Case Study — £50m Turnover Business
AI Estimating Automation System
A bespoke AI system designed to analyse structured inputs and automate pricing and estimation workflows for a £50m turnover business — replacing a multi-day manual process with a minutes-based automated workflow.
- Previous cycle time
- 5–7 days
- New cycle time
- Minutes
- Business turnover
- £50m
- Operating region
- UK
Problem
A multi-day manual estimating process capping operational capacity.
Estimating was the operational bottleneck. Every quote required senior technical staff to manually process inputs, apply pricing logic, and structure outputs — a 5–7 working day cycle per quote. This capped quoting capacity, delayed time to market, and concentrated risk on a small number of senior people.
- Manual estimating process taking 5–7 working days
- Heavy reliance on senior technical staff
- Limited quoting capacity due to time constraints
- Delayed turnaround affecting speed to market
- Operational risk concentrated on individuals
- Growth capped by quoting throughput
System
A bespoke AI automation system built around the existing workflow.
Scott Saunders designed and built an AI automation system that ingests the same structured inputs the team used to handle manually, applies the same pricing and estimation logic at machine speed, and produces structured outputs ready for review and dispatch.
The system was integrated directly into live operations — not as a parallel tool, but as the new execution layer for estimating.
Outcome
From days to minutes, without adding headcount.
Before
- 5–7 day quote cycle
- Senior staff bottleneck
- Limited throughput
- Inconsistent turnaround
After
- Minutes-based cycle
- Senior staff focused on high-value work
- Expanded operational capacity
- Consistent structured output
The business is now able to process and respond to opportunities significantly faster, improving throughput and operational efficiency across the estimating function — without adding headcount.
Business Impact Summary
What this changed at the P&L level.
- Cycle time: 5–7 days → minutes (~99% reduction)
- Quoting capacity: expanded without new hires
- Senior staff hours: redirected from estimating to high-value work
- Risk: single-point-of-failure on senior estimators removed
- Speed to market: faster response on time-sensitive opportunities
- Operational ceiling: lifted across the estimating function
Related Systems
Where this fits in the system stack
Remove the manual ceiling on your operations.
If your business still relies on manual processes for critical workflows, growth is capped. AI automation systems remove that ceiling.