The Art Of Building for Laziness

BPI—no, the B doesn’t stand for boring ?? (though I can see why you’d think that). Business Process Improvement is just a fancy way of saying “let’s stop doing things the stupid way.” Every company wants to be more efficient, more profitable, and less wasteful, but too often, “improvement” just means rearranging inefficiencies instead of actually fixing them.

With AI tools like Salesforce AI, Agentforce, and automation capabilities in Flow and OmniStudio, there’s an even bigger temptation to automate bad processes instead of eliminating them. Throwing AI at a broken workflow doesn’t fix it—it just makes it a faster, more expensive mess.

And then there’s the hidden landmine—hitting product limitations, licensing constraints, or unintended complexity. You build out an automation, everything looks great, and then… surprise! You hit a governor limit, an API cap, or a licensing restriction that blows out costs, slows processing, or completely kills the automation you were banking on. Congratulations, you just turned your “efficiency gain” into an expensive dumpster fire. ??? ??

The Trick: Think Like Lazy Me

Here’s my secret: I always ask myself, “What would lazy me do?” Lucky for me, I’m already very lazy. ?? A lazy person wants maximum efficiency—no repetitive tasks, no unnecessary steps, and no room for unnecessary errors. Why? Because the less we have to redo something, the more time we save to kick back and admire how smart (and lazy) we are.

This mindset is the foundation of good process improvement. Efficiency isn’t about making things faster; it’s about making things easier, smarter, and less prone to errors.

Lazy people design systems that:

? Cut unnecessary steps

? Prevent errors from happening

? Run themselves, so we don’t have to babysit them

So, when you’re improving a process, don’t just ask, “How do we make this faster?” Instead, ask: “How do we make this so easy that lazy me would love it?”

How Do You Measure a Good Process?

Here’s how lazy me knows if a process improvement is worth it:

? Time per activity – Does it actually save time?

? Spend per minute – Is the cost of doing work lower without reducing quality?

? Cost vs profit shift – Does it improve revenue or margin?

? Recovery time when things go wrong – How resilient is the process?

? System limitations – Are we automating ourselves into a problem?

Let’s break it down.

1. Time Per Activity: If It Still Takes Forever, It’s Not an Improvement

Time is money. If a process takes 5 people five hours, that’s 25 person-hours down the drain. If you optimise it to 4 people and 3 hours, you’ve freed up 13 hours for work that actually adds value.

Lazy me loves this because it’s less effort for everyone.

?? What to Measure:

? Time spent per activity before vs after the change

? Reduction in handoffs, delays, and wait times

? Percentile shifts in processing time (e.g., reducing the 90th percentile completion time from 10 hours to 6)

?? Example:

? A finance team takes 3 hours per invoice due to manual approvals.

? You introduce Salesforce Flow & Approval Processes, automating 80% of approvals.

? Processing time drops to 30 minutes per invoice, saving thousands of work hours annually.

? Annual cost savings: $350,000 in wages and productivity recaptured.

2. Spend Per Minute: Wasting Money Is a Hobby, Not a Business Strategy

Every minute of work has a price tag. A process that takes 10 minutes longer than necessary means paying for 10 extra minutes of wages, software, utilities, and machine wear. Lazy me hates wasting money.

?? Key Costs to Factor In:

? Wages & On-Costs (Superannuation, payroll tax, insurance)

? Building & Equipment Costs (Rent, depreciation, maintenance)

? Utilities & Overheads (Electricity, internet, support costs)

? Software Licensing & Subscriptions (Salesforce, ERP, productivity tools)

?? Example:

? Your customer service team spends 10 minutes per case answering FAQs.

? You introduce Agentforce, which manages cases and resolves more queries.

? Agent time per case drops to 3 minutes.

? With 100,000 cases annually, that’s 700,000 minutes of work saved.

? At an average agent salary of $100,000 ($50 per hour), that’s a $583,000 annual saving.

3. The Lazy Genius Behind Click Reduction

A lazy person hates doing the same thing over and over—so cutting unnecessary steps is key.

?? Example:

? A critical workflow in Salesforce requires 20 clicks to complete.

? A streamlined update reduces it to 8 clicks.

? The company has 1,000 staff, each performing this task 10 times per day.

? That’s 120,000 fewer clicks per day—or 8,666 hours per year saved.

Lazy me wouldn’t stop there—I’d throw in AI automation to handle half of those clicks entirely. Now the savings are doubled, and I can enjoy my free time.

Final Thought:

If you’re not building processes that save time, reduce errors, and prevent repetitive work, you’re not improving—you’re just rearranging inefficiencies.

So, when someone pitches you an “efficiency project,” think like lazy me and ask:

?? “Does this make life easier, or is it just more work dressed up as progress?”

Lazy people know: the highest efficiency is no work at all. Build like that.

NB: Calculations have been simplified to keep things concise and focus on key takeaways. Actual savings may vary based on task complexity, workforce size, and operational assumptions.