Cost of manual operations

Process automation tools are a dime a dozen these days. Often presented as “cloud” or “software as a service” applications, they can simplify or eliminate tasks that are often performed in spreadsheets using good old-fashioned “copy and paste”. When an organisation considers digitising its processes, the cost of licences or subscriptions for the new solution is highly visible and often seems excessive. But what about the potential savings? Without even mentioning the risk that manual management using spreadsheets poses to the accuracy, quality or confidentiality of data, can we estimate the additional cost generated by the unrewarding task of copying data from one place to another?