RPA In Your Business.
There are lots of ways businesses can benefit from RPA in your business (robotic process automation). Companies around the world are using it and we don’t even realise! It automates your processes and frees up time and resources within your company without significant IT costs. In fact, RPA works with your existing systems and provides rapid ROI. But don’t take our word for it, these are some of the industries Centelli have worked in and optimised processes that have provided tangible benefits. Automotive 91% of companies are now using automation technologies (or Digital Workers as we call them) to increase efficiency and capacity within the business and improve customer service. Our clients in the automotive sector have Digital Workers across Pricing Analysis, Sales Processing, Vehicle Inventory and managing all sorts of back-office processes (such as PO creation & invoicing). RPA in your business, automation can increase output, without hiring more staff. Whilst creating efficiencies that allows your staff to be happier and more productive in their work. Financial Within the Financial sector, RPA automates high values and high transaction processes. This can be anything from loan applications, responding to standard customer queries, and in harmonizing data across various banking systems. We call our automation ‘digital workers’ as they work faster, with fewer mistakes every day of the year. RPA also revolutionizes banking compliance by automating monitoring of key elements across banking systems. Supply chain By introducing RPA to your supply chain, you save valuable time and man-power throughout your logistics operation. You can avoid costly staff recruitment and training, allowing employees to work on other projects across the company. Information such as machine downtime can be monitored and relayed across relevant departments. This means quick communication and less disruption. Some other examples of where RPA in your business has benefited Supply chain include, order processing, invoice processing, shipment scheduling, customer management and customer portal integration. Which all lead to significantly improved customer and supplier experiences, and a happier workforce that leads to reduced staff turnover! Hotels and hospitality We have worked with a number of chains within the hotel industry and are constantly finding new ways to automate processes. Many of the day to day processes involved in hospitality can be undertaken by digital workers. This has been particularly relevant in the past year, where there are added restrictions and safety measures in place. All of which have required additional attention from staff. One of the most obvious ways we can help is by automating jobs such as reservation booking, amends and cancellations. Digital Workers can handle routine jobs like these, as well as collection of payments for pre-paid bookings, rate code set up and supplier reconciliation. Leaving your staff to focus on ensuring COVID safety measures as their top priority. Construction You may be questioning how robotic process automation could possibly help in the construction industry! Construction is rapidly relying on new technologies and RPA ties into this. We have helped companies keep control of their costs more easily, aided tax preparation and onboarded contractors with minimum fuss. Implementing digital workers to help with things like this removes the risk of human error and allows projects to keep on budget. If you think Centelli can help improve processes within your company, give us a call! You can reach us by phoning +44 (0)7900 232396 (UK), +1 678 566 6942 (USA) or by emailing info@Centelli.com.
Preventing RPA Programme from Stalling
Robotic Process Automation (RPA), or Digital Workers, promises to change the world. It is exciting. It has proven itself. Its impact is wide reaching. However, many RPA Programme initiatives stall after the initial stage. Based on our experience at Centelli, there are 3 clear stages in the evolutionary journey once an organisation embarks on an automation journey. Successful organisations can overcome the crisis that follows each stage of the journey. The main reasons that we have seen for RPA transformation programmes stalling are: Sponsorship: Newton’s first law of motion states that a body remains in the same state of motion unless a force is applied. An organisation is no different. For it to change, a force must be applied. The sponsor is the force. More senior the sponsor, the greater the force they can apply. In initial phases, the problem that RPA programme might be solving will could be great enough to make change happen but that change remains limited and localised. Quality of implementation, especially in initial phases: Success breeds success. Initial success is critical. Without that, the organisation will lose trust in the solution and the initiative will be dead in the water. Pick the right processes to automate balancing process complexity with benefit. Ideally, a high volume, low complexity process with high benefit. Of course, life is not ideal, and it will mean striking a balance between these three. Impact: processes that impact customers experience generate momentum that everyone will get behind. If the process does not directly impact customer experience, then focus on employee experience. It is about people: Consider the impact on people that the automation will have. Aim for a positive experience. Don’t forget Polyani’s paradox (we know more than we can tell): There will be surprises in the process and be ready for them. Addressing the surprises will be dependent on the creativity of the team to find solutions and ensuring the process is automated without diluting benefits. Implementation team: the implementation team must be the A-team! They must be behind the initiative completely, not just as a delivery task. The team must have the commitment and skills to make success happen no matter what challenge comes up. Most often, organisations engage partners such as Centelli for the initial phases while they build their own team. Make sure the partner is flexible in addressing challenges / surprises and is 100% aligned with the objectives of the programme. What next? There will be lots of ideas at the start of an initiative. Whilst the initial set of processes are being implemented, the rest of the processes tend to fizzle away. Build a pipeline, engage the organisation through the sponsor to build on the momentum If you’re looking for more information on how RPA can help your company thrive, get in touch with Centelli. Learn about how we’re reducing costs, saving time and removing errors for businesses across the country. Call today on 07900 232396 or email info@Centelli.com.
