SmartLiberty SA

Communication and security solutions for long-term care

An elderly person in long-term care falls on the way to the bathroom and cannot reach the emergency button. Thanks to SmartLiberty, such scenarios are a thing of the past. Because here, people wear the emergency button directly on their wrist. This is connected to the smartphone of the specialist staff, who can respond immediately. No shrill sound, no unnecessary panic, but targeted and rapid response.

At the same time, SmartLiberty products extend the independence and freedom of people in nursing homes. A sensor system, for example, gives invisible signals when a person leaves the protected room without permission and puts themselves in danger. We spoke with SmartLiberty's CEO, Tobias Britz, to learn more about the company.

How would you summarize what SmartLiberty does?

More freedom and security for residents, a relief and support for the staff. We give people in long-term care their independence and a bit of freedom back. They can move around in a protected environment without encountering barriers or locked doors. At the same time, the staff receives all information and emergency signals on the cell phone via the app and can react immediately. Shrill alarms in the corridor are thus a thing of the past. It is also possible to immediately prove to relatives how quickly an incident was responded to - this creates trust.

How do you continue to develop your products and services?

On the one hand, we have our own R&D department, and on the other, we organize User Innovation Days, where we involve home managers and caregivers as well as residents in product development in order to fully meet their needs. We want to make life easier and more pleasant for everyone - to this end, we put people at the center.

What stumbling blocks were there on the way to success and how did you overcome them?

Well, we saw ourselves in a somewhat similar situation to Advanon. It was a bit complicated at the beginning to enter a saturated market with innovative solutions. Success came later than planned. On top of that, there is the shortage of skilled workers. Finding good engineers is complicated. But thanks to creative recruiting methods and platforms like cafepro.ch, we got a handle on that. And of course we needed money at the beginning to finance the developments and the market build-up. Thanks to an external investor, that went quite smoothly.

When and why did Advanon come into play?

The project business gives rise to major fluctuations in cash flow. These are also negatively influenced by the complex payment processes involved in construction projects. For example, the invoice has to go to the planner, then to the architect, then to the client, then to the accounting department, and then finally the money arrives. We had to find a solution to intercept that. Talking to banks is way too slow and inflexible in the construction phase. We came across Advanon through Facebook and were able to solve part of our financial challenges within hours. Fast, simple, straightforward, useful.

Did the decision to use Advanon affect their growth, if so, how?

Thanks in part to Advanon, we have been able to grow by an average of 25% per year in recent years. This would not have been possible otherwise. This has also generated some jobs.

What do you particularly like about Advanon?

Advanon is simple, modern, straightforward, fast and useful. An adjustment of the credit limit can be requested, checked and approved via chat within 3 minutes. That is Banking 4.0! In special cases (pooling of invoices, for example) Advanon is immediately on board as a partner and helps to find the right options together.