A porter carrying cherry blossom through a torii gate toward Mount Fuji. A porter carrying cherry blossom through a torii gate toward Mount Fuji.

70% less staff time on routine work, and answers in two hours, not two days.

OccamStrata · Melbourne, Australia

  • 70% less staff time on routine work, 40 hours a week down to 12, by our estimate
  • 2 h or less to answer an owner or tenant, down from two days
  • 30% lower staff costs

*Bushido's estimate, first two months after go-live, 2022.

What did Bushido build for OccamStrata?

A single source of truth in Airtable for OccamStrata, an owners corporation (strata) manager in Melbourne, built in three months by one automation engineer. By Bushido's estimate, staff now spend 70% less time on routine work, answer owners and tenants within two hours instead of two days, and staff costs are 30% lower.

The same brief, run today.

Then Now
Time 3 months 8 to 10 weeks
Team 1 automation engineer A product lead and a builder, each with agents
How it went / What is delivered The business was mapped inside the build.
  • A process map and prototype base agreed in week 2
  • A proof of concept for the risky Urbanise sync first
  • Automations rolled out one by one, measured against staff hours

Bushido’s estimate, the same brief run in 2026. The “then” column is what happened.

The problem

OccamStrata had just acquired a property management company. It ran on Urbanise, an ageing CRM that no longer fit the business, with no single, trusted home for its data, and emails, record updates and new entries done by hand.

The solution

  1. Mapped the business before touching a tool.

    Working sessions with the stakeholders, then a database schema in draw.io.

  2. Built one source of truth in Airtable.

    Python scripts moved the Urbanise records in; JotForm and Airtable forms handle intake.

  3. Kept Urbanise for the money, in sync.

    A two-way sync for its financial functions, and contacts synced into Missive.

  4. Let the base do the busywork.

    Airtable's built-in JavaScript automations send emails, update records and create entries, with no per-task Zapier or Make bill.

The result

Before After
Where the data lives Urbanise, an ageing CRM that no longer fit the business One Airtable base, modelled on how the business works
Staff time on routine work 40 hours a week 12 hours a week
Answering owners and tenants Up to two days Within two hours
Stack, team and facts

Let the base
do the busywork.

Business Automation
Solution Architecture
Database Design
Data Migration
Systems Integration
Workflow Automation
Industry
Real Estate, Property Management, Business Automation
Period
3 months, 2022
Team size
1 automation engineer
Deliverables
Custom CMS in Airtable
JotForm data intake forms
Ingestion scripts for Urbanise
Two-way Urbanise and Airtable sync
Missive contact list
Tech Stack
Airtable, JotForm, JavaScript, Python, Missive, Urbanise

Next

Questions

Questions people ask about this project.

Can a business be automated on Airtable instead of custom software?

Yes, when the work fits it. OccamStrata runs on Airtable's built-in automations, delivered by one automation engineer in three months.

Did the client have to abandon Urbanise?

No. Urbanise kept the financial functions, in a two-way sync with Airtable.

Yours is next.

Same team, sharper tools. Tell us where you are and we will tell you what it takes (scope, shape and a timeline we would actually hold ourselves to) on a 30-minute call with a builder.

Book a 30-minute product call More case studies