Guide 03 · Step 5 of 5

Measure the gain and decide

Compare against the baseline honestly, including what the automation itself now costs.

Independent guidance from Synergy. ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO 22301 are published by ISO/IEC, which has no affiliation with Synergy and has not reviewed this material. Always work from the published text of the standard.

You measured a baseline in step 2. Now measure the same things again, the same way, and put the two numbers side by side. This is the only step that tells you whether to continue.

Count the new costs too

Automation is not free to run. It has to be monitored, corrected, and occasionally rebuilt when an input format changes. If you count only the hours saved and not the hours now spent supervising, you will overstate the gain and the second project will be planned on a number that was never real.

• Handle time saved — the difference in minutes per instance.
• Review time added — the human still checking output. This is a real cost and it shrinks slowly.
• Maintenance — hours per month keeping it working, including the fixes nobody predicted.
• Net — saved minus added. This is the number that decides what happens next.

Write it down for the next person

Whatever the verdict, leave a short record: what the process was, the baseline, what was built, the measured result, and what you would do differently. The second automation project in any organisation is planned by whoever reads that note — and if there is no note, it gets planned on enthusiasm again.