Automate the right process, not every process

When people first look at automation, the temptation is to start with the biggest, most painful process. That's usually the wrong move. The biggest process is also the most tangled, the most political and the slowest to change. The right first project is smaller, clearer and visible to the whole team.

Four tests for a good first process

• It happens often. Weekly or daily, not quarterly. Frequency is what turns a small saving into a real one.
• It follows rules. If you can write the steps down and most cases follow them, it can be automated. If every case is different, it can't, yet.
• It moves information between places. A form into a system, a system into another system, a document into a folder. Moving information is where the manual work hides.
• Someone owns it. A process with a clear owner can be mapped, tested and signed off. A process nobody owns will stall.

Three places to look

Follow-ups. Quote reminders, booking confirmations, overdue invoice nudges. These are rule-based, frequent and easy to measure. They're also the ones customers notice.

Handovers. The point where work passes from one person or team to the next is where it waits. Sales to operations, site to office, operations to accounts. Automating the handover means the next person is told, with what they need, the moment the last step finishes.

Re-keying. Anywhere the same information is typed into a second system. Connecting the two removes the typing and the mistakes.

What to leave alone, for now

• Anything that happens a few times a year. The return isn't there.
• Processes that change every month. Stabilise them first.
• Decisions. Pricing, approvals, anything with judgement in it stays with a person. Automate the steps around the decision, not the decision.
• A process nobody can explain. Map it first, then decide.

How to know it worked

Before you build anything, write down two numbers: how many times a week the process runs, and how long each run takes a person. After the automation has been running for a month, measure the same two numbers. That's the return, in hours. If you can't measure it, pick a different process.