Introduction
Ark Fiduciaire is a well-established accounting and fiduciary firm based in Geneva, Switzerland. Specializing in accounting, tax compliance, payroll management, company incorporation, and corporate governance services, they serve a diverse portfolio of SMEs and entrepreneurs across the region.
Like many professional services firms, Ark Fiduciaire faced a common challenge: their mailroom operations were consuming significant time and resources. With hundreds of documents arriving daily via post and email, the manual sorting, classification, and routing process was becoming a bottleneck for their expert accountants.
The Challenge
The team at Ark Fiduciaire was spending valuable hours each day on document triage. Incoming correspondence included client accounting documents, tax authority notices, supplier invoices, bank statements, and administrative correspondence. Each document needed to be identified, classified by type and urgency, matched to the correct client file, and routed to the appropriate team member.
Manual processing created several pain points. Classification errors led to delays in responding to urgent tax deadlines. Documents occasionally ended up in the wrong client folders, requiring time-consuming searches. The most experienced staff were spending time on administrative tasks instead of high-value advisory work.
As a firm committed to digital transformation and modern fiduciary practices, Ark Fiduciaire sought a solution that would maintain Swiss data sovereignty while dramatically improving efficiency.
The houle Solution
Working closely with the Ark Fiduciaire team, houle designed and implemented an intelligent mailroom automation system built entirely on Microsoft Azure services hosted in Switzerland.
The solution combines several key technologies. Azure Document Intelligence extracts text and structural information from scanned documents and PDFs, handling everything from handwritten notes to complex financial statements. Azure OpenAI Service, deployed in private mode within their own Azure subscription, powers the intelligent classification engine that understands document context and purpose.
The workflow begins when documents arrive. Physical mail is scanned at a network scanner that deposits files directly into a secure SharePoint folder. Emails to the firm's shared inbox trigger a Power Automate flow that captures both the message body and any attachments.
For each incoming document, the system extracts the full text content and analyzes it using a GPT-4 model trained on Swiss accounting and fiduciary terminology. The AI identifies the document type (tax notice, client correspondence, invoice, bank statement, etc.), extracts key entities such as client name, reference numbers, and important dates, assesses urgency level, and determines the appropriate routing.
Documents are automatically filed in the correct client folder within SharePoint and indexed in Azure AI Search for instant retrieval. Team members receive Teams notifications with document summaries and urgency indicators, allowing them to prioritize effectively.
Results and Impact
The transformation has been substantial. Document processing time dropped by over 75%, freeing the accounting team to focus on client advisory work. Classification accuracy exceeds 90%, significantly reducing misfiled documents and the associated search time.
Perhaps most importantly, urgent documents like tax authority deadlines are now flagged immediately rather than sitting in a queue. Response times to critical correspondence improved dramatically, reducing compliance risk and improving client service.
The system also provides full audit trail capabilities, with every document timestamped and tracked from arrival through processing. This transparency supports the firm's commitment to regulatory compliance and professional standards.
Data Sovereignty and Security
A critical requirement for any Swiss fiduciary firm is maintaining strict data confidentiality. The entire solution runs within Ark Fiduciaire's own Azure subscription in the Switzerland North region. No client data leaves Swiss territory, and the GPT-4 model operates in private mode with contractual guarantees that data is never used for training.
Access controls leverage Azure AD with multi-factor authentication, and comprehensive logging supports audit requirements. The architecture ensures full compliance with Swiss data protection requirements and professional secrecy obligations.
Looking Forward
The mailroom automation project has opened new possibilities for Ark Fiduciaire. The firm is now exploring additional AI-powered enhancements, including automated extraction of key figures from financial statements and intelligent deadline tracking across their entire client portfolio.
This collaboration demonstrates how traditional fiduciary services can embrace AI innovation while maintaining the trust, accuracy, and confidentiality that clients expect from their accounting partners.
Conclusion
The partnership between houle and Ark Fiduciaire shows that AI-powered automation is not just for large enterprises. Mid-sized professional services firms can achieve significant efficiency gains while maintaining full control over their data and processes. By building on Microsoft 365 and Azure technologies, the solution integrates seamlessly with existing workflows and scales with the business.