How does Empirica's automation assessment work?
Empirica's automation assessment is a fixed-price, 10 working day assessment that identifies concrete automation opportunities in your processes and their value in euros. The result is a prioritized roadmap: what to automate first, how much it costs, and when it pays for itself. The price of the assessment is credited in full when implementation starts within 60 days.
Microsoft partner · Claude Partner Network member
Fixed price
agreed up front
10 working days
assessment duration
Price credited
when implementation starts within 60 days
What's included
What does the assessment include?
The assessment runs in five stages: a kickoff session with key people, 3–5 interviews, a review of the processes and the value of each opportunity calculated in euros, prioritization by impact and feasibility, and presenting the results to management. Your own time investment is about one working day spread over two weeks, and we do the rest. We typically identify 5–10 automation opportunities, of which 2–3 proceed to implementation with a payback period under 12 months.
5–10
opportunities identified
2–3
proceed to implementation
< 12 mo
payback period
The assessment runs in five stages
- 1
Kickoff session with key people
90 minutes on what the work actually consists of
- 2
3–5 interviews
45–60 minutes each, with the people who do the work
- 3
Process review and value calculated in euros
volume, lead time and the cost of the work, measured
- 4
Prioritization by impact and feasibility
what first, what later, what not at all
- 5
Presenting the results to management
two hours, material ready for a decision
Your own time investment is about one working day spread over two weeks. We do the heavy lifting.
Outcome
What do you get out of the assessment?
The assessment leaves you with three documents: a prioritized roadmap where every opportunity has a value in euros and a payback period, an implementation proposal with the top targets already scoped, and a one-page management summary you can take to the board as it is. The documents are yours, and you are free to implement the plan with whichever partner you choose.
Prioritized roadmap
5–10 automation opportunities, each with a value in euros and a payback period. At the top, the 2–3 targets worth starting with.
Implementation proposal for the top targets
The top targets already scoped: named components, estimated running cost and a schedule. You know what the next step costs and what it delivers.
Management summary
A one-page summary you can take to the board or the leadership team as it is.
Two weeks from now you have a clear plan backed by euros, whether you continue with us or not.
Benefits
Why run the assessment before you build
The most expensive mistake in automation is not the wrong tool but the wrong target: building something nobody uses six months later. The assessment takes two weeks and tells you the right target before the budget is committed.
You know the cost and the value before you build
Every target has a value in euros and a payback period. For the top targets the payback period is typically under 12 months.
The hiring decision rests on measured workload
You see which part of the growing workload can be handled without a new hire, before you make the decision.
The tool is chosen once the problem is clear
The assessment also tells you where in the process a language model is actually needed. That is what decides whether running the solution costs hundreds of euros a year or tens of thousands.
Automation is not always worth it
Sometimes the conclusion is that a target is not worth building yet. That comes cheaper than automation nobody uses six months later.
Example
Over 1,000 emails a day, classified by content
The client received over a thousand emails a day, and they had to be routed based on what the message said. Outlook rules were not enough, because a rule does not understand what a message is about. So a language model was needed in exactly one place in the process: where the message is interpreted. Everything else is ordinary data transfer.
This is precisely the kind of choice the assessment makes. When a language model is wrapped around the whole process instead, every message consumes agent credits. The functionality is the same. The running cost is not.
When you choose a vendor, make sure the toolbox holds more than one tool.
When an off-the-shelf tool is enough and when it is not →Components
- Azure Functionsprocessing logic and the handling chain
- Microsoft Graph APIaccess to the mailbox
- Table Storagestate and processing history
- Azure AI Foundrycontent interpretation, one step of the process
All components run in the client's own Azure subscription.
Running cost per year
approx. €138
The architecture we built
about €11.50 per month
€21,600–28,800
Agent-credit based alternative
estimate at the same volume
Ready-made agent platforms are the right choice in many situations. They are simply priced by consumption, and at this volume that shows up on the invoice every month.
Who it's for
Who is the assessment for?
The assessment is designed for Finnish growth companies and mid-sized B2B companies where repetitive manual work takes several hours a week. It is especially suited to situations where a company is considering an additional hire as the workload grows: the assessment shows which part of that load can be automated before the hiring decision.
Finnish growth companies
Growing SMEs where the workload grows faster than the team.
Mid-sized B2B companies
Companies where the same data is moved by hand from one system to another week after week.
Before a hiring decision
A situation where the next hire is justified by a workload nobody has measured yet.
Pricing
What does the assessment cost and how does the credit work?
The assessment has a fixed price that is agreed before we start, and it does not move along the way. If implementation starts within 60 days of the assessment, the price is credited in full against the implementation project. The assessment is not an extra cost but an advance payment on the build, and you only pay for it if you decide to do nothing. Even then, the plan is yours to keep.
Fixed price
agreed before we start, no hourly billing
10 working days
from kickoff to presenting the results
Credited in full
when implementation starts within 60 days
Questions
Frequently asked questions about the automation assessment
What if we don't have time for this right now?
Your own time investment is about one working day spread over two weeks: a 90-minute kickoff session, 3–5 interviews with key people and a two-hour walkthrough of the results. We do the heavy lifting. And if time is tight right now, that is usually a sign that there is too much manual work, which is exactly the problem the assessment solves.
Who maintains the automation after it goes live?
Automation needs an owner, and without one it decays. That is why maintenance is a named service for us rather than an assumption: AIRO development monitors output quality, tunes the logic as the business changes, and reports monthly on what happened and why. Already during the assessment we define who owns each component once it is live.
How we make sure the automation does not end up without an owner →Are we committing to implementation or to a single vendor?
Neither. The assessment is a standalone piece of work and the report is yours, so you can implement it with anyone. If we build the automation, it is built in your own environment rather than on our platform, so the code, the data and the access rights stay with you. If you do not have a suitable cloud environment yet, we set one up in your name as part of the project.
Let's start with one process
Pick one task that repeats every week. We will go through it in 30 minutes, and you will know whether the assessment is worth it for you.