Get the knowledge out of one head
We sit with the person who runs it and write down what they do, in the order they do it, including the exceptions they handle by instinct. That document is useful on its own, whatever you decide next.
What we solve
The system only one person understands
Key-man dependency is the phrase clients use themselves. A process runs, the returns go out, and one person is the reason. Then that person takes leave.
The fear nobody puts in writing
Ask an executive what would hurt most next quarter and the honest answer is often a name. One person built the process, still runs it, and is the only one who understands why it works. Nothing is documented, because it was never meant to last this long.
It happens by accident. A deadline arrived, someone capable solved it in a spreadsheet, and the fix worked well enough to become the process. Three years later the file has forty tabs, the logic lives in one head, and the audit asks who reviews it.
The uncomfortable part is that the person is usually not the risk. They are the one holding it together, often without recognition and without leave. The risk is that the business made a single point of failure out of a favour.
What it costs before anything goes wrong
Cycles take longer than they should, because only one person can run them. Nobody else can be trained, because there is nothing to train from. Improvements stall, because any change has to go through the same diary. And when the audit finding lands, the remediation happens under time pressure at the worst possible moment.
How we approach it
Rebuild the process in the open
Classification, transformation and population handled by a system, with the business rules written down rather than remembered. VBA and Excel are not embarrassing when they solve the problem in weeks rather than years.
Hand it over properly
Documented, tested against the last four cycles, and run by your team with us on call. If you already have a team who can do this, you do not need us.
Software that only one person understands is not an asset. It is a risk with a login.
Case study
Case study 3
Broken
Regulation 28 reporting on asset positions done manually, taking three to four weeks per cycle, with significant key-man dependency.
At stake
Adverse audit findings, delayed returns, regulatory fines and scrutiny.
What we did
Developed a custom system to manage, classify, transform and populate the asset sections of the return templates.
What changed
Under two hours
The same process, previously three to four weeks per cycle, now completes in under two hours.
Sector and scale only. We do not name clients, and every number here is one the client confirmed.
Contact
Tell us which process depends on one person
We will come back with a scope, a price in rand, and an honest answer about whether it is worth doing.
connect@rahn.co.za