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Case study · Finance

One question. Every tool you work in.

Executive assistant 2.0 — Teams + Microsoft 365 Copilot

Our executive finance assistant steps beyond Teams: with the bi-directional UiPath–Microsoft Copilot Studio integration it also answers in Outlook and Microsoft 365 Copilot — with Microsoft and UiPath agents working under one orchestration.

160ad-hoc board questions a month at this example group. Each one pulls an FP&A analyst away from the work they were hired for.

Executive summary

The challenge

Board questions handled manually by FP&A; answers in days, in multiple versions of the truth.

What changes

The agent answers wherever the question is asked: Teams, Outlook, M365 Copilot — on SAP and warehouse data.

Business value

Seconds instead of days, one version of the truth, FP&A back to analysis.

Systems & scope

SAP, warehouse/BI, Microsoft 365; UiPath + Copilot Studio under Maestro™.

Illustrative scenario

A five-company group, a six-person board

“What is the DE margin after the adjustment?” — the question goes by email to the CFO, the CFO to the controller, the controller to an analyst. The answer returns on Thursday, in Excel, in version three.

Version 2.0 answers in the tool where the question was asked — including Outlook, mid-email to the supervisory board. No window switching, no waiting, the same audit trail.

The current reality

  1. HumanA board member emails a question
  2. WaitingThe question cascades down to an analyst
  3. HumanThe analyst drops current work and builds an extract
  4. HumanManual stitching of SAP and BI data in Excel
  5. Error riskThree versions of the file circulate the group
  6. WaitingThe answer arrives after 2–3 days
HumanWaitingError risk

The hidden cost of the current process

The most expensive help desk in the company: FP&A

  • 120 analyst hours a month on questions that are 80% repetitive lookups.
  • Board decisions postponed “until Thursday” — an invisible but real cost.
  • Competing versions of the truth erode trust in the numbers themselves.

The cost of doing nothing

A year of ad-hoc question handling≈ 50 400 €
3 years of the same loop≈ 151 200 €
Decisions delayed by daysa strategic cost

Manual work is an operational tax: the automation investment is finite, the manual cost is paid again every month.

The process after automation

  1. AutomationThe question lands in Teams, Outlook or Copilot
  2. AutomationThe agent checks the asker's permissions
  3. AutomationReaches SAP and the warehouse; robots compute what is needed
  4. AutomationAnswers with the number, the context and the source
  5. HumanActions (report, alert, process) — after a human OK
HumanAutomation

What the automation handles

  • Answers about performance in any M365 app
  • Consistent number logic: one margin definition for the whole group
  • Orchestration of Microsoft and UiPath agents under one control

When a human decides

  • Strategic interpretation and decisions
  • Approving every executive action
  • KPI definitions and data scope

Before

Answer time2–3 days
Versions of the truthseveral
FP&A time / month~120 h
Availabilityoffice hours

After

Answer timeseconds
Versions of the truthone
FP&A time / monthanalysis, not extracts
Availability24/7, mobile included

Value model — example assumptions

Illustrative model
160 questions × 45 min of analyst work= 120 h / mies.
120 h × €35 hourly cost= 4 200 € / mies.
12 months× 12
Annual FP&A capacity released≈ 50 400 €

Business benefits

  • The board decides on today's numbers, not Thursday's
  • One definition of every metric across the group
  • FP&A returns to forecasts and scenarios
  • The agent investment works in every Microsoft 365 app

Board-level KPIs affected

Decision lead timeFP&A ad-hoc loadReport cycleData trust

What management gains

  • Every answer carries its source — no more “where is this from”
  • The board's question history shows what reports are missing
  • One permission model for people and agents

Estimate it for your organisation

hours released per month
annual capacity released

An illustrative estimate based on your inputs. A model of released capacity — not a savings promise.

Systems in this scenario

Inputs

  • Microsoft Teams
  • Outlook / M365 Copilot
  • Copilot Studio

Mientha agentic layer

  • UiPath Agent Builder
  • UiPath robots
  • Maestro™ · Action Center

Core systems

  • SAP
  • Hurtownia / BI
  • SharePoint

Human approval: Teams / Action Center

What we deliver

  • Extending the assistant to Outlook and M365 Copilot
  • The bi-directional UiPath ↔ Copilot Studio integration
  • A group metric dictionary: one definition, one source
  • A permission model mirrored from AD/SAP roles
  • Executive actions with human approval
  • A monthly answer-quality review

What we need to start

  • The 30 most frequent board questions
  • Access to the warehouse/BI data model
  • Definitions of key metrics (or a mandate to write them)
  • An M365 tenant with Copilot Studio

Implementation roadmap

Discovery

We map the process, data and exceptions with process owners.

Design

Target flow, business rules, approval thresholds.

Build

Agents, robots and integrations in your environment.

Validate

Tests on real cases, exception handling.

Go-live

Controlled rollout with human oversight.

Optimise

Monitoring, reporting and continuous improvement.

Typical duration depends on systems and rules — a single process is usually weeks, not quarters.

Risk and controls

Autonomy under control

  • Permissions checked on every question, not once a day
  • Data never leaves the group's environment
  • Every answer and action in the audit log
  • Executive actions always behind human approval

Why now

  • The board already uses Copilot — the question is on what data
  • The bi-directional UiPath–Microsoft integration has just become available
  • Every month is ~120 FP&A hours on repetitive extracts

Why this matters to:

CEO

Decisions at market speed, not reporting speed.

CFO

FP&A returns to forecasting; numbers have one source.

CIO

Microsoft and UiPath agents under one orchestration and one audit.

Questions we usually hear

“We have Power BI — why this?”

A dashboard answers the questions someone predicted a year ago. The agent answers the one asked a minute ago — and can reach data beyond the dashboard.

“Can the agent's answers be trusted?”

Every answer carries its source, metric definition and data timestamp. That is more rigour than the average Excel attachment has today.

“The board will not talk to a bot.”

The board does not talk to a bot — it asks where it already writes. The answer comes back like an analyst's, just in a second.

When this may not be the right solution

  • Data scattered with no warehouse or shared definitions — foundation first
  • The board does not work in Microsoft 365
  • Only a handful of ad-hoc questions a month

A question for your next board meeting

How many of your board's decisions last quarter would have been different — or faster — with a one-second answer?

What does waiting for its own numbers cost your board?

30 minutes, realistic demo data, your questions — see the answers in Teams, Outlook and Copilot.

See a demo on board-level data

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