From 50 days to 1.5: how T&B Associati automated Excel-to-management-software migration with AI

The client: T&B Associati

T&B Associati is a consulting firm specialising in complex project management. With a team of professionals coordinating resources across multiple assignments simultaneously, the company relies on project management software to plan activities, allocate resources and track hours worked.

The problem: Excel as a bottleneck

As in many European SMEs, T&B Associati’s operational workflow had a critical pain point: data arrived in Excel format.

Clients, suppliers and external collaborators sent spreadsheets with hours worked, resources deployed and activities performed. This data had to be manually transferred into the project management system, a process requiring:

• Opening and analysing dozens of Excel files with different formats
• Interpreting entries and mapping them to management software fields
• Manually entering thousands of data rows
• Cross-checking to prevent errors
• Filling in derived and calculated fields

For a single large-scale project, this operation required 50 man-days — nearly two and a half months of one person working full-time. An enormous cost in terms of time, resources and risk of human error.

The solution: intelligent automation with PRISMA

HT-X designed a bespoke solution based on PRISMA (Private Intelligence Stack for Modular AI), the private AI infrastructure that runs artificial intelligence models on-premise, without company data leaving the organisation’s perimeter.

How it works

The system developed for T&B Associati operates in three phases:

1. Management software analysis

HT-X studied the project management software in use, mapping the data structure, mandatory fields, relationships between entities (projects, resources, activities, hours) and validation rules.

2. Excel data analysis and normalisation

Incoming Excel sheets had variable formats: different columns, inconsistent naming, missing or partial data. The AI system analyses each file, recognises the structure, identifies relevant columns and normalises the data into a uniform format.

3. Intelligent population of the management system

Once normalised, data is automatically entered into the management software. The system doesn’t just copy values: it intelligently fills derived fields, resolves ambiguities in resource names, associates project codes and calculates totals. Every entry is verified against the system’s validation rules.

Why PRISMA

Choosing a PRISMA-based solution ensures that:

• Data stays in-house: no Excel files or project data are sent to external servers
• GDPR compliance: processing happens entirely within the client’s infrastructure
• Total customisation: the system was built to T&B Associati’s specific requirements
• Independence: no vendor lock-in, no per-token costs

Results

The first pilot project migration produced numbers that speak for themselves:

Metric	Before	After	Improvement
Migration time	50 man-days	1.5 days	-97%
Hours entered	manual	52,000	automatic
Cells populated	manual	23,000	automatic
Entry errors	frequent	near zero	drastic reduction
ROI	—	180%	on first project

The most significant figure: 1.5 days versus 50 man-days. An operation that paralysed a team for weeks now completes in a day and a half, with data quality superior to manual entry.

What this means for European SMEs

The T&B Associati case illustrates a pattern common across European businesses: critical processes that still depend on Excel as a data exchange format. Every time an operator opens a spreadsheet and copies data into another system, there’s an automation opportunity.

On-premise AI solutions like those based on PRISMA allow you to:

• Automate repetitive data flows without exposing sensitive information
• Drastically reduce operational time
• Eliminate transcription errors
• Free resources for higher-value activities

You don’t need to replace your management software. You don’t need to change how clients send data. You need an intelligent bridge connecting the two worlds — and that’s exactly what private AI does best.

Want similar results in your business?

If your organisation has processes that depend on manual data transfer between Excel and other systems, contact HT-X for a free assessment.