The Context
A Geneva notary office handling about fifty simultaneous files faced a recurring problem: managing legal and contractual deadlines. Each real estate, estate, or commercial file involves numerous critical deadlines, such as cooling-off periods, signature dates, option expirations, or appeal deadlines. These dates were previously entered manually into Outlook by clerks after reading documents, a time-consuming and error-prone process.
Missing a deadline could have serious consequences, both in terms of professional liability and the firm's reputation. The notary sought a solution to automatically detect deadlines in documents and synchronize them with team calendars, within an architecture where each client corresponds to a dedicated Microsoft Teams team.
The Technical Solution
We developed a SharePoint Framework application integrated directly into team sites. The architecture relies on several technical components. An SPFx WebPart component developed in React and TypeScript integrates into the home page of each client team site. This component monitors the site's document library and connects to Azure OpenAI Service via a secure Azure Function to analyze new documents.
When a document is added to the SharePoint library, the SPFx application detects it through SharePoint webhooks and sends the content to an Azure Function that orchestrates the analysis. This function first calls Azure Document Intelligence to extract structured text, then sends this text to a GPT-4 model with specific instructions to identify all deadlines, due dates, and milestones mentioned in the document.
The prompt includes examples of typical Swiss legal formulations such as "14-day reflection period," "subject to acceptance within 30 days," or "deadline set for." The model returns a structured list of deadlines with their nature, exact or relative date, and criticality level. The SPFx application then automatically creates events in the corresponding Teams team's shared calendar, with alerts configured according to importance.
Each calendar event includes a direct link to the source document and to the SharePoint folder, allowing clerks to quickly verify the context. A custom dashboard displays all upcoming deadlines for all the firm's files, with color-coding based on urgency.
The Results
The notary office has been using this solution for eight months with remarkable results. Manual deadline entry time has been reduced by 90%, dropping from about two hours per day to just a few minutes of verification. No critical deadlines have been missed since deployment, whereas the firm previously experienced an average of one oversight every two months. Clerks report a significant reduction in stress related to constant deadline monitoring.
Detection accuracy reaches 96%, with the 4% of ambiguous cases flagged for human validation. The system has also revealed deadlines that clerks might not necessarily have identified in complex contractual clauses, thereby improving service quality.
The notary particularly appreciates the seamless integration into the existing Microsoft 365 environment, without the need to train staff on a new external tool. The solution respects the "one client = one Teams team" architecture already in place, enabling immediate adoption.
Architecture and Governance
The SPFx application is deployed in the firm's Microsoft 365 tenant application catalog, ensuring total control over updates and permissions. API calls to Azure are authenticated via Azure AD with managed identities, eliminating the need to manage secrets. Data only transits within Azure Switzerland North and West Europe regions, in compliance with Swiss notarial professional secrecy requirements.
The monthly operational cost is minimal, approximately 200 CHF for all consumed Azure resources, including OpenAI API calls, Document Intelligence, and Azure Functions. This cost is negligible compared to the value created and risks avoided.
Conclusion
This application demonstrates the power of the Microsoft 365 ecosystem when combining SharePoint Framework, Teams, and Azure AI Services. By integrating artificial intelligence directly into daily tools, we created a solution that fades behind users' work while providing major operational security.