About me · Thun · throughout Switzerland
I bridge the gap between
two worlds.
One builds systems. The other runs a business. They rarely speak the same language.
Thomas Orlamünder. Twenty years in IT — from wrenches to senior management.
Even as an apprentice, I took on the workload of an 80 per cent employee — in 60 per cent of the time.
Two days a week I attended vocational college. No tricks: I simply optimised a single, cumbersome approval process. That was enough.
Understand first. Then simplify. I didn’t learn this — I’ve never worked any other way.
My journey
I learnt about IT from the ground up. That’s why I know what a promise made in a meeting actually means later on the server.
Apprenticeship, then self-employment
After my apprenticeship, I stayed with the company and set up my own business on the side. Back then, I was the bloke who’d tuck the PC under the desk. Infrastructure, cables, hardware — the side of IT you can actually touch.
Moving to Switzerland — and a brief detour into sales
At Dell in Geneva, I sold enterprise solutions: servers, storage, storage networks, blades, tape libraries. Technical advice, yes. Selling, no.
I was out of there in no time. It was the shortest stint of my life and the most instructive: ever since, I’ve known exactly what a sales pitch sounds like when it’s disguised as advice.
From PC administrator to team leader
I started out as a PC administrator in a makeshift container office. After my probationary period, I was given overall responsibility: servers, the network, everything.
Then a new building was erected. The entire infrastructure was managed by me. Time and again, colleagues from other sites would come to see how we did things — because staff from our company who’d travelled elsewhere had been disappointed and said that everything was better in Switzerland.
When we moved in, the IT team grew by two people, and I became team leader. Later, more sites were added: two in France, one in Milan. And at some point, IT staff from Africa were reporting to me — not because of the region, but because of the language.
Head of IT at the Institute of Pathology
Digital pathology, back when that still sounded like the future. A very innovative time — and the first time I realised just how much good IT depends on the subject matter experts being involved in shaping it.
Setting up IT, standardising systems, digitising processes
At Copytrend, I set up the IT infrastructure and standardised it. Here I learnt what happens when 20 sites tackle the same task in 20 different ways — and what remains when you first ask why we’re doing it in the first place.
Head of IT at Fenaco
A large organisation, high expectations, little time for what would really have been necessary.
Self-employed — Evoloque Consulting
Independent consultancy at the interface between IT and business. No portfolio, no revenue targets, no vendors to whom I am beholden.
Plus CuraSovo, my own product: care documentation and bookkeeping combined, encrypted, hosted in Switzerland.
Why self-employed
Everyone wants digitalisation.
But the priority lies elsewhere.
As an employee, you spend years solving the same problems. Not because nobody sees them — but because the budget is lacking, because other tasks get in the way, because digitalisation is always put off until next year.
And if you want to go down that path, you have to actually go down it. Not just order it.
As a freelancer, I can support businesses exactly where they need it.
And I’ve no problem with it if a permanent solution isn’t wanted. Then I’m off again — that’s not a threat, it’s the offer.
What follows
Six sentences that aren’t just mission-statement prose, but rules for decision-making.
Process first. Then digitise.
Digitising before simplifying is like laying a larger pipe — without checking whether the water is actually flowing.
I’ll call a halt if it can’t work.
Not because the tool was bad. Because no tool can replace a process that doesn’t exist.
Understand before you type.
17 manual steps. I didn’t digitise a single one. First I understood them. Then I simplified them. In the end: four.
Independent means independent.
No sales targets, no exclusive distribution, no in-house portfolio. If a referral is remunerated, you’ll know that in advance.
Efficiency is an attitude, not a method.
My first job was an 80 per cent role. I managed it on 60 per cent. That wasn’t a trick — or so I think.
IT must understand the business.
As long as IT is sitting at the wrong table, the wrong decisions will be made.
And besides
I run CuraSovo — software that links care documentation with accounting. Encrypted, hosted in Switzerland, Swiss software. I don’t just talk about digital sovereignty. I build it.
Thun. In use throughout Switzerland. German, English, French.
The first step
First, understand.
Then decide.
A conversation where I listen and ask questions. If I see that you don’t need me, I’ll tell you so.