Overview

ecosio GmbH is a leading European provider of B2B integration solutions, specializing in Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and e-invoicing. Headquartered in Vienna, Austria, the company employs approximately 200 professionals across three European locations, serving a diverse client base spanning a wide array of industries. By delivering automated, seamless communication across supply chains, ecosio empowers modern enterprises to eliminate manual data entry, reduce transaction friction, and easily navigate complex, ever-changing international digital compliance standards.

Supernova Award Category

Future of Work: Human Capital Management

The Problem

Prior to its digital transformation, ecosio relied on a lightweight, basic HR system that handled only time tracking, leaving core operations such as payroll processing, performance cycles, and compensation reviews entirely manual. This highly manual environment forced teams to manage critical processes through endless back-and-forth emails, resulting in operational delays and frequent data inaccuracies. Furthermore, a lack of access to analytics hindered leadership's visibility into vital employee engagement and workforce retention metrics.

The Solution

To identify the problem, ecosio recognized that its manual, email-heavy HR processes couldn't scale with its rapid growth. To select the right technology, leadership launched a full RFP process and formed cross-departmental stakeholder groups to rigorously test multiple HCM suites using test accounts for two to four weeks. After evaluating the platforms from various department perspectives, the team voted to select HiBob.

The results

Operational Transformation: Before vs. After The deployment of HiBob shifted ecosio from an administrative bottleneck to a model of hyper-automated, data-driven agility. This transformation fundamentally disrupted how the organization manages its scale. Previously, each new hire contract required a highly manual, siloed process that involved significant back-and-forth email exchanges. This has been replaced by automated workflows that instantly trigger upon offer acceptance—auto-generating IT provisioning tickets and shipping details across departments. Furthermore, processing payroll used to be a grueling monthly ordeal due to the need to double- and triple-check notoriously inaccurate time-tracking data, which has now been replaced by synchronized automated workflows via the Payroll Hub. Finally, a complete lack of analytics once left the organization blind to employee sentiment and attrition risks, but real-time survey analytics now give leaders full visibility into workplace satisfaction.

Metrics

Key Performance Metrics The quantifiable impact of this digital overhaul includes the following achievements: * Return on Investment: Achieved a massive 706 percent ROI with a payback period of just 2.3 months. * Onboarding Efficiency: Slashed contract processing and onboarding time from 5 to 8 full days of work down to just 15 minutes per new hire, improving efficiency by up to eight days per contract. * Payroll Optimization: Reduced monthly payroll processing time by 75 percent, translating into €29,720 in annual cost savings. * Lean Headcount Scaling: Absorbed rapid growth of more than 110 employees while avoiding at least four additional full-time HR hires, resulting in approximately €302,400 in avoided annual headcount costs. * Labor Cost Reductions: Accumulated more than €582,000 in annual labor cost savings by the third year of deployment. * Retention and Morale: Increased the employee retention rate from 85 percent to just under 93 percent (a 7.7 percent improvement ), dropped attrition rates to 3.9 percent , and skyrocketed the organization's eNPS from 54 to 75. Industry Disruptive Potential For the broader B2B integration and tech sectors, this project serves as a blueprint for lean scaling. It proves that high-growth tech firms do not need to scale internal administrative headcount linearly with business growth. By connecting core platforms like Slack, Notion, and payroll into a centralized HR automation engine, ecosio created an incredibly high-yield operational model. It demonstrates to the wider industry that operational excellence, cultural health, and hyper-growth can be achieved simultaneously through intelligent workplace automation.

The Technology

Technology and Implementation Blueprint To drive this operational transformation, ecosio deployed the HiBob HR platform (Bob), specifically leveraging its advanced core human capital management (HCM) suite and its Payroll Hub module. A critical element of the project’s success was the rapid, high-efficiency deployment timeline: * 60-Day Deployment: The entire implementation of HiBob was completed in just two months (60 days), allowing the organization to achieve a successful launch on January 1. * Ecosystem Integration: Rather than operating in a silo, the platform was immediately integrated into ecosio's existing technology stack, creating automated workflows across Slack, Notion, and their internal payroll and IT ticketing systems. * User Adoption: Because of the system's intuitive, highly visual interface, no formalized training was required for general staff. Instead, the HR team created self-service support pages within Notion to facilitate seamless, organic adoption.

Disruptive Factor

During implementation, ecosio initially struggled to collect feedback from overly broad user groups, but quickly pivoted to agile, department-specific pilot testing and 30-minute support slots to streamline adoption. The project’s impact is defined by an extraordinary 706% ROI, yielding over €582,000 in annual labor savings by year three while slashing contract processing times from eight days to 15 minutes. This project is game-changing because it completely shatters the industry status quo that scaling a business requires a linear, costly increase in administrative headcount. What sets ecosio apart is this hyper-automated internal blueprint, leveraging deep technology integration to drive massive external business growth while maintaining an incredibly lean, agile, and high-retention workplace culture.

Shining Moment

What we are most proud of is the profound cultural and human transformation that occurred behind the financial metrics. While a 706 percent ROI is a remarkable business achievement, the true success lies in how we completely transformed the day-to-day employee experience. Prior to this project, our lean People Operations team was bogged down by tedious administrative burdens, and our workforce suffered from communication delays and poor visibility into their own sentiment. By empowering our team with real-time analytics and employee surveys, we were able to actively listen to our people and take meaningful action for the very first time. Watching our eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score) skyrocket from 54 to an outstanding 75—while simultaneously dropping employee detractors from 10.6 percent to a near-invisible 0.7 percent—is an incredible point of pride. We didn't just build a more efficient company; we fostered a transparent, highly engaged, and supportive workplace where people genuinely want to stay and grow.