Case Studies

Here’s what happens when bottlenecks are removed and systems are made to work properly.

CASE STUDY 1 - £82k Annual Savings by Removing Hidden Workflow Drag

Client type: UK professional services firm (40–60 staff)
Problem:
The leadership team believed they needed to hire more people.
Reality: the existing team was drowning in manual handoffs, duplicated reporting, and poorly connected systems.

Symptoms included:

  • Teams “busy all the time” but slow output

  • Repeated rework between departments

  • Managers acting as human middleware between systems

  • No single owner for critical workflows

What We Found:
The bottleneck wasn’t capacity, it was process fragmentation.

  • 11 manual steps across a single core workflow

  • 3 systems storing overlapping data

  • Zero automation between CRM, finance, and operations

  • High-cost staff doing low-value admin

What We Did:

  • Mapped end-to-end workflows across departments

  • Identified ownership gaps and broken handoffs

  • Designed a leaner process with clear accountability

  • Introduced targeted AI-assisted automation for:

    • Data syncing

    • Reporting

    • Task routing

Result:

  • £82,000 annual cost saving

  • 40% reduction in workflow time

  • 9 manual tasks removed

  • No new hires required

Outcome:
Leadership stopped hiring reactively and regained operational control.

CASE STUDY 2 - 20 Hours a Week Reclaimed by Fixing Process Ownership

Client type: Operations-heavy SME
Problem:
The business had good people and “decent systems”, yet nothing flowed.

  • Tasks stalled between teams

  • Everyone assumed someone else owned key steps

  • Managers constantly firefighting

  • Automation tools already paid for, barely used

What We Found:
The issue wasn’t tools, it was unclear responsibility.

  • Processes existed only in people’s heads

  • No defined start / end points

  • Automation deployed without process design

  • Bottlenecks hidden inside “busy work”

What We Did:

  • Clarified ownership for every critical workflow

  • Redesigned processes before touching technology

  • Reconfigured existing tools instead of buying new ones

  • Layered AI where it actually reduced human load

Result:

  • 20+ hours per week freed across operations

  • Major reduction in management intervention

  • Faster task completion with fewer errors

  • Existing software stack finally working properly

Outcome:
The team stopped firefighting and started executing.

CASE STUDY 3 - £50k Saved by Implementing the Right Automation (Not More Technology)

Client type: Multi-department business with no automation strategy
Problem:
Leadership wanted “AI everywhere”, but had no clarity on where it would actually help.

  • Manual reporting across departments

  • Repetitive admin done by senior staff

  • Disconnected systems

  • Growing overhead with no output increase

What We Found:
They didn’t need more AI.
They needed precision.

  • Automation opportunities hidden inside routine workflows

  • Expensive labour wasted on predictable tasks

  • No measurement of time or cost leakage

What We Did:

  • Identified the true leverage points

  • Designed a focused automation roadmap

  • Implemented AI only where ROI was obvious

  • Left everything else untouched

Result:

  • £50,000+ reduction in overhead

  • Faster decision-making from clean data flow

  • Improved efficiency across 3 departments

  • Zero disruption to day-to-day operations

Outcome:
AI became a competitive advantage, not a distraction.

What These Results Have in Common

None of these businesses had a people problem.
None of them needed more software.
None of them needed generic “AI transformation”.

They needed clarity.

In every case, the real gains came from identifying the true leverage point, the small number of process changes that unlocked disproportionate improvements in speed, cost and capacity. That’s the difference between automation for show and automation that actually works.

Your Business Has a Leverage Point Too

If your team is busy but progress feels slow, the issue isn’t effort, it’s structure.
The bottleneck is already there. It just hasn’t been made visible yet.

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