In short
- Consulting firms produce thousands of deliverables that become inaccessible within months. Collective knowledge is lost with every departure, every change of assignment
- 6 concrete use cases: preparing a proposal in one hour, cross-referencing 40 documents, onboarding a consultant, retaining knowledge when someone leaves, generating a sourced report, preparing a client meeting in 2 minutes
- Each case starts from a real situation, a measurable pain point, and shows what the tool concretely changes
The consulting paradox
Consulting firms sell expertise. Their primary asset is the knowledge accumulated over the course of engagements. Proven methodologies, sector benchmarks, in-depth analyses.
And yet, in most firms, this knowledge lies buried in shared drives that nobody consults. Files named “V3_final_reviewed_OK (2).pptx” in folders whose structure has been reorganised three times. Emails with crucial attachments sitting in the inbox of a consultant who left last year.
The result: each new engagement almost starts from scratch. The consultant spends hours redoing work that a colleague had already produced six months earlier, without knowing it. This is an invisible but considerable cost.
Here are 6 concrete situations in which Archesia changes the game. Each one is drawn from real feedback from firms we work with.
Preparing a business proposal in one hour
The situation
Sophie is a business manager at a 25-person firm. A prospect in the banking sector sends her a brief. She needs to respond quickly: the deadline is in 48 hours.
The pain point
Sophie knows the firm has already carried out engagements in the banking sector. But she does not know exactly which ones, what was delivered, or which methodologies were used. She sends an email to the partners: “Do we have any banking references?” One replies the following day. The other is travelling. She searches the shared drive. Three hours of searching, incomplete results. The proposal is submitted on time, but it is generic. The firm is not selected.
What Archesia does
Sophie asks the question, in writing or by voice: “All our engagements in the banking sector since 2021, with deliverables, methodologies used, and results achieved.” Archesia surfaces 14 relevant engagements, with the associated documents, key passages, and exact sources. Sophie identifies 5 references that can be directly transposed. She builds a proposal that demonstrates the firm’s expertise with concrete evidence.
The result
One hour instead of half a day. And a proposal that stands out because it is backed by real references, not vague formulations.
Cross-referencing 40 documents for a due diligence
The situation
Romain is a manager. He is overseeing a due diligence engagement for a client considering the acquisition of a company. He has received a data room containing 40 documents: balance sheets, contracts, minutes, audit reports, employment contracts.
The pain point
Reading 40 documents in detail takes 3 to 4 days. Cross-referencing information between them, such as a commitment mentioned in minutes that contradicts a clause in a contract, is painstaking work that even an experienced consultant can miss. And the client’s deadline is in one week.
What Archesia does
Romain imports the 40 documents. He asks cross-cutting questions: “What financial commitments of more than 3 years are mentioned in these documents?” “Are there any change-of-control clauses in the contracts?” “What ongoing or past disputes are mentioned?” Each answer cites the exact passages from the relevant documents. Romain can verify, dig deeper, and focus on analysis rather than exhaustive reading.
The result
The cross-referencing work that used to take 3 days is done in half a day. And the coverage is better, because the tool does not skip paragraphs when it is tired.
Onboarding a consultant in one day instead of a week
The situation
Anne is a senior consultant. She has just been recruited and is immediately assigned to an ongoing engagement with a long-standing client of the firm. The previous consultant left the company two months ago.
The pain point
Anne has no context at all. Who are the key contacts? What decisions have been made? What deliverables have been produced? What are the sensitive topics? She spends her first week reading dozens of documents, asking colleagues questions (who do not remember everything), and piecing together a fragmented history. In the meantime, she is not productive on the engagement.
What Archesia does
Anne asks: “Full history of the Dupont client engagement: key contacts, decisions made, deliverables produced, points to watch.” Within minutes, she gets a structured summary with sources. She can explore each point further by asking follow-up questions. “What recommendations did we make to the client on IT governance?” “What feedback did the client give on our last deliverable?”
The result
Anne is up to speed in one day instead of a week. The client feels no disruption. The firm does not lose a week of billable time.
Retaining knowledge when someone leaves
The situation
Yves is a partner. A senior consultant announces their departure. This consultant has been managing three client accounts for over two years. They know the key contacts, the political dynamics, the commitments made, and the ongoing topics.
