Automation Process Intake Framework

Part 1: Candidate Submission Template

Process owners and department leads complete this form to nominate a process for the automation pipeline. One submission per process.

1. Process Identity

Field	Response
Process Name	Short, descriptive label (e.g. "Invoice Exception Handling")
Department / Function	Finance, HR, Ops, Sales, etc.
Process Owner Name	Primary accountable person
Process Owner Email
Backup Contact	Someone who can answer questions if the owner is unavailable

2. Scope & Volume

Field	Response
Brief Description	2–3 sentences: what happens, start to finish
Trigger Event	What kicks off the process? (inbound email, batch file, form submission, schedule, etc.)
End State	What does "done" look like?
Transaction Volume	Count per week or month
Peak Volume	Seasonal or month-end spikes, if any
Growth Trend	Stable, growing, shrinking — roughly

3. Current Effort & Cost

Field	Response
Manual Hours / Week	Total staff hours consumed across all people who touch it
FTE Equivalent	Hours ÷ 40, rounded
Number of People Involved	Headcount, not headcount × hours
Hourly Cost Estimate	Blended or rough — don't overthink this
Error / Rework Rate	Approximate % of transactions that need rework, or errors/week
Cost of a Typical Error	Hard cost, delay cost, or reputation cost — estimate is fine

4. Systems & Data

Field	Response
Systems Touched	List every application, portal, spreadsheet, or database the process touches
Primary Data Format	Structured (tables, fields), semi-structured (forms, JSON), unstructured (email body, PDF)
Data Quality	Clean / mostly clean / frequent inconsistencies / largely unstructured
Integration Feasibility	APIs available? Screen-scrape only? SFTP exports? No digital access?
Source of Truth	Which system holds the authoritative record?

5. Risk & Compliance

Field	Response
Regulatory Exposure	SOX, GDPR, HIPAA, PCI, AML, other — be specific
Audit Trail Requirement	Is an immutable record required? Who reviews it?
Customer / External Impact	Does an error reach a customer, vendor, regulator, or the public?
Data Sensitivity	PII, PHI, financial, proprietary — what classification?
Current Controls	What prevents errors today? (human review, reconciliation, manager approval)

6. Process Maturity

Field	Response
Standard Operating Procedure Exists?	Yes / No / Partial — attach if available
Process Stability	Well-defined & stable / stable but undocumented / changes frequently
Exception Rate	% of cases that diverge from the happy path
Known Edge Cases	List the top 3–5 scenarios that break the standard flow
Last Process Change	When and why did it last change?

7. Strategic Context

Field	Response
Why Automate Now?	Pain, growth, risk, compliance deadline, cost pressure — what's the driver?
What Happens If We Don't?	What worsens or breaks over the next 6–12 months?
Desired Outcome	Faster, cheaper, fewer errors, capacity reallocation — pick the primary one
Previous Automation Attempt?	Has anyone tried? What happened?

8. Pain Narrative (Free Text)

Describe in your own words what makes this process painful. Walk through a
typical instance. Where do people get frustrated? Where does work pile up?
What workarounds or shadow processes have grown up around it?

Part 2: Intake Workflow

Intake workflow

Submission
Dept Lead / Process Owner

▼

Triage Desk
Automation CoE reviews within 5 business days

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Completeness Check

Incomplete▶Return to Submitter — with specific gaps listed (loops back to Submission)

Complete▶

Gate 1: Is the process documentable?

No SOP, unstable, no owner engaged▶Archive & Notify — insufficient maturity

Yes / can be stabilized▶

Gate 2: Automation suitability sniff test

Pure judgment work, no repetitive pattern, fully unstructured▶Redirect — process improvement, not automation

Has repetitive steps, rules-based or pattern-recognizable▶

Enter Evaluation Queue — scored against weighted criteria

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Prioritized Pipeline (see Step 2 evaluation rubric)

Workflow Step Detail

Step	Actor	Action	SLA
Submit	Process Owner / Dept Lead	Completes the submission template and sends to the Automation CoE intake address	On demand
Triage	Automation CoE Analyst	Reviews submission for completeness; logs into intake register; assigns an intake ID	5 business days
Completeness Check	CoE Analyst	Fields are filled, contact info is valid, volume/effort estimates are plausible. If incomplete → return with a specific list of gaps, not a generic rejection.	Within triage window
Gate 1: Documentability	CoE Lead	Process must have (or be capable of) a documented SOP, a stable happy path, and an engaged owner. Processes with no documentation, constant change, and no ownership commitment are archived — not rejected, but deferred until maturity improves.	Within triage window
Gate 2: Suitability Sniff Test	CoE Lead + 1 technical reviewer	Quick judgment: is there a repetitive, rules-based or pattern-recognizable core? If the process is entirely unstructured judgment work with no repeatable steps, redirect to process improvement — automation is not the right lever.	Within triage window
Evaluation Queue	—	Surviving candidates enter a scored, ranked queue. The evaluation rubric (Step 2 of this framework) applies weighted criteria: effort, impact, feasibility, strategic alignment, and AI-specific risk.	Continuous

Intake Register (Recommended Fields)

Every submission gets a row in a shared register (spreadsheet or lightweight tool). Fields: Intake ID, Submission Date, Process Name, Department, Submitter, Triage Date, Completeness (Pass/Fail), Gate 1 Outcome, Gate 2 Outcome, Queue Entry Date, Current Status.

Principles

Fast feedback. Submitters hear back within 5 business days, even if the answer is "not yet."
No black holes. Every submission gets a disposition — queued, returned, archived, or redirected. Nothing vanishes.
Return is not rejection. When a process is returned for maturity gaps, the response includes what would need to change and an invitation to resubmit.
Intake is lightweight. The goal is to screen out the clearly unsuitable quickly, not to do the full evaluation at intake. The evaluation rubric (Step 2) does the heavy scoring.