Two critical processes. Years of spreadsheets. Multiple systems. A new platform waiting to be used properly.
Ulverscroft had two operational processes that sat at the core of their publishing business: Royalties calculation and MARC Records creation. Both were built around a tangle of spreadsheets and multiple disconnected system touchpoints, requiring significant manual effort from the team to run each cycle.
The business had moved to a new publishing platform. MARC Records had already been partially migrated across, but the question of how to automate the full process on the new platform had not been resolved. Royalties had not yet migrated. Before it could, the business needed to understand exactly what the process looked like and what automation would require.
Partially migrated. The automation path still undefined.
MARC Records creation had moved partway onto the new platform, but the full end-to-end process had not been documented or optimised for it. The team knew what they needed the output to look like. They did not yet have a clear picture of how to get there using the platform's capabilities.
We conducted structured process analysis to map the current state in full, identify where manual effort was being spent, and design a to-be process that could be automated within the new platform. The output gave the team a clear path and a validated set of requirements to hand to development.
A two-week process. Mapped and redesigned before migration begins.
The Royalties process consumed two full weeks of team effort every cycle. Calculations touched multiple systems. Each step carried the risk of human error, and the volume of manual reconciliation made that risk a near certainty over time.
With migration to the new platform still ahead, this was the moment to fix the process before carrying it across. We mapped the full end-to-end workflow, worked with business stakeholders to design a leaner to-be process, and documented it as structured user stories and acceptance criteria. The redesigned process is projected to reduce a two-week cycle to a matter of days.
Both processes documented. Both ready for implementation.
MARC Records now has a defined automation path on the new platform, with requirements documented clearly enough for the development team to build from. The Royalties process has been redesigned ahead of migration, with a to-be workflow that cuts a two-week manual cycle down to days and substantially reduces the scope for human error.
Both outputs translate directly into backlog items, user stories and acceptance criteria. The work is done. What follows is implementation.