Service 05
Automation
Automation designed around the exceptions, because the happy path was never the part that took the time.
- Capability 1
- Workflow
- Capability 2
- Approvals
- Capability 3
- Integration
- Capability 4
- Audit trails
The approach
Most process automation fails on the same thing: it handles the 80% that was already easy and dumps the remaining 20% on a person with less context than before. The queue does not shrink, it just gets harder.
So we design from the exceptions inward. What happens when a document is missing, an approval is refused, a system is down, a record contradicts another record. Those paths are the product. The happy path is the easy part.
Everything automated stays accountable: an audit trail that records what ran, on what input, under whose authority, and what a person did about it.
- 01
Map what happens
Observed, not described. We sit with the people doing it, because the documented process and the real one differ.
- 02
Design the exceptions
The failure and refusal paths are specified before the automation, because they are what determines whether it helps.
- 03
Automate and measure
Rolled out on a slice first, measured against the manual baseline, expanded only when it beats it.
What you get
Deliverables, not a status update.
- 01
Process map
The process as it actually runs, including the workarounds, which is usually where the requirements are hiding.
- 02
Automated workflow
Orchestration with retries, timeouts, idempotency and explicit failure states.
- 03
Exception handling
Every non happy path routed somewhere specific with the context attached.
- 04
Approval surfaces
Where a person decides, with the exact action and content shown and refusing made easy.
- 05
Audit trail
What ran, on what, under whose authority, and what was overridden.
- 06
Integration
Connections to the systems you already depend on, behind contracts that are versioned.
Questions
Answered straight.
- Is this RPA?
- Rarely. Screen scraping a UI is fragile and we prefer an API or a database contract. Where there is genuinely no interface, we will say so and price the fragility.
- Will this replace roles?
- That is your decision, not ours. Our experience is that removing queue work moves people to the exceptions, which is where they were adding value anyway.
- How do you handle audit?
- Every automated action is logged with its input, authority and outcome, designed in at the start rather than added for a review.
Start here
Have an automation problem?
You will speak to an engineer, and you will leave the first conversation with an opinion about your problem whether or not you hire us.