In short: A digitalisation consultation for an SME is a time-boxed outside view of a company's processes, data and tools that ends in a prioritised sequence rather than a shopping list. It usually comes in two stages: a stocktake of around half a day and, building on it, a strategy consultation of around two working days. The consultant sets the fee. In Austria there is no longer a federal grant towards it: according to kmudigital.at, the KMU.DIGITAL funding programme will not be continued from 2027 and applications are no longer possible (as at October 2026). Several provinces still fund projects, and the maintained list is in the funding overview for the federal level and all nine provinces.

What is a digitalisation consultation for SMEs?

An external, time-limited engagement that records how digitalised the business currently is, names the opportunities and risks, and derives a sequence from that. The output is a plan, not a product. That is what separates it from a software vendor's sales pitch, which ends in a licence.

The guideline of the KMU.DIGITAL funding programme put the goal soberly: the analysis ended with a structured overview of opportunities and risks plus a rough plan for implementation. The deeper stage was defined there as a comprehensive kick-off to concrete change and implementation processes. The programme is ending, but both descriptions still work as a benchmark for a decent consultation.

I have carried out roughly 30 KMU.DIGITAL consultations since 2024. As a rule they are technology-oriented companies, industry for example, that want to digitalise part of their processes, either to save electricity, to become more efficient or to support sales. Those are all sensible measures, because they have an impact on costs or revenue.

How does a digitalisation consultation work?

In two steps. Implementation is a separate project afterwards and no longer part of the consultation.

1. Stocktake, around half a day

The stocktake is the inventory: current and target level of digitalisation, trends, risks, a rough implementation path. In the KMU.DIGITAL programme this stage was called the status and potential analysis, and the guideline budgeted "in der Regel einen Halbtag" (as a rule half a day) for it. That sounds short and it is: this stage is meant to enable the first step, not to solve the project.

2. Strategy, around two working days

The strategy consultation works on the plan itself: prioritisation, decisions, timing. The guideline foresaw "gesamt in der Regel 2 Arbeitstage innerhalb weniger Wochen" (in total, as a rule, two working days within a few weeks). In practice that is spread over two or three appointments, because something has to happen in between that is not consulting: looking things up, asking around, doing the sums.

3. Implementation, a project of its own

The search for suppliers and tools only starts once the plan is finished. The plan supplies the requirements, the sequence and an effort estimate, without which quotes cannot be compared at all.

What is the most common mistake before a digitalisation consultation?

The most common mistake is simply asking for a quote too early. You start the consultation once there is a basic idea, and only then does the search for suppliers begin.

What does a digitalisation consultation for SMEs cost?

The consultant sets the fee. So the only sensible question in a first conversation is this: what does the consultation cost in total, net, and what will I hold in writing at the end? The effort depends mainly on the scope: a stocktake is half a day, a strategy consultation with several appointments correspondingly more.

On how I bill myself: sometimes there is also the option that I accompany an implementation project. In that case the consulting for the funding is often covered within that flat fee. Otherwise there are perfectly normal hourly or daily rates.

Is there still funding for digitalisation consulting?

Not from the federal government, but from some provinces. The home page of kmudigital.at states: "Aufgrund der aktuellen Konsolidierungsmaßnahmen im Bundeshaushalt wird das Förderprogramm KMU.DIGITAL ab 2027 nicht fortgeführt." In English: because of the current consolidation measures in the federal budget, the programme will not be continued from 2027. The same page says that the KMU.DIGITAL 4.0 budget is fully exhausted and that applications for consulting and implementation funding are no longer possible. (Source: kmudigital.at, checked on 6 October 2026, as at October 2026.)

Until then the programme funded 80 % of the cost of a status and potential analysis, up to 400 euros, and 50 % of a strategy consultation, up to 1,000 euros. These rates no longer apply because applications are no longer possible. What the programme was and what applies to ongoing cases is covered in KMU.DIGITAL discontinued: what applies from 2027. kmudigital.at does not name a successor programme, and I do not speculate about one here.

Several provinces fund digitalisation projects through their own schemes, in some cases including the consulting. Rates, deadlines and conditions change constantly, so they are not in this article but, with a date and a source quotation, in the overview of Austrian digitalisation funding. Which scheme fits a location and a project is shown by the provincial funding check, with no sign-up and nothing stored.

