Custom automation
The retyping, the chasing, the copying between systems.
Most businesses already own the tools they need. What they do not have is anything connecting them, so a person becomes the integration.
What a rule looks like
A decision somebody currently makes by hand.
Not artificial intelligence. A rule the business already follows, written down once so it happens every time.
Form submitted
Existing customer?
Yes
Update record
No
Create record
Reply sent, team notified
A Tuesday, mid-morning
A job is marked complete.
Four tools need to know.
Without the system
Somebody retypes it into three of them, and forgets the fourth.
With the system
Entered once. Written everywhere it belongs.
Custom automation
The retyping, the chasing, the copying between systems.
Pick something that happens repeatedly in your week. The shape underneath is usually the same.
Comes in
Someone fills in your form at eleven at night
Your rules
New customer, and how urgent?
Acted on
Create the customer record
Acted on
Send the acknowledgement
Acted on
Offer the first free slot
Comes in
Someone fills in your form at eleven at night
Your rules
New customer, and how urgent?
Acted on
Create the customer record
Acted on
Send the acknowledgement
Acted on
Offer the first free slot
Done
Job on the board
A person
Only if it is urgent and out of hours
Wherever it is practical, this works around the tools you already use rather than asking your team to learn another one.
Information should move without anyone carrying it.
Every business already has a process. Most of it just lives in somebody's head.
The boundary
Rules for what repeats. People for what doesn't.
The system handles
- Reading an event from wherever it happens
- Checking it against records you already hold
- Writing to the CRM, scheduler and accounts
- Moving information between tools with no integration
- Producing the report somebody assembles by hand
A person handles
- Any exception the rules were not written for
- Decisions with money or a relationship attached
- Approving anything before it reaches a customer
Works with
Connect what exists, rather than replace it.
Reaches you through
Your rules
Writes into
Migrating a business onto a new platform is a much larger project than the problem usually justifies. Wherever practical, the answer is to connect the tools already being paid for.
What gets typed twice?
Tell me which task repeats every week, and which tools it passes through on the way.