How SIMO compares
SIMO in comparison. A category of our own.
Which layer SIMO works on, how we deliver, and when another firm is the better fit. An orientation for decision-makers in Germany’s Mittelstand (privately held midsize companies) and in large enterprises. We describe models, not rankings.
Market map
Five layers.
SIMO works on one of them.
Consulting firms differ less in what they know than in the layer they enter at. Five layers sit between corporate strategy and a system in production. Each has its own question, its own kinds of firms, and its own result. SIMO works on the fourth: below the program layer, above the technology.
Corporate and business strategy
Where the company is headed: markets, portfolio, growth, and the high-level operating model.
Classic strategy consultancies. The result is a decision on direction.
Transformation strategy
How a decision on direction becomes an initiative: target state, roadmap, governance, and effort.
Large consulting and audit firms, and the advisory arms of the global integrators. The result is a program.
Architecture and technology decision
This is where the work forks. Both branches answer the same question from opposite ends: how does the company have to be built for the initiative to hold?
Business architecture
From the business side: capabilities, processes, accountability, and the information needed.
Technology strategy
From the technology side: target architecture, platforms, procurement, and operations.
Two branches, two languages: one talks about capabilities, the other about systems.
Enterprise business data strategy and transformation
The layer where the two branches meet: the business model turns into a data strategy, the data strategy into a target structure, and the target structure into an implementation that proves its own value.
SIMO. We stay above the technology layer: which platform is needed is an outcome of this work, not its starting point.
Implementation and operations
What gets built, migrated, and run: data platforms, cloud, pipelines, and application operations.
Platform vendors, data engineering firms, and IT service providers. The result is a system in production.
The map orders layers, not firms. A large firm works on several layers at once; a small one can go very deep on a single layer. Which layer your initiative starts on is yours to decide.
Market context
Who is responsible for what.
A map, not a ranking.
The map above sorts the layers. This section sorts the engagements: how far does an engagement reach once it has been awarded? Three kinds of firms come up particularly often for a decision-maker. What follows sets out what each of them is customarily responsible for, and what SIMO is responsible for. It does not describe the market in full: midsize full-service data consultancies, for example, do not appear in this list at all.
Strategy consultancies and audit firms
The large strategy and audit firms bring what no small firm can build: cross-industry market knowledge, comparative data drawn from many programs, the capacity to work in several locations at once, and a name that carries a recommendation through a supervisory board. If a decision has to hold up against internal resistance, that is where it belongs. Their engagement is the decision itself: analysis, options, target state, and recommendation. Implementation is customarily the subject of a separate engagement. For statutory auditors, there is also a legal limit: Article 5 of Regulation (EU) No 537/2014 prohibits certain non-audit services to the public-interest entity being audited. That is a boundary in relation to the firm’s own audit client, not a general separation of audit and advisory work.
IT consultancies and systems integrators
The global systems integrators command what execution at scale demands: certified specialists in large numbers, proven migration methods, round-the-clock operations, and experience with programs that run for years and across borders. Once it is settled what should be built, this group builds it dependably. Their engagement begins precisely there, with a target architecture that has already been decided. Whether that decision was the right one is, as a rule, settled before the contract starts.
Data-management firms
The data-management firms master the craft without which no data strategy holds: modeling, data quality, catalog and lineage, pipelines, performance, and the operation of a platform with dependable response times. They are measured on metrics that have to be right: completeness, timeliness, and throughput. Their engagement sits with the engineering: which data matters, and which decision it is meant to support, arrives as a requirement from elsewhere. They answer the how, not the why.
What SIMO is responsible for
SIMO is not a smaller edition of these firms. We occupy a category of our own: data strategy as a management discipline, on par with financial or HR strategy, owned by executive leadership. We never start with the technology; we start with the company, and we accompany the work from strategy through to demonstrable execution, in that order, in phases, with a go/no-go decision after each one. We are not a software company. Our testing ground, the SIMOSphere AI Lab at simosphereai.com, tests AI approaches before anyone invests in them; it sells nothing and is not part of the engagement. Your integrator builds. We represent your interests in dealing with them. The entry engagement (BISA 1, BISA 2, or BEIA) has a fixed scope and defined deliverables. After that, engagements are scoped to the work and billed as quarterly retainers, cancelable at the end of any quarter. We do not publish list prices. We process in the EU or on your premises, and the keys stay with you. And we name the goal plainly: your independence, including from us.
