Make Existing Tools Useful in Everyday Pharma Work

An employee prepares the same report every week: find the latest figures, copy them into a spreadsheet, check the totals and send an update. Their organisation already provides tools that could help, but nobody has sat beside them and worked through this particular task.

This is an illustrative example, but it gives us a concrete starting point. Before commissioning another tool, watch how the work gets done. Which steps repeat? Where does information go missing? Which decisions need a person? Then check what can be improved with the tools and permissions already available.

My starting offer is a two-to-three-hour session at the employee's desk. I build a suitable improvement while explaining the choices. The employee watches, asks questions and then runs the improved process themselves. The aim is something they can use in their normal work, with a short guide and clear responsibility for support.

Start with one employee and one task

Choose a task that happens often enough for an improvement to matter and is small enough to investigate in one session. Agree its scope and a fixed session fee beforehand. A manager can start with one person and review the result before deciding whether to involve others.

Possible starting tasks include:

Current task	Improvement to explore	Check before relying on it
Copy figures from several approved spreadsheets into a weekly report	Combine the inputs and prepare a report for review	Totals match the sources; missing information is visible
Re-enter actions from meeting notes into a task list	Prepare tasks from the notes for the employee to confirm	Owners, deadlines and wording are correct
Search previous contact notes and approved material before a customer meeting	Prepare a short note with links to the sources	Information is current and suitable for the intended use
Answer recurring internal questions by searching several documents	Assess whether an assistant could retrieve answers from approved sources	Sources are accessible to the user and support the answer

These are candidate tasks, not promises that every organisation can automate them immediately. Existing features may be enough; additional access or development may be needed.

Work within the company's IT Governance

Before the session, agree which tools, information and permissions may be used. Confirm that the employee can access the required environment and identify the person responsible for it. Keep company information in the approved setup.

For example, where Microsoft Lists and Power Automate are already approved and available, we can check whether they suit the selected task. Start with the tools the employee actually has access to, including features already present in their CRM or spreadsheets.

If an improvement involves AI, agree how its output will be checked. A report draft needs verified figures. Customer-facing material needs the company's review process, including MLR where applicable. An automation that sends messages or changes records needs clear rules for those actions.

A blocked permission or missing connection is a finding to resolve with the responsible team. It may mean that the session produces a tested partial improvement and a specific next step rather than a finished automation.

The translator works alongside the employee

The translator role becomes useful when it connects a real task to a workable solution. At the desk, that means asking the employee to demonstrate the process, understanding its constraints and building with the tools the organisation allows.

I explain the changes as I make them. The employee can see which steps are automated, which checks remain theirs and what happens if an input is missing. Before handing over, they run the process themselves and try a case that needs attention.

This supports Citizen Developers, Change & Automation Agents through actual work. The employee does not need to learn an entire development platform before getting help with one task. They do need enough understanding to use the result, recognise a problem and know whom to contact.

Leave a usable result and a clear handover

At the end of the session, record:

• What changed and when to use it.
• Where the information comes from and which checks remain necessary.
• How to run the process and handle a known problem.
• Who maintains it and handles requests for changes.
• What still needs access, approval or further development.

This is the Operating Model for the small solution. Keep it proportionate to the task. A short guide and an agreed owner may be sufficient for a simple workflow; a shared business application needs more.

Bots and agents can be a separately agreed next step

Which kind of solution? A flow carries out defined steps; a bot provides a conversational interface; Copilot offers assistance; and an agent can combine specialised knowledge with tools and actions. They can work together. For the Microsoft options, see Bot, Agent, Copilot or Automation: What Does Your Task Actually Need?.

Some tasks need more than a desk session. An assistant answering questions from approved documents, for example, may require a data connection, access controls and more testing. An agent preparing or carrying out actions needs an explicit agreement about what it may do and when a person must approve it.

If that work is justified, I scope and price it separately. I can develop the bot or agent from my office using the development environment agreed with the company's IT team. The solution is then tested with the people who will use it and deployed into the approved company environment after the required review and approval.

The handover covers the sources, access, permitted actions, tests, support owner and how the solution can be updated or disabled. The first desk session helps establish the actual need before a larger development commitment.

Check whether the improvement stays useful

Compare the original task with the revised process, using the same kind of work. Check manual steps, time spent, errors and the effort needed to review the result. Agree a follow-up to see whether the employee continues to use it and what still causes friction.

A short session cannot establish a company-wide return on investment or a sales increase. It can show whether one improvement works for one person and whether a wider rollout is worth investigating.

If the same task appears elsewhere, test the solution with another employee before sharing it more widely. Their information, permissions or process may differ.

For practical help with a task in your team, book a conversation. Bring one example of the work you want to improve. We can check the scope, the available tools and whether a desk session is a suitable starting point.

An earlier version of this article first appeared on LinkedIn. This website version was substantially rewritten on 6 October 2026 around practical workplace automation.