The offices of Rhyno Solutions GmbH are located just a short walk from the main railway station in the picturesque old town quarter of Schaffhausen. Four friends - Fabrice Bircher, Nils Hartmannsgruber, Felix Anderegg and Carim Chenna – established the technology consultancy as a start-up in 2017. The idea developed whilst Bircher, Anderegg und Chenna were studying business information technology and all three researched different aspects of chatbots and Artificial Intelligence during their Masters programmes. «The decision to start a business was a gradual but constant process with lots of ifs and buts – looking back, it was ultimately the right idea at the right time», Chenna says. Bircher adds: «If you’re going to create something together, you need more than just an idea – and then we recognised the opportunity for us and suddenly it all took off quite quickly.»

Working across Switzerland

Rhyno Solutions has two main areas of activity. «One area of expertise for us is providing consultancy on SAP in the tech arena», Bircher explains. The start-up offers consultancy on a wide range of software development questions – from developing SAP extensions to end-to-end SAP solutions – and has already won business with several well-known corporations in Switzerland. «We aren’t focussed on a particular region, we work across Switzerland», Chenna sets out. Schaffhausen’s central location helps them maintain national coverage. «Schaffhausen is ideally located and has great transport links, both by road and rail», Chenna emphasises. Being able to secure office premises close to a main railway station was a key criterion when choosing a location for their business. «In Schaffhausen, premises right by the station, close to the centre, are still affordable for a start-up», Bircher says. 

Digital Assistants for HR

Rhyno Solutions’ second principal activity is the development of innovative «conversational business solutions» and web development. «An important figure here is our chatbot ‘Sophie’, who we developed and successfully took to market with our partners HR Campus», Chenna outlines. «Sophie» is a kind of digital assistant to every member of staff and is available everywhere and all the time. Simple voice commands enable routine tasks such as expenses and recording absence to be handled. At the same time, the company’s stand-alone expenses management system, known as «Edi», is gaining traction with SMEs and corporates in Switzerland.

The innovative spirit at the heart of this start-up has also been recognised by Google – by whom they have been selected to join the Start-Up Programme. «That has given us access to Google’s class-leading infrastructure and we are also benefitting from advice and support», as Managing Director Bircher explains. We can train our chatbots in Google’s data centre and scale very easily without having to invest heavily in our own server infrastructure. «When choosing a data centre, it was of critical importance to us that this would be located in Switzerland and meets the highest security standards», Bircher went on.

«Easy and quick access to the authorities, to the Economic Promotion Team and to business partners are real benefits.» Fabrice Bircher, Co-Founder

The reason they chose to base their business in Schaffhausen rather than in Zurich, St. Gallen or Bern wasn’t just down to their roots, Bircher points out. They also regularly revisit comparisons of Schaffhausen and alternatives. «But Schaffhausen really adds value to what we do and that’s why it’s the right location for us», he explains. Easy and quick access to the authorities, to the Economic Promotion Team and to business partners, the excellent transport links and the feeling of not simply being one of a large number of companies are real benefits. «That also means you can arrive at pragmatic solutions. You can sit down with people around a table and talk things through.» An additional benefit is the exceptional quality of life. «We travel a lot for work, and that’s why it’s important to all of us to live somewhere we all enjoy spending time», Bircher says.

These young entrepreneurs are looking forward to a larger start-up landscape locally in future. «The Starthub in Schaffhausen is a very exciting initiative which aims to grow the number of start-ups and to help them to network», Bircher underlines. Chenna and Bircher are convinced that establishing a Technology Centre right by the main railway station in Schaffhausen and providing easy access for new businesses would have a significant impact. «That would have a positive impact on Schaffhausen, would further strengthen the start-up scene here and bring new businesses together», they argue. They believe there are already many promising small businesses out there which have considerable potential to scale if they receive the right support.