Who sets it up
Alex Makarov, our CEO and founder, leads the workshops and shapes the plan with your leaders. Artem Dryevov, our CTO, checks every design against your systems.
Automation Consulting
Automation consulting for mid-market and enterprise teams
Our automation consulting tells you what to automate, in what order, and what each step should return. Mid-market companies get working tools within a quarter. Enterprises get a pilot that grows through security and procurement review.
DiscoverWe talk to the people doing the work and look at their systems and numbers.
What automation consulting with IN-STORE covers
Most automation programs stall for the same reasons. The wrong process gets automated first, nobody owns the business case, or IT hears about it too late. Our automation consulting puts things in the right order: facts first, decisions second, building third.
Process discovery
We sit with the people doing the work and follow each hand-off. We pull volumes, error rates and wait times from your own data.
Ranking the ideas
Every idea is scored on effort, payoff, risk and what it depends on. You see why something comes first, not just that it does.
Business case and return
We build a return estimate with open assumptions, a payback date and the total cost of ownership. Your finance team can question it and change the inputs.
Build, buy or wait
For each idea we suggest one of four paths: a ready-made tool, a tool you already own, custom work, or nothing yet.
We stay for the build
When work starts, the same consultants stay responsible for scope, testing and sign-off. That holds whether we build it or your team does.
Helping people adopt it
Training, updated procedures and a named owner for every automated step. Success shouldn't depend on one keen champion.
Adoption planOwners, training and updated procedures for each change.
Start with the Automation Readiness Assessment
Most clients start with our Automation Readiness Assessment. It takes 2 to 3 weeks, has a fixed fee and ends with a readout for your leaders. If you stop there, you still own a full plan your team can carry out.
KickoffScope confirmed, the right people named, data requested.
Two tracks: mid-market and enterprise
A 150-person distributor and a national insurer shouldn't buy automation the same way. So we offer two tracks, and you pick the one that matches how your company makes decisions. Both start with the same assessment. Alex Makarov, our CEO and founder, often runs the first workshop himself.
PaceHow fast the first automation goes live.
Mid-market track: results this quarter
For companies that need visible change fast and don't want to hire or manage new IT staff. We start with tools we already run and fit them to your systems. You see working automation within days, and we aim for payback within a quarter.
- Ready-made tools first, custom work only where it pays
- Aim to pay back within one quarter
- No new IT staff or platform to look after
- Monthly plans with a clear scope
- One senior person as your contact
How it runs
- 1Readiness assessment in 2 to 3 weeks
- 2Set up the top two or three quick wins
- 3Check results at 30, 60 and 90 days
- 4Add the next tools from the list
Ideal for
- Companies of roughly 50 to 500 employees
- Owner-led or PE-backed firms with a small IT team
- Leaders who need proof before a bigger program
How an engagement runs
Every project follows the same five steps. The track changes how deep we go and how many checks we add, not the steps themselves.
DiscoverFacts from people, systems and data.
Discover
We interview the people involved, walk through your systems and look at volumes, errors and turnaround times. We write down how work really happens, shortcuts included.
Assess
We score each idea by effort, payoff and risk and estimate the return. We flag anything it depends on, like messy data or a system change already planned.
Design
For approved ideas we design the new process, the connections and what happens when something goes wrong. We also mark where a person checks the work, and agree how we'll judge success.
Deploy or pilot
Mid-market clients go live with ready-made tools. Enterprise clients run a small pilot, measured against the goals agreed upfront.
Measure and scale
We report results against the return estimate and adjust. Then we roll out what works to new teams, regions or volume.
Compliance, security and AI governance
If your risk team can't explain an automation, it won't survive its first audit. So we build in the rules from the start. We use the same terms your security, privacy and legal reviewers already use.
Privacy by design
We design around PIPEDA, CASL and CAN-SPAM. We add PHIPA and HIPAA whenever health information is involved.
