Common friction points

The operational problem comes first.

Explore the patterns that create extra work before deciding whether software is the answer.

01

Updates need constant chasing

Managers repeatedly ask employees, vendors, or departments for status updates. The latest status is often known by one person but is not visible to everyone who needs it.

Business impact

  • Managers spend time collecting updates instead of making decisions
  • Employees receive repeated follow-ups for the same information
  • Delays remain hidden until they affect delivery, customers, or reporting

Why this happens

  • No shared status format
  • Ownership is unclear
  • Updates are not required at a defined time
  • Different teams maintain separate files

What Glitch may build

  • Structured update workflow
  • Clear owners and due dates
  • Required update fields and reminder rules
  • Escalations, status history, and an exception view

Expected benefit

  • Fewer manual update requests
  • Clearer responsibility
  • Earlier visibility into missing or overdue activity
  • Better decision making

Questions to assess fit

Which updates are requested repeatedly?

Who provides and checks them?

How often are they needed?

What happens when an update is late?

02

Approvals lose momentum

Purchase requests, costing approvals, document reviews, payment decisions, and internal requests move through email or chat. Teams do not know who is expected to approve or what is still pending.

Business impact

  • Important work waits without a clear reason
  • Employees keep following up with approvers
  • Purchasing, production, and payment decisions are delayed

Why this happens

  • Approval routes are informal
  • Requests contain incomplete information
  • There is no escalation path
  • Decision history is not stored in one place

What Glitch may build

  • Required request details
  • Role-based routing
  • Approve, reject, and return options
  • Notifications, escalation rules, and decision history

Expected benefit

  • Shorter approval loops
  • Less manual chasing
  • Clearer accountability
  • Better visibility of pending decisions

Questions to assess fit

Which approvals create the most delay?

Who can approve or reject?

What information should be compulsory?

What should happen when nobody responds?

03

Reports are rebuilt manually

Employees collect data from spreadsheets, email, ERP exports, forms, and team members, then recreate the same reports every day, week, or month.

Business impact

  • Skilled employees spend hours preparing reports
  • Numbers may differ between departments
  • Management receives information after it is already outdated

Why this happens

  • Data sits in different places
  • Metric definitions are not agreed
  • Source files use different formats
  • Reports depend on one employee

What Glitch may build

  • Automated data collection
  • Standard metric definitions and validation
  • Scheduled reports
  • Live or refreshed dashboards and exception summaries

Expected benefit

  • Less reporting effort
  • More consistent information
  • Faster access to important exceptions
  • Reduced dependency on individual employees

Questions to assess fit

Which reports are repeated?

How long do they take?

Where does the information come from?

Which number is treated as final?

04

Operational data is scattered

Sales, procurement, production, finance, dispatch, and management maintain separate trackers. The same order, project, customer, or material may appear differently across each file.

Business impact

  • Teams spend time reconciling information
  • Departments report different versions of the same status
  • Management lacks one reliable operating view

Why this happens

  • There is no common identifier
  • Teams use different status names
  • The same information is entered several times
  • Department files were created separately over time

What Glitch may build

  • Common record ID and shared master data
  • Standard statuses and role-based update areas
  • Validations and linked operational stages
  • Dashboard summaries and record-level history

Expected benefit

  • One clearer source of operational information
  • Less duplicate entry
  • More consistent status reporting
  • Better visibility across departments

Questions to assess fit

Which departments maintain separate trackers?

Which information is entered more than once?

Is there one common order or project ID?

Which system should be treated as the source?

05

Risks become visible too late

Material shortages, delayed approvals, overdue tasks, missing documents, production gaps, and payment issues are often identified after they have already affected delivery.

Business impact

  • Teams make urgent purchases
  • Production or project work is delayed
  • Managers spend time resolving avoidable emergencies

Why this happens

  • Normal activity and exceptions are shown together
  • There are no early-warning rules
  • Updates are entered late
  • Management reviews happen after the risk has increased

What Glitch may build

  • Deadline rules and shortage alerts
  • Overdue indicators and readiness checks
  • Missing-information alerts and risk categories
  • Escalations and a management exception dashboard

Expected benefit

  • Earlier identification of operational risk
  • More time for corrective action
  • Clearer prioritisation
  • Fewer last-minute surprises

Questions to assess fit

Which risks are usually discovered late?

What should trigger an alert?

Who should receive it?

What action should follow the alert?

06

Documents need repeated review

Teams repeatedly review PDFs, scans, forms, reports, technical documents, invoices, and client files for similar issues. Senior employees often perform basic first-pass checks before reviewing the important technical content.

Business impact

  • Senior time is spent on repetitive checking
  • Review quality can vary between employees
  • Basic errors may continue into final documents

Why this happens

  • Documents are unstructured
  • Scan quality varies
  • Technical terms are incorrectly flagged
  • There is no reusable review checklist

What Glitch may build

  • PDF text extraction and OCR
  • Possible issue highlighting
  • Terminology whitelist and review queue
  • User acceptance or rejection with human final approval

Expected benefit

  • A more structured first pass
  • Faster identification of possible issues
  • More consistent review activity
  • Reduced repeated checking by senior employees

Questions to assess fit

Which documents are reviewed repeatedly?

What qualifies as an issue?

Are the files scanned or digital?

Who is responsible for final approval?

Cross-functional impact

One missing update can affect the entire operation.

Operational problems rarely remain inside one department.

  1. 01Customer order confirmed
  2. 02Material requirement not updated
  3. 03Procurement starts late
  4. 04Production readiness becomes unclear
  5. 05Production schedule changes
  6. 06Dispatch date becomes risky
  7. 07Finance and management receive incomplete information

How Glitch assesses a challenge

Not every manual task should be automated.

Some workflows need clearer ownership, cleaner data, or simpler rules before software will help. We assess the operating context before recommending a system.

  • How often the workflow happens
  • How much time it takes
  • How many people are involved
  • Which systems and files are used
  • Where delays or errors occur
  • Which exceptions are common
  • Who owns the process
  • What decisions require human approval

The appropriate next step

A solution may be simpler than a new system.

Depending on the workflow, the right next step may be process cleanup, clearer roles, better data structure, a dashboard, an approval workflow, automation, AI assistance, custom software, or no new system at all.

We recommend a build only when the workflow, users, information, ownership, and practical success criteria support it.

Discuss one workflow

Which part of your operation keeps creating extra work?

Share one repeated process, where it slows down, who is involved, and which systems are currently used. We will first assess whether the problem needs automation, better workflow design, or a simpler operational fix.