Notes on making businesses work better.
Written by Ben Henderson. Practical pieces on transformation, automation, AI, bespoke software and system integration — the things that come up repeatedly in real businesses.
Latest/Software
What bespoke software actually costs in the UK
Real ranges for custom software projects in the UK, what drives the price up or down, and the costs that get left out of most quotes.
All insights · 13
Digital TransformationSigns your business has outgrown its spreadsheetsSpreadsheets are usually the right tool at the start. Here is how to tell when the spreadsheet has quietly become the thing holding the business back.5 minDigital TransformationHow to choose a digital transformation consultantThe questions that actually separate a good digital transformation consultant from a bad one — before you sign anything, not after.7 minDigital MarketingLocal visibility: what to fix firstA practical order of work for local search: consistent details, the right categories, pages that match real demand, and reviews handled as a process.5 minArtificial IntelligenceClassifying enquiries with AI without losing controlHow automated enquiry classification works in practice — categories, confidence, human review and the measures that tell you it is working.5 minDigital TransformationHow to map the way your business actually worksA practical method for process mapping that finds the manual steps, the shadow systems and the handovers where work goes missing.6 minSoftwareWhat a customer portal actually changesCustomer portals are usually justified as a service improvement. The bigger effect is on your internal workload — here is where it actually shows up.5 minAutomationWhy your CRM automation keeps breakingCRM automations rarely fail technically. They fail because of unowned exceptions, duplicate records, and rules built around a process nobody agreed.5 minSoftwareCustom software or off-the-shelf: how to decideA practical way to decide between buying software and building it, based on process fit, licence cost and the manual work a near-fit product creates.6 minDigital MarketingWhy your marketing looks like it isn't workingBefore cutting spend, check what happens after the click. Most attribution problems and lost enquiries happen in handling, not in the campaign.6 minDigital TransformationWhat a Transformation Day actually looks likeAn hour-by-hour view of a Transformation Day: who I speak to, what I look at, and what you receive at the end of it.5 minAutomationThe five processes worth automating firstWhere automation reliably pays back early: enquiry handling, status updates, document generation, reporting and internal handovers.6 minArtificial IntelligenceWhere AI actually fits in a smaller businessA practical view of the workflows where AI earns its place — reading, sorting, drafting and searching — and the ones where it does not.6 min
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