The Business Problem
An operational business processing over 200,000 emails per year — approximately 800 per working day — had a team of administrative staff dedicated entirely to email triage. Their job: read every email, determine what it was about, look up relevant information in the ERP system, take the appropriate action, and send a response. Every single email, manually.
The Existing Workflow
Each email required the following manual process:
Open email and read the content (including any PDF attachments)
Determine the type of request — new order, reschedule, status enquiry, or other
Open the ERP system and navigate to the relevant section
Look up the customer, job, or order referenced in the email
Take the appropriate action — create a record, update a status, or retrieve information
Compose a reply with the relevant details
Send the reply and move to the next email
Average time per email: 3-8 minutes depending on complexity. Multiply by 800 emails per day.
The Problems With Manual Handling
Missed Emails
With 800 emails per day, some inevitably fell through the cracks. Missed orders meant lost revenue. Missed enquiries meant frustrated customers.
Slow Response Times
During peak periods, response times stretched to hours or even next-day. Customers waiting for order status or scheduling confirmations grew frustrated.
Data Entry Errors
Manually transcribing information from emails into the ERP system introduced errors — wrong addresses, incorrect PO numbers, mistyped dates.
Scaling Problem
Email volume grew ~30% per year. Each growth spike required hiring additional admin staff — a linear cost increase with no efficiency gain.
The Automation Solution
We deployed an AI email operations agent that monitors the inbox continuously, classifies every incoming email, extracts relevant information, interfaces with the ERP system to take action, and responds to customers — all without human involvement for routine requests.
AI agent monitors inbox via IMAP — picks up new emails within 30 seconds
Classifies each email by type: new order, reschedule, status enquiry, or escalation
Extracts structured data from email body and PDF attachments
Queries ERP database for relevant information (order status, job details, scheduling)
For new orders: drives ERP interface to create sites and register jobs automatically
For status enquiries: retrieves current status and composes accurate reply
For reschedules: identifies the job, forwards to scheduling team with context
For edge cases: escalates to human review with full context and suggested action
Sends professional responses within minutes — not hours
Estimated Operational Savings
Without the automation, the business was losing approximately:
Practical, Not Oversold
This solution doesn't eliminate the need for human staff. It eliminates the need for humans to do repetitive, predictable work. The team that previously spent their days reading and processing routine emails now focuses on exceptions, complex customer situations, and higher-value operational work. The AI handles the 70% that follows predictable patterns. Humans handle the 30% that requires judgement.
The system was deployed with a review mode first — processing emails but sending all responses to a review inbox for human approval. Only after accuracy was proven over weeks of operation did it transition to autonomous processing. Safety, accuracy, and control were never compromised for speed.