Automation: Which Processes to Tackle First

Introduction

When businesses decide to automate, the temptation is to tackle everything at once. But automation projects that try to solve all problems simultaneously tend to stall, run over budget, and deliver disappointing results.

The most successful automation initiatives start small and build momentum. In this article, we share the framework we use with clients to identify which processes to automate first for the fastest return.

The Frequency Times Impact Framework

"The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency."

— Bill Gates

We evaluate each candidate process on two dimensions: how often it occurs and how much time or money each occurrence costs. A task performed 50 times per day that takes 5 minutes each time is a much better automation candidate than a monthly task that takes an hour.

Plot your processes on a simple grid. The upper-right quadrant, high frequency and high impact per occurrence, is where you start. These are your quick wins. They deliver measurable savings from day one and build organizational confidence in automation.

Start with Data Entry and Notifications

In our experience, the highest-ROI first automations are almost always data entry and notifications. Moving data between systems, sending status updates, and generating routine reports are repetitive, error-prone, and easily automated.

For example, automatically creating an invoice when a project milestone is marked complete, or sending a customer a status update when their order ships. These automations are simple to build with the right deployment pipeline, immediately useful, and give your team a taste of what is possible.

Avoid Automating Broken Processes

One critical mistake is automating a process that is fundamentally flawed. If your approval chain has seven unnecessary steps, automating all seven just makes a bad process happen faster. Fix the process first, then automate.

We always start automation projects with a process review. We ask: does this step actually need to exist? Can these three approval stages become one? Is this data being collected because someone needs it, or because it has always been collected? Simplify, then automate.

Building an Automation Roadmap

After identifying your quick wins, build a roadmap with three horizons. The first horizon covers the next 30 days: simple automations you can deploy immediately. The second horizon spans 3 to 6 months: more complex workflows that require integration work.

The third horizon is 6 to 12 months out and covers strategic automation, things like predictive analytics, AI-powered decision support, or complete end-to-end process automation. By this point, the early wins have already paid for the investment.

Conclusion

Automation is a journey, not a destination. Start with the processes that hurt most, prove value quickly, and expand from there. If you want help identifying your highest-impact automation opportunities, we offer a free process assessment to get you started.