Automation has been a trend in business for decades, but with the advent of cloud-powered low-code no-code tools, the benefits are now within reach of even the smallest organisations. Businesses are increasingly making use of the tools to reduce their reliance on paper processes, speed up manual tasks through intelligent workflows, and extract more value from their data.
In this episode, we hear from Paul McFarlane, CTO of Glasgow Credit Union, to find out how deploying business automation tools within the company’s lending business allowed it to achieve significant growth without increasing headcount, as well as offering faster loan approvals, and navigating the disruptions of COVID-19.
Highlights
“The pain points we had with deploying the process automation was we were not an IT focused business, we were not technically literate as a business; we had systems that had been in place for a long time. And we didn't have the capacity, or indeed the resources at the time, to start developing and start, you know, building interfaces and APIs that would sit in front of our existing back office. So we looked externally, and had to look externally to various different platforms, platforms like Laserfiche and Experian and different things that we could bring in to achieve some of those process automations.”
“The timeline for us was about three months. So we probably could have done that a lot quicker, the three month timeline was because we had to build a lot of front end stuff. So there's a lot of bespoke front end application forms and different things that we built. The actual business process automation, and configuring the workflows is really simplistic, and that can be deployed quite quickly. I'd suggest a number of days. If you weren't putting customised front ends on it to enable self-serving different things for customers. So ours was quite bespoke, which is what took the time.”
“There's been significant benefits as part of the process automation. It has helped us grow, which was the overall objective, and we've grown without any increase in headcount. It's not a revolution for the business, it's been an evolution over a period of years. And our headcount has more or less remained static for 12 years, despite the fact we've grown from £50 million to £200 million. And so I think that's quite an achievement. And we've achieved that through process automation.”
Read the full transcript here.
Footnotes
- What is the paperless office?
- The IT Pro Podcast: Is it time to give up on the paperless office?
- How robotic automation is being applied to the workplace
- Almost three-quarters of businesses now use automation technologies
- Four business benefits of low-code
- Nurturing your business’ citizen developers
- The new generation of technologists
Subscribe
- Subscribe to The IT Pro Podcast on Apple Podcasts
- Subscribe to The IT Pro Podcast on Google Podcasts
- Subscribe to The IT Pro Podcast on Spotify
- Subscribe to the IT Pro newsletter
- Subscribe to IT Pro 20/20
Sign up today and you will receive a free copy of our Future Focus 2026 report - the leading resource for IT decision-maker insight on priorities and investment areas in AI, security and more.
ITPro is a global business technology website providing the latest news, analysis, and business insight for IT decision-makers. Whether it's cyber security, cloud computing, IT infrastructure, or business strategy, we aim to equip leaders with the data they need to make informed IT investments.
For regular updates delivered to your inbox and social feeds, be sure to sign up to our daily newsletter and follow on us LinkedIn and Twitter.
-
The future of employment and gentlemanly hackersFeature Will the next IT jobs be in data center maintenance?
-
How AI code is changing software developmentITPro Podcast At firms like OpenAI the majority of code is now generated with AI tools
-
Managing tech costs in a volatile marketITPro Podcast Rising energy prices and sprawling cloud environments make the jobs of CIOs and CFOs harder than ever
-
April rundown: OpenAI hesitations and Apple's new CEOITPro Podcast As Apple enters a new era, DeepSeek is back and OpenAI is backing out of training clusters
-
‘AI isn’t replacing human talent’: UK tech workers are insulated from automation – at least for nowNews A survey from Hays shows only moderate exposure from AI on UK tech roles, including software developers and engineers
-
January rundown: Amazon layoffs and the return of XPSITPro Podcast This year's tech layoffs have just begun, as Amazon sheds 16,000 workers in one go
-
Are hyperscalers backing out of Net Zero?ITPro Podcast Expanding data center construction and demand for high-energy workloads are pushing hyperscalers off course on carbon
-
The trends we're watching in 2026ITPro Podcast AI agents, worsening cyber attacks, and supercomputer expansion could define the coming year


