Client: Anonymised UK owner-managed group
Businesses: Logistics serving the IT / managed equipment channel · separate leisure equipment hire business
What we did: Discovery, then a ranked automation proposal
Our side: SH Applications — Steven Hallissey FCA
No company names. No people names. No brands. This is about the method, not a client dossier.
The situation
One owner runs two very different operations.
IT-sector logistics — field delivery and collection into the IT equipment channel: paperwork, multi-van daily routes, proof of delivery, inventory, larger multi-site jobs. A lot of the office is still PDF, email and “whoever is free.”
Leisure equipment hire — unrelated to the logistics work. Peak weekend enquiries, phone and messenger, availability and bookings, social pages that used to need constant agency care.
An admin seat had just gone empty. The instinct was to hire again. The better question was: can we remove enough admin that the seat doesn’t need replacing — and free the owner’s evenings on the leisure side?
What we did
Same approach as an AI Diagnostic: map the work, put a practical value on fixing it, rank do-now / do-next / do-later. Every idea is a standalone build — take the full list or only the ones that feel right. Human approval stays on anything customer-facing until trusted.
We did not open with a chatbot demo, a giant single system for both businesses, or a promise to automate everything.
The discovery-stage ranked list modelled £50k+ a year of potential value across staff time, owner time and agency spend. This was an illustrative estimate, not measured savings or a delivered outcome. The original payback assumption was roughly three to six months after early items went live; actual payback depends on build cost, running cost, adoption and which benefits become cash savings. Recovered owner or staff time should be reported separately from reduced spending.
Where the work sits
Logistics side — the grind is paperwork and planning: proof-of-delivery packs, daily routes, pre-install notes into stock, quoting from the rate sheet, heavy multi-drop job packs, and time spent hunting prospects instead of selling.
Leisure side — the grind is owner time: routine booking questions on messenger and phone, content for several social pages, and finding indoor venues by hand.
Different products. Same pattern: high-value people doing repeatable work.
The principle
Start with the work that can change. The proposal aimed to reduce repetitive administration before deciding whether to replace an empty role. A pilot must establish how many hours are actually removed, what review remains and whether the staffing plan is realistic.
In one line
Map both businesses. Rank the automations. Build the ones that free people — not the ones that sound clever.
Want a ranked plan like this?
Book a short strategy call. If it is a fit, we find the friction, put £ where we can, and leave you with do-now / do-next / do-later — whether or not we build the first items.
Client identity, people, brands and materials are confidential. This article is fully anonymised and describes approach only.
Reviewed and updated .