Stack Planning
Part of Marketing stack consolidation
Measuring whether consolidation actually simplified operations
Compare like-for-like marketing work before and after consolidation, including repairs, reliability, ownership and actual spend.
Measure the work that changed, not the number of tools removed. Compare like-for-like tasks before and after consolidation: quality, reliability, staff effort and actual spend. A task that became faster for one team may have created manual work for another.
Set the comparison before the move
Choose a few outcomes the change is meant to improve: fewer hand-offs, less time repairing data, a clearer owner for failed transfers or a lower supplier bill. State which campaigns, teams and data sources are in scope. Define what would count as a useful improvement and what failure would outweigh it.
Select a baseline period and a post-change period in advance where possible. Keep the migration period separate from routine operation. If a pre-change baseline must be reconstructed later, label its limits.
Compare like tasks. An uncomplicated campaign after the move is a poor match for an unusually complex launch before it.
Record a small set of measures
| Measure | Before and after question |
|---|---|
| Completion time | For comparable tasks, how long from approved start to usable output? |
| Manual work | How many corrections, exports or re-entry steps were needed, and by whom? |
| Reliability | How often did a required hand-off fail or arrive too late? |
| Ownership | Could staff identify who resolves an exception? |
| Cash spend | Which supplier charges ended and which new charges appeared? |
Record the number and type of tasks behind each result, plus unusual outages or campaign peaks. Use task records, issue logs, invoices and accounts from the people doing and receiving the work. A bare average or failure count can mislead when workload changes.
Before and after consolidation: key operational measures
- Completion timeCompare average duration of like-for-like tasks (e.g. campaign launch, financial report generation)
- Manual workCount corrections, exports, re-entry steps by team (e.g. finance vs marketing)
- ReliabilityFrequency of failed hand-offs or late data delivery
- OwnershipAbility of staff to identify who resolves exceptions (e.g. failed transfer, incorrect report)
- Cash spendLicence costs removed vs new charges (e.g. integration fees, Power Automate usage)
Key metrics to track post-consolidation
- Average task completion time (before)
- Not specified – use baseline period data
- Failed hand-offs (post-change)
- Reported via issue logs; not necessarily reflected in system alerts
- Power Automate alert cooldown
- 28 days after a per-run failure alert is sent
Check what the receiving team got
Inspect a sample of completed work and consequential exceptions against the expected output. A faster send is not an improvement if a corrected status fails to reach the audience or a report now uses a different definition. Record both the system event and the business result.
If the new route uses Power Automate, its run history and admin monitoring can help owners investigate failed flows. Microsoft's documentation says a per-run failure alert email is sent only when the system identifies a known, fixable root cause; if the system cannot identify a specific fix, no per-run alert email is sent. It also says that after a per-run alert is sent for a flow, a 28-day cooldown applies before another per-run alert can be sent for the same flow.
An empty alert inbox therefore does not establish that every run succeeded. This is a Power Automate limit; establish the monitoring and outcome check for whichever systems the organisation uses.
Decide what the evidence shows
Look for shifted effort. A licence may end while a new integration or recurring manual export appears. A marketer may have fewer steps while an administrator spends more time repairing records. Report those changes with the intended benefits.
Classify the result as simpler and reliable, mixed with a named repair, or benefit unproven. Give each unresolved issue an owner and a later review point. Keep the baseline, post-change observations and comparison limits with the decision. The record should show whether this change improved operations without assuming that every difference was caused by the software move.
Pros and cons of consolidation in Australian operations
- ProsFewer tools, reduced supplier bills, clearer ownership, fewer hand-offs
- ConsNew manual exports, increased admin effort, hidden integration costs, no alert for unknown failures in Power Automate
