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Herbert Insights and Innovations (HI&I) helps organizations improve and standardize business processes, then automate the work around them. Its approach uses workflows to route requests, approvals, and supporting information while keeping people responsible for decisions. The goal is not simply to digitize a form: it is to make responsibilities clearer and create a usable record of what happened, when, and why.
HI&I works with organizations including government contractors, healthcare providers, colleges and universities, public schools, and school districts—settings where internal controls, compliance, and auditability can matter as much as speed. Its most clearly documented example is a government contractor that standardized procurement approvals and connected the process to Deltek Costpoint.
What does Herbert Insights and Innovations do?
HI&I combines business-process improvement with workflow implementation. It helps organizations examine how work is actually done, define a more consistent process, document the procedure, and configure automation to support that process. The firm’s scope includes vendor management, purchasing, accounts payable, billing, procurement, general approvals, human resources, and information technology.
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The organizational-structure idea is practical: a request should have an understood starting point, an owner, a path through review, criteria for moving forward, and a record of its outcome. If those elements are unclear, software can make an inconsistent process happen faster without making it more controlled. HI&I’s stated approach is to address the process first and use workflow technology to reinforce the resulting responsibilities and controls.
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CIOReview describes the company as a workflow automation and process improvement firm focused on standardization, internal controls, accountability, and auditable work. Its profile names Martin J. Herbert as president and CEO and Jessica A. Herbert as chairwoman, CFO, and CTO. A Nutrient article identifies Marty Herbert as HI&I’s president and founder. These are the titles and descriptions given in those respective publications.
In a Federal Publication Seminars interview, Herbert described the work as breaking processes into “those individual human-centric tasks for who needs to do what,” then building a workflow and audit record around them. That emphasis on roles and tasks explains why HI&I frames automation as an organizational discipline, rather than a software installation alone.
How can workflow automation create organizational structure?
A workflow makes the path of a piece of work explicit. It can identify who submits a request, who reviews it, what information must accompany it, and what happens when it is approved or needs attention. When these steps are documented and consistently applied, people have a clearer way to understand their responsibilities and reviewers can trace how a decision was reached.
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HI&I’s described full-cycle model moves through procedure optimization, documentation, workflow automation, and continuous improvement. These are connected activities, not interchangeable labels:
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| Stage | What it addresses | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Procedure optimization | How the existing work is performed and where it can be made clearer or more consistent. | Automating a poorly understood process can preserve its confusion or inconsistency. |
| Documentation | The procedure and the human tasks, responsibilities, and handoffs that make it work. | Staff and reviewers need a shared understanding of the intended process. |
| Workflow automation | Routing, approvals, information capture, and the record of actions taken. | Automation can make the documented process easier to follow and review. |
| Continuous improvement | Refining the process as organizational needs and experience change. | A workflow should support an evolving operation, not freeze an unsuitable procedure in place. |
The sequence matters. A diagram or procedure document alone does not route work, and software configuration alone does not establish that the chosen process is sound. HI&I’s model links the process definition to the automated steps and then keeps improvement in scope.
What is the difference between a form and a true workflow?
A form collects information; a workflow uses that information to organize what happens next. A form may be one component of an automated process, but data entry by itself does not define ownership, review, approval, execution, or an auditable path.
A Nutrient 2025 Sales Kickoff report attributes to Marty Herbert the distinction between end-to-end workflow automation and simple form filling. In that account, a workflow standardizes requests, automates approvals, and defines execution around the captured data. The distinction is useful when evaluating claims about automation: look beyond the submission screen and ask how the request moves through the organization.
| Capability | Form-focused approach | End-to-end workflow approach |
|---|---|---|
| Information capture | Collects fields submitted by a requester. | Captures information as part of a defined process. |
| Routing and review | May leave follow-up and handoffs outside the form. | Routes work through the intended review and approval path. |
| Execution | Does not, by itself, specify how an approved request is carried out. | Defines what happens around the captured data, including the process after review. |
| Accountability record | A submitted form may show what was entered, but not necessarily the full sequence of actions. | Can preserve a record of actions and decisions across the process. |
Those differences are functional, not a guarantee that every product marketed as a workflow system implements every capability well. For a buyer, the practical test is to follow a representative request from submission to completion and see whether the system supports the actual handoffs, decisions, and records the organization needs.
How does HI&I approach procurement approvals?
HI&I’s clearest documented implementation involved a government contractor whose centralized buying function was only partly used. The result was inconsistent purchasing practice and uneven oversight. HI&I implemented an enterprise-wide workflow intended to standardize request submission, apply approval paths, and improve visibility and control over purchasing.
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According to the CIOReview case, the workflow improved the completeness of information captured at intake and integrated with Deltek Costpoint. Requisitions and purchase orders could be created through a controlled approval process, using a consistent front-end experience. The case illustrates how intake, approvals, and an ERP connection can fit together: a request is collected in a standard way, routed through review, and carried into the system used for purchasing records.
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The account is qualitative. It does not establish a measured savings percentage, ROI, implementation duration, or a result that should be assumed for every organization. It does, however, show the concrete process problem HI&I addresses: partial adoption of a central function, inconsistent request handling, and a need for clearer oversight.
What to examine in a procurement workflow
The case points to useful evaluation questions for any organization considering procurement automation. These are not claims that a particular configuration is automatically present; they are the process details buyers should validate against their policies and systems.
