Back-office and operations
Di work wey no get owner because everybody dey do small part of am
Every company get layer of tasks wey nobody dem hire to do and everybody end up dey do: di file wey dem suppose move, di number wey dem suppose check, di approval wey dem suppose chase, di export wey suppose happen before di accountant reach.
Di distributor with four systems
Small distributor. Orders dey arrive inside one system, stock dey live inside another, di accountant dey work inside third one, and di warehouse dey run on software from 2006 wey im only interface na CSV file wey dem drop on SFTP server. Nothing dey wrong with any of dem individually. Di problem dey entirely inside di gaps.
Every morning somebody dey export, import, check and correct. E dey take fifty minutes on good day and two hours when di supplier feed get new column inside. Di person wey dey do am na one of di two people wey understand di business well enough to notice when number dey wrong — and na exactly why dem no suppose spend two hours a day on am.
- ⚡Wetin dey start amFile appear on di supplier SFTP.
- 2ParsedSemicolon dem, byte-order mark, Polish header dem. 4 118 row dem.
- 3CheckedCurrency and country codes against reference data. Two rows no valid.
- 4PushedBatches of 200 enter di stock system. Rate limit respected.
- 5Written backDem create accounting entries for only di delta.
- !ExceptionsDem file two rows with di row number and di reason. Di other 4 116 pass through.
- ✉SummaryOne message at 07:00, quiet hours hold am until dat time.
Paid steps: 0Cost of dis run: nothing
Exception na di product
Di value of workflow like dat one no be say e move four thousand rows. Any script fit move four thousand rows. Di value be say e move 4 116 of dem quietly and put di other two for person front, with di row number, di value wey fail and di reason why e fail.
Wetin dat one do be say e turn fifty-minute job into two-minute one, and — more useful — e turn invisible job into visible one. Before, nobody know say di feed get two bad rows every week. Di person wey dey do di import dey quietly fix dem, and dem no ever tell di supplier.
Approvals wey no go stall
Approval na wait. Di run sit for dat step, hold everything wey e know, and e no cost anything while e dey sit. If nobody answer within di period wey you set, e go escalate, or e go take di default path, or e go stop and file itself — na your choice, and di choice dey visible inside di workflow, no be inside person head.
Di common version na: chase after two days, escalate to second person after four, and never make something sit for three weeks because di only person wey fit approve am dey holiday.
Person dey use stay late do dis one before.
Di usual six
Wetin people dey build here
Di nightly job
Export, transform, import, verify, report. E deterministic from start to finish, wey mean say e no cost anything to run and e go give di same result every night.
Document routing
Invoice go come as PDF attachment. Dem go extract di fields, check am against di purchase order, and file am inside three systems. Di one wey no match go go to person.
Onboarding and offboarding
New colleague need accounts for six places, and di one wey dey leave need make dem remove am from all six on di right day. Na di second one dem dey forget.
Escalation
Anything wey don pass threshold, dey sit with anybody, chase am once and then escalate am. Di workflow dey boring; na di absence of am dey make things sit for three weeks.
Compliance dates
Recurring obligation with lead time — renewal, filing, inspection — show am ahead of time no be on di day, and show am again if nothing happen.
Health checks
Poll di things wey suppose dey up, and raise one alert when something no dey up, no be four hundred alerts when network blip at 02:41.
Why dis work dey stay manual for long
Because e no ever be anybody project. E too small to justify developer, too specific to buy off di shelf, and too dull for di person wey dey do am to make noise about am. So e go stay, and e go grow, and one day company go get three people wey dia real job na to move data between systems wey dem sell each one as complete.
So di bar wey workflow suppose clear low: e suppose quick pass to build am than di time di job go take if person do am for two months. To describe am in one sentence and spend twenty minutes tidy am go clear dat bar well well for almost anything on dis page.
No automate bad process. If two people dey do di same work different way and both of dem sure say dem dey right, workflow go just make one of dem wrong faster and more consistent. Settle di process first; di automation go take one afternoon and di argument go take two weeks.