Follow one item through the business
Choose an order, request or customer record and trace how it moves. Note each system, the person responsible and every point where someone copies information or checks a status manually.
The most useful opportunity may be a modest handoff: a validated event creates a task in the next system and tells the next owner what to do. Begin with the friction you can describe precisely.
Name the source of truth
Two systems may both store a customer name, order state or stock quantity. Before synchronizing them, decide which system is authoritative for each field and how conflicting updates should be handled.
Document mappings and validation rules. Missing identifiers, unexpected values and deleted records should have a defined outcome instead of passing silently into the next system.
Make failure a visible workflow
An API can be unavailable. An event can arrive twice. An update can be late. Design retries and duplicate handling with the destination’s behavior in mind, then provide a route for exceptions that need a person.
An alert should tell an owner which step needs attention and how to recover without repeating an action that already succeeded. Avoid including sensitive customer details in notifications when a protected record link is enough.
Test the whole handoff
Check a normal event, a duplicate, incomplete data and a temporarily unavailable destination. Confirm both the system behavior and the experience of the person handling an exception.
Once the handoff works, measure the actual manual work it removes and the new operational effort it introduces. Use those observations to decide whether to expand the automation.