When teams start their automation journey, the biggest
mistake is trying to automate everything at once.

The better approach: start with three processes that
are high-frequency, low-complexity, and immediately
painful. Build those first. Get the wins. Then expand.

Here are the three that consistently deliver results fastest.

1. Approval workflows

What it looks like manually:
Someone submits a request - leave, a purchase, a document
sign-off. It sits in someone's inbox. A reminder gets sent
on Teams. Another one. The approver finally responds four
days later. The requestor follows up to confirm.
The whole thing gets logged somewhere manually.

What automation looks like:
A form is submitted. The right approver receives an
email with one-click approve/reject buttons. If no
response within 24 hours, a reminder fires automatically.
Once approved, the requestor is notified instantly and
the result is logged in SharePoint without anyone
touching a spreadsheet.

Time saved: 1–3 hours per person per week.
Complexity: Low. Buildable in a half-day session.

2. Automated reporting

What it looks like manually:
Every Monday, someone spends two hours pulling data
from three different sources, pasting it into a template,
formatting it, and sending it to the team. Every week.
Without fail. For years.

What automation looks like:
Power Automate pulls the data on a schedule, populates
the report template, and sends it to the distribution
list automatically. The person who used to build it
manually doesn't touch it again.

Time saved: 2–4 hours per person per week.
Complexity: Low-medium. Depends on data sources.

3. Email processing

What it looks like manually:
Incoming invoices, requests, or order confirmations
arrive by email. Someone opens each one, extracts
the relevant information, and enters it manually into
a spreadsheet or system. This happens dozens of times
a day.

What automation looks like:
Power Automate monitors the inbox. When an email
matching defined criteria arrives, it extracts key data
and logs it automatically - no human involvement required.

Time saved: 1-2 hours per person per week.
Complexity: Low. One of the most common first automations.

Why these three first

These processes share three characteristics that make
them ideal starting points:

They are high-frequency. They happen every day or every
week, so the time savings compound quickly.

They are self-contained. They don't require complex
integrations or IT involvement to automate.

They are immediately visible. When an approval arrives
in 10 minutes instead of 4 days, people notice.
That visibility creates momentum for the rest
of the programme.

Start here. The rest follows naturally.