Business Automation in
Pune
Maker–checker, SLA clocks, and notifications that match how Pune mid-market firms actually work: a purchase indent on email, a boss on WhatsApp, and a CA who wants a PDF trail.
Automation is not RPA theatre. It is removing a hop your people already hate.
We meet Baner service firms whose “process” is a 14-message WhatsApp thread and a spreadsheet named FINAL_v7. Business automation, for us, is encoding that path: who can approve over ₹50,000, what happens when the approver is in a plant visit in Chakan, and how finance gets a packet that looks like an audit trail. That may use a workflow engine, a few scripts, and official WhatsApp templates. It is rarely a giant RPA bot clicking Tally at 2 a.m.
Unitas maps the as-is in Hadapsar, automates the stable 70%, and leaves the ugly 30% as a supervised queue. If the process is still invented daily, we will tell you to standardise before automating.
Key Highlights
- Approval graphs with substitutes (leave / travel)
- SLA and escalation that match IST working hours
- Document packets for CAs and ISO
- Humans still handle exceptions—on a queue, not in chat
Automations that pay back in Pune SMEs
Different from ERP: you may keep Tally and still automate the hops around it.
Purchase indents & PO approvals
Amount slabs, budget owners, and a freeze after PO print. Classic Pune manufacturing win.
Sales enquiry routing
City/product rules so Hinjewadi inbound does not sit with whoever shouted first on the group.
HR joiners / leavers
Checklist across IT, finance, and access. Not a full HRMS unless you need one.
Collections nudges
Ageing buckets, official WhatsApp templates, and a stop when a dispute flag is on.
Document generation
Contracts, appointment letters, and dispatch notes from structured data—no “fill this Word at 11 p.m.”
Light RPA
Only when a vendor has no API. We treat UI automation as fragile and isolate it.
Where automation ROI shows up first
Not the same as API integration (pipes) or ERP (stock/ledger). This is human workflow.
Owner-driven manufacturing
Founder is the bottleneck on every PO. Slabs and delegates give them evenings back.
Professional services (Kothrud, Baner)
Timesheet → invoice → reminder. Partners see WIP without asking in chat.
Clinics / multi-centre
Appointment exceptions and lab report dispatch with consent logs.
Education groups
Fee reminders and document collection without 40 classroom WhatsApp groups as the system of record.
What we automated—and what we refused
Refused “auto-send every overdue invoice”
A Pune trader had disputed invoices in the same ageing. We required a dispute flag before nudges. Automation without that is how you lose customers.
Chakan plant leave substitute
Approvals routed to a named deputy when the HOD scanned a QR at the gate for “on tour.” Simple, local, effective.
Indent PDF packet
Quotes + history attached automatically so the owner stopped asking “send me the mail trail.”
Automation method
If we cannot draw the happy path on one slide, we do not automate yet.
Shadow a real week
We collect actual WhatsApp and email, with permission. The process you describe is not the process you run.
Policy table
Amounts, roles, exceptions. Owners sign it. This is the spec.
Thin workflow
One process live. Metrics: cycle time, touches, exception rate.
Notification design
Too many pings and people uninstall. We budget messages like we budget rupees.
Review after 30 days
Tune slabs. Kill steps nobody used. Expand only then.
Automation vs buying “AI”
Pune vendors will sell you a chatbot. Most of your loss is approvals and missing documents. We start there. LLMs can draft; they do not approve spend.
Policy before model
A GPT that “decides POs” is a governance incident. We use models for drafts and classification, not silent money moves.
Measurable cycle time
We baseline how long an indent takes today. Vanity dashboards are optional.
Works with Tally
Automation can stop at “ready to voucher.” ERP is optional.
Hadapsar change management
We train the clerk who actually runs the queue, not only the owner who sponsored it.
Automation snapshots
Cycle-time stories—not a new customer portal (that is web apps).
PO cycle 4.5 days → 1.2 days
Slabs, deputy approvers, and a complete packet. Owner only saw ≥ ₹2L. Exception queue for “vendor not in master.”
Invoice reminder policy
D+3 / D+7 / D+15 templates, skip if dispute. Collections calls became shorter because the trail existed.
Automation commercial model
Cheaper than ERP if your books stay in Tally. More expensive than a Zap if you need audit.
Process mapping
Shadow week, policy table, and a go/no-go for build.
- As-is evidence
- Policy draft
- Tooling advice
- ROI sketch
One live workflow
Approvals, alerts, and a queue. 4–8 weeks.
- Roles
- Audit log
- Training
- 30-day tune
Ops desk
Three processes, shared inbox/queue, and light reporting.
- Shared masters
- SLAs
- Admin UI
- Runbook
Frequently Asked Questions
Specific to Pune Solutions
Related Pune work
Explore sibling services across Pune & Maharashtra
Pick one painful approval. We will map it in a workshop.
If it is still invented daily, we will tell you to standardise first. That answer saves you a failed automation project.