Systems automation

That time never shows up on a bill, and a mistake can slip in at every re-type. Nobody decides to spend a day each week moving numbers from one place to another. It just happens, because the tools were bought one at a time and none of them was told about the others.

We connect your tools so the repeated work runs on its own, and every run leaves a record you can read. When we opened the spreadsheet that held Paula’s inventory, 32 of her 33 available works had no price. We did not ask her to move into a store. We made one record per work, and her site, her price sheets and her shop feed are all made from it.

Most people start at the assessment: we watch one repeated task from start to finish and write down what it would take to remove it.

The assessment is one week. We sit with the task as it really happens, count the places it is copied by hand, and write down what we expect to find and what would tell us we were wrong. You get what we found, what it means, and what to do next, including the case where the answer is that it is not worth automating.

The prototype automates that one task, working, for you to open and use. If it earns more, we take the next task in weekly steps, each ending on a date you know. Anything that goes out under your name waits for your yes, so a draft is only ever a draft until you say so.

Paula’s studio shows what this looks like. A repeated job is done for her and the result waits for her to press Approve. We wrote her spreadsheet back out as a new dated file in her own folder every time, so she keeps reading the file she knows, and the file is now correct.

1. Assessment. One question, answered in a week, with what we expect and what would prove us wrong written down first.
2. Prototype. The smallest thing that could answer the question, working, for you to open and use.
3. Project. The rest, built in weekly steps, each ending on a date you know.
4. Ongoing support. After it launches, any week you want something changed, fixed or watched. No retainer.

• The Digital Studio: One record per work for artist Sara Paula Hoffman, which her site, her price sheets, her shop feed and the daily check of her works’ gallery listings all read from.
• Her spreadsheet, written back: Her inventory workbook is saved to her own cloud folder as a new dated file each time, never over an older one.
• Our own weekly releases: Each is written once and a model drafts only from a case’s own facts. Nothing goes out without Bob’s yes.

A week costs $5,000: five working days, a price agreed before the week starts. An assessment is one week.

For one person, a lighter week of two to three days costs $1,000.

An assessment is one week: we watch one task and give you written findings, and you can stop there.

If the prototype earns a second task, that is another week at the same price, agreed before it starts. There is no retainer, and you pay only for the weeks you use.

If one off-the-shelf connector already moves your data between two tools you pay for, use it. We are worth hiring when the work crosses several tools and needs a record you can read afterward, and we will say so in the first call if a connector is enough.

You do. The scripts and the records are yours, in files and folders you already use. For Paula’s studio, the inventory workbook is written back to her own cloud folder, so she keeps reading the file she knows.