Ad ops teams are stuck in a loop of manual chaos—and automation might be the only real way out. Here’s how publishers are reclaiming time, strategy, and purpose by fixing order-to-cash from the inside out.
In advertising operations, the burnout is baked in.
Juggling inventory, screenshots, pacing, tags, billing, makegoods—it’s like a hamster wheel type of relay race with no baton handoff and no finish line.
‘It felt like we were running in place. A lot of the work was repetitive and draining,” John Harris, Senior Director of Ad Technology Operations at SiriusXM, said at an invite-only AdMonsters x Theorem meetup in NYC recently.
That was what order-to-cash was like for SXM before automation. Before Theorem’s Upward streamlined the entire process to reduce manual tasks and unlock more time for strategic, revenue-driving work.
“What we’re trying to do is take something very manual and very nuanced, and bring scale to it without losing what makes it human,” said Theorem CEO, Jay Kulkarni.
And just in case you thought automation was just about creating workflow efficiency. Think again.
“It’s not just about efficiency—it’s about purpose. People want to know their work matters. Automation helped us get back to that,” Harris said.
Here are six realities we learned about the pain points of the O2C process and how automation puts meaning back into the work of operations.
Six Realities About O2C and Automation
1. You Can’t Automate Chaos
You can’t plug in a new system, until you build the system.
“One form of automation is standardization,” Harris said. “You can’t sell against a rate card if you don’t know what the uplift should be.”
Without that structure, including clear inputs, clean definitions, and repeatable processes—automation won’t streamline anything. It will just add confusion at scale.
2. Most Onboarding Is Broken. Automation Reveals It
Often when you bring on new partners, everything falls apart—quickly. That’s when the cracks in the system and workflow begin to show.
Without documented steps or processes, everything devolves into a “just figure it out,” energy.
“It’s a huge time suck,” Addy Atienza, Managing Director, Global Programmatic and Ad Operations at Time Out Group, said. “There’s no template. Everything’s manual.”
According to Harris, automation often exposes this lack of readiness, forcing teams to ask harder questions about the business logic behind their workflows.
3. Automation Frees Up Teams to Work on the Good Stuff
For SiriusXM, turning to Theorem’s Upward paid off in more time.
“We were buried in spreadsheets. No time for strategy. No time for analysis,” he said. Once they introduced automation, the team could focus on revenue insights, campaign effectiveness, and building better partner experiences.
One person even transitioned into a fully new role. “It wasn’t about cutting headcount—it was about letting people do higher-value work,” he said.
4, Broken Collaboration Is the Real Bottleneck
The problem across the O2C process isn’t always that the systems don’t communicate. It’s that the departments don’t.
“There’s always a disconnect between sales, ops, and finance. And that’s where the pain really lives,” Atienza said.
When the people don’t connect, how can we expect the tools to? Even the best automation won’t solve cross-team chaos unless there’s a shared commitment to how the work gets done.
5. The Ad Ops Grind Is Eating Into Strategic Thinking
Ops teams are constantly in reactive mode, chasing down deliverables and patching broken workflows. That pressure doesn’t leave time to think proactively about optimization, insights, or long-term value.
“It’s become ‘do whatever it takes to sell through the campaign’… but it’s a detriment to so many things,” Atienza said.
Automation helps make space to do things smarter.
6. You Need Room to Experiment
“You can’t be afraid to try something new,” Atienza said.
That might mean testing a new tool or piloting a different workflow with sales. But it also means letting your team fail safely. “Give people time to test things, learn things,” he added.
When Harris’ team moved beyond rote execution, it opened up pathways to innovation across the company. “We were able to transition folks into new roles—strategy, analytics, things that actually move the business forward,” he said.
But Wait, Automation Isn’t A Magic Wand
It often sounds like automation is a magic wand. It isn’t. It’s a decision.
“Don’t start with tools. Start with outcomes,” Kulkarni said. “Figure out what’s worth automating, what’s not, and what still needs the human in the loop.”
Publishers need the tools to do the work that matters. And, most important, they need breathing room to do it right.
“Now our team spends time thinking about how to drive revenue, how to improve our yield. We can focus on optimization rather than execution,” Harris said.