What Are the Benefits of RPA?
At Centelli, we see companies from a wide range of industries come to us as they begin to understand how they can improve their workflow through RPA implementation. So, what are the benefits of RPA exactly? Read on… Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has become a popular business process transformation tool. As demand for quicker and better service and innovative products continues to grow, companies are relying on technology more than ever. Are you wondering how your business could benefit from RPA or Digital Workers? RPA focuses on automating repetitive, rule-based tasks and is an essential component for many Digital Worker and Intelligent Automation solutions. Top 5 Benefits of RPA You Can’t Afford to Ignore Let’s take a look at some biggest advantages RPA brings to businesses and workplaces: 1. Faster Turnaround with RPA at Work RPA is constantly working, 24/7. Unlike human workers, ‘Digital Workers’ can continue working all day, every day of the year. So, there are no legal working hours to adhere to or unexpected sick days. You can meet deadlines and take on more work, knowing that the automated process will keep working behind the scenes. This will ensure your company remains reliable when it counts! 2. Greater Accuracy; Reduced Business Risk Without the element of human error, you will see a significant reduction in the incidence of mistakes within your workflow. These can often happen when you have many manual processes. RPA removes this risk! However, we’re not saying that there is no place for humans—far from it! By employing RPA, your employees can focus on and make more time for profit driving exercises. All of this, with automation taking care of some of the more straightforward but time-consuming processes. 3. Improved Data Quality: A Critical RPA Benefit With RPA, the data and information you obtain will become more reliable as time goes on. This in turn will give you a better indication of how your company is performing and what changes need to be implemented in the future. The benefit of RPA makes it quicker and easier to deep-dive into previous data. This allows for more instantaneous data-backed reporting and comparisons, something that would take considerable man hours normally. Understand your company’s output in real time! 4. No HR Management Burden with RPA / Digital Bots The great thing about Digital Workers and RPA bots is that they need no management! The Robotic Process Automation (RPA) market is set to expand by USD 37.6 billion from 2024 to 2028, fueled by the demand for cost-saving solutions Source: PR Newswire Want to leverage RPA / Digital Workers to elevate your workflows? Get in touch with Centelli! Discover how our custom-built RPA solutions are removing errors while optimizing costs and time efficiencies for businesses across the USA, UK, Europe, India, and Dubai (UAE). There is less demand on your HR department, leaving them to focus on more important issues within your company. RPA removes the jobs that are often considered mundane, giving your workforce more fulfilling roles and improving the overall morale of your company. This in turn helps reduce staff turnover, which gives a better overall impression of your company and greater job satisfaction for your employees. 5. Improved Customer Satisfaction with RPA Implementation All of these great improvements you’ve made to your processes will lead the ultimate goal of any company i.e. improved customer satisfaction! You May Also Like: Overcoming Automation Implementation Challenges: A Guide Because how your customers feel about the service you offer directly makes a difference and determines if they choose you again. It also affects whether they recommend you or talk about you positively, both online and face-to-face. Therefore, by reducing errors and customer service issues, you’re creating better relationships with your customers. Ultimately giving your company, a great reputation!
