Solution
Email inbox triage
Incoming messages in shared mailboxes are automatically recognised, categorised, assigned to the right person and given a draft reply. Attachments such as orders or invoices go straight into the appropriate workflow. Your team carries on working in Outlook or Gmail.
Who it is for: For businesses with heavily used addresses such as info@, orders@ or service@.
Starting point
How the process runs today
Orders, complaints, invoices, job applications and advertising all mix in the shared mailbox. Someone reads everything, forwards it and chases up. Urgent items get lost among the unimportant ones. When that person is away, the mailbox sits unattended.
What it costs
- Complaints and appointment requests are seen too late.
- The same message is handled by two people, or by nobody.
- Attachments are saved by hand and transferred into other systems.
- There is no overview of how many enquiries are open.
Process
What the process looks like afterwards
01
Intake
New messages in the approved mailbox are processed continuously.
02
Classification
The type of request, urgency, customer and language are identified.
03
Assignment
The message goes to the person or team responsible, with category and priority.
04
Onward processing
Orders, invoices and forms trigger the appropriate workflow directly.
05
Draft reply
For recurring questions, a draft is ready for a person to check and send.
Integrations
Which systems are connected
Only mailboxes you approve are processed. The connection runs through Microsoft Graph or the Google interfaces, with no forwarding to third-party services.
- ERP and accounting
- Abacus
- bexio
- CRM and communication
- HubSpot
- Calendar and collaboration
- Microsoft 365
- Google Workspace
- AI and automation
- Azure OpenAI
- Claude
- n8n
Make or buy
Off-the-shelf or custom?
Off-the-shelf software is enough if
- Sender and subject line are enough to route a message.
- You are planning to introduce a helpdesk system anyway.
- The mailbox receives fewer than 30 messages a day.
Finished products for this case: Outlook rules, Microsoft Copilot and helpdesk systems such as Zendesk or Freshdesk.
Custom is worth it if
- The content determines who is responsible, not the sender.
- Attachments should land directly in the ERP, accounting or order processing.
- Customer data from the CRM determines priority and assignment.
- Several languages and sites share one mailbox.
Effort
Price range and duration
- Price range
- CHF 12'000 to 30'000
- Duration
- 4 to 8 weeks
Non-binding estimate, excl. VAT.
What drives the effort
The effort grows with the number of categories and connected downstream workflows. Starting with one mailbox and five categories sits at the lower end.
The price becomes binding after the fixed-price discovery phase.
Your case in numbers
- Hours per year tied up
- 600
- Cost per year today
- CHF 42'000
- Possible saving per year
- CHF 25'200
360 hours freed up for other work
Rough calculation based on your figures. Not a quote.
Email inbox triage
Frequently asked questions
Does the AI read all our emails?
Only the mailboxes you approve for it, typically shared addresses such as info@ or orders@. Personal mailboxes are left untouched. Processing takes place in a European region, and the content is not used for training.
Do we have to change our email system?
No. The solution works with Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace through the official interfaces. Your staff carry on working in Outlook or Gmail and see the category, priority and draft reply there.
Do you work with n8n or build your own software?
Both, depending on the case. n8n suits manageable workflows between existing systems, and your team can help maintain it. As soon as audit trails, permissions, high volumes or a dedicated user interface are needed, a purpose-built application is more robust. We often combine the two.
Let us talk about your case.
20 minutes are enough to find out whether a custom solution is worth it for you.