The framework page walks through a worked example of an accountancy firm whose Discover surfaces post room intake, engagement letters and records chasing as its first agent candidates, workflows close to the advisory work common in Chelmsford.
See the framework in practiceLocations / Essex / Chelmsford
Close enough to design and build agents in the room.
AI agents and Copilot consultancy in Chelmsford
We help firms in and around Chelmsford put AI agents to work inside Microsoft 365, designing and building them in Copilot Studio and the Power Platform and training local teams to build their own, through a blend of on-site sessions and online delivery.
FiveForward is an AI consultancy serving Chelmsford, designing and building AI agents inside Microsoft 365 with Copilot Studio and the Power Platform for Essex advisory firms, on site or online, and training local teams to build their own.
This page is for Essex advisory firms in and around Chelmsford: accountancy, legal, consultancy and the operations teams behind them. These are knowledge-heavy businesses where Microsoft 365 is already central and client confidentiality matters, so an agent cannot simply be switched on and announced. It needs a named job, clear permissions and agreed review points before it goes near client work.
That is the work we do here. We design and build agents for jobs like client intake, records chasing, document filing and approvals, and we train your own builder group to ship the next ones. Everything runs inside your own Microsoft 365 tenant.
Agent projects stall when the build starts before the job is named. Someone opens Copilot Studio, points an agent at a SharePoint library and demos it to applause, then it dies in the first busy week because nobody decided what it was for, which data it could touch or who reviews its output. In an advisory firm that gap shows quickly, because the work is governed by review standards and deadlines.
The FiveForward Framework closes that gap. It names the workflows worth an agent, designs each one with its data sources and review points before anything is built, then builds it and keeps it working, so every agent has a real job and a clear line where human judgement takes over.
How an engagement runs in Chelmsford
Five stages, framed for Chelmsford teams.
The route in is the free consultation, then Discover. The stages that follow are sized by the roadmap.
01
Discover
The paid input phase. We interview fee earners and operational leads in Chelmsford to map where the week really goes and which workflows deserve an agent. £1,500 fixed, covering Discover and Design together.
02
Design
The production phase, covered by the Discover fee. Together the two stages produce the workflow map, prioritised agent use cases and a costed roadmap, and Design ends with a playback session of about an hour where you choose the route and the price is fixed.
03
Enable
Agent workshops for your builder group, on site or live through Teams. Sessions start from £850 and end with a working first agent built and running in your tenant.
04
Automate
We build the agents and automations scoped on the roadmap, typically £5,000 to £15,000 depending on the number of agents, the systems they connect to and the state of the source data. Route two is £3,950 fixed: your team ships its first agents and automations from the roadmap with us alongside.
05
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A retainer from £750 a month keeps agents reviewed, extended and actually used once the build work finishes, with the agreed review points held in place.
Who this suits
- Accountancy, legal, advisory and consultancy teams using Microsoft 365 heavily
- Operations and IT leaders who want working agents without a heavy change programme
- Firms that need a mixture of remote build work and focused on-site sessions
- Teams that want to learn to build and run their own agents in Copilot Studio
Common work
- Client intake and enquiry agents that triage new work before it reaches a fee earner
- Records chasing flows that send the reminders and track which clients still owe information
- Document intake and filing agents that read scanned post and file it against the right client
- Power Automate workflows for approvals, handovers and internal reporting
- Agent workshops for firms building an in-house builder group
Delivery is usually a blend: on-site sessions in Chelmsford for Discover interviews, the Design playback and workshop days, with design and build work running online through Teams between them.
Chelmsford is within easy reach of Colchester, so on-site days are straightforward to arrange. In-person time earns its place for the Discover interviews, the playback session where the route is chosen and the workshop days where a builder group learns fastest in the room.
Between those moments, design and build work run online through Teams, with build reviews and support handled asynchronously. For an advisory firm juggling client deadlines, that mix keeps a project moving without pulling fee earners away from billable work more than necessary.
The aim is practical delivery, not travel for the sake of it: on site when it helps the work, online when Teams is the better format.
Proof and examples
Worked examples, not local name-drops.
The examples below are worked scenarios showing how we build these engagements.
A UK accountancy firm's post room agent reads scanned post, matches it against more than 1,500 live clients and files it in about two minutes, with people handling only the letters that need judgement.
Read the AI post room case studyA worked example shows letter of engagement drafting collapsing from half an hour to a few minutes once it moves to a form and a flow, the kind of governed automation advisory firms ask for.
Read the document automation worked exampleCommon questions
Questions before you choose the next step.
Do you work on site in Chelmsford?
Yes. Chelmsford is close enough for regular on-site working, and in-person time earns its place for Discover interviews, the Design playback and workshop days. Design and build work run online through Teams between those sessions.
What does an agent build cost?
Discover is £1,500 fixed and covers Discover and Design together, priced for organisations up to around 50 staff, with larger firms scoped individually on the free consultation on the same credit terms. Scoped builds are typically £5,000 to £15,000 depending on the number of agents, the systems they connect to and the state of the source data, fixed at Design before work begins. Route two, where your team builds with us alongside, is £3,950 fixed. The £1,500 is credited back in full once follow-on spend passes £3,500 before VAT within 90 days of the roadmap.
Is our client data safe with an agent?
Agents run inside your own Microsoft 365 tenant and inherit the permissions you already have, so an agent can only see what the person using it could already see. Data stays inside the Microsoft 365 service boundary and is not used to train models. Every agent we design carries agreed review points, which matters for client-sensitive advisory work.
How do we start?
With a free 30 minute consultation. No pitch, no obligation, one path for everyone. If it makes sense to continue, Discover and Design follow, producing the workflow map, prioritised agent use cases and costed roadmap your firm decides against.
Can our team learn to build its own agents?
Yes. Agent workshops start from £850 for three hours live, with a full day at £1,500, and workshop sessions end with a working first agent built and running in your tenant. A first declarative agent takes about 15 minutes to build. For a fuller start, route two at £3,950 fixed gives your team two delivery days, two build reviews and 90 days of async support answered within 2 working days, shipping its first agents and automations from the roadmap with us alongside.
Do you also train staff to use Copilot day to day?
Our own training is for builder groups: the people who will make and maintain agents. Where a firm also wants end user Copilot adoption training for the wider staff, that is arranged through our training partner within the same programme.
Where to go next
AI consultancy in Essex
How we serve Essex, with the five-stage framework and links to the Colchester and Chelmsford pages.
Copilot Studio agents
What we build, how agents are grounded in your own tenant and what a scoped build involves.
Agent workshops
Hands-on sessions for your builder group that end with a working first agent running in your tenant.
AI agents for law firms
Sector guidance for firms where drafting, research and matter preparation carry professional duties.
Next step
Talk through the rollout you are planning.
A short, free consultation is enough to work out whether Discover, a fixed £1,500 covering Discover and Design, is the right next step, and whether the roadmap is likely to point at us building your agents or training your team to build them.