The framework page walks through two worked examples: an accountancy firm whose Discover work surfaces post intake, engagement letters and records chasing as its first agent candidates, and a larger firm that arrives with an intake agent already in mind.
See the framework in practiceLocations / Essex / Colchester
AI agents built down the road, running in your own Microsoft 365.
AI agents and Copilot consultancy in Colchester
We design and build AI agents for firms in and around Colchester using Copilot Studio and the Power Platform, and train local teams to use Copilot and build their own, all inside your existing Microsoft 365.
FiveForward is a UK AI agent consultancy based in Colchester, Essex, working with smaller and mid-sized accountancy and professional services firms in and around the town. We design and build AI agents and automations inside a firm's own Microsoft 365, using Copilot Studio and Power Automate. Our agents start on their own when something happens, do the checking, drafting and filing, then stop for a person at the firm to approve. We also train a firm's team, hands-on, to use Copilot and build their own agents.
FiveForward is based in Colchester, so this is the easiest place for us to work in the room: Discover interviews, playback sessions and training sessions at short notice and without travel cost. This page is for Essex professional services firms: accountancy, legal, advisory and operations teams that already live in Microsoft 365 and want agents doing real work rather than sitting in a demo.
There are three ways to start: a fixed-price agent build, training for your team or Discover if you're not sure yet where agents would help. Whichever you choose, the agents are built in your own Microsoft 365, and judgement, advice and sign-off stay with your team.
Run an accountancy firm? See the six accountancy agents: what starts each one and where your team approves.
Want your team trained? Start with Copilot training on your own work, or see every training session, from Cowork to building agents.
Most agent projects do not stall because the technology is weak. They stall because the build starts before the job is named. Someone opens Copilot Studio, a demo agent appears and it impresses in the meeting, but nobody has agreed which workflow it owns, what it must not touch or who checks its output. Within a month it is quietly abandoned.
The fix is naming the job first. The FiveForward Framework gives Colchester firms that discipline: Discover and Design name the workflows worth an agent and fix the price, Enable trains the people who will build, Automate builds the agents and Embed keeps them owned and reviewed after they go live.
How an engagement runs in Colchester
Five stages, framed for Colchester teams.
The route in is the free 30-minute call. From there it's a fixed-price build, training for your team or Discover. The stages that follow are sized to what you chose.
01
Discover
£1,500 fixed, covering Discover and Design. We sit with partners and operational leads in Colchester to map the repeated intake, chasing, filing and approval work that eats the week, before anything is built.
02
Design
Covered by the same fee. Discover's input becomes the workflow map, prioritised agent use cases and costed plan, and a playback session of about an hour ends with the route chosen and the price fixed.
03
Enable
Copilot Studio workshops for the people who will build, on site in Colchester or live through Teams. First session from £1,150, hands-on and built around your own processes. A half day ends with one working agent built by the group; a full day gives each person their own agent and a first skill. For the rest of the team, Copilot in your workflows trains people on what the Copilot licence already includes.
04
Automate
We build the agents on the plan, typically £2,500 to £15,000 depending on the number of agents, the systems they connect to and the state of the source data. Build with us, at £3,950 fixed, is the alternative: a few of your team build the agents on the plan with us alongside.
05
Embed
Care at £295 a month for one live agent, or Embed from £750 a month for up to three, keeps live agents owned, reviewed and improved, so they get better with use rather than quietly decaying once the launch attention moves on.
Who this suits
- Essex professional services firms with partners, directors and operational teams close enough for useful on-site workshop and playback days
- Firms that want agents designed, built and governed rather than another round of licences and a feature demo
- Teams carrying a repeatable admin burden: intake, filing, chasing and approvals that follow the same pattern every week
- Firms that want their own team using Copilot well and able to build, through hands-on training built around their own processes
Common work
- Intake agents that read incoming email and documents, match them to clients and route them to the right person
- Records chasing flows that send the reminders and keep the tracker current without a person driving them
- Document filing agents that name, tag and file attachments into SharePoint with an audit trail
- Approval flows for finance, HR and operations that stop depending on one person's inbox
- Reporting flows that assemble the recurring numbers instead of someone building the same pack by hand
On-site time works well for Discover interviews, the Design playback and training sessions, where people need to look at the same screen and disagree out loud. Build work and reviews run cleanly online between those moments.
Colchester is home, so on-site days here carry the least travel cost and are easy to arrange at short notice, and a workshop group learns fastest when it runs in one room.
Build work does not need a meeting room. Agent builds, build reviews and email support run well online, so most programmes mix a few on-site days with remote delivery in between.
If your team is not all in one place, the same programme runs live online through Teams, with workshops, playbacks and build reviews delivered remotely and on-site days kept for the moments that earn them.
Proof and examples
Case studies, not local name-drops.
The examples below show how we build these engagements.
A case study shows an AI post room agent reading incoming post, matching it against more than 1,500 live clients and filing it with an audit trail, the kind of governed agent build that suits regulated Essex firms.
Read the post room agent case studyCommon questions
Questions before you choose the next step.
Do you work on site in Colchester?
Yes. Colchester is home, so on-site days here are the easiest to arrange. Discover interviews, the Design playback and training sessions all work well in the room, and build work and reviews usually run online between those days.
What does an agent project cost?
Discover is £1,500 fixed and covers Discover and Design together, with up to six hours of sessions across one team or service line. It is credited back in full once your follow-on work passes £3,500 (ex VAT) within 90 days. Builds are typically £2,500 to £15,000 depending on the number of agents, the systems they connect to and the state of the source data, fixed before anything is built.
Is our data safe?
We build agents in your own Microsoft 365, not on our servers, and we don't host your data. An agent your team talks to only sees what the person using it can already see. Agents that run on their own use a dedicated service account, limited to the mailboxes, folders and systems the job needs, agreed with you in advance. We build in UK regions wherever Microsoft offers them, and anything that has to run elsewhere is set out for your compliance lead to approve before go-live. Microsoft doesn't use your Microsoft 365 content to train its foundation models, and every run is logged.
Can our own team learn to build agents?
Yes, and for many Essex firms that is the point. Training is built around your firm's own processes and never needs Discover first. It runs in stages, and your firm can stop at any of them: Copilot in your workflows, on what the Copilot licence already includes, then Cowork, a short agents course for anyone in the firm and Copilot Studio workshops for the few who'll build. First sessions from £950, each per group (recommended up to 12 people), hands-on and follow-along, online through Teams or on site. Build with us, at £3,950 fixed, goes further: your team builds the agents with us alongside, over two guided build days, two build reviews and 90 days of email support.
How do we start?
With a free 30-minute call, no pitch, no obligation. If the fit is not right we say so. From there it's a fixed-price build, training for your team or Discover if you're not sure yet where agents would help. If you already know what you want, such as one of the six accountancy agents, we scope it on the free call and the specification is included in the fixed build price.
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: agents in Copilot Studio that run inside your own Microsoft 365.
Training
Copilot in your workflows and Cowork for the whole team, a short agents course for anyone in your firm and hands-on Copilot Studio workshops for the people who'll build, all built around your own processes.
AI agents for accountancy firms
Sector guidance for the accountancy and advisory teams common across Essex.
Next step
Talk through the first job you'd hand to an agent, or the training your team needs.
A free 30-minute call is enough to work out the right next step: a fixed-price build, training for your team or Discover, a fixed £1,500 covering Discover and Design, if you're not sure yet where agents would help.