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Autologyx / Whitepaper: Robotic Process Automation
© 2017 Autologyx
Robotic Process AutomationWhy intelligent RPA (iRPA) will revolutionise Shared Services
Autologyx / Whitepaper: Robotic Process Automation
Robotic Process Automation -Why intelligent RPA (iRPA) will revolutionise Shared Services
Shared Services has been delivering immense benefits in operational efficiency and synergies for well over a decade. But the future has begun to look less certain.
Outcomes targeted by Shared Services today are much as they were yesterday: cost reduction, efficiency gains and the ability constantly to ‘take on more with less’. But what was a great boon 5-10 years ago is now increasingly unable to deliver the same scale of advantage.
With benefits historically derived from the three main components of people, process and technology, Shared Service is finding it tough to outperform itself.
Intelligent RPA (iRPA) - is the one technology that can help to reduce cost through efficiency gains and people re-deployment, while also enabling greater agility, productivity and innovation within the business.
Much is being said about the transformational potential of iRPA. Recent research1 predicts that the global Robotic Automation market will reach $8.75 billion by 2024 and that by 2025 the equivalent work of over 110 million workers will be handled by RPA2.
It is of immense interest to any operation trying to achieve:
• The ability to innovate
• Reduced levels of human error
• Faster, scalable execution
• The potential to run 24/7 operations
• A competitive commercial edge
• Cost reduction
1. www.businesswire.com/news/home/20161125005287/en/Robotic-Process-Automation-RPA-Market-Reach-8.7 2. Source: McKinsey Global Institute January 2017. “A future that works: Automation, Employment and Productivity”
This white paper looks at the potential impact of iRPA tools on Shared Services operations, and its enabling effects for business.
We hope you find it useful in helping to assess the practical applications and potential benefits of iRPA within your Shared Services operation.
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© 2017 Autologyx
Autologyx / Whitepaper: Robotic Process Automation
What is RPA?
The Institute for RPA defines it as the application of technology that allows employees in a company to configure computer software or a “robot” to capture and interpret existing applications for processing a transaction, manipulating data, triggering responses and communicating with other digital systems.
But not all RPA technologies are created equal. They have developed from simple desktop assistance in the early 2000’s to the introduction of machine-Learning and AI today. Intelligent RPA (iRPA) embraces tools that can also sense and respond to other conditions or the surrounding environment.
So, at its core iRPA is a smart technology that can not only automate all the tedious stuff and unburden costly human resources – but also better mimic the way people work to intelligently handle complex, non-linear applications. As such, it holds out the prospect of inspiring a new phase of innovation, collaboration, agility and value for those working in or establishing a Shared Services centre.
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3. Source: McKinsey Global Institute January 2017. “A future that works: Automation, Employment and Productivity”
As a McKinsey report3 stated in January 2017, “Advances in robotics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are ushering in a new age of automation, as machines match or outperform human performance in a range of work activities, including ones requiring cognitive capabilities.”
None (people!)“Point Solution” vs Platform
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“ML/D-AI” “Desktop RPA” “Fabric RPA”
“BPMs” “Component Automation”“Point Solutions”
The Competitive Landscape
Autologyx / Whitepaper: Robotic Process Automation
iRPA in Shared Services
This is an important moment for Shared Services and iRPA stands ready to help meet the challenge.
An Ernst & Young report4 ‘Elevation to the next generation of shared services’ graphically described the typical shared services evolution path. It states, “Many SSC’s complete the transition and stabilisation phases, but then never exploit the new model that has been implemented through continuous improvement and expansion.”
This means that despite all the investment over years in establishing the shared services environment, ROI tails of into minimal performance improvement after the initial deployment. And this trend is set to continue without automated intervention.
In a 2017 survey of nearly 2000 companies, ServiceNow identified that 86% expected that the pace of work would reach breaking point by 2020 and that intelligent automation was inevitable in order to keep up and remain competitive.
Let’s imagine a successful, expanding Shared Services operation that, over a period of years, has implemented an ERP platform, BPM systems, offshoring to reduce transactional costs, replaced core systems and added a few extra point solutions.
