Sterling Automate™: your management system on software, not spreadsheets and memory

Sterling Automate™ is Sterling’s digitisation service for organisations in the Philippines: we move your ISO and GRC documents, records, corrective actions and audits from spreadsheets onto Effivity and Vegam AI software — migration, configuration, training and adoption included — so your management system keeps running long after the consultants leave.

Automate™ is the digitisation phase of Sterling OS™ — Effivity- and Vegam AI-led automation that moves your documents, records, corrective actions and audits onto software used by subscribers in 50+ countries. Automate is the services layer: migration, configuration, training and adoption. For product depth, see Effivity’s own site — this page is about getting your system running on it, whoever built it.

Reviewed by Kaushal Sutaria, Founder — Lead Auditor · Last reviewed 07 Jul 2026

You’re here if: your system lives in binders and spreadsheets · multiple sites run “the same” system differently · audit evidence takes days to assemble and depends on who’s in the office.

Who typically chooses Automate™

Multi-site organisations tired of three versions of one procedure; growing companies whose spreadsheet system was fine at 20 staff and is chaos at 120; audit-fatigued teams who lose a working week to evidence hunts before every external visit; remote and hybrid operations where the binder in the Makati office helps nobody in Cebu; and organisations with perfectly good systems built by others — self-implemented or via another consultant — that simply need to go digital. Standalone digitisation, without any consulting engagement, is equally welcome under Effivity’s commercial plans.

What’s included

Migration of your documents and records: existing policies, procedures, live records, open corrective actions and audit history moved into structured modules — deduplicated, mapped to your scope, and honestly flagged where gaps exist rather than papered over.

Module configuration matched to your scope: QMS (ISO 9001), EMS (ISO 14001), OHSMS (ISO 45001), ISMS (ISO 27001) and more — configured to your processes and terminology, not a demo layout you must adapt to.

Workflow setup: corrective actions, audits, risks, reviews and approvals built as flows with owners and deadlines — so the system chases people, instead of people chasing the system.

Role-based user training: each user trained on their part — process owners, auditors, management dashboards — with records.

Adoption support: we stay until the platform is where work happens, not a parallel universe beside the “real” spreadsheets — the failure mode of most software rollouts, and the one this service exists to prevent.

Vegam AI automation of repetitive compliance workflows where your processes suit it — scoped honestly in the proposal, never oversold.

The terms, in writing

Effivity is included in every Sterling consulting engagement — up to 5 users, at no added fee, for as long as you remain a Sterling client — a subscription worth US $5,000 a year. Effivity is also open for standalone subscription for organisations that want the platform without a consulting engagement, under Effivity’s commercial plans; beyond 5 users, additional seats follow the same plans. And the commitment that removes the lock-in question before you ask it: your data exports freely if you ever leave. A compliance firm that held your compliance records hostage wouldn’t deserve either word in its name.

Your first 30 days

Week 1 — data audit: what documents and records exist, where, in what state; module scope agreed. Week 2 — configuration and first migration wave; pilot users trained and inside. Weeks 3–4 — remaining migration, workflows live, all users trained, the old spreadsheets formally retired for migrated processes. By day 30 the question “where’s the evidence?” has one answer, and it isn’t a person’s memory.

Entry: any management system, however analogue — whoever built it. Exit definition: your team operating the platform independently — documents, records, actions and audits digital, current and owned by you.

Frequently asked questions

What’s included at no added fee, and what’s paid? Included with every consulting engagement: Effivity for up to 5 users, all modules in your scope, for as long as you remain a Sterling client — worth US $5,000 a year. Paid: additional seats and standalone subscriptions, under Effivity’s commercial plans. The boundary is stated in every proposal — no surprises at renewal.

Can our existing documents and records migrate? Yes — migration is the first deliverable: documents, current records, open corrective actions and audit history move into structured modules, deduplicated and mapped to your scope. Legacy chaos is normal; we’ve migrated binder systems, shared drives and spreadsheet farms. What exists gets organised; what’s missing gets flagged honestly, not fabricated.

What happens to our data if we stop working with Sterling? It exports. Your records, documents and history leave with you in usable formats — that is the Effivity data-export commitment, in writing. We publish this deliberately: compliance records are yours, and a platform bundle that traps them would poison the trust the bundle exists to build.

Why not just run our QMS on spreadsheets and shared drives? Plenty of companies certify that way — and pay for it annually: version confusion, broken links, evidence hunts, single-person dependency, and zero automatic follow-up on actions. Spreadsheets record; they don’t operate. A platform chases overdue actions, controls versions, and assembles audit evidence in minutes — the difference compounds every year and every site you add.

How long does migration to Effivity take? For a typical single-site SME: two to four weeks to a fully operating platform, following the 30-day plan above — data audit, configuration, staged migration, training, adoption. Multi-site and multi-standard systems run longer, scoped precisely in the proposal. The pace-setter is usually the state of your existing records, which the week-one data audit establishes honestly.

About Sterling OS™: Sterling OS™ is Sterling’s delivery operating system — five defined services, taken alone or combined, covering guided and fully outsourced implementation, post-certification support, digitisation and standard transitions, with fixed scope, named deliverables and accredited certification bodies only. Explore the system →

Last updated: July 2026 · Sterling International Consulting — Metro Manila · Cebu · Davao.