How to choose a business process automation contractor: where the contractor starts, what the price covers and what to look at

Business process automation often starts from the wrong end: the owner sees a tool and then looks for somewhere to use it. A good contractor works the other way round. First they find out which repetitive actions eat time and where requests get lost, and only then choose what to close them with.

Start with an audit, not with a tool

The first question for a contractor: what do you do before building anything? The AKORDO catalogue has a separate service for this, a process and automation opportunity audit. It finds manual data transfer, reports compiled by hand and places where actions are forgotten. A contractor who proposes writing an integration straight away, without that analysis, risks automating a mistake.

Not every process is worth automating. If an action happens once a month and setting it up costs more than a year of manual work, automation will not pay back. An honest contractor will say so first.

Five questions to ask the contractor

1. Which task do you see first? A good answer names a specific chain, for example website request, CRM, task for a manager, not an abstract "optimise processes".
2. Is AI needed here? Not always. The AKORDO internal reporting case describes a Telegram bot and Google Sheets, and AI is not in its list of works. A contractor who adds AI to every proposal sells a technology, not a solution.
3. What happens when something goes wrong? Ask about exceptions: what happens to a request with an empty field and who finds out about it.
4. Who is responsible for the data? Automation mirrors your data. If the CRM has duplicates, clean them before launch.
5. What happens after handover? Whether there is support and documentation so the system can be changed without the same contractor.

Automation or systems integration

These are different things with different prices. Automation removes a manual action in one chain: a request automatically becomes a task. Integration connects separate systems to each other, for example a CRM, website, accounting, warehouse and delivery. If a contractor mixes the two terms, their proposal is hard to compare with others. More about integration in Integrating a CRM with accounting, warehouse and business systems.

Signs of a weak proposal

• A price without a description of the chain being automated.
• A promise to cut costs by some percentage without measurements on your data. Without a before and after measurement such a figure means nothing.
• No acceptance criterion. Phrase it as a scenario: a website request appears in the CRM, the manager gets a task, the head of sales sees the status. Walk through this scenario with the team before giving up the manual routine.
• External costs are not named. The client pays for licences, API, hosting and telephony separately.

What it costs according to the catalogue

The "Automation and integrations" package starts at $800 and includes the process audit and business process automation. AKORDO names the exact amount after a free consultation, and the catalogue timelines are indicative, not contractual.

What the cases show

The technical operations automation case at a fintech company describes an AI Integration Bot that takes over repetitive steps of technical integration. The e-commerce sales management analytics case is about regular reporting and a panel for management. These are examples of scope, not a promise of figures for your business.

For how to start your own project, read Business process automation: where to start, and for why an audit is needed, Business process audit before automation.

Ready to go through your first process? Book a free AKORDO consultation.