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Interview with Markus Naef, CEO of SwissSign Group AG
On 4 October 2021, Swiss Post announced the takeover of SwissSign Group AG. SwissSign Group was previously established as a joint venture between various well-known Swiss companies. IFBC advised the shareholders of SwissSign Group as exclusive financial and M&A advisor during the preparation of the transaction and throughout the entire sales process.
Below, Markus Naef, CEO of SwissSign Group AG until December 2021, describes his experiences in connection with the successful transaction.
SwissSign Group is a Swiss «Trust Service Provider»: with its reliable products and services, SwissSign Group makes it possible to deploy business processes securely and simply online. SwissSign Group protects all data according to the highest security standards while keeping the data in Switzerland.
Since its founding in 2018, thanks to considerable investments by its previous shareholders, SwissSign Group has built up a solid infrastructure for digital services and established a network with over 250 online service applications from the public and private sectors and over 2.2 million users, with a strong upward trend.
More and more business processes are shifting to the digital world. Many tasks of daily life can now – and in some cases only – be done online. The need to do this in a simple way – but still in a secure environment – is increasing. This tendency is reinforced by the COVID-19 pandemic.
With trustworthy electronic identities, the implementation of digital business processes with complete media continuity can be effectively driven forward and thus a benefit can be achieved for the population, for private and public providers of online services and thus for the Swiss economy.
By building an infrastructure fit for the future, SwissSign Group has laid the foundation for the continuous development of its products and services: Through these, SwissSign Group will further strengthen and grow its position, especially in the Swiss market.
In autumn 2021, SwissSign Group launched a range of new relevant offerings to complement its already well-established SwissID identity service and its electronic certificates. With the ordering of debt collection information via the SwissID App, secure access to the electronic patient dossier (EPD) and the offer of an electronic signature, SwissID Sign, SwissSign Group offers its more than 2.2 million users new time- and cost-saving online SwissID application options. With SwissID Sign, SwissSign Group completes its product portfolio and thus makes it possible to fully digitalise processes from identification to the expression of will. With a time horizon of five years, these are important steps towards a secure digital future.
It was important for SwissSign Group at all times to ensure the further development of the company and its products and services, also in the medium to long term. With the takeover by Swiss Post at the beginning of October 2021, this is given. Furthermore, the original idea of the former shareholders, namely the establishment of a relevant digital infrastructure, is strengthened with this transaction. Finally, the need for such an infrastructure to be competently managed by a government-related entity is now covered as well.
SwissSign’s services strengthen the digital offerings and thus support Swiss Post’s new strategy. Swiss Post continues to establish itself as a trustworthy partner for people, companies and authorities in secure data transmission. With this acquisition, it is securing important know-how and established solutions related to the digital identity. As a government-related entity, Swiss Post is also creating the conditions to be able to offer Switzerland, the cantons and citizens a secure digital identity if required.
Team and clear focus! When it comes to the team, it is less about size, but rather about the right composition with the necessary competences and mutual trust. Without a clear structure and team spirit, the transaction would not have been completed so successfully in such a short time. The transaction was very complex due to the heterogeneous structure on the part of the sellers. It was therefore essential that the established project plan was adhered to. Due to the fast pace of necessary decisions, it was important that the team anticipated possible questions and knew the answers before the questions even arose.
With IFBC, we had a partner in the team who understood our rather complex business very quickly and supported the transaction with a pragmatic approach, while also being able to show the potential buyers the strategic benefits. In addition, the people involved fitted very well into the team due to their personalities and were a great professional enrichment. IFBC understood very well how to bring certain (former) shareholders in line and thus bring decisions that made a successful transaction possible in the first place.
Clear definition and consistent implementation of the strategy as well as the right composition of the team in terms of personnel and expertise are the decisive factors for success. This requires a powerful, in my opinion rather small team, equipped with the different professional competences and clear responsibilities, which drives the process forward in a very well-coordinated manner. This project organisation is responsible for strict adherence to the project plan and the corresponding tasks defined.
The reason why I prefer smaller teams is that during this phase it must be ensured that the operative business can continue «normally» and that the employees, customers, partners, etc. can go about their business as usual.
Markus Naef, CEO of SwissSign Group AG, together with his team, has decisively shaped over the past five years the building of a solid infrastructure for digital services throughout Switzerland as well as a network of providers and over 2.2 million users based on this infrastructure. He holds two university degrees in economics and law from the HSG (now University of St. Gallen). Before joining SwissSign Group, he was a member of the management board of Sunrise AG, which was listed on the stock exchange at the time, where he was responsible for the B2B business.
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