However, in a more competitive, more regulated and even more uncertain world, the pressure still remains to achieve those important operational gains. Eventually it gets to the stage where productivity can’t be increased or costs reduced any further using established tools, methods and thinking. The only alternative is to raise prices – but consumers of goods and services are reaching their limits on price and looking for cheaper alternatives.
SSCs must quickly look to how they can introduce innovation to compete effectively. Stagnation really is beginning to seem like the only alternative. So, the question is not ‘if’ but when the organisation will embrace the new wave of intelligent automation.
4. www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/Elevation_to_the_next_generation_of_shared_services/$FILE/Shared-services-optimisation.pdf
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Autologyx / Whitepaper: Robotic Process Automation
Operational impacts
Introducing iRPA into a Shared Services operation can release the latent potential within.
As McKinsey reported5, “Automation of various activities can improve the performance of almost any business process. Beyond enabling reduction in labour costs, automation can raise throughput, increase reliability, and improve quality, among other performance gains”.
iRPA allows organisations to build on past successes – achieving previously unimaginable levels of scalability, generating granular real time data helping to fuel a process of continuous improvement – and freeing up personnel to create more strategic value.
The same Ernst & Young report6 pointed to the fact that many shared services centres “never exploit the new model that has been implemented through continuous improvement and expansion”. RPA – and especially iRPA – now offers an affordable technology that enables that to happen.
This potential difference is summed up in a concise list of ‘Fast Facts’ in Outsourcing Portal’s website article7 on how RPA is applied in Finance, HR and Procurement. It states:
• RPA employs a variety of tools for grabbing digital data, which can include screen scraping, digital image recognition, or the ability to access a server or be linked to a website.
• It makes use of rule engines similar to those found in business process management tools.
• It is considered a virtual workforce controlled by the business operation teams.
• RPA does not disturb underlying computer systems.
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5. Source: McKinsey Global Institute January 2017. “A future that works: Automation, Employment and Productivity”6. www.ey.com/Publication/vwLUAssets/Elevation_to_the_next_generation_of_shared_services/$FILE/Shared-services-optimisation.pdf7. www.outsourcingportal.eu/en/robotic-process-automation-in-shared-services-how-rpa-applies-to-finance-hr-and-procurement
Intelligent RPA offers another dimension altogether: the ability not only to automate ‘machine’ tasks, but also to manage complex processes and activities that persist over time.
iRPA is smart: it brings in elements of AI and cognitive computing – it can learn how to work seamlessly between people and systems. This is because iRPA operates at the Layer 7 Application level where it can function as an intermediary between systems and a content layer of its own – as well as working down through the lower levels to perform ‘traditional’ RPA functions, interacting with people and the physical world.
This creates the capability to use, update and reuse both structured and unstructured data objects, which can be incredibly powerful. It can literally automate the thinking, tracking, remembering and intervention needed to make the right decisions and implement them on time, every time – faultlessly and unsupervised. Moreover, it creates its own data record of every event that can be used for audit or analytics at any future time.
Such capabilities mean that iRPA does so much more that de-risk and eliminate many of the human factors that hamper Shared Services productivity and scalability. It also creates a platform for innovation – the ability to rapidly develop and deploy rich automation of complex applications, networks or supply chains and the capability to exploit new opportunities.
Is it realistic to think such transformative gains can be achieved so easily? In fact, low barriers to implementation also make iRPA accessible by a far wider range of organisations and operations. The enabling of communication between legacy systems and the overlaying of sophisticated algorithms also generates enough information to engage machine learning.
This removes the problem and costs of replacing deeply embedded legacy systems, giving them a new lease of life. It enables the automation of process across legacy systems, ‘powering up’ & binding disparate systems and solutions together to offer more than the sum total of their parts.
Autologyx / Whitepaper: Robotic Process Automation
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Autologyx / Whitepaper: Robotic Process Automation
Delivery of Benefits
iRPA can drastically reduce headcount costs in back office operations, evidenced by recent figures compiled by Outsourcing Portal EU8 specifically for the payroll sector.
As well as the significant savings that can be achieved, this also has the benefit of enabling knowledge-workers to be redeployed onto activities that make a higher contribution to value-creation. Keeping employees stimulated and engaged is widely acknowledge as one of the key factors in delivering a higher value contribution to the organisation.
iRPA technologies also have the ability to quickly adjust to the demands of the business. PwC are quoted as saying9 “Besides the cost and efficiency advantages, a couple of RPA’s greatest benefits are often overlooked: its ease of deployment and the speed and agility it confers on the enterprise”.
