Client profile
A global logistics and supply chain operator running a mature automation practice. The in-house team of around 30 people had built and now supported more than 220 automations across RPA, OCR and Microsoft Power Platform, spanning SAP, Oracle, BlueYonder, CRM and external partner systems.
The challenge
The estate had grown one solution at a time. Every automation was a standalone build with its own integration code, its own error handling and its own support burden. Average delivery time for a new automation was around 30 days. When an upstream system changed, the same fix had to be applied to dozens of bots individually. Support effort was duplicated, delivery was slow, and the team had no clean route to introduce agentic capability on top of an estate that was not designed for reuse.
What we did
We ran a consultancy-first engagement rather than a build contract. The client kept ownership of its automations and its team. Our job was to design the framework, prove it on live processes and enable the team to run it.
- Discovery. Reviewed the full estate, shortlisted the 20 most used, most valuable and most reusable processes, and built a heatmap of shared integration touchpoints across SAP, Oracle, BlueYonder, CRM and external systems.
- Framework and catalog design. Defined module categories (inbound, processing, storage, outbound), created the first catalog of reusable components with naming conventions and templates, wrote a requirements methodology aligned to reuse, and drafted the governance model covering module ownership and version control.
- Pilot and operating model. Refactored high-value processes using the modular design, aligned support tickets to modules rather than individual bots, and defined KPIs for delivery speed, module reuse and support duplication.
- Scale and enablement. Expanded the catalog across the estate, retrofitted legacy bots, trained the 30-person team on module design and catalog use, and stood up a Center of Excellence with a continuous improvement process.
- Agentic readiness. Identified where agentic automation complements the modular design, with a roadmap for self-healing modules, decision-support agents and autonomous orchestration.
Commercially, the client chose between fixed cost per phase and a monthly retainer, so the engagement could flex with internal capacity.
What we delivered
- Discovery report and integration heatmap of common components
- Modular automation framework and catalog v1
- Requirements templates for business analysts
- Pilot implementations proving the modular approach on live processes
- Support alignment model mapping tickets to modules
- Training and Center of Excellence enablement pack for the in-house team
- Agentic adoption roadmap with high-level proof-of-concept options
Results
- Delivery time for new automations reduced by 60 to 70 percent against the previous 30-day average
- Support aligned to modules rather than individual bots: fixes made once and applied across every automation that uses the module
- Reusable module catalog established and governed, with ownership and version control in place
- Center of Excellence stood up and the 30-person in-house team trained to run it
- Agentic adoption roadmap agreed, with the estate prepared for self-healing modules and decision-support agents