Can your process be optimised? The 7-question check

Nobody wakes up thinking a process needs optimising. You notice it on a specific day: a forgotten order, a quote sent late, two spreadsheets that do not give the same figure. This check is there to spot that moment before it costs you, looking at one task at a time.

Optimising is not always automating

A process improves through two levers, in this order. Simplify: remove a useless step, a duplicate approval, an intermediate file. Automate: hand what remains repetitive to a tool. Automating a muddled process does not make it clearer, it repeats its detours faster.

That is why the check separates two families of questions. The first four say whether the task lends itself to automation. The next three say whether the process itself should be reviewed before any tool.

The seven signals, one by one

1. The task comes back at least every week

Frequency, far more than duration, is what makes a task expensive. Ten minutes three times a day for two people, over 220 working days, adds up to 220 hours a year: the full calculation takes five minutes. A yearly task, even a long one, rarely pays back a tool.

2. The same information is copied from one tool to another

Re-keying is the clearest signal: the information already exists, someone moves it by hand. It shows even in management reporting. For the dashboard that brings departments together, spreadsheets come ahead of business software in French SMEs, 19% against 11%, according to the France Num 2026 survey (in French): the overall view is most often a file put together by hand.

3. The rules are always the same

If you can write the rule on one page (“if the order is above a given amount, have the manager approve it”), a tool can apply it. If each case needs judgement, automation covers preparing the file and passing it on; the decision stays human.

4. The information already arrives in digital form

An email, a PDF, a software export or a spreadsheet can be read automatically. A phone call or a handwritten note cannot. When the information arrives on paper or by word of mouth, the first step is to have it arrive differently: a form, an email template, a shared file.

5. Several people are involved, with hand-offs

Every hand-off is a place where a task waits, gets lost or gets duplicated. A process that goes through three people for a simple decision often gains more from losing a hand-off than from gaining a tool.

6. Errors or omissions have already been noticed

A recurring error shows where the process is fragile: a copied figure, a step that depends on someone's memory. It is also the argument that counts most internally, because it is told through an example everyone knows.

7. Someone has to wait or chase for it to move on

Manual chasing is invisible work: nobody counts it, everybody does it. An automatic reminder at the right time, or a step removed, frees that time without changing how decisions are made.

What an unoptimised process costs

In 2025, an hour of work cost on average €44.7 in French market-sector companies with 10 or more employees, according to INSEE (in French). Set against the statutory 1,607-hour year (in French) for a full-time post, every hour lost each week on a post is a measurable share of that post. The most accurate figure comes from the cost of your own positions, in our calculator.

Where to start

1. 1

   Pick a single process

   The one that ticked the most boxes in the check, or the one people complain about most. One at a time.

2. 2

   Draw it as it really happens

   Not the written procedure: what people actually do, step by step, with the tools they open.

3. 3

   Remove before you automate

   Duplicate approvals, intermediate files, hand-offs that add nothing.

4. 4

   Automate what remains repetitive

   Starting from the tools you already use: email, business software, spreadsheets.

5. 5

   Measure after a month

   Time spent, errors, reminders. If the gain shows, move on to the next process.

How we work

We offer a free process diagnostic: you describe one task, we read it with you, step by step, and tell you what can be removed, simplified or automated, and where to start. If an automation is worthwhile, we build it on your tools, you approve each step, and it is delivered documented. We automate processes for SMEs: for instance order entry at 3plus, or a recurring document-processing task at Techmo Hygiène.