There is invariably a cost whenever companies want to deploy new technologies within a business, both in term of purchase and time committed to their rollout. But iRPA can be progressively rolled out, business process by business process across an organisation. This means that high-volume, repetitive transactional environments can easily provide a return on investment with the first year.SSON Analytics’ shared services 2016 RPA survey10 also points to advantages derived from this ability to roll-out automated business processes in a matter of days rather than months.
61% of non-RPA respondents believed that RPA took 12 weeks to implement, while almost half of RPA-enabled SSCs reported it took less time – with one-fifth of RPA-enabled SSCs reporting that implementations took just 4-8 weeks.
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8. www.outsourcingportal.eu/en/robotic-process-automation-in-shared-services-how-rpa-applies-to-finance-hr-and-procurement 9. PwC White Paper: Organize your future with robotic process automation10. www.sson-analytics.com/blog-entry/infographic-robotic-process-automation-shared-services
Autologyx / Whitepaper: Robotic Process Automation
Smart Platforms for the future
iRPA brings with it the prospect of greater management confidence and control.
It represents a step-change in the ability to deliver on SLAs and to meet governance and compliance criteria – even in complex, dynamic operations. It also signals a new era in the availability and transparency of analytical data, driven out of the ‘digital workforce’.
Moreover, iRPA has the effect of enabling a truly connected enterprise. With iRPA, it’s perfectly feasible to create connected, end-to-end processes that unify operations across a business.
Business processes exist in nearly every industry. iRPA cares little about the processes themselves, and focuses instead on the data, systems and technologies that drive them. This can deliver significant business advantages because intelligent tools are also better at interacting with other business systems and software agents – thus creating a digital eco-system within the business.
Organisations already utilising RPA tools have become more capable of running 24/7 operations, more able to deliver on SLAs, and are better equipped to interconnect with other digital systems both internally and externally.
Another attraction of RPA tools generally is that they are relatively easy to use and require almost no integration effort. Ease-of-use also democratises the development of new business applications. The best iRPA solutions reduce dependency on IT resources. Instead, they enable business and operational areas to build their own new processes and workflows, often from core iRPA templates.
Machine-learning gives iRPA tools the capability to drive highly complex, non-linear process applications. These kind of tools behave more like a human operator – but with the rigour, accuracy and speed that only automation can provide.
With systems like this, every action is dated and time stamped and persists over time, providing you with an audit trail even if the criteria on which a historical decision was made has subsequently changed.
iRPA can thus analyse data and take action – processing multiple task simultaneously in a fraction of the time a human can. Changes in data that may also effect the status of historical decisions are immediately identified and highlighted. The significance is that any need for remedial action or renewal is automatically flagged up when circumstances change.
The smartest iRPA solutions also provide data reusability. Very simply this means that where some robots simply complete tasks, more sophisticated ones capture and store all the related data – so that organisations can access and use it for any purpose, indefinitely.
This capability to reuse and share data assets, documents, process objects and audit-trails in other business applications – and between other automated processes – builds an organisational knowledge-base that can be used to help create business value.
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Autologyx / Whitepaper: Robotic Process Automation
Practical Application
There are many ways that iRPA can be used in organisations. Here are a few of the most prominent general user cases across key areas in Shared Service operations such as Finance, HR, and Procurement:
Cost Management
Reduced deployment costs – iRPA applications are typically quick and easy to configure, offering lower cost of implementation and faster speed-to-market.
Lower operating costs – Automated back-office processes are more streamlined and efficient and can be run 24/7 at no incremental cost with improved accuracy.
More accurate forecasting – Operating costs are more predictable with iRPA tools and also generate detailed management information enabling improved analysis and planning.
Resource Management
Resource Utilisation – iRPA delivers the capability to do more with less. So, aside from potential head-count reduction, there is a real prospect of redeploying staff to more profitable activities.
Reduced IT dependency – iRPA removes the reliance on IT to develop applications that address basic operational challenges.
Finance and Risk
Risk management – iRPA tools can virtually eliminate the risk of non-compliance with regulations, SLAs or other operational frameworks, thus reducing the overall risk profile.
