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.
On the full ranked list, the illustrative picture was on the order of £50k+ a year in recurring value (staff time, owner time, and cut agency spend), with payback inside roughly a quarter to half a year once the early items are live — front-loading the fastest wins so most of that annual saving is running soonest. We do not publish build prices here; the point is the savings maths, not a rate card.
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
Don’t replace the role — replace the work. The empty seat was a symptom. The programme is designed so the first wave removes more hours than that seat contained, with the saving recurring every year after.
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.