Documents
Invoices, orders, contracts and scans. The system reads the content, extracts the fields you need and enters them where they used to be typed. Anything uncertain goes for approval rather than into the database.
Process automation
Business process automation
The work someone in your company does over and over: retyping data between systems, assembling reports, moving emails into a spreadsheet. It can come off their desk.
65 min process auditQuote in writingNo commitment
What we automate, and what we do not
Automation pays off where a process repeats and follows rules. The invoice always goes to the same place, an enquiry always needs the same three facts, the report is always built from the same data. Those we take off people entirely. Where each case needs judgement we build prompts and suggestions rather than an automaton, because a machine pretending to decide is worse than no decision at all.
Where we work
Data between systems
Shop, CRM, warehouse, accounting and spreadsheets stop being separate islands. Data flows one way, with a clear rule about which system is the source of truth.
Reporting
The summaries someone assembles by hand on Monday morning build themselves and arrive where they belong: an inbox, a spreadsheet or a team channel.
Enquiry routing
Enquiries from forms, inboxes and messengers reach the right person, described and prioritised. Nothing sits still because someone was on holiday.
The processes we most often take off people
These are not theoretical examples. They are the things that eat several hours a week and nobody enjoys doing.
Retyping data from email into a system
An order arrives by email, someone opens it, reads it and retypes it. At ten a day that is an hour of work and a steady supply of typos. Automation reads the message, extracts the line items and creates the document; a person only confirms.
The Monday report
Someone opens three systems, copies numbers into a spreadsheet, formats it and sends it. Every week, the same. The report can build itself overnight and wait, finished, in the inbox.
Assigning enquiries
A form sends mail to a shared inbox where the enquiry waits until somebody notices it and claims it. Automation recognises the topic, assigns the right person and tracks whether anyone replied.
Data reconciliation
Discrepancies between systems usually surface once there is already a problem. Automation compares them daily and flags differences before a customer sees them.
When automation is worth considering
Starting from “what could we automate” rarely helps. The better question is where something already grates. These are the signals that in practice mean there is work to take off people.
The same information goes to three places
An order is typed into the system, then a spreadsheet, then a message to the warehouse. Every retyping costs time and invites a mistake, and the discrepancies usually surface once a customer is already on the phone.
The team catches up on paperwork after hours
If invoices, reports or CRM updates happen “when there is a moment”, there is no moment during normal hours. That is not a time-management problem, it is a sign the process outgrew the number of hands.
Customers wait because someone is on holiday
When response time depends on who happens to be in, enquiries sit for days. In sales, where the first reply often wins, that is revenue lost directly.
You do not know what handling one order costs
That number is usually missing not through sloppiness but because the data sits across systems and nobody has time to pull it together. Automating reporting is often what first shows where the money actually goes.
You are considering a hire to retype data
This is the most common moment people come to us. Before hiring someone for work nobody wants to do, it is worth costing out doing it once, properly.
The companies we work with
Automation looks different in a practice, on a production floor and in an online shop. Here is what comes up most often in each.
Service businesses
Practices, law firms, accountancies, agencies. The bottleneck is usually enquiry handling and scheduling: many short interactions that interrupt substantive work. We take booking, reminders and initial qualification off people, leaving them the conversations that actually need expertise.
Manufacturing and B2B trade
Orders arrive by email in a dozen different formats, each to be read and entered. Add quote requests, delivery confirmations and stock reconciliation. Here the biggest return comes from document reading and moving data between the trading system and the warehouse.
E-commerce
Repeat pre-purchase questions, delivery statuses, returns and complaints, updating descriptions and prices. Volume is high and most cases resemble each other, so automation relieves support fastest and most visibly.
The systems we integrate with
Most often we connect what companies actually run: trading and warehouse systems, ERP, accounting software, CRMs, shop platforms and marketplaces, mailboxes, calendars and the messengers enquiries arrive through. On the sector side there are practice, booking and production systems where access is harder, and that is what sets the pace of the project. The principle is constant: we do not push you off a tool that works, we stop it being a separate island.
How this differs from Zapier or Make
Tools like Zapier and Make connect applications that ship ready-made integrations, and for simple flows they are entirely sufficient. Three things change that: when your industry system has no connector, when the process requires understanding rather than moving (reading an invoice, scoring an enquiry), and when operation volume grows until the subscription costs more than owning the solution. Then we build it properly. If your case fits inside an off-the-shelf tool, we will say so at the audit instead of selling you a project.
What process automation costs
Cost is driven mainly by how many systems must be connected and whether they have APIs. Integrating a mainstream CRM and integrating older industry software with no documentation are two different projects. The second factor is whether the process needs document or image reading, which usually raises cost two- to threefold. You get the quote in writing after the audit.
When automation does not pay off
If a process runs a few times a month, the build cost will not come back. If it looks different every time, it has to be documented first, because automation entrenches inconsistency rather than fixing it. And if the process disappears in six months with a system change, it is better to wait. We say this at the audit, before we issue an offer.
Frequently asked questions
Do we have to change the systems we use?
Usually not, and we do not propose it by default. We build around what already works, because migrating a system is a separate project with its own risk and the company has to keep operating meanwhile. If a tool genuinely blocks sensible automation we will say so at the audit, with the cost of both options, but the decision is yours.
What if our system has no API?
Common with older industry software. There is usually another route: file export and import, database access, integration through an intermediary. Sometimes the vendor has an API nobody in the company knows about because it is not in the sales material. We check this at the audit before quoting, because this factor moves the cost more than any other.
Who maintains it once it runs?
We do, as part of support. It is not an optional line on the invoice: offers change, new cases appear, vendors change APIs. Unmaintained systems start making mistakes within months, and the company concludes automation does not work. On your side one contact person is needed, realistically an hour a month.
Does our data leave the company?
It depends on scope, and we settle that at the start rather than at the end. Some solutions can be run so data never leaves your infrastructure. Where we use external services you get it in writing: which provider, what data, processed where and on what basis. If your sector imposes constraints, we design for them from the outset.
How much work is there on our side?
Most of it up front, and it cannot be skipped: someone has to show us how the process actually runs, not how the procedure describes it. That is usually two to four meetings. Then system access and test sign-off. During the build your involvement is light, but those first conversations decide whether the project works.
What happens when automation gets something wrong?
We design it so uncertain cases go to a person rather than into the database. Anything the system is unsure about lands on an approval list instead of quietly being recorded. Add a log of every operation, so what happened and when can be reconstructed. Automation without those two things is faster to deploy and far more expensive in consequences.
Let us work out how many hours a week you can get back
65 minutes, no sales deck. We go through what your team does by hand and how often. You leave with a list of processes ranked by what they actually cost you.
Book a consultation