Guide · Automation consulting group
The group ships deliverables. Clone ships six layers.
An automation consulting group is a firm of 5 to 50 specialists that audits your processes for 4 to 12 weeks and hands you configurations in Zapier, Make, UiPath, or Power Automate. The group leaves. The configurations sit there. Clone is structured differently: six architectural layers named verbatim in the product's own architecture file, three of them owned and maintained by Clone, that keep running after any engagement would have ended.
Direct answer · verified 2026-05-09
An automation consulting group is a firm of roughly 5 to 50 specialists (engagement manager, business analyst, solution architect, RPA developer, integration engineer, QA reviewer) that audits your processes over 4 to 12 weeks and hands off configurations in third-party platforms like Zapier, Make, UiPath, or Power Automate. Engagements typically run $5,000 to $30,000 for a contained scope. Ongoing maintenance returns to you the day the engagement closes, unless you sign a separate retainer. Verified against RSM, Crowe, and alliantGroup published service catalogs.
A consulting group is structured around roles. Clone is structured around layers.
When you read the service catalog of a typical automation consulting group, what you are reading is an org chart. There is an engagement manager who owns the contract. There is a solution architect who designs the target state. There is an RPA developer who writes flows. There is an integration engineer who connects systems. There is a QA reviewer who tests the build. There is a knowledge manager who writes the runbook. The deliverable is a set of configurations and documents these roles produce, end of engagement.
The shape of the engagement is people on a clock. The shape of the artifact you take home is files in a folder. When the engagement ends the people leave and the files sit there. If a tool in your stack changes, if a UI redesign breaks a flow, if you swap one CRM for another, the files do not adjust. You either rebuild them or call the group back for a change order.
Clone is structured the other way. The marketing site has an architecture section, in src/components/architecture.tsx, that lists six layers in order. The middle three are software components owned by Clone. They keep running after any engagement would have closed. There is no role to assign and no role to lose.
The six layers, copied from the architecture file
Layer label and sublabel are verbatim from the marketing site's architecture component. The role mapping is the equivalent role you would commission from a consulting group.
- Yours
Layer 1
You
Plain English instructions
What the consulting group calls Stakeholder Interviews
- Clone, removable
Layer 2
Clone Planner
Understands intent, picks the right apps
What the consulting group calls the Solution Architect
- Clone, removable
Layer 3
Clone Computer Agent
Reads the screen, clicks, types, scrolls
What the consulting group calls the RPA Developer
- Clone, removable
Layer 4
Clone Memory
Your clients, voice, templates, history
What the consulting group calls the Knowledge Manager
- Yours
Layer 5
Your Apps
Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Zoom, CRM, Custom
Already in your stack before any engagement starts
- Yours
Layer 6
Your Business
Invoices sent, Clients updated, Reports delivered
The output the consulting deliverable was supposed to enable
The three layers tagged Clone are the ones that would otherwise be a consulting group's deliverable. The first and last layers (You, Your Apps, Your Business) belong to you before any engagement starts and after any engagement closes. The middle three are what makes the buying decision actually different from hiring a group.
The Memory layer, what a consulting group's Knowledge Manager would have written down
In an engagement the Knowledge Manager produces a runbook: client list, voice and tone notes, template index, history of past engagements. Clone's third tagged layer, Memory, holds the same information as live state instead of a static document. It pulls from your existing apps on the left and feeds the operating loops on the right.
Memory layer. Inputs and outputs.
The numbers behind a typical group engagement
Drawn from published service descriptions at RSM, Crowe, alliantGroup, and the typical mid-market RPA scope. Numbers vary by industry. The shape does not.
The 100 percent number is the one to read carefully. The maintenance burden returns to you in full at engagement close. The retainer is sold separately and is priced at consulting day rates, not software subscription rates.
When an automation consulting group is still the right call
The honest version of any comparison is the case where the other answer wins. There are three of them.
