NA Fair / AI Consulting
A roadmap that put time back
on the table for NA Fair
Elevate AI completed an AI Consulting discovery and prioritised roadmap for NA Fair, a UK electrical services contractor. The work identified about 125 hours per month (about 1,500 hours a year) and a cost equivalent of about £30,000 a year in staff time, excluding employer National Insurance and pension costs. Phase 1, automated purchase-order intake with human review before anything is filed or created, has been completed. Those hour and cost figures remain opportunities identified in the roadmap, not measured savings after go-live.
Diagnostic, roadmap and Phase 1 completed
AI ConsultingClarity before commitment.
Diagnostic, roadmap and Phase 1. Hour and cost figures are identified opportunities, not measured savings.
- Client
- NA Fair
- Sector
- Electrical services
- Opportunity identified
- About 125 hours a month
- Cost equivalent identified
- About £30,000 a year
- Phase 1 delivered
- Order intake with human review
01 / The challenge
Start with the business problem.
NA Fair is a UK electrical services contractor. Day-to-day work includes reactive call-outs and planned maintenance for commercial and residential sites, with job records held in a job-management database, files in shared cloud storage and invoices finished in an accounting package.
Before a long-standing office role stepped back, the business needed clarity on which repetitive admin could be automated, which needed a better process, and what should stay with people. Purchase orders arrived by email and through client portals, then were filed and keyed into the job system by hand. The question was practical: understand the real work before committing to a build.
02 / Our approach
Make each step count.
- 01
Follow the actual work
Elevate ran an initial discovery call, then an on-site operations walkthrough. The team followed how orders moved from mailbox to job record, engineer allocation, completion notes and invoice, including the systems and handoffs the office relied on.
- 02
Measure the opportunity honestly
Through Elevate's consulting methodology, the diagnostic produced findings, an opportunity map and a phased roadmap. On the real-world average used in that roadmap, the shortlisted work represented about 125 hours per month (about 1,500 hours a year), with a cost equivalent of about £30,000 a year in staff time, excluding employer National Insurance and pension costs. A tighter walkthrough-based floor was nearer 80 hours a month. The 125-hour figure is the planning number cited in the roadmap.
- 03
Prioritise a phased roadmap
Sixteen opportunities were scored. Five were shortlisted in a deliberate order: foundations and access, then order intake into the job system, then invoice pre-flight checks and AI-drafted invoice descriptions into the accounts, then recurring maintenance batching, then the engineer notification loop, with purchase-ledger price checking as a later exception-led phase. Ideas that needed no new software were listed separately from builds.
- 04
Build Phase 1 with human approval
Phase 1 covers order intake. The system reads incoming purchase orders, checks them against the job records, and places a proposed action in a shared queue. A named reviewer approves or rejects each proposed action, and only then does the system file the order and create or link the job. During comparison and testing the office kept working as today: the system proposed, a person decided. Unclear orders are held with a reason. The system does not invent a site match on its own.
03 / What changed
Phase 1 delivered. Later phases still a choice.
The consulting deliverable was an operations diagnostic, opportunity map and phased roadmap the client owns. Implementation was scoped separately. Phase 1 has been completed: purchase-order intake with AI reading, checks against job records, the review queue and personal approval, and the path to filing and job creation under human control. The first live source was email orders from a property management client. Other order sources, including portal and direct-customer routes, can follow the same pattern once each source is ready. Phases for invoicing, maintenance batching, engineer notifications and supplier price checks remain later options.
The headline opportunity figures remain opportunities identified through Elevate's consulting methodology. They are not claimed here as savings already measured after Phase 1.
What this demonstrates
This story covers completed AI Consulting discovery and roadmap work, plus Phase 1 order-intake delivery with human review retained. Opportunity hours and cost equivalents are proposals from the diagnostic, not audited post-implementation savings. Results of later phases would depend on scope, adoption and review.
04 / Decision worksheet
Which workflow should you improve?
Use these questions to record one problem, the evidence and the conditions for proceeding before agreeing an implementation scope.
This general decision aid accompanies the completed consulting case above. It is not the client's confidential roadmap or evidence of achieved savings.
Problem and owner
What fails or takes too long? Who owns the process?
Observed baseline
Record volume, time, errors, the date range and evidence source.
Alternatives
Could you simplify the process, use existing tools, automate or defer?
Dependencies and exceptions
Record data, systems, access, human review and failure handling.
Whole-life costs
Include discovery, build, migration, training, licences and upkeep.
Benefit and confidence
Capacity released is not automatically cash saved. State assumptions.
Acceptance and review
What must work? Who signs off? When will the result be reviewed?
Decision and next step
Proceed, test, investigate or defer. Name the owner and date.
Identify the largest uncertainty and the smallest useful check. A useful roadmap can recommend not building a system.
Download the proof sheet and blank worksheet (PDF, 2 pages)
Download the editable proof sheet and worksheet (Word)
All worksheet questions are available on this page. A free scoping call assesses fit and scope. Detailed discovery and a client-owned roadmap are paid consulting, with implementation agreed separately.