The pain point
Typically, Yves asks the consultant to “put together a handover document”. The result is always the same: a two-page Word file, written in haste between engagements, skimming over the important topics. The real knowledge, the kind that lives in emails, meeting notes, and annotated versions of deliverables, is not transferred. It leaves with the consultant.
What Archesia does
All of the consultant’s activity is already indexed: their deliverables, their emails exchanged with clients (via Gmail synchronisation), their working documents. Knowledge does not depend on one person’s memory. It is in the system. When the consultant leaves, the person taking over has access to exactly the same information base. “What topics are currently open with the Martin client?” “What commitments were made at the last meeting?” The answers are there, sourced, without depending on anyone’s goodwill or availability.
The result
Zero knowledge loss. The transition takes a few days instead of several weeks. And the client relationship is not put at risk.
Generating a sourced report in minutes
The situation
Sophie needs to produce a sector benchmark for a client in the retail sector. The firm has carried out 8 engagements in this sector over the past 3 years. The insights are scattered across dozens of deliverables.
The pain point
Manually compiling the lessons from 8 engagements means re-reading hundreds of pages. Identifying cross-cutting trends, common threads, and specific features. Even for an experienced consultant, that is two days of work. And the result depends on her ability to remember everything she has read.
What Archesia does
Sophie asks: “Summary of the main trends observed in our retail sector engagements since 2023, with sources.” The tool cross-references the 8 engagements, identifies recurring themes, compiles the quantitative data, and cites each statement with the originating document and passage. Sophie gets a structured foundation that she refines and enriches with her own expertise.
The result
The compilation work goes from two days to a few hours. And the report is more comprehensive, because it systematically covers all engagements, with nothing overlooked.
Preparing a client meeting in 2 minutes
The situation
Romain has a client meeting in 15 minutes. He has not had time to review the file. He has a vague recollection of what was discussed last time, but the details escape him.
The pain point
Arriving at a meeting without a firm grasp of the context means losing credibility. The client expects follow-through and continuity, not someone who asks questions that were already addressed last time.
What Archesia does
Romain asks from his phone: “Summary of recent exchanges with the Mercier client: decisions made, ongoing actions, open points.” Within two minutes, he has a complete summary, with dates and sources. He arrives at the meeting prepared.
The result
2 minutes of preparation instead of 30 minutes of reading. And a client who perceives a well-organised and rigorous firm.
These 6 use cases are not theoretical. They correspond to situations that consulting firms encounter every week. The common thread: hours lost searching, compiling, and reconstructing information that already exists somewhere within the firm.
To learn more about what Archesia can bring to your firm, visit the dedicated consulting firms page. To understand what a smart document management system is and why it differs from a simple drive, the complete guide covers the fundamentals. To understand how the semantic search that makes all of this possible actually works, this article explains it in detail. And to measure the real cost of time lost in document search, we have done the maths.
Frequently asked questions
Do we need to reorganise our documents before deploying Archesia?
No. Archesia understands the content of documents regardless of where they are stored or what they are named. Your drive can remain as it is. That is precisely the point: the tool compensates for the disorder rather than asking you to fix it.
Do consultants need to change their working habits?
Not necessarily. If the firm already uses Google Drive or Gmail, Archesia can connect to them directly: consultants keep their existing habits, and the tool indexes documents in the background. Archesia can also be used as a standalone solution, with its own integrated document management system, for firms that wish to centralise their document base in a single tool. In both cases, adoption is immediate.
How are access rights managed between engagements?
Archesia respects the access rights defined in your environment. A consultant only has access to documents from the engagements they are assigned to. Partners can have a broader view. The granularity of rights is configured according to your organisation's structure.
Can Archesia process confidential client documents?
Yes. Data is hosted in France. Depending on your level of requirement, you can opt for an isolated cloud infrastructure or an installation on your own servers. In all cases, your documents are never shared between clients or used to train models.
How long does it take to be up and running?
Archesia connects to your existing tools and indexes your documents automatically in the background. The first results are available as soon as the configuration is complete. No IT project, no migration required.