- Intake quality: Does the request capture the information finance, procurement, and approvers need before work advances? Incomplete submissions can push clarification into email or other channels, weakening consistency.
- Approval thresholds: Are approval paths based on the organization’s rules, such as relevant request criteria and authority levels? Confirm that the workflow reflects current policy rather than relying on a generic route.
- Exceptions: What happens when a request is incomplete, unusual, urgent, or outside the ordinary approval path? A useful process makes exceptions visible and assigns responsibility for resolving them rather than leaving them in an informal side channel.
- ERP integration: Can approved information be used in the organization’s purchasing system without unnecessary duplicate entry? Establish which records are created, what data moves between systems, and how errors or changes are handled.
- Audit history: Can a reviewer determine who acted, when the action occurred, what decision was made, and why the request advanced? A record should help explain the process, not merely confirm that a request existed.
- Usability and adoption: Can the intended employees understand where to submit requests and how to respond to a handoff? An enterprise-wide process cannot provide consistent oversight if significant groups continue to bypass it.
These checks connect workflow design to the organizational problem it is meant to solve. A polished interface is not enough if requests can still bypass controls, approval rules are unclear, or reviewers cannot reconstruct the decision path.
Can workflow automation improve audit readiness?
It can improve the availability and consistency of process evidence when it records relevant actions and decisions as work proceeds. HI&I describes its value in terms of capturing who did what, when it happened, and why a request advanced, so an organization can retrieve evidence during a review instead of reconstructing events afterward.
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That record is useful only insofar as the workflow captures the right information and people use the process. A log that shows an approval without enough context may not answer a reviewer’s question about the rationale. Likewise, an automated path cannot document work that staff perform outside it. Organizations should therefore decide what evidence their controls require and check that the workflow records it in a way reviewers can interpret.
Auditability and compliance are related but not identical. A workflow can support internal control and make evidence easier to find; the materials describing HI&I do not establish that installing a workflow guarantees compliance with a particular law, regulation, contract, or audit standard. Organizations remain responsible for determining their obligations and validating that procedures and records meet them.
How does HI&I use AI in approvals?
HI&I describes AI as decision support, not an autonomous approval authority. Its AI may make recommendations, including whether a request appears aligned with organizational policy, while a person remains responsible for the final decision.
That boundary matters in regulated or otherwise sensitive work. A recommendation can help a reviewer spot a potential policy issue, but it is not the same as verifying compliance or granting authority to proceed. Organizations evaluating AI-assisted approvals should clarify what information the system considers, how recommendations are presented, who reviews them, and how the final human decision is recorded. The available descriptions establish the human-oversight principle, but do not specify a particular AI model, accuracy figure, or product feature set.
What role do Nutrient Workflow and Deltek Costpoint play?
Nutrient’s procurement article identifies HI&I as a Nutrient Workflow partner and describes the firm as helping clients define, build, and refine procurement processes with Nutrient Workflow. That is the named platform and partner context in the published materials; it should not be read as proof that every HI&I engagement uses the same software.
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Deltek Costpoint appears in the documented government-contractor example as the ERP integration through which requisitions and purchase orders could be created after a controlled approval process. The account supports that specific integration example, not a claim that Costpoint is required for HI&I’s services or that the same integration is available in every deployment.
Nutrient’s 2025 kickoff report also emphasizes understanding processes and relationships in regulated environments, and notes pitfalls in assuming that ERP workflow promises alone solve process problems. Together, those points reinforce a central distinction: the platform can execute configured steps, but the organization still needs a clear process, usable policy rules, and accountable people.
What should an organization ask before engaging HI&I?
Because the work combines process design and technology, a useful conversation should cover both. Before selecting a workflow approach, organizations can prepare a representative process and identify where it currently breaks down: incomplete requests, unclear approval authority, inconsistent handling, duplicate entry, or difficulty retrieving evidence.
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- How will current procedures, exceptions, and actual handoffs be understood before automation is configured?
- Who in the organization must validate policy rules and approval authority?
- What information must be collected at intake, and which records need to be retained for review?
- Which existing systems must exchange information with the workflow, and what does each system remain responsible for?
- How will the organization determine whether the new process is being adopted and whether it is working as intended?
- What is the plan for maintaining procedures and workflow rules when policies or organizational responsibilities change?
These questions make the engagement easier to evaluate without presuming a particular timeline or return. HI&I’s published materials do not provide a standard implementation-duration benchmark, an independently audited ROI percentage, or a sample size for its engagements. Organizations should request project-specific scope, measures, and evidence rather than treating the qualitative procurement example as a forecast.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does HI&I publish workflow automation pricing?
The published materials described here do not state HI&I’s fees, licensing costs, or a standard pricing model. An organization would need a project-specific estimate that distinguishes process-improvement services, implementation work, and any software or integration costs.
Does a workflow system guarantee compliance?
No software workflow can establish that an organization meets every applicable obligation simply by being installed. Compliance depends on the relevant requirements, sound procedures, correct configuration, and whether people follow and maintain the process.
What should I request in a workflow automation proposal?
Ask for a defined scope, deliverables, system dependencies, assumptions, and the measures that will be used to assess adoption and process results. You can also request a demonstration using a representative request, including an exception path, so the proposal shows more than form submission.
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Is HI&I’s procurement example proof of a specific ROI?
No. The published example describes improvements to intake completeness, standardization, oversight, and integration, but it does not report a quantified ROI or savings figure. Treat it as a documented use case rather than a financial forecast for another organization.
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