Thomas Berndorfer, CEO of COSO wins SME Europe Award for Product Innovation

29.01.2026 Funchal, Madeira: Yesterday, COSO and Connecting Software CEO  Thomas Berndorfer was presented with SME Europe’s award for Product Innovation and Future Readiness. The award committee specifically highlighted COSO’s flagship product, Truth Enforcer, a solution designed to help users verify the authenticity and integrity of digital files through innovative blockchain technology, as an example of the ingenuity of European Small and Medium businesses. As part of COSO’s ongoing partnership with Connecting Software, Truth Enforcer is sold exclusively under the Connecting Software brand.

COSO’s Truth Enforcer technology pairs digital files with immutable blockchain hashes, giving a permanent baseline to verify the authenticity and timestamp of a digital file. If any part of the file has been changed, it will never match this hash – giving business owners a quick, efficient, and third-party verifiable means of proving a file is authentic.

This product has the potential to save companies significant cost and time usually spent notarizing files in line with compliance requirements and provides an early warning system against attempts by bad actors to alter key files.

Nominated by Portuguese MEPs Paulo Cunha and Paulo do Nascimento Cabral, it was COSO’s first time participating in the award, which is designed to celebrate businesses throughout the European Union and connect them with policymakers in the European Parliament.

Thomas Berndorfer, CEO of COSO and Connecting Software said “I’m tremendously proud of the work that COSO has done to innovate in its sector and deliver exceptional value for its customers. Truth Enforcer is a product that will become increasingly important in the age of AI – when bad actors can create convincing forgeries seemingly at will, it will be critical for large organizations to consistently verify the integrity of critical contracts, invoices and documents.

SME Europe is a great organization that highlights the exceptional work of European businesses across the continent and the globe. We’re excited to continue our partnership with them”

After the award ceremony, Thomas Berndorfer participated in a roundtable of European businesses about European business regulations, particularly how they can be streamlined to unlock greater growth.

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About COSO

COSO is a developer of software solutions for integration, productivity, and document authenticity sold exclusively under the Connecting Software brand. Founded in 2009 by Thomas Berndorfer, COSO moved to Madeira, Portugal’s International Business Centre in 2017.  In all its products, COSO has a commitment to the highest standards of security and compliance, boosting productivity and efficiency by reducing and eliminating time-consuming and repetitive IT tasks. 

About Connecting Software

Connecting Software has been providing software solutions to synchronize data and connect enterprise systems for over two decades. It serves over 1000 customers globally, particularly in highly regulated sectors such as finance, public service, and defense.

Connecting Software’s solutions work automatically in the background to increase productivity, improve security, and ensure compliance. They easily connect with popular business applications like Microsoft Dynamics, O365/M365, SharePoint, and Salesforce. They also incorporate proven, cutting-edge technologies such as blockchain for data integrity and authenticity, and data diodes for unidirectional secure data transfer in sensitive environments. This strategic application of advanced technologies ensures effectiveness and reliability for clients’ critical operations.