Guide

What do you need for process automation? The requirements

Before process automation even makes sense, a few things need to be in place in the business. What those are — and which supposed requirements actually aren't.

Request assessment ↗Process automation

Proposal upon request3 to 6 weeksAs of 2026

In short

For process automation, a business needs three things: a specifically named workflow that currently costs time or orders, existing content or data to work with, and a person who is authorized to decide. Technical prior knowledge is explicitly not required.

01 — Requirements

What you need for process automation

A clearly defined trigger. Not “we should do something with AI,” but a process that demonstrably costs time or orders today.
Existing content or data. Process automation works with what's already there. The more complete the starting point, the shorter the setup.
Access to the systems involved. Whoever manages the credentials needs to be involved from the start — this is, in our experience, the most common cause of delays.
One decision-making contact person. One, not three.
Willingness to refine after launch. The first weeks in real operation show what was missing in the concept. That's normal and accounted for.

02 — Participation

What we need from you

A contact person who can make decisions — not just forward them.
Access to the affected systems, in time and not on launch day.
Real examples from daily business — the messier, the more useful for testing.
Two to four hours for coordination, distributed over the project duration.
An answer to the question of what success means. Without it, nothing can be assessed afterward.

03 — Fit

When it's worth it

The process in question occurs at least weekly.
It follows rules you can write down — even if there are exceptions.
Today it's manual work that no one enjoys doing.
There's one person who decides, not three who need to coordinate.
You can name what would tell you it worked.

04 — Questions

Frequently asked questions

Do we lose control over our processes?

On the contrary: An automated process is fully documented and logged for the first time. You see every run. Before, only the person who always did it knew.

How quickly does it pay off?

For the processes we typically start with, payback is between four and ten months. We calculate that before the quote, not after.

Do we have to buy new software for this?

Usually not. Most of it runs on the systems you already have, plus an automation layer. We only suggest new software if there's a real gap.

What happens to the people who used to do this?

In practice, a position rarely disappears — the part of the work that nobody liked disappears. The time goes into things there was never time for before.

What if our processes change?

Then the workflows are adjusted. We build them so that the variable parts — text blocks, recipients, thresholds — are in a table that you maintain yourself, without needing us.

How do we know what's worth automating?

Rule of thumb: A process is worth it if it occurs at least weekly, has clear rules and is manual work today. In the current-state analysis, we calculate every candidate — frequency times duration times cost — and you decide based on numbers.

Are there subsidies for this?

For digitalization projects in Austria, there are several funding programs, such as KMU.DIGITAL or the aws digitalization funding (kmudigital.at, aws.at). Whether and to what extent this currently fits your situation, we check together — important: The application must be approved before the contract is awarded. Plan lead time for this.

05 — Next

Process automation by region

Next step

We'll look at your starting position.

Tell us what's eating up time today. That becomes an assessment with effort and benefit — and only then an offer.

Send inquiry ↗ office@pipeline-solutions.at OR +43 681 207 64 203