Answer
How much does business process automation cost?
In the UK, automating a single business process costs roughly £1,500 to £6,500, and most SMEs spend £5,000 to £30,000 on their first automation project. Ongoing maintenance runs £500 to £3,000 a month. Cost is driven far more by how many systems have to talk to each other than by how clever the automation is.
- Single process (UK market)
- £1,500 – £6,500
- First project (UK SME)
- £5,000 – £30,000
- Maintenance (UK market)
- £500 – £3,000 / month
- Independent consultant day rate
- £500 – £2,000
- Projects that exceed budget
- 68%, by 42% on average
- Our prices
- £2,000 · £9,500 · £19,500, all fixed
What actually drives the price
Not complexity — integration count. A process that lives entirely inside one system is cheap to automate. The same process spanning your CRM, your accounts package and two spreadsheets costs several times more, because each connection is a separate thing to build, test and maintain.
What makes it more expensive
- Systems with no API, where data has to be extracted another way
- Processes with many exceptions and few consistent rules
- Anything touching regulated data, which adds audit and retention requirements
- Legacy software that changes without warning
- No single person internally who owns the process
What makes it cheaper
- Modern tools with real APIs
- A process someone can describe in one sitting
- High volume of identical cases
- A clear owner who can answer questions quickly
The number most quotes leave out
Published prices typically account for only 50–60% of what an automation project actually costs. Integration, training, change management and rework add another 40–60% on top. That is one reason 68% of AI projects exceed their budget, by an average of 42%.
How to avoid overpaying
Do not buy a large automation project on an estimate. Buy one process at a fixed price, measure what it returned, then decide. If an agency will not price a single workflow fixed, they are not confident they can scope it — and you will absorb that uncertainty as an overrun.
Related
Which business processes should you automate first?
Automate the process that is repetitive, rule-based, high in volume, and stable. All four have to be true. The most common good first candidates are invoicing and payment chasing, moving data between systems, and first-response to enquiries — because they happen constantly, follow clear rules, and rarely change.
Read→How do you measure ROI on automation?
Record the baseline before anything is built — hours spent, volume handled, error rate — then measure the same things afterwards. Without a before, there is no credible after. Return is the annual value of the time and errors removed, minus the build cost and any ongoing maintenance.
Read→How long does it take to automate a business process?
A single, well-scoped business process takes about two weeks from start to running. A connected set of three to six processes takes four to eight weeks. Delays almost never come from the build — they come from access to systems and from nobody internally owning the decisions.
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