Let’s talk about how advanced automation saves your life

Nobody likes doing repetitive stuff. So, in this blog I would like to share some of my endeavors on advanced automation. Automate all the things!

Originally posted on Oktober 31, 2016
By Floris Schoenmakers

This might be an open door: I like to work on things I like. The things I don’t like: admin-work, contracting, reminding people, setting up a new environment and so on. At oneUp, we spend a lot of effort on (internal) automation. In this 3-serie-blog I would like to share some of my endeavors on advanced automation. Automate all the things!

I would argue that we made at least one good choice at oneUp: we use Slack as our central communications platform. Slack is extremely customizable. With their easy and open APIs, you can connect virtually everything to it. Slack, therefore, forms the center of my automation activities. When automating stuff, you need to have a tool where stuff comes together 🙂 Choose wisely.

Automation Framework

If you would look closely at your own activities, you will notice a lot of repetitive work. After a while, you even become unaware of these routinely manual tasks. In order to automate, you need to have an approach. Here’s my 3-step automation approach:

1. Observe your process. A common mistake is to automate a process that doesn’t exist yet. Big mistake. Make a sketch of the process you want to automate.
2. Validate your process. Take the sketch, do your job and validate if you are indeed following the sketched process. Adjust your sketch when necessary.
3. Create a minimal viable automation. Never go full automation from the start. Always start with a bare-minimum-hacked-together prototype. The automation needs to proof its worth and go from there.

A simple automation use case: new contractor

I’m really happy to work with self-employed people. YET, a downside: contracting, paperwork, informing, registration… the work is endless. So, in order to overcome this, I have connected several cloud-based tools together: Hellosign, Slack, Email and Trello.

Suppose we have found a very talented self-employed full stack developer.
The old story goes like this:

• We come to a deal (via email).
• We create a Statement of Work (word — 20min).
• We sign it, create a PDF, send it and wait for a signed contract (email — 15min).
• We register the contractor in our system (sap — 10min).
• We inform the contractor about the invoicing process (email — 5min).
  The process will take you ~50 minutes.

The new story goes like this:

• We come to a deal (via email).
• We send a cloud-based Statement of Work (Hellosign — 5min).
• We request our Slackbot to register the contractor in our systems (Slack — 1min).
• Contractor is automatically informed after registration (Email — 0min).
• The contractor is automatically registered in our system (Trello — 0min)
  The process wil take you ~6 minutes.

There you have it. Automation saves time and saves (a part of) your life. Below you see the Slackbot in action, which informs the contractor with an email and registers the contractor in our administrative system.

Slackbot contractor registration

Automated email with invoicing information

Contractor signed up in the Trello contractor board

Get in touch: whatsup@oneup.company