Book a demo with Sola: what should I prepare to show our current workflow and estimate ROI?

Most teams book a demo with Sola because they’re staring at the same reality: 15 tabs open, a shared inbox that never sleeps, and a process that somehow still needs humans to push data from A to B. To get the most out of that first conversation—and to walk away with a clear automation plan and ROI range—you don’t need a consulting-level brief. You just need to bring the right slice of your current workflow into the room.

Quick Answer: For a high-value Sola demo, come prepared with one or two concrete back-office workflows (like invoice reconciliation, order entry, or claims processing), a simple “before” view of how they run today (apps, steps, and exceptions), and rough volume/time/cost numbers. That’s enough for the Sola team to map your real process, show what an agentic bot would look like, and estimate automation-driven ROI in your environment.

Why This Matters

Sola isn’t a generic tool demo—it’s an exercise in turning the way your team actually works into an agentic process automation blueprint. The more specific you can be about one real workflow, the faster Sola can show you: “Here’s what this looks like as a bot that runs across your browser and desktop apps.” That specificity is also what lets you walk out with an ROI estimate your CFO won’t laugh at.

Key Benefits:

• Faster path to a real automation plan: Concrete workflow details let the Sola team jump straight into your process, not a generic canned example.
• Credible, defensible ROI estimates: A few simple numbers (volume, time per item, error rates) are enough to model savings, capacity unlocked, and payback period.
• Higher internal alignment: Coming prepared with examples and assumptions makes it easy to socialize the demo outcomes with ops leaders, finance, and IT after the call.

Core Concepts & Key Points

Concept	Definition	Why it's important
Agentic process automation	Automation that starts from a screen recording of a real workflow and turns it into a bot that runs across browser and desktop applications, adapting to UI and data changes using LLMs and computer vision.	This is how Sola moves you beyond brittle, rules-only RPA and lets business experts automate the work they own—without waiting on developers or consultants.
Target workflow	A specific, repeatable process (e.g., invoice reconciliation, order entry, file verification, claims intake) that today requires humans to move between multiple systems.	Choosing the right target workflow for your demo defines how tangible the automation and ROI conversation will be.
ROI model for automation	A structured way to quantify time saved, error reduction, and throughput gains by comparing today’s manual process with a Sola-powered automated workflow.	A basic but grounded ROI model is what turns an interesting demo into a credible business case for stakeholders like finance and IT.

How It Works (Step-by-Step)

Here’s how to prepare for a Sola demo so you can show your current workflow clearly and get a meaningful ROI estimate.

1. Pick the right workflow to showcase

You don’t need to cover everything. One or two workflows is ideal.

Look for processes that are:

• Repetitive and high-volume
  Examples:

  • Invoice reconciliation across ERP + email + shared drives
  • Order entry from PDFs or portals into your core system
  • Claims intake and validation across multiple internal tools
  • KYC / onboarding checks across vendor systems and internal CRMs
  • File verification (e.g., comparing contract terms or policy details)

• Multi-system and UI-driven
  Anywhere work requires “15 tabs open,” copying from email to a web app, downloading and renaming files, or checking data in three places before updating a system of record.

• Owned by business experts
  Processes that sit with ops analysts, billing teams, legal ops, compliance leads, or logistics coordinators—not just engineering.

You’re looking for a workflow where people say things like:

• “It’s straightforward, just… annoying.”
• “We’d love to automate this but don’t have RPA specialists or time to maintain scripts.”
• “Every time a UI changes, everything breaks.”

For the demo, choose:

• 1 primary workflow for deep dive
• 1 backup workflow in case the Sola team sees an even faster ROI path

Capture the workflow in one sentence each, e.g.:

• “We take invoices from email and shared folders, validate them against PO data in our ERP, resolve discrepancies, and push approved entries into our accounting system.”
• “We pull shipment data from emails/portals, match to our TMS and contracts, and update status plus downstream systems.”

2. Map the “good enough” current state (no diagrams required)

You do not need to show up with a consulting-grade process map. A simple text outline, Google Doc, or even rough notes are enough—as long as they capture the reality of how your team works.

Prepare:

a) Systems and surfaces involved

List the tools your team touches for this workflow:

• Applications: ERP, CRM, TMS, practice management system, claims system, core admin platform, etc.
• Productivity tools: Outlook/Gmail, Slack/Teams, Excel, Google Sheets, shared drives, internal portals.
• External portals: Carrier portals, vendor portals, government sites, third-party data providers.

Example:

“For invoice reconciliation, we use: Outlook, a shared file drive, SAP, Excel templates, and a vendor portal for disputed invoices.”

b) Step-by-step description of the workflow

Think like you’re explaining it to a new hire. For each step, note what the human is doing, in which system, and why.

