“This will save us a lot of time” is not a business case. When a client brings an automation idea, we build a simple ROI model together before architecture or pricing.
Four variables that matter
- Hours saved per week on the current process
- Fully-loaded cost per hour of the people doing the work
- Error-rate reduction and the cost of those errors today
- Throughput unlock, volume you could handle without new headcount
A worked example
A legal firm reviews 200 contracts per month at ~50 minutes each. Cut review to ~12 minutes and the monthly labour saving alone often pays back a mid five-figure build in a few months, before you count growth unlocked by removing the bottleneck.
Throughput unlock is usually the biggest lever and the hardest to quantify. Removing a bottleneck is not only cheaper ops, it is capacity for more revenue.
If you cannot sketch payback on a napkin, you are not ready to build. Fix the model first.