History has seen automation brought about by the invention of steam, then electricity, and more recently electronics. Perhaps what mostly comes to mind when we think of automation is a number of machines (robots) mimicking human motion, operating in a factory context. In the information technology field, we have seen automation in the form of data processing through programming, scripting or even Business Processes Management (BPM) platforms.
Although computing gave us a variety of options in terms of automating data processing, the reality is that organisations may have disparate systems or interactions that cross organisations or business entities. This results in the need for humans to be involved in the activity of inputting, reasoning and mapping of information and actions across systems. As business activity grows, organisations may find themselves allocating resources for the execution of such routine activities, which in some cases are also time critical. The chances of human error or dependency on availability of individuals increases.
What if we could automate such ‘manual’ activity performed by our staff just like robots have automated the manufacturing line? What if we could free up those resources to do more value added activity? What if we could reduce the operational cost of such back-office activity?
With the increase in computational capacity and cognitive capabilities that can realise human activities such as reading and natural language processing, we have seen the emergence of a new type of automation platform – Robotic Process Automation (RPA). RPA is a category of software tools that executes human activity involving interaction with data and computer systems (core systems, web and desktop applications) and does so repeatedly in an autonomous mode.
Imagine a simple scenario of opening a handwritten scanned document, recognising the text, opening an application like Microsoft Excel and pasting the information recognised from the document onto an Excel sheet. Subsequently, for all the entries, opening a web application and inputting the data while comparing values from yet another business application. This today can be achieved without a single line of programming using RPA.
One of the key features that makes the use of RPA software attractive is the integration of optical character recognition (OCR) capability – allowing it to convert scanned images of text into editable output formats so that the robot (or bot) can utilise the data into the workflow and input it in other systems. The bot can also be designed to handle work item exceptions – by recovering and proceeding onto the next work item rather than failing and terminating entirely.
Automation offers improved business efficiency, consistency, accuracy and compliance
RPA is a non-invasive technology and can be deployed without altering existing IT infrastructure while still enabling communication with all systems. This lowers implementation risk and with the right scale of adoption it can bring a return on investment in relatively short timeframes. This automation paradigm is best used to run repetitive, rule-based, high volume processes, such as those involving manual calculations, that require data entry on multiple systems, which are time consuming and in need of quality and control. Since each business process activity is different, the RPA platform would need to be configured for each process workflow.
Automation offers improved business efficiency, consistency, accuracy and compliance, notwithstanding increased reliability, scalability and a significant reduction in human intervention for non-value added repeatable tasks.
Typical tasks that prove to be easily automated with automation include accounts reconciliation processes, data extraction from documents, comparison of data sets, composing and sending of template-based e-mails and data entry across finance and accounting, logistics and human resources, among others.
Identifying suitable processes to put forward for automation is a key step in the automation journey. For this, we recommend a discovery phase whereby our team of experts analyse business processes with process owners in order to identify sub-processes suitable for automation. Through this phase, we also identify the technical landscape and discuss the operating model that would need to be established for running the RPA software.
During the implementation phase the team will help business managers define the flow chart of the entire process and setting the same logic otherwise followed by a user. Once the bot is configured it would be scheduled to run through the process in a step-wise manner.
If managers are interested in learning more about the latest automation technologies and best practices, they may join us at the next All Things Tech event being organised by EY on Thursday, May 31. There we will explore the topic of Business Transformation through Automation. In collaboration with our sponsors UiPath and ICT Solutions we are bringing best in class speakers at an informal setting that promises to be an informative and fruitful event.
All-Things-Tech is also meant to provide an environment where open discussions are held and ideas are exchanged in order to spark innovation. Following the event there will be a networking session where managers can mingle with the EY team, the experts and other attendees.
Registration is free at https://allthingstech01.eventbrite.com . For further information one can send an e-mail to all.things.tech@mt.ey.com.
Michael Azzopardi is senior manager IT Advisory, EY, and Diane Chircop is a senior consultant, EY.