Commercial thinking
How to calculate the ROI of workflow automation
Count review, support and adoption costs alongside the time a system could save.
Establish the starting point
Measure a representative set of tasks. Multiply average handling time by volume, then include corrections and follow-ups. Use actual staff observations where possible; a rough estimate is a starting assumption, not an established fact.
Calculate net time, not headline time
Suppose a task takes 20 minutes and occurs 30 times a week. That is 10 hours. If automation reduces preparation to 5 minutes and adds 3 minutes of checking, the new total is 4 hours. The illustrative saving is 6 hours, before support or unusual cases. These are sample numbers, not a forecast.
Put a realistic value on capacity
Multiply net hours by an appropriate fully loaded hourly cost if you need a cost equivalent. Recovered capacity is not automatically a cash saving: staff may use that time for other work. Decide whether the aim is lower cost, greater throughput or a better customer response.
Include the whole cost
Allow for discovery, development, software subscriptions, hosting, training and maintenance. Include the effort needed to prepare source data. Compare scenarios with lower adoption and more manual review, not just the most optimistic case.
Review after launch
Choose a review period and compare actual results with the baseline. Watch error rates and staff adoption alongside handling time. If the system is faster but creates more rework, the commercial case needs revisiting.
A useful next step
Find one workflow worth improving.
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