Recurring reports on autopilot

How it happens today

• ×Monday morning, someone opens five systems and copies figures into a spreadsheet.
• ×The spreadsheet has a chart that needs its range extended each week, and a number that always has to be corrected by hand.
• ×The report goes out at noon instead of nine, because it depends on a person having a clear morning.
• ×When that person is away, the report either doesn't go out or goes out wrong.

The task that replaces it

One task that gathers, assembles and sends. The parts that need judgement — the commentary — stay with a human, which is usually the only part worth their time.

What changes

• It arrives at nine, every week. Not at noon, and not on Tuesday because Monday was busy.
• The manual correction goes away. The number that always had to be fixed by hand gets fixed by a rule instead — once.
• The human keeps the interesting half. Nobody gathers numbers any more. Someone still reads them and says what they mean.

Questions on this one