Business Automation • Mid-market • Australia

A business automation agency that ships to production

We find the repeating work, build the automation, and put it in production with the governance around it written down. Sydney-based, working across Australia.

What does a business automation agency do?

A business automation agency finds the repeating work inside a company, decides which of it can safely be handled by software, and then builds and deploys that software. The work splits three ways: mapping the processes and costing them in hours, building the automation and connecting it to the systems the business already runs on, and putting governance around anything that runs unattended. The distinction that matters when choosing one is delivery — an agency that stops at a recommendation has done the first third and left you to buy the rest.

The honest comparison

Agency, independent consultant, or hire in-house?

All three work. They fail in different ways, and the right answer depends on how much automation you expect to do after the first one.

Three ways to get business automation built, and what each one costs you
Automation agencyIndependent consultantIn-house hire
Typical costFixed fee per build, from $3,500 AUD$120–$250/hr, open-ended$120K–$180K/yr fully loaded
Time to first resultOne to eight weeksDepends on their availabilityThree months before they know your systems
Who owns it afterYou do, with a written playbookUsually you, sometimes themThey do — until they leave
Breadth of skillsWhole team: process, build, integration, governanceWhatever that one person is good atWhatever that one person is good at
How it failsScope creep, or a retainer you cannot leaveThey get busy with another clientKey-person risk, and it takes a year to notice
Best whenYou want two or three automations live this quarterYou have one narrow, well-understood problemAutomation is a permanent, continuous function
  • Our fixed fees are published rather than quoted on request: $3,500 AUD for a Claude Cowork setup, around $8,000 for a multi-team implementation, and from around $10,000 for a Claude Code rollout. Broader programs are scoped in a two-week Discovery first.
  • Consultant rates and in-house salary ranges are indicative Australian market figures for 2026, not quotes — use them to compare shapes, not to budget.

How we actually run an automation engagement

Hours first, tools second

Find the repeating work

We map the processes that repeat and cost them in hours and AUD before proposing anything. Most businesses are surprised by which process is actually the expensive one — it is rarely the one that feels most annoying.

The step most proposals skip

Check the data can be reached

Software can only act on what it can get to. Files in someone’s inbox, figures that live in a spreadsheet on one laptop, and approvals that happen verbally are all blockers that no tool solves. We find these before quoting, not after.

Working, not demonstrated

Build one thing and put it in production

One workflow, end to end, running against real data with real failure handling. A pilot that works on curated inputs proves nothing about the Tuesday when the file arrives malformed.

Governance in writing

Write down what runs unattended

Which steps run on their own, which always ask first, what happens when something fails silently, and who is allowed to change that list. This is the part that decides whether an automation is still running in six months.

You own it

Hand it over

The workflows, the configuration and a written playbook your team can extend. We do not build dependencies on ourselves — a retainer you cannot leave is a business model, not an outcome.

When hiring an automation agency is the wrong call

Three situations where we will tell you not to buy anything yet. Automating an unstable process locks in the instability. A process nobody owns cannot be changed, whatever the software does. And a workflow whose data lives in someone’s inbox has a filing problem, not an automation problem.

The cheapest way to find out which of those applies to you is the free AI readiness assessment. It takes about three minutes and it will tell you if the answer is “not yet”. If you would rather see the specific things we build, that is on AI automation services.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What does a business automation agency do?

A business automation agency finds the repeating work inside a company, decides which of it can safely be handled by software, and then builds and deploys that software. The work splits three ways: mapping the processes and costing them in hours, building the automation and connecting it to the systems the business already runs on, and putting governance around anything that runs unattended. The distinction that matters when choosing one is delivery — an agency that stops at a recommendation has done the first third and left you to buy the rest.

How much does a business automation agency cost in Australia?

It depends on whether you are buying a defined build or an open-ended program. Our published fixed fees start at $3,500 AUD for a Claude Cowork setup delivered in about a week, around $8,000 for a multi-team Cowork implementation, and from around $10,000 for a Claude Code rollout across an engineering team. Broader automation programs run as a two-week Discovery engagement first, scoped to the business, because quoting a number before seeing the processes is guesswork dressed as a proposal.

What is the difference between an automation agency and an automation consultant?

A consultant typically produces a recommendation; an agency ships the thing. The distinction matters because the hard part of automation is rarely deciding what to automate — it is the integration work, the edge cases, and the governance for what runs without a human watching. If a proposal ends at a roadmap, you are buying advice and will need to buy delivery separately.

When should you not hire an automation agency?

When the process is not settled, when nobody internally owns the decision to change it, or when the data lives somewhere nothing can reach. Automating an unstable process locks in the instability, and a process nobody owns cannot be changed no matter what the software does. In those cases the honest sequence is to fix the process first — and we will say so rather than sell you a build.

How long does a business automation project take?

A single defined workflow is usually live in one to two weeks. A first production automation with real integration work is typically four to eight weeks. Anything quoted at six months before a line of it is in production is a discovery phase wearing a delivery label.

Do you work with businesses outside Sydney?

Yes. We are Sydney-based and run in-person working sessions for Sydney businesses. Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and everywhere else in Australia works remotely over screen-share sessions, which is how most engagements run. New Zealand businesses work with us on the same remote basis, billed in AUD.

Ready?

Start with the process, not the tool

Book a free 30-minute call. We'll work out which of your repeating processes is worth automating first, and what it would realistically cost.