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/System Integration
Do you need an ERP, or better-connected systems?
Before a small business buys an ERP, it's worth asking whether connecting the systems it already runs would solve the same problems for far less.
All insights · 16
Digital TransformationDigital Transformation Agency London vs ConsultantAgency, consultancy or senior independent? A plain London guide to who does the work, how scoping happens and where the cost sits.7 minDigital TransformationDigital Transformation Roadmap: Build It in NovemberUse November to build a digital transformation roadmap: what to gather, what to leave out, and how a £600 Transformation Day can help.7 minSoftwareWhat bespoke software actually costs in the UKReal 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.6 minDigital 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
Browse by capability
Tell me what's frustrating you.
I'll tell you whether I think there's something worth exploring. If there isn't, I'll say so.
