That bandwidth is correct for an organization of roughly 10 to 50 employees that continues to work with the systems it already has: AFASDutch ERP package for administration, HR and payroll. Many SMBs have their single source of truth in it. or Exact Online for administration, Microsoft 365 for the rest. If you're introducing a completely new ERP package, you're in a different order of magnitude. If the automation is mainly about system integrations for SMEs, you’ll usually stay within the same range.
What does SME digitalization cost by component?
Digitalization is not a product with one price tag, but a stack of separate decisions. These are the amounts we mention beforehand, and which you should be able to request from any party:
| Component | Amount | What you get in return |
|---|---|---|
| Self-scan | Free | Ten questions, two minutes, an initial picture of where your time is leaking away |
| Fresh Look | € 2.900 excl. VAT | One day on-site, report within a week, fully credited if you proceed |
| AFAS or Exact Online integration | € 3.500 – € 12.000 | Fixed price upfront, two to six weeks turnaround, code and documentation are yours |
| Management and monitoring | from € 29 per month | You hear about a connection going down before your customer does |
| Licenses | € 0 through us | Bedrijfsgeheugen doesn't sell software and earns nothing from licenses |
A typical first year looks like this: self-scan (€ 0), Frisse blik (€ 2.900, credited), one connection (€ 6.000), and twelve months of management (€ 348). Total: € 6.348. Year two: € 348, unless you take on something new.
Type over this order number. Once is doable. Forty times a day, every day, is a job.
Why most suppliers won’t give you a price
Ask three IT firms what digitalization costs and you'll get three times an hourly rate between € 95 and € 145, plus an estimate 'based on progressive insight'. That's not a price, that's an open account. The risk of cost overrun lies entirely with you.
A supplier who walks through your process before quoting—including unusual orders, exceptions, and which system is the source of truth—can give you a fixed price. If they can’t, the process hasn’t been discussed thoroughly enough. A breakdown of that range for one specific component is provided in what an AFAS integration costs and the six factors that determine the price.
The question that makes the difference: “What happens if it takes longer?” With a fixed price, the answer is short. With hourly billing, you get a story. The length of the answer predicts your final bill.
What doing nothing costs you (and that won’t show up on any invoice)
The most expensive variant of digitalization is the variant you postpone. Calculate with a company of twelve people where orders, quotes and timesheets are manually retyped:
That's 6 × 45 × 46 = € 12.420 up to 9 × 45 × 46 = € 18.630 per year. On top of that, there’s rework: at one error per fifty orders and twenty minutes per error, that’s another thirteen hours for 2,000 orders.
A solution costing € 6,000 with € 348 a year in management pays for itself in this example in four to six months. If you spend less than two hours a week on manual work, it’ll take years — and “not just yet” is the honest advice.
The Netherlands isn't doing badly, by the way: according to Statistics Netherlands (CBS), in 2025 89 percent of SMEs meet the basic level of digital intensity. The difference isn’t whether you work digitally, but whether your systems talk to each other.
The way it works now
- The appointment is in one colleague's mailbox
- Data is manually retyped from one system to another
- The person who knows is on vacation
- No one can see afterwards why this decision was made
As it is
- The agreement is stored with the client, findable for everyone
- Once entered, information flows through to the rest
- Work continues, even if someone is absent
- Every decision has a source, an owner, and a date
Where the money goes in practice
Four places where SMEs lose their budget, from least expensive to most expensive:
- Duplicate data entry (€ 0 in software, € 12,000+ in time)Entering the same customer in two systems. Costs nothing until you do the math. Usually solved with a single integration; the options are listed in the complete guide to connecting systems in SMEs.
- Proposals left unattended (€ 0 to € 3.000)Often not a technical problem, but a failure to agree. Read how to set this up without a new software package in follow up on quotes without a CRM.
- A plan stuck in Excel (€ 0 to € 8,000)Sometimes the cheapest option is to clean up Excel. Sometimes it isn't. The four signals and three options are listed in replace planning in Excel.
- Two sets of accounts side by side (€ 3.500 to € 12.000)Sales in one package, accounting in another. How that works is explained in Connect AFAS and Exact.
- People who don't use the tools (€ 0 in software, all in missed profit)You already pay for Microsoft 365. What you can get out of it without additional investment is in seven tasks you can automate with Microsoft Copilot tomorrow.
How to lower the price without compromising
- Start with one painful process. Not “digitize everything.” Quote → order → invoice, or work order → administration. First get one flow working, then the next.
- Write down your exceptions before requesting a quote. Ten real orders from last month, especially the odd ones. Every exception you identify in advance is cheaper than the same exception afterward.
- Ask for a fixed price and ownership. The code, documentation, and access should belong to you. Otherwise, you’re buying dependency and will pay again later.
- Factor in maintenance from day one. An integration that nobody monitors goes down on Tuesday and you notice on Friday. See Connect for management and monitoring.
- Don’t buy a system because the process is unclear. A new package only makes an unclear process more expensive and unclear. More on the thinking behind this: what a Bedrijfsgeheugen is and why knowledge leaks.
When digitization doesn’t pay off
There are three situations where the answer is 'don't do it'. One: the manual work costs less than two hours per week — then you won't recoup the investment in five years. Two: the process will change next year anyway, for example due to an acquisition. Three: nobody in the company owns the problem. A coupling without an owner is a subscription to disappointment.
Not sure which category you fall into? Start with the free self-assessment or view exactly what we do.
Frequently asked questions
Budget € 3.500 to € 15.000 in the first year if you tackle one or two processes, plus maintenance from € 29 per month. With 20 employees, you’ll usually land somewhere in the middle of that range: one integration costing around € 6.000 and a dashboard built on it.
Usually not. AFAS, Exact OnlineAccounting and ERP software in the cloud, widely used in Dutch SMEs. and Microsoft 365 can already do much more together than most companies use. A new package costs licenses, migration and months of familiarization; a coupling between what you already have costs € 3,500 to € 12,000 and goes live in two to six weeks.
Because an hourly rate puts the risk on you instead of them. A supplier who reviews your process upfront can offer a fixed price. If they can’t, the process hasn’t been discussed enough — it isn’t too complex.
Often yes, but not with us: Bedrijfsgeheugen doesn’t sell software and earns nothing from licenses. With other providers, watch out for their own intermediary platform with a monthly fee — always ask what happens to your integration if you cancel.
At six to nine hours of manual work per week in a team of twelve, you’re losing € 12.000 to € 19.000 worth of time each year. A € 6.000 solution then pays for itself in four to six months. If the manual work takes less than two hours a week, it’ll take years, and “not just yet” is the honest advice.
Want a figure that applies to your business?
De Frisse Blik is a one-day on-site assessment for € 2.900 excl. VAT, with a report within a week and concrete figures for each improvement. If you proceed, the full amount is credited. If digitisation doesn't make financial sense for you, the report will say so.
From knowing to doing
This article helps you get oriented. Then check out the concrete approach for SMB digitalization.