Responsibility at a glance
| Criterion | Strategy consultancies | Systems integrators | Data-management firms | SIMO GmbH |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting point | The corporate strategy | The target architecture already decided | The data model and the source systems | The question the board is asking |
| Who is advised | The board and its committees | Program management and IT | IT and business-unit leadership | Executive leadership, directly |
| Scope of the engagement | Analysis, target state, and recommendation | Implementation and operations | Pipelines, models, and platform operations | From strategy through to demonstrable execution, commissioned phase by phase |
| Own product in the engagement | As a rule not part of the deliverable | Mostly third-party platforms, some proprietary accelerators | Proprietary or licensed platform | None. SIMO sells no software; the SIMOSphere AI Lab tests approaches and sells nothing. |
| Commercial model | As a rule time and materials (day rates) | As a rule time and materials, fixed work packages, and service fees | License and consumption, plus effort | Entry engagement with a fixed scope, then quarterly retainers, cancelable at the end of any quarter |
| Jurisdiction of processing | Follows the client’s existing environment | Follows the target platform chosen | Follows the platform contract | EU or on the client’s premises, with client-held encryption keys |
| Evidence for regulators and internal audit | Can be commissioned as a separate engagement | Part of the program scope | Via tooling: catalog, lineage, and quality metrics | Built in and continuously updated |
| Goal at the end of the engagement | A decision that holds | A system in production, often with ongoing operations | A data platform in operation | The client’s independence, including from SIMO |
The entries for the three groups describe customary engagement structures, not any individual provider. Individual firms may work differently.
Delivery model
The people who scope it deliver it.
Enterprise-grade method, no enterprise overhead.
We work the same problem space as the large firms. The difference is in the setup: small teams of experienced people, compact engagements, and the same people from the first session through implementation. These are the six points we commit to.
Managing Partners on the engagement
The Managing Partners work on the case themselves, from the first session through implementation. The case stays with the same people. There is no handover to a delivery team.
Delivery supervision
We do not stop at the recommendation. We stay until the implementation is proven, and the evidence sits in your data, not in a closing deck.
Compact scope
Compact engagements instead of large programs, in phases, with a go/no-go decision after each one. Every phase delivers value on its own. From midsize companies to large enterprises: scope follows your initiative, not a minimum company size.
Vendor-neutral
We earn nothing on your licenses and nothing on your operations. That is why we can also tell you which technology you do not need.
Evidence down to the data
Evidence for internal audit and regulators accrues continuously, not only once an audit is announced. To get there we work all the way down to individual data sets. That is where data quality is decided.
Processing in the EU
Processing takes place in the EU or on your premises; the keys stay with you.
Proven, not asserted: 23 TB of data processed, 700 business-critical files fully reconciled, and processing time cut from several weeks to 10 hours. 23 TB in 10 hours
Where we stop
We do not sell platforms.
We build the structure that shows which ones you need.
A systems integrator earns on licenses, migration, operations, and maintenance. If you want a system built, that is the right choice: their model is built for execution. Ours is different: we earn on the advice, not on your software, and we build nothing you could not switch off later. That is why we put the question of retirement at the start and not at the end.
Advice and tooling, side by side
| Criterion | SIMO GmbH | Databricks | Palantir Foundry | Snowflake | Large consulting firms |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Advisory with delivery supervision | Platform for data, analytics, and AI | Platform | AI Data Cloud | Advisory |
| Stake in the technology choice | Vendor-neutral, no share of license or operations | Vendor of its own platform | Vendor of its own platform | Vendor of its own platform | Client chooses |
The entries for Databricks, Palantir Foundry, and Snowflake reproduce nothing but each vendor’s own public self-description, as of August 9, 2026. We deliberately make no claim here on place of operation, governing law, contract term, scale, or pricing: those depend on the individual contract and cannot be established in general from the outside. All three vendors document places of operation inside the EU, among others.
When SIMO is the better choice
- You want to keep sovereignty over your data: on your own premises, on European infrastructure, or mixed, without a US contract.
- Your business units and your IT describe the same initiative differently, and the two descriptions never converge.
- You have no data organization of your own and want neither platform lock-in nor a rotating cast of contacts: with us, the Managing Partners work on the engagement themselves.
- You are regulated, for example in banking, insurance, healthcare, or the public sector, and have to demonstrate compliance with the GDPR and the EU AI Act.
- You want to decide for yourself which technology you use, today and in two years.
- You are looking for senior accountability on the engagement, not a presentation followed by a change of staff.
When SIMO is not a fit
- You want to buy a data platform from its vendor. Databricks or Snowflake is then the more direct route.
- You are standing up a program in several countries at once and need capacity in large numbers. That is a job for one of the large firms.
- You need a large brand name to back a politically sensitive initiative. One of the large firms then fits better.
- You are looking for a one-time tool purchase. We advise on decisions and supervise their implementation; we do not sell tools.
- Your initiative is predominantly anchored in the US. You are then better served by a provider based there.
Next step
Which option fits your situation?
A 45-minute initial call. We tell you frankly whether SIMO is a better choice than the alternatives, or not.
45 minutes, by video, free of charge.
How ready is your decision? Check it in 3 minutes.
Call +49 6021 625 63 40