICO app records measurement data and services digitally on site: Areas or lengths, move directly from the laser distance meter via Bluetooth interface into the quotation template created by the tradesman or project manager. With additional elements such as flat rates, quantities or hourly costs, the app creates the quotation for the planned renovation work. The work can also be clearly documented with pictures and notes. The digitally recorded data is transferred directly to existing office software as a free service specification via an interface, or quotations and measurements can be created directly in Word, PDF or Excel. Typing in the office is no longer necessary, saving several days of tedious office work every year. Further advantages: The clean quotations and clear measurement reports impress private, public and institutional clients with their professional and clear presentation. This drastically reduces the number of queries regarding project documentation. In addition, media breaks between measuring device, notepad and computer and the associated calculation errors are avoided. In the meantime, AESTICO has established itself as the first port of call for digital measurements in Switzerland and is used in various courses organised by the Swiss Measuring Association.

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Following their slogan "Entering work times? Forget it", Anna Brückner (master optician, B.Sc. Physics), her brother Oliver Brückner (master painter and business economist) and computer scientist Ivan Kostov dedicated themselves to an everyday problem in the trade: inefficient time recording - and heralded the smart time recording of tomorrow with the founding of "Craftomatic".

The challenge: as virtually nobody likes to record time, it is often postponed or forgotten altogether. This makes even digital time recording very time-consuming and inaccurate and, as a result, the monthly analyses – daily changing construction sites do not simplify the recording process either. The three from Craftomatic thought there was a better way and over the last three years, based on 175,000 data records from the field, they developed a smart time recording tool that is independent of employee input, runs automatically in the background, records all times fully automatically and simultaneously assigns them to the correct projects. With customisable evaluation rules. Forgot your mobile phone or run out of battery? No problem: the times are still recorded correctly. This leaves more time for the essentials: the trade. A tool created from practical experience in the skilled trades for practical use in the skilled trades - and has already received several grants.

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The company was founded in 1927 by Hermann Epple, the grandfather of the current owner. Thomas Epple, the third generation to run the company, is a master painter, decorator as well as master plasterer and offers his expertise to his fellow tradesmen in his capacity as business coach and sales trainer: He coaches owners and employees of craft businesses, develops managers and helps companies to find gaps in the market from which they can make a living.

His speciality: healthy living. Together with his clients, he selects the best products for them, advises on marketing and sales strategies and trains managers and employees on how best to use these new products.

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"HAMSTA – stands for "Handwerk am Start" (Craftsmanship at the start) and is a platform for painters. Behind it is a small team of three creative minds: Saskia Boiselle, who makes sure that everything stays on track, Max Scheffel, who likes to get people in front of his podcast microphone, and Felix Schweizer, who puts the content on the platform's website and posts it on social media channels.

HAMSTA and the idea behind it came about during a CMS Group workshop. HAMSTA connects tradespeople with competent service providers and provides new ideas, tips and tricks through workshops. In the meantime, HAMSTA has expanded into a comprehensive platform for the painting trade, which now provides support, inspiration and community, in short: the digital home for topics, networks, news and supporters of the painting trade.

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Today, data is a key factor for corporate success. HDM Data GmbH supports retail and trade companies in the paint and flooring industry in preparing product data digitally, transferring it seamlessly and creating synergy effects.

HDM Data significantly improves and guarantees the quality and availability of product information for companies and end consumers. CMS and MEGA launched the joint project to effectively standardise digital product data back in 2018. The aim of the cooperation: to create significant added value not only for their own organisations, but for the entire industry. HDM Data GmbH was founded in 2022 and today employs nine qualified data analysts.

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The family business W. Schmitz Kunststofftechnik GmbH & Co. KG in Boffzen, Lower Saxony, has been producing precision joining technology for the insulating glass industry since 1981. The "Petry profile" presented at the FAF, a plaster end profile for window sills, is an invention of master plasterer Stefan Petry, who had the brilliant idea in 2020 to decouple the exterior wall plaster in the reveal from the window sill.

He was awarded the Bavarian State Prize in 2022 for his innovation in the trade. With the plastered-in "Petry profile", the window sill can move move (either caused by temperature changes or mechanical loads) without the plaster cracking in the reveal area. Further advantages are: The plaster finish is simple and clean, and water can no longer penetrate the plaster at this point. The clean, precise and durable finish also meets the aesthetic requirements of architects and building owners.

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The Heidelberg-based start-up Wattro specialises in digital and automated device management. At the heart of this system is the patented Wattro scan terminal. It is specially designed for the skilled trades sector and makes equipment management considerably easier: manual effort is reduced, human error is avoided – which increases overall productivity.

All devices, tools and machines in a business are automatically recorded with a simple scanning process, which saves time and makes the entire process much more efficient. This technology enables precise and timely stocktaking, reduces losses due to forgotten or lost equipment and optimises the use of resources. The company's equipment fleet can be accessed via PC or smartphone, controlled by simple and intuitive software – also from Wattro. Another major advantage: the scanning terminal and software unit can be easily integrated into existing systems and is even easier to use.

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