Free AI readiness check
Count your seams—before you add AI.
An AI readiness check in 10 questions: where your data lives, what gets typed in twice, and who keeps it all running. You get your own seam map, drawn from your answers.
- About 3 minutes
- No email asked
- Answers stay in your browser
What you’ll answer
Where your data lives4 questions
Every tool that holds its own copy of a customer, job or order is a place two copies can disagree.
What gets re-keyed, and how often3 questions
Each hand-off typed again by hand is one seam. How often it happens is what it costs you.
Who keeps it running3 questions
A system one person understands is a system that stops when they do.
The method
A seam is where work gets typed twice.
A seam is a place where the same information is typed in again, by hand, from one tool into another: an order keyed into invoicing, a payment keyed into the books, a customer copied into a second list. Each one costs minutes every time it happens, and each one is a place two copies can quietly disagree.
Most organizations don’t know how many they have, because nobody owns the gaps between tools. Counting them is the first step to closing them.
Why unifying comes before AI
An AI tool can only work with what it can see. Point it at one spreadsheet and it answers from one spreadsheet. Join the data first—one platform, entered once—and automation and AI can work across the whole business. So we unify first, one system at a time, with rehearsal and rollback.
How we score this
Every answer carries points, all of them listed below. Points add up within three areas and overall; the total sets one of three results, in plain words. Your seam count is simply the number of hand-offs you tick—we estimate nothing you didn’t tell us.
Every question, every point
Where your data livesup to 14 points
Which of these does the business run on?
1 point for each one ticked after the first one, up to 4 points.
- A desktop database, such as Microsoft Access
- Forms in SharePoint, such as Microsoft InfoPath
- Spreadsheets, such as Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets
- Accounting software, such as Intuit QuickBooks or Sage
- A customer list or CRM
- A scheduling or calendar tool
- Shared drives and folders
- Email inboxes, used as the to-do list
- A homegrown or custom-built tool
- Paper forms or a whiteboard
Where does the master list of customers, jobs or orders live?
- In one system everybody uses0
- In the accounting software2
- In a spreadsheet3
- In a desktop database3
- In several places—it depends who you ask4
A customer asks where their order or job stands. How many places do you check?
- One0
- Two1
- Three or more2
- We ask the one person who knows3
When two places disagree about a number, how do you find out which is right?
- They rarely disagree0
- Someone checks by hand, regularly2
- We find out when a customer or the accountant does3
What gets re-keyed, and how oftenup to 10 points
Which of these get typed in again, or copied and pasted, from one tool into another?
1 point for each one ticked, up to 4 points.
- A new order or job, into invoicing
- Invoices and payments, into the accounting software
- Hours worked, into billing
- Customer details, into a second list
- Stock or inventory counts, between systems
- Figures, into a monthly report
- None of these
How often does a typical one of those hand-offs happen?
Skipped when nothing is re-keyed.
- Many times a day3
- About once a day2
- A few times a week1
- Once a week or less0
How long does it take to close the books each month?
- A few days0
- About a week1
- Two weeks or more3
- We don't really close the month3
- Someone outside handles it—I'm not sure1
Who keeps it runningup to 11 points
Who keeps the spreadsheets, database or custom tools working?
- A vendor, under a support contract0
- A few people, and it's written down1
- One person, and most of it is in their head3
- Whoever built it has left4
If that person left next month, what would stop?
- Nothing important—someone else could pick it up0
- Some reports and lookups, for a few weeks2
- Something that matters, like orders or billing4
The last time it broke, how long until it worked again?
- Nothing has broken that we know of0
- The same day1
- A few days2
- Weeks—or we still work around it3
The three results
Points add up to a total out of 35. The total sets the result:
- A patchwork22 or more
- The business runs across several tools, and people are the glue between them. Unify first: an AI tool added now would only ever see one piece at a time.
- Stretched at the seams11–21
- Most of it holds together, but the seams you have cost time every week—or some of it rests on one person. Close those seams before you automate on top of them.
- Mostly joined up0–10
- Your data mostly lives in one place, so automation across the business is within reach. Start with the seam that's left.
If whoever built it has left, or losing its keeper would stop orders or billing, the result is never better than “Stretched at the seams”, however few tools you run.
If the hand-offs you tick add up to 21 or more re-keys a week, the result is never better than “Stretched at the seams”, however low the rest scores.
The counts on your map
- Tools: the number you tick in the first question.
- Seams: one for each hand-off you tick as typed in again by hand.
- Re-keys a week: seams × how often a typical one happens (many times a day = 25; about once a day = 5; a few times a week = 3; once a week or less = 1), shown as a range rather than a single figure, because the answers are approximate.
- Weakest area: the one with the largest share of its possible points. Ties go to who keeps it running, then to what gets re-keyed. We point you to the page about the system behind it.
Questions about the check
Do you keep my answers?
No. The check runs in your browser, and your answers aren't stored or sent. If you contact us from your result, only the result and who you answered for travel in the link—and our record of the page you landed on keeps its path, never that query string. We count only that a check was started and finished, its result, who it was answered for, and which door was chosen afterwards.
Is the result a grade?
No. It's a map of where information gets typed twice, drawn from what you told us. The rubric above shows every question and every point, so you can check the arithmetic—or disagree with a weighting and adjust it in your head.
Does a patchwork mean we need a new ERP?
Often not. We keep the systems that work—usually the accounting software—and unify the rest one system at a time, with rehearsal and rollback, on your schedule. Replacing everything at once is the riskiest way to fix a patchwork.
What happens on a Constraint Call?
Thirty minutes, free. Bring your map. We'll name the one seam worth closing first and the fastest path past it—whether or not you work with us.
Find your constraint. Get capacity back.
A free 30-minute call. We'll name the one constraint holding you back and the fastest path past it—whether or not you work with us.