Advanced analytics – Process automation makes gathering and organizing data easier, which enables improved monitoring, planning and reporting.
No Capital Expenditure –Intelligent platform architectures allow organisations to access all the benefits of iRPA and enterprise-class service with no capital outlay.
HR and Workforce
Onboarding Compliance and Competency – iRPA de-risks onboarding of both permanent and contingent staff, but also ensures ongoing compliance throughout employee lifecycles.
Distributed Workforce Management – Intelligent automation makes it easier to manage a high-churn, transient workforce over multiple remote locations.
Employee Engagement – iRPA tools can promote employee satisfaction by replacing routine tasks with smart, accessible self-service tools that also reduce training costs and encourage collaboration.
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Autologyx / Whitepaper: Robotic Process Automation
Operational Performance
Consistency and integrity – Centralised control of processes, data and documentation de-risks any task, so you can confidently manage remote distributed operations in an end-to-end connected organisation.
Performance and productivity – iRPA eliminates operational errors, workflow delays and repetitive manual tasks – with data-driven behaviour driving improved efficiency and reliability.
Legacy integration – iRPA tools have the capability to integrate legacy systems together with existing business systems, new processes and external databases.
Controlled delivery of complex projects – Key decisions can be taken promptly and effectively through process transparency and data-driven analytics.
Innovation and Growth
Business agility – iRPA tools facilitate a rapid response to dynamic business situations or sudden changes in demand, enabling shared service operations to adapt more quickly.
Innovative technology – iRPA technology is able to change the way people think, build, connect and run business operations.
Supporting business growth – iRPA is an enabling technology, capable of powering rapid innovation of new propositions that help gain entry into new markets or to offshore operations.
Final Thought:“It’s a safe assumption that robotic process automation will soon become part of shared services’ modus operandi”
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Quote Source: “Will Robotics Leapfrog BPO”? Barbara Hodge, Editor, SSON (Shared Services & Outsourcing Network)
Autologyx / Whitepaper: Robotic Process Automation
About Autologyx
Autologyx’s next-generation agile Fabric Automation® Platform, enables enterprise businesses to take control of automating complex processes to drive real business value. Its proprietary SaaS (software-as-a-service) platform and unique Think Build Connect Run® capability enables any enterprise to successfully and quickly apply iRPA technology.
What is Fabric Automation?
Fabric Automation® describes autologyx’s proprietary next generation of connected and intelligent Robotic Process Automation (iRPA) technology that makes its Think, Build, Connect, Run® capability possible
The autologyx Fabric Automation® platform liberates businesses from the limitations of first generation RPA with an intelligent automation engine that combines simple drag-and-drop user authoring with a library of hundreds of powerful ready-to-use components. These include modules for machine learning, Internet of Things devices and out of the box data connectors, enabling non-technical operations or administration staff to ‘think, build, connect and run’ sophisticated and interactive applications quickly in a ‘no code’ environment and without the traditional integration and deployment barriers.
By delivering unique iRPA technology solutions, autologyx enables you to free your people to focus on the things that create 90% of your value and difference, that need the human touch, that build your brand and reputation.
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Autologyx / Whitepaper: Robotic Process Automation
Taking the next step….
As many leading consultancy firms, iRPA analysts and user-organisations have identified, iRPA adoption is growing exponentially. With many SSC’s already running pilots or POC exercises, there are signs that the early-adopters will gain competitive advantage and the gap will be hard to close.
One initial step could be to start by identifying which business areas or processes could benefit from introducing iRPA. Deloitte published a simple 5-step plan with a useful infographic in their RPA guide for business leaders11. They key points were:
1. Assess for automation opportunities
2. Build your business case
3. Determine the optimal operating model
4. Identify your automation partner(s)
5. Plan the automation roadmap
Autologyx are ideally placed to help guide you through the discovery phase. If you’d like to learn more about iRPA in the context of your business, please contact us now.
Chris Northam
Commercial Director
T: +44 (0)203 884 1814
M: +44 (0)7747 771 551
www.autologyx.com
Autologyx | Cody Technology Park| Farnborough | Hants GU14 0LX
11. www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/innovation/articles/guide-to-robotic-process-automation-and-intelligent-automation.html
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