Start with straightforward automation.
A repeatable input and an explicit rule can suit a fixed workflow. Map the steps, connect the systems and check the output.
Automation and AI
Give the work a better way through.
Business process automation starts with the people doing the job. We map the steps, scope the AI and check the result.
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A director reads it and replies within one working day, either with a time for a call or a note if we are not
the right people for it.
A rule. A judgement.
A decision for a person.
Different steps need different approaches. Choose the closest description of your process and see where we would start.
Consider an AI worker.
An email, a scan or an application may need interpretation before the rules can be applied. Scope that judgement and its limits in writing.
Keep the decision with a person.
Prepare the information, check what can be checked and route the decision to its named owner. Automate the administration around it.
Find.Map.Automate.Check.
The process decides what we build. Installing a tool does not explain the job. The people doing it can.
Map the whole job.
Including the exception.
Six steps take the work from a named problem to a checked process.
Find the work
Repetitive, rules-based steps get named with the people who do them, not read off an org chart. If nobody can point at the step, it does not go on the list.
Map the process
The process is written down as it actually runs, including the workarounds and the exceptions, before a line of automation is built against it.
Automate
The mapped rules are built against the mapped steps. Where a step needs judgement rather than a fixed rule, that step is built to decide against the rules written down, not to guess.
Integrate
The automation is connected to the systems the process already touches, including ones with no API, under credentials that log every action.
Sense-check
Outputs are checked against the mapped rules before anything goes live, and anything that does not fit them is sent to a named person rather than pushed through.
Improve
The rules are revisited as the process changes, so the automation is updated to match the process rather than left running against an old map.
Where automation
does the work.
- Document intake
- Reads what arrives, in whatever format it lands in, such as a form, a forwarded email or a scanned document, and pulls out the fields the process needs.
- Checks against rules
- Tests each item against the rules written down during mapping, and decides against those rules rather than a fixed script.
- Updates across systems
- Writes the result into every system the process touches, in the order the process requires, rather than the one system nearest the trigger.
- Communications
- Sends the update, the chase or the confirmation the process is meant to send, in the channel the process already uses.
- Reporting
- Produces the report the process is meant to produce, in the format the people reading it already expect.
- Escalation
- Sends whatever does not fit the mapped rules to a named person, with the reason attached, instead of guessing or stalling silently.
Find where
the process stalls.
The assessment includes the workarounds, the missing connections and the decisions that still depend on a person.
- The tool automated the easy half
- A rules tool handles the submissions that arrive correctly. The exceptions still land on a person, and the exceptions are where the process actually breaks down.
- Nobody wrote the process down first
- Automation gets built against how the process is supposed to run, not how it actually runs. We map the process with the people doing it before anything gets built.
- The platform has no API
- The system holding the work was never designed to be automated against. We integrate against the interface that exists, signing in and operating it directly, not the one a vendor wishes existed.
- Every change needs the supplier
- The process moves and the automation does not, so the queue goes back to being manual. Rule changes are agreed in writing and applied as part of the service.
Start with a clear recommendation.
The assessment starts with the people doing the job, not the org chart. We ask what arrives, in what format, how a decision actually gets made, and what happens when something does not fit the pattern.
That produces a written recommendation: the process worth automating first, the systems it touches, and where each of the six steps above lands for that process.
The engagement that follows is a fixed price against a written scope, for one named process at a time, never a day rate.
The practical questions
Before
we begin.
What is business process automation?
Business process automation reads or receives the inputs a process runs on, checks them against rules written down when the process was mapped, updates every system the process touches, and escalates whatever does not fit those rules to a named person.
What is the difference between automation and an AI digital worker?
Automation follows the rules mapped during the assessment. An AI digital worker is a managed service in which one worker performs a whole process end to end across your systems in place of a person, still escalating whatever it cannot resolve. No AI worker has run for a client yet. We scope it and discuss it; we do not claim it is running for a client.
Which process should we automate first?
The process with the most repetitive, rules-based steps, decided with the people doing it rather than whoever holds the budget. That is what the assessment maps before anything gets built.
What happens if the process changes after it is automated?
The rules that were mapped are revisited, and the automation is changed to match them, under written change control agreed as part of the service. The process is expected to move; the automation is built to be revisited, not rebuilt from scratch.
How do you know the automation is working?
Every output is checked against the rules that were mapped, before anything goes live and on an ongoing basis afterwards. Anything that does not fit those rules is sent to a named person rather than logged as a success, so the check comes from the mapped rules rather than a feeling.
Is this the same as AI workflow automation?
AI workflow automation usually means one tool connecting a handful of steps. This starts by mapping the whole process with the people doing it, automates the rules that mapping produces across every system the process touches, and sends anything that does not fit them to a named person rather than a queue.
Is this the same as a fixed automation script?
A fixed script repeats the same sequence and stops the moment the input changes shape. This method starts by mapping the actual process with the people doing it, automates the rules that mapping produces, and sends anything that does not fit them to a named person. The mapping and the escalation path are what a fixed script does not have.
A conversation with a director
Start with the job that keeps coming back.
You do not need to know what technology you need. Tell us about the process. We will work out whether MSD can help.
Your operation is the starting point.
Message sent
A director reads it and replies within one working day, either with a time for a call or a note if we are not
the right people for it.