Home / Insights

insights

Automation and AI, straight talk.

No hype, no buzzwords. Articles on the questions worth settling before any project — written by Emanuel Flury, grounded in nearly a decade of automation in Fortune-500 environments and what we first built in our own operation.

What these articles are for

Many voices on the topic — one text in plain language.

Scattered claims on the topic: Scattered claims on the topic
Check and sort: Check and sort
The finished article: The finished article

Buzzwords on the left, the finished text on the right: each article sorts a topic so you can make a decision.

An empty conference room in a Swiss office building overlooking a city, symbolising the uncertainty in economic planning.

Sideways Interest Rate Movement 2026 — Why Your Annual Budget is Now a Dangerous Tool

The traditional annual budget provides a false sense of security. In the current environment of uncertainty, a data-driven, rolling cash flow forecast becomes a necessity.

Read on →

An empty conference room with a large screen displaying a complex Excel spreadsheet, illuminated by the late afternoon sun.

15 September 2026·6 min

Why Your AI Investment Often Yields No ROI — and How Process Orchestration Helps

Investments in artificial intelligence (AI) in the finance department often fail to deliver the expected ROI. The problem rarely lies with the technology itself, but in its isolated application, which diminishes the value of AI in controlling and reporting.

AutomationAIControlling

→

An empty conference room in the evening, on the table a laptop with a complex Excel spreadsheet showing the month-end closing.

12 September 2026·3 min

The Copilot Productivity Check: Where AI Saves Time in Excel — and Where It Doesn't

Microsoft Copilot is a powerful assistant for individual tasks in Excel. However, it does not automate entire end-to-end processes from the ERP export to the final report.

AutomationCopilotExcel

→

A broad concrete stair divided into separate flights by five parallel steel handrails

07 September 2026·7 min

Dashboard or monthly report: the question before the tool question

A report that the same nine people read every month is a different object from a data model that a dozen people adjust themselves. What really separates the two paths: the licence for reading, retention over ten years, and the upkeep when the chart of accounts next changes.

ReportingPower BIDashboards

→

Concrete facade seen from below: the same window bay, repeated many times, running away into the distance

28 August 2026·7 min

Does a model have to compute on every single run?

“We'll put AI on that.” That is where the conversation usually ends. It is where the real decision starts: not whether a model is involved, but when.

AIArchitectureReproducibility

→

Concrete structure: one lit end face, the volume behind it running back into shadow

28 August 2026·6 min

What sits behind “amortised in five months”

“Amortised in five to ten months” appears in almost every offer. The figure is rarely invented — it is simply calculated for a different company. What it counts, what it leaves out, and what your own calculation looks like.

PaybackAutomationDecision

→

Two concrete beams crossing, dividing the ceiling into four fields

25 August 2026·6 min

What the Magic Quadrant doesn't tell you about your company

Four boxes, a dozen dots, the good ones top right. What the best-known grid in the software market actually measures — and why its Leaders are built for larger houses than yours.

Software selectionEvaluationFinancial close

→

The woven metal facade of Messe Basel — two layers that interlock

16 August 2026·6 min

The consultant who can build — and what it means for your finance department

BCG's North America chair counted up who could actually do what in his firm — and found “double the workforce”. Why that matters more to a Swiss SME than it does to BCG.

ConsultingSoftwareAI

→

Stone fins on the Kunsthaus Zürich — even spacing across the whole front

15 August 2026·6 min

Will e-invoicing become mandatory in 2026? What actually applies to Swiss SMEs

“Mandatory from 2026” is asserted everywhere. For Switzerland that is not accurate. What actually applies, what comes via the EU — and why the real work sits elsewhere.

E-invoicingeBillCompliance

→

Stacks of document files with index tabs — the manual work in question

18 June 2026·6 min

How to tell when a process is worth automating

The process that hurts the loudest is rarely the one that costs the most. Five signs of a good automation candidate — and when to leave it well alone.

Process automationDecision-makingSME

→

The bright louvred facade of Messe Basel — a grid of identical rows

27 May 2026·6 min

Why many Swiss SMEs still plan in Excel — and what it costs them

The spreadsheet isn't the problem — the gut feeling it papers over is. What planning in Excel really costs, and where the line runs.

ForecastingPlanningSMEs

→

A concrete building seen from below — hard edges, fixed limits

30 April 2026·7 min

AI in the enterprise, without losing control: Human-in-the-Loop and audit log

The real question about AI in the enterprise is not “can it do this?” but “who is accountable for it?”. Two building blocks that make control and automation compatible.

AIGovernanceHuman-in-the-Loop

→