What is your team still doing by hand?
Most of the work worth automating was never automated because custom software cost too much to justify. That changed. This is a library of the processes we see most often — how they run today, what they look like rebuilt, and what the first release would be.
You don't need one giant system. You need a few connected ones that fit how you actually work.
The old choice was brutal: buy a large platform and reshape the business around it, or pay a fortune for something custom. So most operators chose a third option — spreadsheets, shared inboxes and people acting as the integration layer between tools that were never meant to talk.
Building software got cheap. Which means the honest answer is usually neither a monolith nor a spreadsheet: a handful of purpose-built systems, each doing one job properly, sharing one set of data, and connected to the systems of record you already have. You keep the accounting package. You replace the parts of the operation that never had software at all.
Read the "how it runs today" section of any entry below. If it makes you wince, that's the one.
Not this
A two-year platform programme that reshapes the business around the software.
Not this either
Another spreadsheet, another shared inbox, another person as middleware.
This
Three or four connected systems built for your process, on your data, sharing one truth — shipped one at a time, each paying for itself.
Find the one that sounds uncomfortably familiar.
Each entry describes how the process runs today, the signals that it is costing more than anyone has measured, what the rebuilt version does, and the realistic first release.
Operations
10The workflow that runs on email
“A process that only moves when somebody remembers to move it.”
A request arrives by email, and someone re-types it into a spreadsheet or a form.
See it rebuilt →Internal apps & portalsThe spreadsheet three people quietly depend on
“It was a spreadsheet. Now it's load-bearing, and it has no owner.”
A workbook with twelve tabs, colour-coded rules nobody documented, and formulas that break when someone sorts a column.
See it rebuilt →Trackers & registersThe tracker nobody updates until something lapses
“You find out the certificate expired when the claim gets denied.”
A register of assets, vendors, licences, certificates or contracts, maintained by hand.
See it rebuilt →Document capture & scanningThe paperwork someone re-types every morning
“The information already arrived. It just arrived as a PDF.”
Documents arrive by email, post or portal, and someone opens them one at a time.
See it rebuilt →Scheduling & dispatchThe schedule that lives on a whiteboard
“Two hours every morning deciding who goes where.”
A whiteboard, a shared calendar or a spreadsheet grid, rebuilt manually each morning.
See it rebuilt →Inventory & stock controlThe stock count that is wrong before it's finished
“You know what you bought. You're guessing at what you have.”
Stock levels live in a spreadsheet updated after the fact, or in a system nobody trusts.
See it rebuilt →Procurement & purchasingThe purchase that happened in someone's inbox
“You find out what it cost when the invoice arrives.”
Someone needs something, emails a manager, and the manager replies "fine".
See it rebuilt →Field & mobile data captureThe form that gets filled in twice
“Once on paper at the site, once into a computer that evening.”
Field staff fill in a paper form or a PDF, then someone re-types it at the office.
See it rebuilt →Maintenance & asset uptimeThe machine that tells you it's broken by breaking
“Maintenance is scheduled around when it last failed.”
A maintenance schedule in a spreadsheet, based on fixed intervals set at purchase.
See it rebuilt →Quality & inspectionsThe inspection that lives in a photo album
“You passed the audit. You just can't prove it quickly.”
Inspections are done on a checklist and photographed, and the photos go into a folder.
See it rebuilt →Customer
6The inbox that answers the same question forty times a day
“Most of what your team answers, your systems already know.”
A shared inbox or ticket queue where every question, trivial or serious, arrives the same way.
See it rebuilt →Quoting & estimatingThe quote that takes three days and a phone call
“The fastest quote usually wins. Yours goes out on Thursday.”
Estimating means a senior person, a spreadsheet, and a memory of what similar work cost.
See it rebuilt →Status updates & notificationsThe status update that is really just a person asking around
“Half your meetings exist to answer 'where are we on this?'”
A weekly report rebuilt by hand from the same four exports.
See it rebuilt →Customer onboardingThe new customer who waits three weeks to be set up
“You won the deal on Friday. They start getting value in a month.”
