Buyer's guide
What to ask before you pay anyone to automate your work.
Eight questions for any supplier, including us — and the answers that should make you walk away.
The eight questions
Ask them in writing if you can. A supplier comfortable with their answers won't mind putting them on paper.
01What exactly are you building, and what's out of scope?
A good answer names the inputs, the outputs, the systems it touches and the cases it won't handle.
Walk away if the scope is a feature list with no exclusions, or details will be “worked out as we go” on a fixed price.
02Whose name will the accounts be in?
Every service has an account holder. If it's the supplier, you're renting your own process back from them.
Walk away if they'll set things up in their own accounts and transfer later, or can't list the accounts involved.
03Where does our data go, and who else can see it?
Ask for every service that will receive your data, what each one gets, and where it's hosted.
Walk away if the answer is “it's all secure” with no names, or they need your live data on their own machines.
04How will we both know whether it worked?
Agree a measurable outcome before anything is built, measured the same way before and after.
Walk away if success is defined as delivery, or they won't commit to measuring the result.
05What happens to the cases it can't handle?
Every automated process eventually meets something it wasn't built for. Ask where those go and who is told.
Walk away if you're told it handles everything, or exceptions land in an inbox nobody owns.
06What will it cost to keep running?
Ask for a monthly estimate at your current volume and at double it, so you can see how cost grows.
Walk away if the only number you're given is the build price.
07What happens if we want to leave?
Ask what you'd need to move, what you'd lose, and how long a handover takes.
Walk away if leaving means rebuilding, or documentation costs extra.
08What do you need from us?
A supplier who understands the job asks for access, real sample data, and a decision-maker.
Walk away if they need nothing beyond a signature, which means they're building from assumptions.
Our answers
How we answer them
Accounts in your name. Data in your own US-hosted systems. Success criteria agreed before we build. Redacted copies for anything sensitive. All eight in writing before any build starts.
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