My own view: there are a great many provincial funding schemes, above all for expansion into other countries. That is where I would look, and I am happy to help with the funding, the settlements and the concepts.

Can an SME consultation be delivered online?

Yes. The work consists of conversations and documents edited together, and both work over video with a shared screen.

How I handle it: everything online, it is simply more efficient. Sometimes the follow-up project or the implementation project is already on the table. Then an on-site appointment definitely makes sense.

Digital, strategy or communication consulting: what is the difference?

The labels overlap, the questions do not. Digital consulting asks how work flows through the business and where tools improve that. Strategy consulting asks what the business will earn its money with in three years. Communication consulting asks how that is told and sold to the outside world.

An example that keeps coming up in SME projects: a company wants a quote configurator because quoting takes too long. If the time sits in the calculation, it is a process and data question. If it sits in the follow-up and the explaining, it is a sales question, see Performance Sales. Both are solvable, just not with the same tool. Which is why the stocktake comes before the choice of tool.

How do I recognise good consulting for my SME?

By four traits, all of which can be checked in a first conversation.

  • It does not sell what it then delivers itself. Ask about commissions and partnerships. A clean answer is not "none", it is "these, and that is why I stay out of this particular recommendation".
  • It leaves something in writing that works without the consultant: prioritised measures, effort estimates, a sequence. In the KMU.DIGITAL programme the report was mandatory; without funding it should be mandatory for you.
  • It says what it cannot do. Even the KMU.DIGITAL certification was tied to one subject field and nobody covered all four. Which certificate applied where is set out in Finding a KMU.DIGITAL consultant.
  • It thinks about data protection. Anyone recommending a CRM without discussing the record of processing activities and the data processing agreement is building a problem for later, see Data protection & compliance.

When a digitalisation consultation is not worth it

How I judge it in a first conversation: it makes sense when the client already has a concrete idea. If it is only about collecting funding money, it generally makes no sense.

Three further cases speak against it. First: the decision has long been made. A consultation meant to justify an already purchased solution after the fact is expensive paper. Second: the business is in an acute crisis, and digitalisation pays off over quarters, not weeks. Third: there is nobody to carry the implementation internally. Without a person who has both time and a mandate, the best plan stays a PDF.

Conclusion

A digitalisation consultation for an SME is money well spent when three things hold: the topic sits at the real bottleneck, the consultant is not selling their own solution alongside it, and somebody inside the business takes on the implementation. Funding can make it cheaper; it does not make it sensible.

What I often say at the end of a consultation: preparation matters more than implementation. If you think everything through properly, plan the budget properly and identify the possible pitfalls, you save yourself frustration and costs later.

What I offer myself is on the service page Digitalisation consulting for SMEs. Examples from retail, trades and tourism are under References retail, SME & tourism and in the project archive filtered to KMU.DIGITAL & GREEN, 26 of the 90 documented projects.

Frequently asked questions about digitalisation consulting for SMEs

What is a digitalisation consultation for SMEs?

A time-limited external engagement that records how digitalised a business currently is and derives a prioritised sequence of measures from it. It ends with a written report, not with a product purchase.

How long does a digitalisation consultation take?

As a guide, around half a day for the stocktake and around two working days within a few weeks for the strategy consultation. These figures come from the guideline of the Austrian KMU.DIGITAL funding programme, which will not be continued from 2027, and they still work as a benchmark.

What does a digitalisation consultation for SMEs cost?

The consultant sets the fee, usually as hourly or daily rates or as a flat fee. In the first conversation, ask for the total fee net and for what you will hold in writing at the end. There is no longer a federal grant towards it in Austria (as at October 2026).

Is there still funding for digitalisation consulting in Austria?

Not from the federal government: according to kmudigital.at, the KMU.DIGITAL programme will not be continued from 2027, the 4.0 budget is exhausted and applications are no longer possible. Several provinces fund digitalisation projects through their own schemes, in some cases including the consulting. The maintained overview is on the page digital funding in Austria, federal and all provinces. As at October 2026.

What is the alternative to KMU.DIGITAL?

kmudigital.at does not name a federal successor programme (as at October 2026). The alternative is the funding schemes of the Austrian provinces. The provincial funding check shows which one fits a location and a project.

Note: funding conditions, budgets and deadlines change. This article is a practitioner's assessment as at the date given and does not replace funding or legal advice in an individual case; the information published by the respective funding body always prevails.