Process automation
Business process automation
Every time someone retypes data, it costs time and creates a discrepancy. We bring your process into one system, so that as a director or manager you always see where things stand, and we start with the part that delivers the most.
Automating business processes here means that the steps someone now does by hand are taken over by software: retyping, forwarding, keeping track and looking things up. Darvis builds custom software for this with Laravel and connects it to the packages you already work with, so you do not have to replace them. We start with the step that costs the most time and then continue building link by link.
Does this sound familiar?
As a director or manager you do not notice it in one big mistake, but in everything that takes a little too long and that you have to chase yourself.
“I have no overview without phoning around”
The status of a job sits with the person working on it. If you want to know where something stands, you have to phone or walk over.
“We enter everything two or three times”
What the customer sends by email is retyped into the schedule and later once more into the accounts. Every transfer is a chance for a mistake.
“Growing means more people in the office”
Every extra order brings extra paperwork. If you want to handle more, you have to hire someone just to keep up with the administration.
“We only spot mistakes when the customer calls”
A wrong address or a forgotten line on an invoice only comes to light once it has already gone wrong. Fixing it then costs more than the work itself.
“Timesheets arrive on Friday”
Notes and messages are typed up at the end of the week, from memory. What comes out is an estimate, not a record.
“A report means copying and pasting”
Revenue per customer, progress per project, open quotes: every overview has to be pieced together from three systems, so it rarely gets made.
What we automate
Which business processes can you automate?
Almost every department has steps that repeat themselves. These are the processes we most often start with, because the return is visible straight away.
Sales and quotes
A quote that builds itself from your products, tiered prices and costing rules, and follow-up that does not depend on anyone's memory.
Orders and scheduling
An incoming order goes straight into the schedule, with the materials and people it needs. When something changes, everyone sees it.
Shop floor and hours
Hours and registrations are booked against the job they belong to, at the moment the work happens and on the engineer's phone.
Invoicing and accounting
Invoices create themselves from what has been delivered and booked, and go on to your accounting package or via Peppol to the customer.
Customers and service
Your customers see the status of their order, their documents and their invoices themselves, so they no longer have to phone for it.
Management information
Revenue, progress and bottlenecks in one overview, straight from the data the work already records. Nobody has to put a report together any more.
Data that already exists somewhere is taken from there. We connect with packages such as MKG and SnelStart, with Peppol for invoices and with Microsoft 365: see all our integrations. The complete picture is under custom business software.
Where to start
Business process automation: where do you start?
Not with the process that annoys you most, but with the process that delivers the most. These five questions help you choose.
- How often does it happen?
- A step that comes up dozens of times a day delivers more than one that comes round once a month.
- How many people touch it?
- Every handover between colleagues is a place where work waits or goes wrong.
- What does a mistake cost?
- A forgotten invoice line or a wrong delivery costs money, and often trust as well.
- Does it depend on one person?
- Then the process is not only slow but also vulnerable.
- Is the data already digital?
- What already lives in a package or in Excel is the quickest to automate. What happens on paper first needs a simple way of recording it.
If a process scores high on the first four questions and the fifth is already in place, that is your starting point. While we walk through the shop floor, we make that assessment together with you.
What it delivers
What automation means for directors and managers
Time saved on the shop floor is the most visible result. For the people running the business, it is mostly about control.
An overview without asking
The status of every order, quote and job is current, because the work records itself. You steer on figures instead of on chasing people.
Less dependent on individuals
The process lives in the system, not in someone's head. A holiday or a resignation no longer brings the administration to a halt.
Growth without extra paperwork
More orders do not mean more people in the office. The system handles the tenth order the same way as the first.
Fewer mistakes reaching the customer
Data is entered once and then carried over, not retyped. What the customer receives matches what was agreed.
Making the choice
Integration tool, ERP module or custom software?
There are three ways to automate a process. Which one fits depends on how far your process differs from what a package can already do.
| Integration tool, such as Zapier, Make or Power Automate | Module of your ERP package | Custom software | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Suited to | Separate connections between standard packages | Processes the package already knows | Your own process, including the exceptions |
| Who adapts? | Your process follows the tool | Your process follows the package | The software follows your process |
| How you pay | A subscription, often per action or task | A licence per user or per module | Per component, without licences |
| Where it stops | With many rules and exceptions it becomes hard to follow | What the vendor does not build, you do not get | It needs a good design up front |
Often it is a combination: a standard connection where that is enough, custom software where your process differs.
Scope
Automation with or without AI
This page is about fixed, predictable steps: if this happens, then that follows. You set those rules in advance, and the software carries them out the same way every time. That is by far the largest share of what can be automated in a business, and you can always trace afterwards why something happened.
Only when a step requires judgement does AI come into the picture: understanding an incoming email, reading a document, writing a draft. That is a different kind of work with a different kind of risk, and we cover it separately under AI in your business. We rarely start with AI. What can be done with a rule should be done with a rule.
In practice
Processes we have automated
Two businesses, two starting points: one got a single new system, the other kept its package and had an extension built on top.
CoatR
At the powder coating plant CoatR, an order runs through one system from arrival to invoice: costing, scheduling of the coating line, shop floor registration and packing slip, with no retyping in between.
Compri Aluminium
Compri Aluminium kept MKG as the source. We automated the steps the package could not handle itself, with custom screens and integrations on top and without a second set of records.
How it works
Step by step, not all at once
You do not have to think everything through first, and your business never has to stop for a changeover.
Walking through the shop floor
We follow your process from start to finish, looking at what really happens rather than what is supposed to happen on paper. That gives us the list of time-wasters.
Starting with the biggest one
Not everything at once. We choose the step that costs the most time or causes the most errors and tackle that first.
Building and putting into use
That component goes live while everything else stays as it was. You work with it and find out whether it is right before we build further.
Expanding step by step
Then we take on the next link in the chain. That way the system grows without your business ever having to stop for a changeover.
Frequently asked questions about process automation
Where do we start if almost everything is done by hand?
With the step that costs the most time or causes the most errors. To find it, we first spend a day alongside your team. Automating everything at once takes a long time and only delivers at the very end; step by step, the return starts straight away.
Can we automate without replacing our ERP?
Yes, and that is usually the wiser choice. We build an extension on top of what you already have, as we did on MKG for Compri Aluminium. Your package remains the source of the data; we make it usable for the people who have to work with it.
What if our process works differently in a year's time?
Then the software changes with it. That is exactly the difference from a package: you do not have to wait until a vendor includes your wish in a release. We adapt whatever has changed.
Will this create more work for our people on the shop floor?
That is the test we apply. Registration has to happen at the moment and on the device where the work takes place, usually a phone or tablet. If a step costs the shop floor time instead of saving it, the design is wrong.
How do we get our staff on board?
By involving them from the start. We work alongside the people who do the job, and they test every component before it goes live. Software that makes their work easier does not need selling to anyone.
Who owns the process on our side?
We ask for one contact person who decides how the process should run. They do not need to be technical, but they do need to know the work. We translate those choices into software and record them, so that later on you can trace why something works the way it does.
How do we avoid becoming dependent on Darvis?
The source code and the data are yours and you get access to the repository. We build on Laravel, the most widely used PHP framework, so you can continue with another party at any time.
See which integrations we provide, or read why we build everything on Laravel.
Which step costs you the most time?
Tell us how your process runs today. With no obligation, you will hear what can be automated, with a response within 24 hours.