Custom Automation
What Is Custom Automation?
Custom automation tools are designed specifically for you. Whether they are spreadsheet templates, process flows, scripts or web-based tools - they are unique to your business and goals.
- Designed & built exactly to your specifications
- Integrated with your systems
- Using your technology of choice
What Does It Look Like?
Custom automations can be built using anything. Whether you're a large enterprise with a full IT team and preferred cloud provider, or a small business who's more comfortable in spreadsheets. There's a custom automation to suit you.
Spreadsheets
Automation can be as simple as a really good spreadsheet template.
Don't spend hours creating pivot tables and charts. Set up a template doc that just needs new data adding.
Get my guide on the 5 Google Sheets formulas you need to know for automation.
Standalone Scripts
If you want more control over what your tools do and how they work, custom scripts are the way to go.
Two of the most common scripting languages used today are JavaScript (often for building interactive user interfaces) and Python (which is heavily used for data-intensive tasks such as using AI and machine learning).
One powerful variation of JavaScript is Google Apps Script. Apps Script projects can be attached to documents like Google Sheets and used to automate even more spreadsheet-based workflows.
Automation Flows
Using no or limited code, you can build custom automation flows using a range of platforms.
They can be triggered by a range of events - from pushing a button to moving a file in your Google Drive/OneDrive - and integrate with all of the platforms you use today.
More and more AI-based features are becoming available as well.
Examples of these platforms include (in order of the above logos): Microsoft Power Automate, Zapier, Make.com and Tray.io
Custom Web Tools
For really advanced use cases, full web-based tools are required. These bring together the power and customisation of scripting and advanced user interfaces in platform based tools.
Web-Based tools can be hosted in the cloud, using Google Cloud Platform, Amazon AWS or Microsoft Azure.
Typically I don't recommend building a full web platform unless absolutely necessary, due to the time taken to create them and the ongoing maintenance required.
Often, you can achieve the same goal using a standalone script, but without the complex user interface.
Discover all the technology I use to make custom automations.
The Process
My simple 3-step process for creating custom automation tools
Identify
I work with your teams to find opportunities for automation. Then, rank them for impact vs effort.
Build
Every tool I build comes with a video demo and handover guide, so your teams can look after them.
Measure
I measure the impact of the tools and make sure that they are getting the required results.