Where do you start with automation?

Automation means having recurring work that always follows the same steps carried out by software instead of by a person. It is not about robots or about fewer staff: it is about work that requires no judgement, such as retyping data, sending reminders or compiling a report. It is best to start small, with something for which you know today how much time it takes.

What is automation, in practical terms?

In a business, automation almost always comes down to one of these four things:

Passing data on from one system to another, so that nobody retypes it any more. An order from the web shop that appears in invoicing by itself.
Sending something at the right moment: a reminder the day before an appointment, a follow-up email after a quote, an alert when stock drops below a threshold.
Drawing up documents from data you already have: quotes, work orders, invoices, reports.
Checking and sorting: routing incoming requests to the right person, or verifying that a file is complete.

What those four have in common: the steps are fixed, and no assessment is needed. As soon as a judgement is called for, the automation prepares and a person decides.

What you are looking for

Tasks that come back often, follow the same steps every time and require no judgement. Retyping data from one system into another is the textbook example. A good test: can you explain the task to a new employee in five sentences without using the word "usually"? Then it is ripe for automation.

Start with something small and measurable

Pick something for which you can say today how much time it takes. Without that figure you will not know afterwards whether it delivered anything, and then the rest of the initiative stops by itself. Half an hour a day that disappears is more convincing than a big plan on paper.

Do not automate a mess

Running a bad process faster does not make it better, only wrong faster. Tidy up the process first. Sometimes it then turns out that the step itself is superfluous, and that is the cheapest automation there is.

An integration, an existing package or custom software?

There are three ways, and the cheapest one that is sufficient is the right one:

A feature you already have. Many packages can do more than you use. Look there first.
An integration between two packages through their API. Often the intervention with the biggest effect, because the retyping disappears completely.
Custom software, when your way of working differs from what standard packages assume. When that pays off is explained in off-the-shelf or custom software and on custom software development.

Plan for what goes wrong

Every automation fails at some point. The question is whether anyone notices. A process that stops silently is more dangerous than a manual step somebody forgets, because nobody is watching it. So make sure a failure raises an alert, and that someone knows the alert is meant for them.

Keep a person in the loop where it counts

For anything with financial consequences or consequences for a customer: let the automation prepare and a person confirm. It takes a few seconds and prevents the mistakes that cost you the most.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between automation and digitisation?

Digitising is moving from paper to screen: a form becomes an input screen. Automating goes one step further: what has to happen once the form is filled in happens by itself. Digitise first, then automate. More in digitising a process.

Is automation only for large companies?

No. It is precisely in a small business that an hour of retyping a day weighs heavily, because the work ends up with the same few people.

Do I need AI for that?

Usually not. Work with fixed steps does not need AI; ordinary software is enough. AI becomes useful where the input is messy: reading a document, understanding a question in plain language. See AI applications.