Case Study

Map the work. Then automate it.

Measured baseline

14,000+ hours/year

of automation-ready effort, measured directly across two core workflows, before any AI was deployed.

Retirement services

401(k), pensions &
recordkeeping

15,000+

Retirement plans
managed

8,000+

Employer clients
nationwide

350+

Professionals
nationwide

A retirement-services leader,
scaling through acquisition

Company: Definiti — one of the largest dedicated retirement-services TPAs in the US.
Scale: 15,000+ retirement plans · 8,000+ employer clients · 350+ professionals nationwide.
Services: 401(k) administration, actuarial consulting, pension outsourcing and recordkeeping.
Ownership: Backed by Lovell Minnick, a specialist financial-services private equity firm.
Ambition: Unify operations after rapid M&A growth and position the business for an AI-enabled next phase.

The challenge. Retirement services is a business built on precision — every plan must be compliant, every record accurate, every deadline met. But behind the scenes, operational complexity was outpacing visibility. As Definiti expanded through acquisitions, it inherited a patchwork of systems — PensionPro, Excel, email and external portals all running in parallel — with no single source of truth for how complex, long-running work actually gets done.

"The biggest thing CIOs and CTOs want right now is an understanding of what the value add actually is. We were being asked to turn on AI, but first we needed to understand what we were automating."

Jennifer Redden

Head of Technology, Definiti

The efficiency hiding in plain sight

In a structured pilot across two core workflows, Skan measured how work actually executes, surfacing a clear, automation-ready opportunity before any AI was deployed.

9,000 hours

Annual savings potential identified in new business implementation, at full scope.

5,000+ hours

Projected annual savings in the client servicing pods, at scale.

3 weeks

Observation per workflow, drawn from live system activity, with no surveys.

95 %

Of observed effort concentrated in a small set of repetitive, automatable tasks.

Measure how the work really runs

In October 2025, Definiti engaged Skan through a structured pilot focused on its two
most labor-intensive workflows.

New business implementation

Plan onboarding & setup

Pods

Client inquiry & case management

End-to-end process maps

Every step, across every role and system, observed live as it happened.

Role-level time allocation

Where time actually goes, by role, exposing the true cost of each activity.

Task-frequency analysis

Which tasks repeat most often, pinpointing the highest-volume, highest-effort work.

Automation opportunity scoring

A ranked map of where automation or redesign would generate the highest return.

A small set of tasks, driving most of the work

Across both workflows the data surfaced a consistent pattern: a handful of high-frequency, high-time
activities drove the majority of operational effort — and almost all were candidates for automation or redesign.

Workflow 01

9,000 hours/year

Savings potential at full scope

New business implementation, client onboarding, Pension Pro setup and recordkeeper coordination, mapped across every role. ~278 hours/month observed today → 800+ hours/month at full deployment.

Workflow 02

5,000+ hours/year

Pods — client inquiry & case management

The full case lifecycle: email and phone intake, case handling, communication and follow-up. ~387 hours measured in a 3-week window.

95 %

of observed time was concentrated in a small subset of activities — data entry, email drafting, manual routing and case tracking. This is the connective-tissue work that holds an operation together, and the prime candidate to redesign, automate or eliminate.

From process visibility to an automation roadmap

The readout quantified the problem and became the structured plan for what to automate, in what order, and
how to measure the return. With the readouts complete, Definiti converted from pilot to a full production
subscription in January 2026 and moved quickly to prioritize automation.

Oct 2025

Pilot engaged

Two core workflows scoped for observation.

3-Week Window

Work mapped

Real-time capture across roles, systems & steps.

Jan 2026

Full production

Converted to subscription; NBI prioritized first.

Q3/Q4 2026

First agents live

Automation deployed against the highest-return tasks.

"Before, it was turn on AI and hope. Now we know exactly which processes to automate, what the expected time savings are, and how to measure whether we got there. That changes everything about how we deploy."

Jennifer Redden — Head of Technology, Definiti

A foundation for agentic transformation

As agents move into production and adoption matures through Q3 2026, Definiti
expects to confirm and build on its projected efficiency gains.

Scaling the operational understanding

Additional processes are already scoped for observation beyond NBI and pods.

Grounding AI agents

Skan process telemetry as the structured map directing where automation pays off most.

See it in action

Talk to our team about your operations.

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