Operations directors tend to ask us the same question: what does it cost to digitalise one specific process, not the whole company. The short answer: most single-process projects land between 1,500 and 8,000 EUR and are delivered in 3 to 6 weeks. This guide walks through 5 real examples with figures, the pricing pattern that works and a simple formula to calculate the return.
How much does it cost to digitalise a process in an SME?
The range depends on the process, but based on real projects for Spanish SMEs with 5 to 50 employees: digitalising a single process costs between 1,500 and 8,000 EUR in most cases. A one-off fix on an existing system starts at 300 EUR, a mid-sized project starts at 1,500 EUR with a 3 to 6 week timeline, and a large project starts at 5,000 EUR and takes 2 to 4 months. The overall range for an SME rarely leaves the 1,500 to 15,000 EUR band.
Three factors move the price within that range: how many people will use the tool, how many systems it must connect to (ERP, email, accounting) and how much business logic needs to be built. A work report with a photo and a signature is far simpler than a portal with per-customer pricing. If you want the line-by-line breakdown of the price of custom software development, we cover it in a separate guide. The key point: demand a fixed price before work starts, not an estimate in hours.
What does it cost to digitalise paper work reports and email orders?
Example 1: paper work reports to a mobile app, between 1,500 and 4,000 EUR. An industrial maintenance company with 12 field technicians filled in paper reports that reached the office days later, crumpled or incomplete, and invoicing ran about 3 weeks behind. With the mobile app, the technician completes the report in 2 minutes, the client signs on screen and the PDF reaches administration instantly. The invoice goes out the same day the job is closed.
Example 2: email orders to a B2B portal, between 3,000 and 8,000 EUR. A distribution company received around 60 orders a day by email, and two employees typed them into the ERP by hand, with reference errors almost daily. The portal lets each customer order at their own prices and check availability, and the order enters the system already structured. Manual transcription disappears and picking errors drop measurably from the first month.
What does it cost to retire the planning spreadsheet and connect email to the ERP?
Example 3: the planning spreadsheet to a web application, between 2,500 and 6,000 EUR. It is the most common case in factories and warehouses: a planning Excel that only one person truly understands, that corrupts with 4 simultaneous users and that nobody dares to touch. The web application keeps the logic that already works and adds role-based permissions, a change history and simultaneous access without lockups. Knowledge of the process stops living in one employee's head.
Example 4: connecting email to the ERP, between 1,500 and 4,000 EUR for most typical integrations. Orders, delivery notes or invoices arriving by email are read, validated and recorded in the ERP automatically, with nobody copying them by hand. It is one of the highest-return pieces of business process automation with custom software, because it removes an entire daily task without replacing your ERP or changing how your customers work.
What does a management dashboard cost and what does it change?
Example 5: a management dashboard, between 1,500 and 6,000 EUR. At a distribution firm, management spent 2 days a month assembling a report by pulling data from the ERP, the sales tool and several spreadsheets. The dashboard connects to those sources and shows sales, margins and pending orders every morning with data from the previous day. The management meeting stops debating whether the figure is right and starts deciding what to do about it.
The usual mistake is asking for 40 indicators on day one. A useful dashboard starts with 5 to 10 metrics that someone actually reviews every week and acts on. Starting small is why the lower end of the range sits at 1,500 EUR: a panel with a handful of well-chosen metrics, connected to one or two sources, is delivered in 3 to 4 weeks and already changes how the company is run.
Why does a fixed price work better than billing by the hour?
The same pattern repeats across all 5 examples: a written scope, a fixed price agreed before work starts and a concrete delivery date. It is the opposite of hourly billing, where the risk of the project dragging on sits with you. With a fixed price, if something takes longer than planned, the supplier absorbs the difference, not your budget. For an SME without a technical department to audit every timesheet, it is the only healthy incentive structure.
Two more conditions are worth demanding. First, the person who quotes should be the person who delivers; at ASD Solutions the senior engineer who runs the diagnosis is the one who writes the code, with no subcontracting. Second, the code and all access credentials should be yours from day one, so you can move to another supplier without penalty. Digitalising a process for 3,000 EUR becomes expensive if it ties you for life to whoever built it.
How do you calculate the ROI of digitalising a process?
The simple formula: hours saved per month multiplied by the hourly cost of whoever spends them. An administrative employee losing 90 minutes a day retyping orders adds up to around 30 hours a month; at 18 EUR per hour that is 540 EUR every month. If the B2B portal costs 4,500 EUR, it pays for itself in just over 8 months, and everything after that is net saving. With that maths on a single sheet, the decision stops being an act of faith.
The formula is deliberately conservative: it ignores the errors avoided, the invoices that go out 3 weeks earlier and the customer you do not lose to a mistyped order. Treat it as a floor, not a ceiling. A practical rule we apply: if a process does not pay for itself within 12 months on saved hours alone, it is probably not the first process you should digitalise. There is almost always another one with a better return waiting on the list.
Frequently asked questions
Which process is the cheapest to digitalise?
Integrations and work reports. A typical email-to-ERP integration costs between 1,500 and 4,000 EUR, and moving paper work reports to a mobile app starts at 1,500 EUR. If a system already exists and only needs a specific fix or extension, one-off fixes start at 300 EUR.
How long does it take to digitalise a process?
A mid-sized project takes 3 to 6 weeks from kick-off. A large project, covering several processes or complex integrations, takes 2 to 4 months. The diagnosis is much faster: a technical audit gives you an initial assessment within 72 hours and the full report in 5 working days.
How do I work out whether the investment pays off?
Multiply the hours the process consumes each month by the hourly cost of whoever handles it. Example: 30 hours a month at 18 EUR is 540 EUR monthly; a 4,500 EUR project pays for itself in about 8 months. If the payback exceeds 12 months, look for a process with a better return.
Is the quote fixed or billed by the hour?
Fixed. The scope is defined in writing and the price is agreed before work starts, so overruns are absorbed by the supplier, not your budget. As a reference, SME projects almost always fall between 1,500 and 15,000 EUR depending on scope and integrations.
Where do I start if I do not know which process to digitalise first?
With a 190 EUR technical audit: initial diagnosis within 72 hours and a full report in 5 working days, with your processes ranked by return and a fixed quote for the first one. If you go ahead with the project, the 190 EUR is deducted from the total price.
