Custom Automation Services
What does a custom automation engagement actually deliver?
A working, tested workflow that replaces a specific manual process end to end — connecting your existing systems (CRM, ERP, email, internal tools), applying the same decision logic your team uses today, and handling exceptions the way a trained employee would, with a full handover or ongoing management included.
Where Custom Automation Fits
Most enterprises already have some automation in place — a Zapier connector here, a Power Automate flow there. The gap is usually in processes that involve judgement: reconciling data across three systems that don't quite agree, routing an approval based on several unwritten rules, or triaging inbound requests that need context before they can be actioned.
These are exactly the processes generic templates can't touch, because they require either genuine business logic or an LLM making a judgement call within guardrails you define. That's the work Custom Automation covers.
- Multi-system reconciliation and data unification
- Judgement-based routing and approval workflows
- Inbound triage that needs context, not just keyword rules
- Exception handling that today falls back to a person
How We Build It
We start by mapping the process as it actually runs today, including the exceptions and workarounds nobody has documented. From there we design the workflow architecture — which steps are pure orchestration, which need an LLM agent making a bounded decision, and which need a human checkpoint for anything above a defined risk threshold.
We build on n8n where it accelerates delivery and keeps you free of custom-code lock-in, and drop into direct code where a step needs logic no orchestration platform natively supports. Every workflow ships with monitoring, error alerting, and a rollback path before we call it live.
- Process mapping including undocumented exceptions
- Architecture split between orchestration, LLM judgement, and human checkpoints
- Built on n8n or custom code, chosen per requirement
- Monitoring, alerting and rollback included before go-live
Handover or Managed Ongoing Support
Some clients want full ownership: we document the workflow, train your team, and hand over the credentials and runbooks. Others prefer we keep managing it, since automations quietly break when an upstream system changes an API or a field name, and someone needs to be watching for that.
Either path is available from the outset, and clients can switch from managed to self-owned (or vice versa) as their internal capability changes.
- Full documentation and team handover, or
- Ongoing managed monitoring and maintenance retainer
- Flexible switch between the two as your team's capacity changes
- Version-controlled workflow definitions either way
Typical Engagement Timeline
A single-process automation typically runs discovery in the first one to two weeks, a build-and-test phase of two to six weeks depending on system complexity, and a supervised go-live period before we step back or move to managed support.
Larger, multi-process engagements are scoped and phased so you see a working automation live within the first month, rather than waiting for a single big-bang delivery.
- Weeks 1-2: discovery and workflow design
- Weeks 2-6: build, integration and testing
- Supervised go-live with monitoring in place
- Phased rollout for multi-process engagements
Frequently Asked Questions
What counts as a custom automation project?
Any repeatable manual process that currently depends on a person moving data, making a rule-based decision, or triggering a downstream action — from invoice processing to multi-system approval chains — built as a bespoke workflow rather than a generic template.
Do you use off-the-shelf automation platforms or build from scratch?
Both, chosen per project. We build on established orchestration platforms like n8n where that speeds delivery and keeps you off vendor lock-in, and write custom code where a workflow needs logic no platform natively supports.
How is this different from your AI Audit & Discovery service?
The audit identifies and prioritises which processes are worth automating and quantifies the ROI. Custom Automation is the build-and-deploy stage that follows: designing, implementing, testing and handing over the actual working workflow.
Who maintains the automation after it goes live?
You can take full ownership with documentation and a handover session, or keep Salyant on a managed retainer for monitoring, error handling, and updates as your underlying systems change.
Map the manual process costing your team the most hours
Speak with a senior Salyant automation architect about what a custom build would look like.