How TMF saved $43M and cracked automation

TMF Group delivers corporate, fund, HR and payroll services across more than 80 jurisdictions. Years of custom delivery had left them with over 900 bespoke processes, none of them documented, and scope creep kept adding more. The biggest issue is there were gray areas around what work was being delivered, and where.

Automation wasn’t working as it should, either. Each bot worked alone, with no joined-up core system underneath, so it added cost instead of consistency. In fact, in places, automating a small process cost more than it saved. It felt bolted on.

We started with fixing the processes. We reviewed the process debt across fund services and entity management with the teams who run them, cut delivery down to one standard set, and rebuilt consistency in every country.

Alongside that, we retired the old robotic process automation (RPA) program and brought people, processes and systems onto one orchestration solution. All the work now runs through a single core layer.

Then we turned to AI. Our applied AI consulting found where AI would genuinely earn its keep, and we built it into the operating model so it’s part of everyday work.

Processes fell from over 900 to under 200. Delivery is consistent in every country, and leaders can see what’s being delivered and where. The systems now work as one, and retiring the old automation helped unlock $43M a year in improved margin.

AI is now built into operations by default, and automating no longer costs more than it saves. It’s also given TMF the foundations for its next round of transformation.