SOC 2-aligned practices
People get only the access they need, passwords are managed, and changes are logged. Our written controls answer the questions in a typical SOC 2-based vendor review.
A person stays in the loop
Sensitive decisions always have a named person who reviews them. Automation prepares, checks and routes the work. People approve it.
Audit trail
Every automated action is logged with what went in, what came out and the person or rule that approved it.
Data residency
Canadian processing and storage are available on request, subject to scoping. We write down where every system sits.
Rules for AI use
We help you decide where AI may be used, what data it may see and how its output is checked before customers see it.
IN-STORE is not SOC 2 audited; we document controls mapped to SOC 2 criteria for your vendor review.
Input receivedA lead, document, call or request comes in.
People behind the automation
Consulting is a people job, so you work with senior people from day one. Between us we have many years of marketing, web and technology work. The same few people run your workshops, build the plan and stay with you after launch. You always know who to call.
WorkshopCEO and founder runs discovery with your leaders.
Who watches it
Andrew Liashok, our Client Service Director, tracks results against the return estimate. He flags anything that drifts before it becomes a problem.
Who you talk to
Rob Ott, our robot Chief Executor, books your first call at any hour. After that you have one senior contact for the whole project, with a direct line, and no hand-off to a junior team.
How consulting is priced
The assessment has a fixed fee for a fixed scope. Bigger programs are quoted after the assessment, once we both know the real size of the work.
Automation Readiness Assessment
Fixed feePrice on request
2 to 3 weeks, fixed scope, fixed fee. You get a process map, ranked list, return estimate, 90-day plan, tool advice and a leadership readout.
About the assessmentMid-market program
Request a quote
We set up the ready-made tools from your plan, with monthly plans and a quarterly check against the return estimate.
Request a quoteEnterprise program
Request a quote
Pilot, security review, rollout in phases and ongoing oversight. Contracted through a statement of work with milestones and sign-off criteria.
Request a quoteFixed-fee assessmentA small, clear commitment with a full plan at the end.
Frequently asked questions
How is automation consulting different from buying an automation platform?
A platform vendor wants to sell licenses. We want to find the processes where automation pays back, then use the simplest tool that works. Often that's a tool you already own. You get a ranked list and a return estimate before any platform decision. So the software choice follows the business case, not the other way around.
We are a mid-market company without a dedicated IT team. Can we still do this?
Yes. The mid-market track was made for exactly that. We set up ready-made tools we already run, fit them to your CRM, accounting and email, and look after monitoring and updates. Your team mainly joins interviews during the assessment and checks test results before launch. You don't need to hire anyone in IT.
Can you work through our vendor onboarding and security review?
Yes. Enterprise clients often ask us to fill in security questionnaires, describe how data moves and document who can access what. We follow SOC 2-aligned practices, like giving people only the access they need, managing passwords and logging changes. We can sign your NDA and data processing terms. We plan the review into the timeline so it's never a surprise.
How do you calculate ROI, and will our finance team trust it?
We build the estimate from your own volumes, handling times, error rates and full staff costs. Then we add software, build and support costs to show the payback date and total cost of ownership. Every assumption is visible and can be changed. Finance teams usually test the inputs with us during the readout, and that's exactly what we want.
How much of our team's time does an engagement need?
For the assessment, plan on a sponsor who joins the kickoff and the readout. We also need one-hour interviews with the people who run each process in scope, plus read access to the right systems or sample data. During the build, process owners review designs and test results. We work around month-end and other busy periods.
Are you tied to a particular automation tool?
No. We are recognized partners of platforms like Make and n8n and use them often. But we recommend tools based on fit, cost and your IT standards. If your company already runs on Microsoft 365 or another platform, we design around it. We say openly in our tool advice if we have a partner relationship with a vendor.
Next step
Get a roadmap before you commit budget
Book the Automation Readiness Assessment. Or talk to one of our senior consultants first about which track suits your company.