Example structure:

1. Receive incoming items
2. Open system A → filter/search → find record
3. Open document/email/portal → cross-check fields (amount, date, account, policy #, claim ID, etc.)
4. Decide: approve / reject / flag for review
5. Update systems of record
6. Generate or update any files/reports
7. Notify stakeholders (internal or external)

A simple bullet list like:

• “Open invoice from shared drive → check PO # in SAP → verify amount and vendor ID → if mismatch, email vendor → otherwise, post to GL and mark as reconciled.”

is more than enough for the Sola team to translate into a candidate bot.

c) Exceptions and edge cases

This is where Sola’s agentic approach shines compared with legacy RPA.

Write down:

• Common exceptions: missing data, fields not matching, documents with different formats, portal timeouts.
• Human decisions: when someone needs to “use judgment,” escalate, or reference extra context.
• Current workaround: what people do when something doesn’t match the happy path.

Example:

• “If invoice line items don’t match the PO, the analyst opens an email thread with the vendor and manually tracks follow-ups in a spreadsheet.”
• “If a claim looks suspicious, the case is flagged to the senior adjuster with a summary in Teams.”

Don’t overthink this; capturing 3–5 common exceptions already gives Sola enough to talk about how adaptive error handling and self-healing workflows would behave.

3. Gather rough numbers to support an ROI estimate

Sola doesn’t require precise, audited numbers to estimate ROI. Directionally correct is fine. But having something quantifiable transforms the conversation.

Prepare the following for each target workflow:

a) Volume

• Items per day / week / month (e.g., invoices, orders, claims, files, applications).
• Peak vs average (if seasonality matters).

Example:

• “We process ~1,500 invoices per month; month-end spikes to ~2,000.”

b) Time per item

• Average time a human spends per item (even if it’s a range).
• Share both “happy path” and “with exceptions” if you can.

Example:

• “Happy path takes ~3 minutes per invoice; with vendor follow-up it can jump to 10–15 minutes for 10–20% of cases.”

c) People and cost

• How many FTEs are involved (full-time or fractional).
• Rough fully loaded cost band (you don’t need to disclose exact salaries; ranges like “$60–80k per year” are fine).

Example:

• “Two full-time billing specialists and one who spends about half her time here; all in, ~$250k/year fully loaded.”

d) Error rates and rework

• How often do mistakes happen today?
• What’s the impact (chargebacks, penalties, customer/vendor friction, manual clean-up)?

Example:

• “We see about 2–3% of invoices requiring rework because of mis-keyed data or missed discrepancies; cleaning those up eats another ~10 hours/month.”

e) Constraints and goals

• Are you trying to avoid hiring more headcount as you grow?
• Are there SLA commitments?
• Are you targeting fewer errors, faster turnaround, or more capacity with the same team?

Example:

• “We’re growing invoice volume 30% YoY and don’t want to add more headcount to this team.”
• “Claims need to be processed within 24 hours to stay in compliance.”

These inputs are what the Sola team will translate into:

• Hours saved per month / year
• FTE capacity unlocked or avoided hires
• Error reduction impact
• Payback period and rough ROI

4. Collect representative artifacts (with or without real data)

Sola’s strength is in operating where humans operate: UI, documents, portals, mixed formats. Bringing a few representative artifacts makes it concrete.

For the demo, gather:

• Example documents

  • Invoices, orders, claims forms, policy docs, contracts, shipping docs, KYC packets.
  • Preferably in the formats your team actually sees: PDFs, scanned documents, downloads from portals.

• Screenshots or a short screen recording

  • Optional, but powerful. A 1–2 minute recording of someone walking through the workflow once is ideal.
  • If data sensitivity is a concern, redact or use a non-production environment.

• Templates and spreadsheets

  • Excel trackers, reconciliation templates, intake spreadsheets, manually maintained logs.
  • Anything where your team is “structuring” messy input so other systems can digest it.

• Sample exceptions

  • One or two examples of “tricky” cases (e.g., multi-page invoices, changed contract terms, claims with missing fields).

You don’t need to upload everything pre-demo, but having it ready to share (or describe) lets the Sola team show how AI-powered document understanding and UI-level automation would handle your real inputs.

5. Clarify constraints around security, systems, and governance

For most enterprises—especially in BFSI, healthcare, legal/compliance, and logistics—the “can we even do this?” question is as important as the “should we?”.

Before the demo, capture:

a) Data sensitivity & compliance

• Are you handling PHI, PII, financial data, or regulated content?
• Do you have specific frameworks that matter (e.g., HIPAA, SOC 2)?

Sola is built with enterprise-grade security in mind—SOC 2 compliant, HIPAA compliant, and designed for role-based access controls—but having your constraints on the table lets the team address them upfront.

b) Systems and integration posture

• Do you prefer starting with pure UI-level automation first (bots operating like a human in the browser/desktop)?
• Are APIs available for key systems—and does your IT team want them used?
• Are there VDI, Citrix, or other virtual desktop constraints?

Sola supports both:

• No-code, visual workflow design for business experts.
• Composable workflows that can be triggered via API and call internal/external services.