Inside a regulated enterprise. If your buying gate is SOC2 evidence, vendor risk review, a named accountable party for any production system, and a procurement function that prefers a service agreement to a software subscription, a consulting group fits that gate and a self-serve trial does not. Clone's qualification list is explicit about disqualifying enterprise buyers whose gate is SSO, SOC2, or seat-based procurement.
Across SAP, Oracle, mainframe. If your processes touch ERP modules and legacy mainframe systems where the UI is a green-screen 3270 emulator and the data layer is a COBOL copybook, a long discovery phase is genuinely warranted because no general agent has reliable coverage of them yet. UiPath and Power Automate sometimes have specialist activities for these systems. A consulting group with vertical expertise is better positioned to scope that work than any plain English instruction.
As an internal training program. If the deliverable you actually want is a competent in-house automation practice, where your team learns to read a process map and configure flows themselves, the consulting engagement is the training program. Software is not the answer to this problem. A group that does paired delivery and structured handoff is. Clone replaces the configurations, not the training intent.
Automation consulting group vs Clone
The shape of the engagement is the difference. Read the rows in pairs.
| Feature | Typical automation consulting group | Clone |
|---|---|---|
| Engagement length | 4 to 12 weeks discovery, design, build, test, handoff | Day one. Plain English instruction, the back office runs that night. |
| Pricing shape | $5,000 to $30,000+ per engagement, plus optional retainer | $49 per month for the solo plan. Cancel anytime. |
| Deliverable | Audit document, process map, configurations in a third-party platform, runbook, training session | Six architectural layers, three of them owned by Clone, that keep running. |
| What stays after the work is done | Zaps, Make scenarios, UiPath bots, Power Automate flows. You maintain them. | The Planner, Computer Agent, and Memory keep running. Clone maintains them. |
| When a tool changes (CRM swap, new invoicing app) | Change order, scoping, new statement of work, configurations rebuilt | Same plain English instruction. The Computer Agent reads the new screen. |
| Where data lives during execution | Vendor cloud (Zapier, Make, UiPath SaaS, Power Automate) | On your computer. The first founding principle in architecture.tsx. |
| Who you call when an automation breaks | Open a ticket, schedule a call, wait. Or fix it yourself. | The Always-Reviewable layer logs every action and lets you roll back. |
| Procurement gate | MSA, SOW, security review, sometimes RFP | Free 14-day trial, no credit card. Two-person buying decision. |
Pricing and engagement length figures are typical mid-market ranges from published service catalogs at RSM, Crowe, alliantGroup, and equivalent firms. Enterprise programs and regulated industries can sit higher. Verified 2026-05-09.
What you actually do with this
If you are a solo consultant, an independent advisor, a fractional operator, or a boutique firm of 1 to 10 people, the answer is almost certainly not a consulting group. You will spend $5,000 to $30,000 for an engagement whose deliverable you then have to maintain, when the underlying problem (10 to 15 hours a week of admin) is the same recurring loop every consultancy of your size has. The 14-day trial is the right shape for the buying decision.
If you are inside an enterprise with the gates listed above, hire a group. Clone is not the answer to your gate. The architecture is in the product's marketing site if you want to read it before the call.
If you have already hired a group once and the configurations have started to drift (a CRM swap broke a Zap, a UI redesign broke a flow, the runbook is six months out of date), the question to ask is not whether to engage them again. It is whether the next dollar is better spent on a system that adapts when the underlying tools change, instead of a deliverable that does not.
Want a 20-minute walkthrough of the layers?
If you are weighing a consulting group engagement, book a call. We will open the architecture file together and map your specific stack onto the six layers. No slideware, no statement of work.
Frequently asked questions
What is an automation consulting group?
A firm of 5 to 50 specialists, typically organized as engagement manager, business analyst, solution architect, RPA developer, integration engineer, and quality reviewer. They audit your processes over 4 to 12 weeks, design a target state, build configurations in a third-party platform such as Zapier, Make, UiPath, or Power Automate, test them, hand off a runbook, and end the engagement. Pricing runs roughly $5,000 to $30,000 for a contained scope, more for enterprise programs. Ongoing maintenance is on you unless you sign a separate retainer.