Turbulence and Calm in the Hospitality Industry
It’s never been so turbulent in the hospitality industry; in fact the winds have got to storm force! Where sometimes it all feels more like hostility rather than hospitality… Cancellations, refunds, amendments, bookings re-made then cancelled, credit notes and vouchers are the current norm. We talk to people in the industry who have upwards of 10,000 guest/membership emails (and growing) unanswered waiting for a response…and then to have to process them. With delay more emails are received pursuing the course of action originally requested…and it begins, a vicious circle. With back office functions now operating remotely or temporarily back on-site it is difficult to get back to processing levels of the past, never mind take up the increased workload. Employers are seeing stress levels rising within members of their teams who are relentlessly pursuing the ability to get stuff done, in less than ideal working conditions, bulk processing transactions, out of sight of the business. But there are some cool heads out there… We are talking to enlightened leadership teams who have managed to take a step back and revaluate what needs to be done. Obviously looking at immediate solutions, as well as re-evaluating the future. One thing is for sure, as things have changed and moved forward, they are never going back to where they were…but where to look to start freeing up the time and capacity of the workforce? The hospitality Industry is increasingly looking at the use of software robots, or Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to augment and takeover a whole range of processing and transactional tasks. With this technology it’s possible to spin up a robot in a few weeks to create a “Digital Worker” who will automate a process. You can have this technology supporting you getting over an immediate hump, heartily eating away at a catastrophic email inbox, calming the storm! A Digital Worker will work 24/7 and not require any vacation, concentrating on the task in hand. The time saved and the efficiencies gained releases you and your teams to start to look at the longer term. We know that the industry is adopting RPA more widely for the long term. It is now a well-established technology, knitting together disparate systems and taking care of routine process tasks and transactions. Anything a human can do on a computer screen, your Digital Worker can do as well. With the rise of remote home working it is an advantage to have the bulk/ transactional process handled centrally and to use a distributed workforce to concentrate on higher value and revenue generating, or revenue protection types of activities. RPA is an ideal way to centralise these repetitive tasks and get the job done with a big injection of efficiency and effectiveness. This frees up people to calm the waters, to enable them to work on member/guest facing value adding activities. The aim is to bring the real face of the business back to guests and be responsive, rather than just trying to clear ever growing backlogs – bringing “hospitable” back to hospitality.
Ownership of RPA should be with the business
Technology, such as Digital Workers (RPA), is integrated in everything we do these days. For example, cars have embedded software. Is that software owned by IT, just because it is software, or should it be owned by the business, as it is part of the product that the customer derives value from? The line is blurred. We have seen approaches from – “it is software so it should be owned by IT” to “the business owns everything”. In an agile world, business is ultimately accountable to the customer so they should own everything. The business needs to determine priorities, requirements and the timelines by which results have to be delivered. IT can provide skills that facilitate the process, cover gaps in skills but ultimately deliver to the targets set by the business. So, where does the ownership of the technology asset lie in the end? Philosophically, the organisation as a collective owns it. However, if we need to pinpoint down to an individual/role within the organisation, it should be the person that is accountable for the service that the technology enables. RPA, i.e. Digital Workers, can be confusing. RPA is a piece of technology that is deployed to automate repetitive tasks. Whilst it is software, RPA is designed to aid a business user in carrying out their tasks. The ownership, i.e. what it needs to do, when it is needed by, etc., for the solution should lie with the business. This is tricky in financial services where the use of software/computing applications is quite strong. This makes IT a powerful force in the organisation and the procedures that they follow are quite “robust”. Since RPA is a piece of software, it is but natural to think of it as an IT project. Taking a lesson from manufacturing in the previous century, this behaviour is analogous to the traditional batch & queue manufacturing. In the late 1900s, when the airline industry was booming, large companies in the industry were struggling with internal batch & queue processes and siloed thinking. High costs, long lead times and defects were ingrained in almost every organisation. In an industry where lives literally depend on reliability, costs, lead times, and rooting out every defect was like gospel. However, this was not sustainable. They couldn’t keep pace with customers. In the second half to late 1900s, most companies started implementing Lean Manufacturing by focusing on value, the customer and eliminating waste. One of the critical steps in this journey was re-defining ownership of value to the customer and giving that role authority to make changes. For RPA, financial services organisations must adopt the principles of lean manufacturing by means of adopting Agile. By focusing on value generation and making the ownership of value clear, they can increase speed of deployment, eliminate defects, cut down on waste whilst increasing customer/employee experience. Two of the key benefits of this shift highlighted by CIO.com (https://www.cio.com/article/3393473/the-agile-approach-five-benefits-for-financial-services.html) in an opinion article are a shift from a project to a product mindset and innovate continuously and responsibly. We believe that taking an agile approach for RPA in financial services is a must if the automations are to deliver quick and reliable results. In a recent deployment at a customer a shift from agile to traditional waterfall approach (why this happened is worthy of a book rather than a blog) resulted in the project taking 3x longer than planned. The results were more reliable, but speed was lost and any change now is slower to roll out as it has to go through a long process of testing and validation, just like an IT project. The business has become a consumer/recipient of an IT service rather than the owner of the automation. Reach out to explore our RPA and Digital Workers solutions.