A won deal becomes an email to operations, finance and IT, each of whom starts separately.
See it rebuilt →Customer portals & self-serviceThe portal your customers keep asking for
“They want to look it up. Instead they have to ask you.”
Customers email or phone for order status, copies of invoices, or a certificate from last year.
See it rebuilt →CRM & pipelineThe pipeline that's accurate the day before the forecast meeting
“The CRM is a reporting obligation, not a tool anyone uses.”
The CRM is updated in a rush before the pipeline review, and is otherwise stale.
See it rebuilt →Finance
4The month-end that eats a week
“You close the books accurately. It just takes until the 12th.”
Reconciliation is a spreadsheet comparing two exports, done by eye and by formula.
See it rebuilt →Job costing & marginThe job you discovered was unprofitable in hindsight
“You know the revenue per job. You're estimating the cost.”
Revenue is tracked per job; cost is tracked per month, per department, or per supplier.
See it rebuilt →Time capture & payroll prepThe timesheet that arrives as a photo of a piece of paper
“Payroll week is a manual reconciliation exercise, every week.”
Hours are written on paper, texted, or typed into a spreadsheet at the end of the week.
See it rebuilt →Recurring & usage billingThe recurring invoice somebody remembers to raise
“Revenue that depends on a person remembering is revenue you will eventually lose.”
Recurring invoices are raised manually each month from a list.
See it rebuilt →People
3The new starter who spends week one waiting for access
“They accepted a month ago. On day one they have no laptop and no login.”
HR emails IT, facilities and the hiring manager separately, and each keeps their own list.
See it rebuilt →Skills, competency & certificationThe competency matrix in a spreadsheet
“You think everyone is qualified for the work they're assigned.”
A skills matrix maintained by hand, usually out of date within a month.
See it rebuilt →Internal service deskThe internal request that goes to a shared inbox
“IT, HR and facilities all run on inboxes nobody owns.”
Requests arrive by email, chat message, or by catching someone in a corridor.
See it rebuilt →Growth
3The enquiry that went cold in an inbox
“You paid for the lead. Then it waited four days for a reply.”
Enquiries arrive by web form, phone, email and social, and land in different places.
See it rebuilt →Outreach & campaignsThe prospect list somebody rebuilds every month
“Two days of copy-pasting, then a mail merge, then hope.”
Lists are assembled by hand from exports, LinkedIn and old spreadsheets.
See it rebuilt →Retention & churn signalsThe customer who left without anyone noticing
“Nobody cancelled. They just stopped ordering.”
Churn is discovered when someone notices a customer hasn't ordered in a while.
See it rebuilt →Data & decisions
5The report someone rebuilds every Monday
“Four exports, one pivot table, every week, forever.”
Someone exports from three or four systems and joins them in a spreadsheet.
See it rebuilt →Forecasting & planningThe forecast that is really last year plus ten per cent
“You're planning demand, cash and headcount on a hunch with a spreadsheet around it.”
A forecast built once a year in a spreadsheet, and quietly abandoned by March.
See it rebuilt →AI agents & copilotsThe judgment call that happens two hundred times a day
“Not the decisions that need a person — the ones that only got one because there was no alternative.”
High-volume, low-stakes decisions are made by whoever has capacity that day.
See it rebuilt →Knowledge & internal searchThe answer that exists, in a document nobody can find
“Somebody already solved this. In 2023. In a PDF.”
Knowledge is spread across a shared drive, an intranet, email, and people's heads.
See it rebuilt →Monitoring & anomaly detectionThe problem you find in the monthly report
“By the time it's on a dashboard, it has been true for three weeks.”
Problems are detected by a person noticing something in a monthly or weekly report.
See it rebuilt →Not sure which one to start with?
The right first project is rarely the biggest problem — it's the one with a clear before-and-after, a team that wants it, and data that already exists. The free assessment asks thirteen questions and comes back with a readiness score and a prioritised plan. Or skip it and just tell us what your Monday looks like.
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