We found the staff were the integration layer.

The frustration

Bookings lived in one system. The details were re-entered into another to build the group's programme, a third scheduled the team, and finance needed it all again for the invoice. Even adding a new user meant phoning support.

The pattern

Booking. Something in the middle. Invoice. The middle is where the business actually lives, and the same shape turned up at a mechanic's garage soon after.

The solution

Following the work rather than listing features. Where does this information go next? Who touches it? What do they have to remember? Then joining up the middle so people stop doing unpaid integration work.

The outcome

The lost time was scattered through the day in two-minute jobs, none of them big enough to justify a project on its own. Put together, it showed how much attention was going into keeping technology joined up.