Some FAQs – Robotic Process Automation
What is Robotic Process Automation and what are Digital Workers? Robotic process automation is software based intelligent automation, governed by business logic and structured inputs, aimed at automating business processes. It works with existing software systems, eliminating the need for expensive implementations of new enterprise solutions. Here are FAQs on Robotic Process Automation: The best way to think about RPA is as a Digital Worker, who can work alone or alongside the existing workforce to get these jobs done. Digital Workers work best doing tedious, repetitive tasks, eliminating human errors, and freeing corporate workers to focus on higher value work. What are Digital Workers capable of doing? Digital Workers are capable of following any logic, rule, or structured business process that you can train a human employee to do. In essence you train the Digital Worker to do the particular task in the same way that you would an existing employee or a new employee. It is one of the very few technologies you can actually see working when you watch the automation flying across computer screens and between systems… it can be quite mesmerizing at times! Is the process of deploying a digital worker like an IT project? How long does it take? No – that is one of the biggest benefits of Digital Workers. They are quick to deploy and work with any existing IT application, just like a human worker would. Digital Workers are just like your employees, only they are software. Our value based implementation approach works with your staff to understand the process in detail and “train” the digital worker. Given that most IT organizations are constrained by resources and piles of pending tasks, Digital Worker deployment limits IT involvement to provisioning a virtual “laptop”, and appropriate access, for the digital worker as opposed to a physical laptop. Digital Workers are really a business solution that are enabled by technology.
Automation and Automobiles
Everyone can imagine how Automation have been used in the automotive sector. One quick look at a vehicle production line, and you will see swathes of industrial robots pulling together the various components that make up the cars we drive today. It has been this way since the 60s & 70s. Robots can build the vehicles quicker, for longer periods of time without fatigue, and with less errors than the staff who were previously on the production line. The staff who would have building the cars manually have transitioned their skills into supporting, maintaining, and repairing the robots so they can do their job. RPA is no different in the 21st century Robotic Process Automation in Automotive sector is the modern-day equivalent of steam engines and industrial robots. UiPath software robots pick up the repetitive, computer based processes that human staff used to do. But these robots are not constrained by the same limitations that we are. We are only able to execute a certain number of tasks in our 8/9 hour day, but we need to also be doing the rest of our day jobs (because the repetitive tasks are generally the distractions). The automotive sector has already undergone this secondary revolution using robots, just this time around its been with software robots. We have clients within leasing, dealerships, vehicle remarketing and even automotive data organisations who already use RPA. There are countless back office processes that can be picked up by robots (AP within Finance, onboarding & offboarding within HR, and even tasks like returns processing within Supply Chain functions). Automotive specific use case However, the biggest benefit gainers and savings have been linked to front office and have a direct impact on the success of the business. Within one automotive group we have developed an automation where the robots calculate the prices of available leases from across 5 different applications, and then posts the best price. Because a robot does not take holidays, coffee breaks, works midnight-midnight and not 9-5, and does not make human error and need to go back for rework, the benefits have been massive. The amount of prices they have been able to post each month has increased by a factor of 10x. This directly results in increased revenue for the company. Chances are, there will be repetitive, routine processes that consume the time of your staff and a lot of the time, keep them away from dealing directly with customers or stakeholders. If you want to look under the hood at your operations and see where you can use software robots to help your operation, get in touch at sales@Centelli.com.
Failing to Realize the Big Promises and Payoffs from ERP, CRM, and other Enterprise Solutions?
You have invested human and financial resources, your teams have put in countless hours and sweat to implement a change in business process with or without additional automation enabled by ERP, CRM Enterprise solution/computing applications to improved customer experience, efficiency and agility. Despite the project going live, change being implemented the benefits are not realised. On top of that the staff feel overworked and frustrated. Customers continue to demand more and competition is threatening at the heart of your business. Sound familiar? Fundamentally the time and effort spent on the change is not wasted. What is missing is smoothing out the change with automation ERP, CRM Enterprise solution, taking care of the additional asks on staff to carry out tasks to make the change work smoothly. Projects have tight deadlines, limited budgets and at the end the project team is running to get to the finish line. The end rush tends to result in adoption of workarounds that limit the benefit and cause the increased work load. We have a quick, simple and effective solution. Centelli uses Digital Workers (RPA – Robotic Process Automation) to grease the bearings across your solutions. Digital Workers provide connected workflows, bridge data gaps, speed processes providing accuracy and efficiency and become virtual assistants to your key resources reducing their stress and burden further improving customer experience. Ultimately, no packaged software unilaterally provides the tools necessary to execute a business strategy. The key to success is utilizing the best components across various solutions, just like we use our human capital by driving each resource to deliver to their capabilities. Digital Workers provide a layer of connectivity and bring the strengths of your existing solutions together in a well humming automation engine. Yes, we are saying keep your existing systems and let Digital Workers put them together. Digital Workers are cost effective, quick to deploy, and do not require integration layers or programming changes. CEO’s are turning to Digital Workers to create a workforce of the future – one that combines human talent with the efficiency of a digital worker.
