How much should business process automation cost?
How to tell whether a quote has anything real behind it, and the question that exposes one that does not.
Short answer. There is no meaningful market rate, because a price only means something relative to what the manual process costs. Before comparing quotes, establish that figure. A supplier who cannot tell you what the work costs you today has no basis for telling you what replacing it is worth.
Why the question has no direct answer
Automation quotes in the UK SME market range from a few hundred pounds for a workflow tool configuration to six figures for a systems integration. That spread is not a market failing; it reflects genuinely different work.
The problem is that most quotes are anchored to the supplier's effort rather than to the client's cost. Effort is easy to inflate and impossible for you to audit. Your own manual cost is neither.
The three models, and what each rewards
Day rate. You pay for time. A build that takes longer earns more, and nothing in the fee depends on the system ever being used. This is the model with the worst incentive alignment and it remains the most common.
Fixed project fee. Better, because overruns become the supplier's problem. But the fee is earned on delivery, not on the system working. A build handed over and quietly abandoned is, contractually, a success.
Per item, against a measured baseline. The fee is a proportion of what the process cost to run by hand, charged per item processed. It earns nothing until the system is doing real work. We use this, at 20% of the measured cost, and the reasoning is set out in per-item pricing versus day rates.
The question that exposes a weak quote
Ask: “What does this process cost us today, and how did you arrive at that?”
A supplier who has measured it will answer with volume, minutes per item and a loaded hourly rate, and will be willing to put the figure in writing. A supplier who has not will answer with a percentage improvement, a case study about a different company, or a statement about efficiency.
That single question separates the two more reliably than anything else you can ask, because the answer is either arithmetic or it is not.
What should be included at any price
- A measured baseline, agreed in writing before the build starts
- A period running alongside your team before it touches live work — see shadow mode
- A stated standard it must meet, agreed in advance rather than after the results
- Every decision logged with the reason, so a disagreement is a fix and not an argument
- Ongoing maintenance, because rules drift and a system nobody updates decays
If a quote omits the baseline and the proving period, the price is not the main problem with it. Ours are set out in full on the offer page.
On very cheap and very expensive
A few hundred pounds usually buys configuration of a no-code tool. That can be exactly right for a simple, stable, low-volume task, and if it is, nobody should sell you a build.
Six figures usually means integration across systems that were never designed to talk to each other. Sometimes justified. Ask what specifically costs that much, and expect an answer naming components rather than describing complexity.
Related questions.
No. Quotes range from a few hundred pounds for configuring a no-code tool to six figures for systems integration, because the work genuinely differs. A price is only meaningful next to what the manual process costs, so establish that figure first.
A day rate pays the supplier for time regardless of whether the system works or is ever used, and a longer build earns more. A fixed price or a per-item fee against a measured baseline aligns the supplier with the outcome instead.
What does this process cost us today, and how did you arrive at that figure? A supplier who has measured it answers with volume, minutes and a loaded hourly rate. One who has not answers with a percentage or a case study about someone else.
A measured baseline agreed in writing, a period running in parallel with your team before it touches live work, a pre-agreed standard it must meet, decision logging, and ongoing maintenance.
Describe the process you want to automate.
You will receive a fixed price and a build plan.
There is no charge for the initial call and no obligation. You deal directly with the engineer who builds the system.