Deployment email: from 500 minutes to essentially zero
Two people were hand-sending 35 to 50 sets of email for every deploying group. One connection to a form that already worked took that manual work to essentially zero.
The problem
Before a group deployed, every member checked out through the Family Readiness office. The office needed to send each member and spouse the same follow-up email: resources, office contacts, and a way for the spouse to get help while their loved one was gone.
Baseline
2 staff in the office
35 to 50 deploying members in a typical group, sometimes more
35 to 50 sets of follow-up email, sent by hand
Up to 500 minutes for a large group. More than eight hours.
What was actually happening
The intake side already worked. A deploying member scanned a QR code and filled out a Microsoft Form. The form collected the member's personal email and the spouse's email. The office had every piece of information it needed the moment the member hit Submit.
Where it broke
The handoff after Submit. The data sat in the form results, and two people retyped addresses and sent the same message one family at a time, while trying to remember who had already been contacted.
The change
The tempting fix was a bigger one: a new app, a family portal, a redesigned form. None of that touched the real problem. The useful question was smaller: why are two people still doing something the system already has everything it needs to do?
I connected Power Automate to the existing form. When a member hits Submit, the member and spouse get the Family Readiness email right away, sent to the addresses they just entered. We did not replace the QR code. We did not replace the form. We added one connection between a step that worked and the step that came next.
Result
Email sets per group: 35 to 50 sent by hand, now sent automatically
Staff time for a large group: up to 500 minutes, now essentially zero
Families missed: depended on memory, now every submitter gets the email
What I learned
Keep what works. Fix what doesn't. Automation did not take Family Readiness out of supporting families. It took repetitive work off two people so they could spend that time on the families who needed them.
Method
Fix the handoff. Map the process from start to done, find the step where work leaves one system and gets redone by hand, and connect it before you replace anything. In EASIER terms: Spot where it breaks, then Improve the way. See all six process guides.
Related free tool
The Who Owns What Map puts every player in a process on one page, so the handoffs show. It is part of the free EASIER toolkit. No email required.
This story also appears in my book, There Has to Be an Easier Way.
