Automation
I take work off the team that consists of moving data from one place to another. I start by assessing where automation actually pays for itself, and where it would just be cost wrapped in a fashionable label.
Every week the team re-types the same data between the system, a spreadsheet and a deck.
A report that should generate itself costs someone a day a month.
Data lives in several places and each one shows a slightly different number.
Someone proposed “adopting AI” but nobody can name the problem it solves.
The off-the-shelf tool does not fit the process, and the process will not bend to the tool.
A list of candidates for automation ranked by return, with the reasoning
A working solution running on your data, not on sample data
Documentation and handover to the team, including the failure scenario
A before-and-after measurement, so it can be said whether it was worth it
Talking to the team and management, mapping the constraints: people, systems, deadlines and budget.
Mapping how the process actually runs, not how the procedure describes it.
What gives the largest effect for the smallest cost, in what order, and who owns what.
Working with users, piloting, training, correcting based on what practice shows.
Checking whether the change actually worked, then locking it into the standard.
By measuring how long the repetitive work takes. Without that number every automation decision is guesswork, and afterwards nobody can say whether anything improved. The first step is usually one report or one instance of re-typing data — small scope, measurable effect.
Often not. Most of the work worth taking off a team is moving data and applying repeatable rules — plain automation is cheaper, faster and predictable there. AI earns its place with text, documents, or classification that cannot be written as rules. I say so plainly when it would only add cost.
That is a question to settle before picking a tool, not after. We establish which data may leave the organisation at all, and choose the solution to match that answer. A good share of use cases can be handled without sending anything outside.
When an off-the-shelf solution does not fit the process — yes. Solvio for complaint handling and DocVerify for document compliance came about exactly that way: from a specific problem in a process, not from a product idea. But I check first whether an existing tool solves it more cheaply.
Describe what is happening in the process and what you have already tried. I reply within one business day.
