Metric groups
A useful benchmark measures time, errors, reporting delay, and the number of human touches.
- Cycle time
- Manual touches
- Error rate
- Report latency
ROI / operations
Automation ROI benchmark: what to measure beyond saved hours
Automation should not be sold only as saved hours. SME ROI also comes from better data, faster response, and earlier owner visibility.
9 min readExample benchmark
For forms, measure load time, submit time, auto-filled fields, and blocked errors. For reports, measure data availability and follow-up questions.
- Form load time
- Submit success rate
- Cache hit
- Follow-up questions
When not to automate yet
If the workflow changes daily or the source of truth is unclear, audit and standardize first. Automation on a broken process only makes it fail faster.
- Unstable process
- Unclear source data
- No owner
- No operator accountability