If you run a business in the Illawarra and you’ve ever typed the same information into three different systems before lunch, Adam Sciannimanica already knows your week.
Adam is the cofounder of Ontrak Automation, a Wollongong-based AI and automation business that’s quietly been changing how local operators handle their admin. No jargon, no software overhauls, no five-figure tech consultants. Just less repetitive work and more hours back.
We sat down with Adam to find out what automation looks like for a small Illawarra business, and why so many owners are sitting on hidden time savings without realising it.
What Ontrak Automation Actually Does
Ask Adam to explain the business in plain English and he keeps it simple: most local businesses haven’t had the time to explore AI and automation properly, or they’re wary of it. That’s the gap Ontrak fills.
“We know what the tools can actually do, we’ve already used them on real jobs around the Illawarra, and we’ve got the time to go and set it up,” Adam says. “Most owners already reckon there’s a better way; they just haven’t got a spare fortnight to go and find it.”
How a Home Solar Project Turned Into a Business
Ontrak wasn’t born from a business plan. Adam built an automation that connected his home solar and battery system directly to the inverter, just for himself. Once he saw how well it worked, he started helping mates with their own repetitive admin problems.
By the time strangers started calling wanting to pay for it, the business had effectively found him.
The Repetitive Admin Tasks Costing Illawarra Businesses Time
According to Adam, almost anything done on a computer can now be done better, so Ontrak focuses on the easy wins first. The most common culprits he sees across local businesses include:
- Email triage, where messages pile up faster than they can be sorted
- Duplicate data entry, where a quote gets typed once, then again into accounting software, then again onto a job sheet
- Manual follow ups, chasing quotes and invoices from memory instead of a system
- Repetitive reporting, rebuilding the same spreadsheet report every month
- Checking work happened, which nobody counts as a task but eats hours anyway
He’s also a fan of voice to text tools like Wispr Flow, which turn spoken words into clean, properly formatted text on the spot. “Most people have no idea how much time that alone gives back,” Adam says.
Automations Most Business Owners Don’t Know Are Possible
Some of the most useful automations aren’t flashy. Adam points to a few examples that are already running quietly in Illawarra businesses:
- A missed call automatically texting the customer back before they ring a competitor
- An invoice drafting itself the moment a job is marked complete
- Quotes following themselves up on day three and day ten, no reminders needed
- Site photos and paperwork filing themselves into the correct job
“None of that’s exotic,” Adam says. “It just needs someone to sit down and wire it up.”
Signs Your Illawarra Business Is Ready for Automation
Not sure if this applies to you? Adam has a simple test. If any of these sound familiar, there’s likely an easy fix available:
- One person in the office is the only one who understands how a process works
- A spreadsheet exists purely to reconcile two other systems
- Mistakes get fixed with “we’ll be more careful” rather than an actual process change
- You’re hiring to keep up with admin rather than to grow the actual work
“The real test is simple,” Adam says. “If the same information is typed by a human more than once, there’s something there.”
A Real Local Example: Water Walkies, Port Kembla
Water Walkies, an animal hydrotherapy and rehab business in Port Kembla, was running a computer system and a paper system side by side. Neither covered the full job, and enquiries were falling through the gaps, particularly missed calls that came in while staff had their hands full with a dog in the pool.
Ontrak consolidated everything into a single trusted workflow and added missed call recovery, so an unanswered call now automatically triggers a text offering to book the customer in.
The result: four hours saved every week.
You Don’t Need to Replace Your Software, or Understand the Tech
A common misconception is that automation means ripping out existing systems. Adam says that’s almost never the case.
“Swapping software is expensive and disruptive, and it usually fixes the wrong thing,” he explains. “The problem is normally in the gaps between systems, not the systems themselves.” Where a ready-made tool already solves the problem, Ontrak plugs it in rather than building from scratch.
Business owners also don’t need any technical knowledge to work with Ontrak. “You need to know your own business, which you already do,” Adam says. “If a client has to understand the technology to use what we’ve built, we’ve done a bad job.” The one thing he does ask for is honesty about how work really gets done, shortcuts included.
How Ontrak Handles Privacy and Data Security
For businesses handling customer data, Adam is upfront about the safeguards in place. Data stays within the systems a business already trusts rather than moving anywhere new. Where AI is involved, it only accesses what’s needed for that specific job, and no customer information goes through free public chatbots. Ontrak uses proper business accounts so client data isn’t used to train anyone’s model.
Beyond that, it’s the fundamentals done properly: limited access, secure logins, and a clear record of what happened and when.
“If you ever ask where your data’s going, you should get a straight answer,” Adam says. “If we can’t give you one, we shouldn’t have built it.”
What Adam Recommends Not Automating
Despite the enthusiasm for automation, Adam is quick to draw a line. High stakes or overly complex processes aren’t worth chasing when there’s easier work available elsewhere. Anything requiring a human touch, like complaints, bad news, or pricing conversations, should stay with a person.
“Automate the admin around it, not the conversation,” he says. He’s also wary of automating a process that’s already broken. “All you do is make the mess happen faster.”
Feeling Like You’re Drowning in Admin? Here’s Where to Start
Adam’s advice for any Illawarra business owner feeling buried in repetitive tasks is straightforward. Book a free 20 minute chat with Ontrak Automation, no obligation and no sales pitch, just a conversation about what’s slowing the business down.
Prefer to explore it yourself first? Adam suggests signing up to ChatGPT or Claude and simply asking questions about your own business. “Tell it what you do all day and ask where it could help,” he says. “That’s a free education right there.”
Either way, the businesses seeing the biggest wins are the ones asking a simple question: if the same information is typed twice, why is a person still doing it?
Learn more about Ontrak Automation at ontrakautomation.com.au.