Business process automation.Stop clicking. It runs itself.

What business process automation is

Business process automation means replacing repetitive human work with a program that performs the same steps by fixed rules: it pulls data from one place, processes it and writes it to another, and calls a person only when a decision is needed. A business process is any sequence of actions that repeats in a company the same way: from order to invoice, from inquiry to quote, from system data to a management report.

In practice, in small and medium-sized businesses automation takes four forms, often combined in one deployment:

• -system integration: two programs exchange data without retyping, e.g. Allegro orders land in Subiekt (the ERP) as receipts and invoices,
• -workflows: an event in one place triggers steps in others, e.g. a new lead in a form creates a CRM contact and a task for a sales rep,
• -RPA, a robot clicking through a program that has no API or database; we pick it only when there is no other way, because it is the most fragile,
• -AI where rules are not enough: reading invoices from PDFs, classifying e-mails, answering typical customer questions.

Which processes to automate first

Not every process is worth automating. A good candidate meets most of these conditions:

• -it repeats at least a few dozen times a month, the same way,
• -it can be described with rules: "if the customer has a tax ID, issue an invoice, otherwise a receipt",
• -the data is already digital (a system, a file, an e-mail), not on paper or in one person's head,
• -a mistake costs money: a wrong price, a wrong VAT rate, an order shipped twice,
• -a customer or accounting is waiting for it, so a delay has a price.

How to work out whether it pays off

The maths is simple and worth doing before the first call with a contractor. Count the hours the process eats in a month, multiply by the full cost of an employee hour and by twelve. Add the cost of mistakes: invoice corrections, returns, lost orders. Compare the result with the implementation price and the yearly maintenance cost.

An example from the B2B wholesaler deployment: 180 hours a month at an assumed full cost of PLN 50 per hour is PLN 9,000 a month, or PLN 108,000 a year. A medium-complexity implementation with us usually costs several to a dozen or so thousand zloty and takes 2-3 weeks, so it pays for itself within the first months.

The PLN 50 hourly rate is an assumption for the calculation, not a figure from the deployment. The actual price ranges, and what you pay for at a software house, a freelancer and with us, are in our post on the cost of automation. How much does process automation cost.

Off-the-shelf software, no-code, RPA or custom code

Each of these tools has its place. The problem is never picking the wrong tool, but stretching it beyond the area where it works well.

Why we most often choose custom code for business processes is explained in the no-code section below. In short: you pay once, your data stays with you, and the solution works with any system that has an API, a database or even just a file. When no-code is enough, and when it isn't.

Where to start: five steps

1. 01List the processes that repeat every week, with the hours per month next to each. Usually the top three eat most of the time.
2. 02Pick one process, not the whole company. Ideally the one that meets most of the conditions above and has an owner who wants the change.
3. 03Check where the data lives: does the system have an API, a database, a file export or an SDK. That decides the tool and the price, not the other way round.
4. 04Run a 2-3 week pilot with a working piece at the end. If a contractor needs a quarter for the first result, the scope is too big.
5. 05Measure the result with the same yardstick you used before the start: hours, errors, response time. Only then take on the next process.

The three mistakes we see most often

• -Automating a mess. If a process has ten exceptions known only to one person, write the rules down first, then code them. A program will not tidy up what the company itself has not.
• -Switching systems "while we're at it". Rolling out a new ERP and automation at the same time doubles the risk. We build automation around what you use today and suggest a switch only when the numbers say so.
• -No owner after go-live. Every automation needs someone who gets an alert when it stops, and monitoring that sends that alert. Without it, the first outage comes back as manual work.

Already picked a process? Describe it in three sentences and in the first reply we will tell you whether and how it can be automated. Describe your process.