Vertical II · Workflow Automation Service 03 of 08
Business Process Automation
The repetitive, cross-system processes that run an operation every day — mapped, trimmed, and handed to software that does not forget a step or wait to be reminded.
- QuoteCRM
- Re-key order into ERPRemoved — existed only for the old system
- Credit approvalRouted to a named approver with a deadline
- DispatchERP · proof of delivery
- InvoiceRaised from the dispatch record, not from memory
- Price mismatchException → owner, logged and reversible
- Follow-upSequence that escalates on silence
- CollectionBank · reconciled to the invoice
- Automated
- Unchanged
- Removed, not encoded
- Exception with an owner
Once the process runs in software, two numbers become visible that rarely are: cycle time end to end, and touch count.
Processes we automate
- Order to cash — quote, order, dispatch, invoice, collection, and the handoffs that happen by email today.
- Procure to pay — requisition, approval, PO, goods receipt, three-way match, payment release.
- Inventory & dispatch — stock movement, reorder triggers, delivery and proof of delivery.
- Approvals & exception routing — anything that sits in an inbox until someone happens to look.
- Document handling — invoices, POs and statements read, validated against the source record, and posted.
- People workflows — onboarding, attendance exceptions, reimbursements, leave and access requests.
- Compliance cycles — recurring filings, licence and contract renewals, statutory registers.
- Cross-system sync — keeping two systems that disagree in agreement, with a written rule for which one wins.
How we do it
- Map the real process
- Including the informal steps — the spreadsheet someone keeps, the call that has to happen before the system will accept the entry.
- Eliminate, then automate
- Steps that exist only because an old system demanded them are removed, not encoded. Automating a redundant step is how it becomes permanent.
- Rules first, AI where needed
- Deterministic logic wherever there is a right answer; models only where the input is unstructured or the judgment cannot be written as a rule.
- Exceptions get an owner
- Every failure path routes to a named person with a deadline — logged and reversible — rather than stalling silently until month end.
What you gain
The process stops depending on memory and attendance. It runs the same way on a Monday as on the last day of the quarter, and the same way whether or not the person who normally runs it is in.
Two things also become measurable that rarely are: cycle time end to end, and touch count — how many people handle a transaction on the way. Both are levers once you can see them.
Best fit when the same information is re-entered into more than one system, when work waits in inboxes to be noticed, or when a process only runs correctly if a particular person is present.