Why would I hire an automation consulting group anyway?
Three reasons that are still legitimate in 2026. One, you are inside an enterprise that requires SOC2, vendor risk review, and a named accountable party for any production system, and a software subscription cannot satisfy those gates. Two, your processes span SAP, Oracle, mainframe COBOL, or other systems where a long discovery phase is genuinely warranted because no general agent has reliable coverage of them yet. Three, you have an internal team that needs the engagement to be a training program, with the deliverable being a competent in-house automation practice. If none of those three describe you, you are buying deliverables you will then have to maintain.
What does Clone replace from a consulting group's deliverable?
Specifically, the configuration build phase and the runbook. The Clone Planner does what the Solution Architect would do, picking which apps to drive given the instruction. The Clone Computer Agent does what the RPA Developer would do, by reading the screen and clicking and typing instead of compiling a flow. The Clone Memory does what the Knowledge Manager would do, holding your client list, voice, templates, and history. The audit document, the process map, and the training session are not part of Clone, those still belong to a consulting engagement if you want them.
If a consulting group hands off Zaps and Power Automate flows, why does Clone not just hand off the same?
Because flows hand the maintenance burden back to you the day the engagement ends. Every CRM swap, every new invoicing tool, every UI redesign in Gmail or Zoom breaks a flow that someone now has to rebuild. Clone is structured around plain English instructions, not flows. The Computer Agent reads whatever screen is in front of it, so the same instruction works after a tool change. There is no flow file to maintain because there is no flow.
How do the six layers map to the engagement structure I would get from a consulting group?
The first layer, You, is the same as the stakeholder you would be in any engagement, the source of intent. The middle three, Planner, Computer Agent, Memory, are what a consulting group's solution architect, developer, and knowledge manager produce as deliverables. The last two, Your Apps and Your Business, are the existing stack and the outcome the engagement was meant to enable. The difference is that the middle three keep running after the work is done because they are software, not people on a clock.
Where does the data live during execution? This is a non-negotiable for me.
On your computer. Clone's first founding principle, written in the product's own architecture file, is that it operates your desktop apps from your desktop. Client files, contracts, transcripts, and emails do not leave your machine. This matters specifically for consulting because most engagements involve an NDA and an MSA confidentiality clause, and any vendor that uploads client transcripts and proposals to a shared cloud has a structural conflict with that clause. Most consulting groups configure flows in vendor cloud platforms (Zapier, Make, UiPath SaaS, Power Automate). The data path is different.
What is the procurement gate for Clone versus a consulting group?
A consulting group typically requires a master service agreement, a statement of work, sometimes a request for proposal process, and a security review of any tools they will configure on your behalf. Clone is a free 14-day trial, no credit card. The buying decision sits with the operator of the consulting practice, not a procurement function. This is the right shape for a 1-to-10 person consultancy. It is the wrong shape for a 5,000 person firm with a vendor risk team, in which case a consulting group is still the answer.
Will Clone audit my processes the way a consulting group would?
No. Clone is not a discovery and design engagement. The second founding principle in the architecture file is that Clone observes how you already work and mirrors your style, rather than running a stakeholder interview cycle. If your buying intent is a documented process map signed by your COO, Clone is not that deliverable, a consulting group is. If your buying intent is to recover 10 to 15 hours a week of admin time inside the next two weeks without a discovery phase, Clone is the shape that fits.
Other architecture-first explainers from the same product.
Adjacent reading
Consulting business automation AI: an honest map of the four phases you cannot automate
Two of the six phases of running a consulting business are recurring loop work that AI cleanly automates. The other four hold relational and judgment work and stay yours.
Automation consulting services: every action reviewable, every morning reversible
What the fourth founding principle does that a forward-only Zap or RPA bot cannot, a one-click rewind on a deployed automation.
Workflow automation consulting bills you for a canvas Clone refuses to ship
The graph-editor canvas is the asset most consulting engagements actually deliver. The reasons Clone deliberately does not ship one.