You already work efficiently. The time disappears between the systems.
Administrations are rarely disorganised. Quite the opposite: the routines are settled and everyone knows what to do.
That is precisely why there is so much potential here. A well-drilled team quietly compensates for the weaknesses of its software – until nobody notices any more that the work would not be necessary at all.
The real point
Many routines are not clever, only old. They came about because some software could not do something.
The software has long since been replaced or extended. The routine stayed, because it works and because nobody has time to question it.
Finding those places is the actual work, and it cannot be done in an interview. You have to have done the tasks yourself for a while to tell which step exists because of a system and which because of the job.
Typical
What I regularly find in administrations
The same number in three screens
What is captured in one program gets entered by hand in the next. Every transfer is a possible error and nobody's job.
Export, adjust, import
Between two systems sits a spreadsheet somebody edits the same way every month. Whoever knows that file cannot be spared.
Checks that always run the same way
Completeness, deadlines, four-eyes approvals: necessary steps that never change and still take full attention every time.
Answers that are always the same
A sizeable share of incoming enquiries is answered as soon as you know where to look. They still get answered one by one.
Filing by hand
File, rename, tag. A quiet permanent task you only notice when it sits untouched for a week.
Starting points
Where the effort usually pays off
Closing the seams
Connect data where a human currently carries it across. Often that needs no new system, only a link between two existing ones.
Sorting the intake automatically
Recognise, assign and file post, email and portal submissions – and chase what is missing instead of leaving it on a pile.
Preparing the checks
Pre-check completeness and deadlines automatically so the person only looks at exceptions. People still decide.
Standard enquiries
Answer recurring questions from your own records, with a source reference and a clear route to a human when it gets tricky.
Recurring reports
The monthly spreadsheet produces itself, including a check for anomalies. What nobody reviewed yesterday gets noticed today.
Clearing out the routine
Sometimes the best automation is a step you simply delete. You only find those by having walked the routine yourself.
Example
How this can turn out
Constructed examples – I show no client cases.
Accounting office, 12 staff
Example
Client documents arrive by email, post and portal. An experienced professional sorts, renames and files them – alongside preparing the accounts.
A week working in the team, counting every step. Then automated the intake: recognise, assign, file, chase what is missing.
The sorting work all but disappears. The professional does accounts again instead of file names.
Invented example for illustration, not a client case. Figures are orders of magnitude, not promises.
Association office, 25 staff
Example
Member data lives in the database, in the accounting software and in a spreadsheet. Every change is maintained three times.
Worked alongside them and documented where each kind of change originates. Then defined a leading source and connected the other systems to it.
A change is entered once. The discrepancies between systems – previously a recurring source of error – stop.
Invented example for illustration, not a client case. Figures are orders of magnitude, not promises.
How does this look in your organisation?
Thirty minutes on the phone is enough for a first assessment.
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