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Automation Opportunity Assessment

This is how an engagement starts: map where the team’s time goes, size what automation could return, and sequence the work so the first wins pay for the rest.

Illustrative hours for a mid-size operation. Adjust them to match yours; nothing you enter leaves your browser.

Industry

Where your team’s time goes

Catalog and listing updates

Low risk

Adding and changing products or titles, with images, descriptions and attributes, on every channel.

Automatable: up to 60% · Build time: weeks

Inventory and availability checks

Medium risk

Matching stock across stores and warehouses, or titles across licensed regions.

Automatable: up to 50% · Build time: weeks

Price and promotion changes

Medium risk

Setting up price changes, promotions and offers across systems and locations.

Automatable: up to 70% · Build time: days

Returns, refunds and billing questions

Medium risk

Answering customers and processing returns, refunds and subscription changes.

Automatable: up to 45% · Build time: weeks

Store and channel reporting

Low risk

Pulling sales, traffic and stock numbers into weekly reports by store, region or title.

Automatable: up to 80% · Build time: days

Your 90-day roadmap

Hours returned a year
15,360
Annual capacity value
$460.8K
Full-time equivalents
8.2
Quick wins, per year
$106.6K
Days 1–30

Quick wins

The best payback for the least build time.

  • Store and channel reporting

    $46.1K a year · 1,536 hours

    Low risk Build time: days

    Automate: Build the reports from the source systems and send them on schedule.

    Safeguard: Totals are checked against the source systems before anything is sent.

  • Price and promotion changes

    $60.5K a year · 2,016 hours

    Medium risk Build time: days

    Automate: Apply the approved price and promotion calendar to every system on schedule.

    Safeguard: Changes outside margin limits are held for approval, and every change is logged.

Days 31–60

Next

More value, once the first wins are running.

  • Catalog and listing updates

    $138.2K a year · 4,608 hours

    Low risk Build time: weeks

    Automate: Pull supplier data into one product record and publish it to every channel at once.

    Safeguard: Listings with missing details or brand-rule problems wait for a merchandiser’s approval.

  • Returns, refunds and billing questions

    $129.6K a year · 4,320 hours

    Medium risk Build time: weeks

    Automate: Answer routine requests instantly and issue refunds that fit the policy.

    Safeguard: Refunds above a set amount, or outside the policy, go to an agent.

Days 61–90

Later

Started once the earlier work is proven. High-risk work always starts here.

  • Inventory and availability checks

    $86.4K a year · 2,880 hours

    Medium risk Build time: weeks

    Automate: Reconcile every location’s counts nightly and open a task only for real discrepancies.

    Safeguard: Adjustments above a set value need a manager’s sign-off.

What this means for your business

  • You see the size of the opportunity before anything is built, in hours, dollars and full-time equivalents.
  • Quick wins come first, so the program shows results within the first month.
  • High-risk work, such as compliance or clinical decisions, keeps a person approving every case.

How it works

  • Each process’s hours a week, times 48 working weeks, times the share automation can take on, gives the hours returned a year.
  • Hours are valued at the average hourly rate, before benefits and overhead. 1,880 productive hours make one full-time equivalent.
  • Processes are ranked by value, discounted for risk and build time. The best low-risk ones become the quick wins; high-risk work always waits for proven safeguards.
  • In a real engagement, the hours come from time studies and system data instead of estimates.

Want this working in your operations?

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