Sharing your environment context helps shape a realistic implementation path.

c) Governance & oversight

• Who needs visibility into automations (ops leaders, IT, compliance)?
• Are audit trails and real-time logs required?
• Any approval workflows for new automations?

Sola includes centralized orchestration, real-time visibility, audit trails, and role-based access—so you can run powerful automations without losing control. Mentioning your governance requirements helps the Sola team highlight the right capabilities.

6. Align internal stakeholders and questions

To avoid the “great demo, now we have to repeat it for everyone else” problem, decide who should be in the room and what they care about.

Ideally, include:

• Process owner / business expert
  The person who knows the workflow cold (billing lead, claims supervisor, operations manager, legal ops lead, etc.).

• Frontline operator
  Someone who actually clicks through the workflow day to day. They’ll surface the “real-life” exceptions and friction.

• Ops or transformation leader
  Someone thinking across processes, not just this one (Head of Operations, Transformation, Shared Services, etc.).

• IT / security representative (optional for first call, recommended for later)
  Helpful if you expect deep questions on security, access, and integration.

Prepare 3–5 questions you’d like answered by the end of the demo, for example:

• “How would Sola handle exceptions where data is missing or partially incorrect?”
• “What does maintenance look like when UIs or data formats change?”
• “How quickly can we go from recording a process to a bot running in production?”
• “How do we monitor automations and see what the bots did—especially for audits?”
• “How do business users and engineering collaborate if we want API triggers or deeper integration?”

Bringing these questions upfront ensures the conversation is tailored to your decision criteria, not just the product tour.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Bringing a process that’s too irregular or judgment-heavy as your primary example:
  Avoid workflows where each case is fundamentally different or 90% of the work is subjective judgment (e.g., bespoke legal analysis). These can still benefit from Sola, but they’re not ideal for your first ROI-focused demo. Start with something repeatable where decisions follow patterns, even if there are exceptions.

• Over-preparing a theoretical “ideal process” instead of the messy reality:
  Sola’s value is in handling how work actually happens—across fragmented systems, with imperfect data. Don’t sanitize away Excel, shared folders, or portal logins. Show the actual workflow plus its edge cases so the team can speak to resilience, self-healing behavior, and real-world maintenance.

Real-World Example

Let’s say you’re a mid-sized logistics company booking a demo and you pick freight invoice reconciliation as your primary workflow.

You come in with:

• A one-sentence description:

  “We reconcile carrier invoices against contracted rates and shipment data, then approve or dispute charges and update our TMS and accounting system.”

• A quick workflow outline:

  1. Download invoices from email or carrier portal.
  2. Open each invoice PDF and check shipment details and line items.
  3. Cross-check against TMS data and contracted rates stored in a shared Excel sheet.
  4. If within tolerance, mark as approved and push totals into your accounting system.
  5. If outside tolerance, open a ticket or email with carrier, note in tracker.
  6. Update internal reporting sheet once resolved.

• Systems list: Outlook, carrier portals, Excel, TMS, accounting software.

• Rough numbers:

  • ~2,500 invoices/month.
  • 4–6 minutes per invoice on average; 15–20 minutes for disputes (15–20% of cases).
  • Three FTEs, ~$240–260k/year fully loaded.
  • Error/rework on ~3% of invoices.

During the demo, the Sola team can:

• Show how a bot would watch your recorded process and learn to:

  • Log into portals, download invoices.
  • Extract and structure invoice data using AI-powered document understanding.
  • Cross-check against TMS and Excel rates.
  • Make decisions according to your business rules.
  • Update systems via UI and/or APIs.
  • Route exceptions with structured context to human review.

• Use your volume and time data to estimate:

  • Hours saved per month.
  • FTE capacity unlocked or future hires avoided.
  • Reduced error and dispute handling burden.
  • Expected payback period and ROI band.

You leave the conversation not with “cool AI demo,” but with:

“If we automate 70–80% of our freight invoice reconciliation with Sola, we can free up the equivalent of 1–1.5 FTEs, improve accuracy, and handle volume growth without adding headcount.”

Pro Tip: If you’re comfortable doing so, record one real reconciliation run (with sensitive data redacted if needed) before the demo. A 60–90 second recording is often enough for the Sola team to talk concretely about how “record once → bot runs across your apps” would apply in your environment.

Summary

To get the most out of a Sola demo and walk away with a real automation and ROI plan, you don’t need perfect documentation—you need a clear slice of reality. Pick one or two high-impact, repeatable workflows (invoice reconciliation, order entry, claims processing, file verification), outline how they work today across systems, capture a few real exceptions, and come with directional numbers on volume, time, and error rates.

From there, Sola can show you how agentic process automation—starting from your screen recording and powered by LLMs and computer vision—turns that manual workflow into an adaptive, self-healing bot that your business experts can control. With enterprise-grade security, role-based access, and real-time logs, you get automation that works the way your team already does—just faster, more resilient, and at scale.

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