Automotive Sector – Boost Sales using Digital Employees
Automotive Challenge Businesses across the board have been affected one way or another by Covid-19. We work with organizations in the automotive sector who saw a complete halt on operations a few months ago. They now have the rapid need to generate as much revenue going forward as economies try and open, with the possibility they may lock down again. Major fundamental changes within the industry are anticipated that will affect everything from production, electric vehicle demand and supply chains. Suppliers’ margins were already being pinched during the downturn in global economic activity before Covid-19, the ongoing uncertainty and volatility will only make things worse. Showrooms & Dealerships at the front line Covid-19 has exposed the lack of digitization across automotive sales and marketing with the absence of access to dealers in the new digital environment, where customers are immersed in e-commerce across all aspects of their lives. The existing Single-channel operational strategies are old hat and not the way that people now want to consume products and services. Flexible approaches to multichannel selling and the total support for automotive sales will be crucial to future success Agility and flexibility will be key, especially when considering a possible second or third wave of the pandemic. The limitations of availability and the way that staff can work in dealerships needs also to be thrown into the mix. Going forward having information at the fingertips of the people dealing with customers is going to be imperative. Being able to turn around deals, transactions and having highly efficient, effective and adaptive back office operations will become a key differentiator. RPA – Robotic Process Automation can be highly effective in this space, using RPA Digital Workers to drive down transaction times by streamlining the marshalling of information from many disparate sources to support vehicle sales process cycle. It releases people from undertaking transactional wasteful back office functions, accessing multiple systems to release them to be customer facing, supporting/integrating multi channel sales efforts. The outcomes from a Digital Worker can be put directly into the hands of dealership staff or used to support customers directly through an online platform, where speed of information is of the essence. The best part is that these robots interact with computing applications just like humans and as a result are non-intrusive, but can be deployed within a matter of days. Using a flexible resource like a Digital Worker to match constantly changing circumstances without having to resort to massive investments in source system reconfigurations can make all the difference and keep you agile.
Navigating Complex Supply Chain Systems to Drive Business Transformation
It seems each year the invent of new technology gives us an opportunity to transform our processes but too often the Supply Chain industry finds itself weighed down by multiple systems and Integrating legacy applications. In a digital first world, continued acceleration in adopting innovative technology is vital to success. Sudden impact of Covid-19 only highlighted the gaps in digitization of the modern supply chain and companies with weak or ill-defined digital projects are being left behind at a pace never seen before. However, it is not easy to simply replace legacy systems or share data among the various functional tools to get an edge. So how does one go about digital transformation to solve short-term business objectives while ensuring long-term viability? Digital Workers (RPA – Robotic Process Automation) are enabling the industry to overcome such barriers by simply providing a digital assistant to your teams to overcome shortcomings in integrations, removing the laborious task of data redundancy, improving accuracy of information across platforms, and providing fast and more accurate information to customers and management for rapid decision making. CEO’s are realizing that Digital Workers enable their teams to execute short and long-term strategies without significantly increasing headcount or adding additional projects on their already strained IT teams. Here is where Digital Workers add value to supply chain by picking up repetitive tasks and bridging the gap between multiple applications: Shipment scheduling, tracking, and communications Invoice processing Load management Order processing (don’t have an EDI option with a partner, no sweat – use a Digital Worker!) Supply and demand planning Communications and Alerting Inventory tracking, vendor managed inventory, consigned inventory Bridge data gaps between any of your existing applications Reduce data redundancy errors and mistakes Remove silos and improve cross-functional collaboration Virtual servicing Enable digital commerce How We Enable Digital Transformation with Digital Workers Keep your legacy systems and embrace a digital first mindset, while improving operational efficiencies at reduced costs and with rapid deployment. At Centelli, we deploy Digital Workers. Digital Workers are like a virtual assistant for your teams that work 24×7 without breaks, without holidays, without calling in sick and without making any errors. Deploy Digital Workers now to move business forward! It is expected that 72% of companies will use Digital Workers in the next 2 years alone. Integrating Legacy applications are no longer a barrier to transform – in fact keep them! Contact Centelli