IT partners and AI for SMEs: who does what?

A good IT partner is worth their weight in gold. They know your devices, keep updates and virus protection current, rescue the backup when the laptop is left on the train, and pick up when the printer is on strike again. This article does not want to replace them. It sorts out who does what with AI.

It belongs to our series of comparisons: the same six questions for every tool. Because every IT partner charges differently, we give ranges from published price lists of Swiss providers, read on 14 October 2026; the sources are listed at the end. Your contract may differ.

What you use today

Most SMEs have a managed workplace: devices, updates, monitoring, helpdesk and often the backup, billed per person per month. Swiss providers mostly publish CHF 50.– to 150.– per person per month for this, excluding Microsoft 365 licences. All-in packages with licences and on-site visits start from CHF 160.– at some providers. For five people that is roughly CHF 250.– to 750.– a month plus licences. Onboarding (In the introduction session, you practise on your own documents how to start the workflows we set up and how to check the results.) costs CHF 500.– to 5'000.–, depending on the provider, and work outside the flat rate is usually billed at CHF 110.– to 250.– an hour.

Where the IT partner is strong

In operations. They make sure devices are patched, accounts secured and data recoverable, and they are there when something is on fire. They know your environment, your licences and your people. With security, networks and hardware, you do not want someone doing it for the first time.

Many partners now offer something on AI too, mostly around Microsoft 365 Copilot: workshops from about CHF 2'000.–, starter packages from CHF 1'950.–, and at large providers a readiness assessment for CHF 7'900.–. Microsoft charges CHF 17.– per person per month for the licence. That is solid if your goal is Copilot in Outlook and Word.

Where the IT partner stops

• They look after tools, not workflows (A workflow specifies what information goes in, what happens to it and who checks the result.). None of the managed service contracts we looked at includes AI for the actual work. Getting the invoice from the email into the accounting program stays your team’s job.
• AI usually means Copilot. The published AI packages revolve around Microsoft 365. What sits outside, Bexio, Abacus, the supplier portal, stays out or becomes a project billed by the hour.
• Contracts are long. Terms of 12 to 24 months with 3 to 6 months’ notice are common. Handing over the data when you switch is billed by effort at some providers, and some may delete the data after the contract ends.
• Knowledge about workflows lives with the partner. Scripts, settings and notes often sit in their tools. Whoever switches learns that while switching.

Your IT partner with our platform

The first way leaves everything as it is and adds a layer on top. Your IT partner keeps devices, network, security and licences. We set up the Jules Solutions Platform, with their approval (Approval means a person decides before an AI-prepared message goes outside your firm or money is spent.) where it is needed, and connect it to your environment: to Microsoft 365 through an agent in Copilot Studio or directly, and to Bexio, Abacus and your other systems within the agreed scope.

The platform then takes over the work between the programs: reading documents, creating tasks, starting workflows, filing results. It sends a message to the outside or a payment only once a person has decided, and every step is in the log (A log records what a program or an AI agent did and when, so that afterwards you can trace who triggered what and what happened.). We have no standing remote access (With remote access, someone works on your device over the internet without being there, to set up a program for example.): every session needs your consent, and we work only from Switzerland.

For five people: Operator System (Operator System is our package for teams at CHF 3'500.– to 5'000.–: the shared base with workflows for the team and connected systems.) as the shared base, CHF 3'500.– to 5'000.– once, with six months of Business seat (The Business seat is one person’s access to our platform (open alpha); Pro Setup includes three months, and with Operator System it is six per person.) per person; then CHF 199.– per person per month, or CHF 169.– billed yearly. You keep paying your IT partner as you do today.

The whole system

In the whole system we set up a vault (The vault is a folder of your working files on your computer; we create it from the vault template.) for each person, a folder on their computer with working files and instructions for recurring tasks, organised by PARA (PARA organises storage into four parts: projects, areas, resources and archives.) and readable in Obsidian (Obsidian is a note-taking program that shows a folder of text files on your computer as linked notes.), plus the shared project repository (A Git repository is storage for files that records every change with its date and author; GitHub is a well-known service for it.) for the team. An AI harness (An AI harness is the workspace on your computer in which AI reads files and carries out agreed steps.) works in it; we recommend Claude Code (Claude Code is an AI harness made by Anthropic: it runs on your computer, reads files and carries out steps you describe in plain language.). Workflows start with a short command (A command starts a defined workflow. In Pro Setup, we set up three to five commands for your work.), with an incoming email or on a schedule, and run on your device, on a computer in the office, on our platform or with a cloud provider (The cloud means computers in a provider’s data centres on which programs run and data is kept, instead of on your own device.), as the quote sets out.

The platform runs on our own infrastructure in Switzerland. We keep backups locally on your device, on network storage or hosted in Switzerland at Exoscale (Exoscale is a Swiss cloud provider with data centres in Switzerland. It rents out servers and storage in its own data centres.). At handover we remove our access, and you replace any credentials we knew. The platform is in open alpha (Open alpha means the platform is at an early stage: we use it ourselves, and it changes all the time.); we run our own company on it.

If you want, we look after the system afterwards: monitoring, basic maintenance, updates and one-to-one help for CHF 500.– to 2'000.– a month, cancellable monthly with one month’s notice. Your IT partner stays responsible for devices and network if you wish. For five people the setup costs CHF 10'950.– to 12'450.– once, with 60 days of follow-up support (Follow-up support means that questions and adjustments by email and phone are included for 30 days (Pro Setup) or 60 days (Operator System) after handover.), then the Business seats and model usage (Model usage means accessing an AI provider’s language model. The cost is not included in the setup price.).

Our verdict

Keep your IT partner. Really. Devices, networks and security belong in experienced hands, and if your goal is Copilot in Outlook, they are the right people for it.

But if your team loses time on work that happens between the programs, another managed service contract will not solve it. That is what the first way is for: your IT partner looks after the tools, and the platform does the work in between. The whole system pays off when you want to decide workflows, data and models yourself, with support you can cancel monthly.

What to ask your IT partner and us before commissioning anything is in ‘Five questions before you commission AI automation’.