I must admit, we like to work with companies that know they need automation.

Most are fully aware that automating systems and processes will get them to where they want to be; scaling, increasing profit margins, keeping headcount manageable and opening up opportunities. Most of our customers have tried and have bought boxed products to get them on their journey to automation.

There are countless industry-specific products out there and many are designed to record data, and fulfil operations of a company. Do they all actually do the job of automation? Can they truly make businesses automate or are they just receptacles of data that gets manually extracted or moved about.

“Sigh”.

For all those software product designers out there, here’s a tip. Rather than think “company”, ”order”, “project”, “thing”, “related thing” or “product thing”. Think “generate”, “import”, “create”, “present”, “process”, “inform”, “action” and “movement”. Focussing on the nouns can mask what people are actually trying to achieve. Look at what people are trying to achieve, focus on the “verbs” and you will get a better understanding of business process then simplify it, automate it and automate it again.

Otherwise, what you will create is an electronic container for data inputted by people using endless flat forms into a system that serves the same purpose as the filing cabinets that filled the floorspace of companies decades ago.

Don’t get me wrong, modelling data is essential but start with it, it’s the easy bit and obsessing over it can end up being counter-productive, on creating systems that lock information away.
Modern automated platform should be designed to allow date to flow around between, customers, partners, team members, associates, external systems and interested parties truly reflecting the ambitions and uniqueness of an organisation.