Robotic Process Automation in the Hotel & Hospitality Sector
The hospitality industry is finally opening up again. After a year of staying in, people are only too happy to be parting with their money in restaurants and hotels whilst catching up with loved ones. However, the face of hospitality is very different to how it was pre-pandemic. As a result of the furlough scheme and hospitality staff finding new employment, there are now severe staff shortages in the industry. With more of the world opening up each week, the hospitality sector is now scrambling to get processes in place with reduced staff numbers. There are reports that as many as 9 in 10 venues that are now short staffed*. It’s not only due to lockdown, in the UK, Brexit has also had an effect on staff members too. Now that so many of us have renewed confidence due to vaccinations, we’re venturing out again in high numbers. This means venues are booking up, leaving restaurants struggling to cope with demand. All of this leads to increased competition for available hospitality staff. Although two thirds of employers are confident about recruiting and training in time – retaining staff will become imperative to remain cost effective. This is where Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can help. ‘Digital workers’ can continuously work throughout the day. Tasks that are classed as ‘dull’ and ‘repetitive’ are completed with ease. Basic tasks such as email reservations are automatically taken care of, so your staff can focus on welcoming customers back! Here are some of the jobs RPA can automate for you. Leaving the worry of staff shortages out of the running of your business; Payment collection – Collecting payment for pre-paid bookings is now much easier. It can be automated using Robotic Process Automation, freeing up staff time to focus elsewhere Insight – If you’re finding much of your resource is being used to generate essential reports, consider using RPA for this instead. You’ll find the data you require can be pulled together quickly and easily. Contact centre – Routine emails including email reservations, amendments or cancellations can all be taken care of. Any time of the day or night. Finance – Vendor setup and retiral, supplier reconciliation, and revenue postings are some of the financial aspects RPA can automate for your business Projects – We can provide fantastic support for projects. Covering anything from data migration, to rate code setup and user permission management. Easily controlled by you and carried out by our digital workers. To find out more about how Centelli has helped automate processes in the hospitality industry, take a look at our case study for Village Hotels. If you would like more information on how Centelli provides tailor-made solutions, get in touch with us today. Click here to Contact us TODAY! *Figures and information obtained at the time of publishing. https://dailybusinessgroup.co.uk/2021/06/hospitality-faces-growing-staff-shortage-crisis/
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!
Automotive companies are becoming more Digital. Continue the Journey with Automation
Another lockdown…. but does it give us time to look at other things? Here we are again. Heading into another lockdown, hopefully only for 1 month (but potentially longer).The Digital Automotive Journey, A lot of organisations have had to put business on ice again which brings many challenges. During the last lockdown, after the initial impact, some companies were able to pivot and spend the “spare” time on improving the running of the business. This time around, the lockdown is still severe but there has been slightly more flexibility built in to allow some companies to keep trading and working. The Digital Automotive Journey is one of those. Centelli works with different customers in the sector who have either started or continued their journeys with UiPath’s Robotic Process Automation tool. In order to thrive in this new environment, automotive companies have to work smarter. They must focus their staff on engaging the customer and creating a truly differentiated experience. The best way to achieve that is by handing over repetitive, administrative tasks to a Digital Worker. Digital workers can work across different applications without needing RPA Solutions for the Automotive Sector Centelli works with Dealerships, Leasing companies & Vehicle Remarketing firms automating processes across the business. This ranges from pricing analysis to managing vehicle inventory to carrying out administrative tasks that must be done but the customer will not care the effort involved. The goals range from anything to saving time on administrative tasks, improving the job satisfaction of the staff, or sheerly growing the bottom line. We’ll leave those up to you.
Never a better time than NOW to think of Digital Workforce Optimization
Future of Digital Workforce is NOW! It’s even more critical to be productive with newly created remote workforces and various work locations. This is the perfect opportunity to explore RPA and how to keep your company performing with maximum efficiency through the pandemic and beyond. Human workers often miss shifts due to illness, vacation, etc. while digital workers are always performing behind the scenes, 24×7, and without any breaks to get those repetitive tasks done. Numerous surveys reveal the need to increase process efficiency which includes factors like speed, quality, continuity and especially cost. In addition the optimization of Digital Workforce through automation allows for focus on more valuable tasks as employers look for more current and lasting operating models. Prior to the pandemic, the push for more knowledge-based, value-added services from humans set the foundation for many automation plans. Offshore options used to be cheaper, but Digital Workforce has changed the way companies can become more efficient in-house. Automation is able to take over for mundane repetitive tasks driving efficiency and productivity 15-20X that of human powered tasks. RPA (Robotic Process Automation) or as we call it “Digital Workers” is the latest mega trend in technology. Automating repetitive tasks allows valuable employees to focus on more meaningful projects. Digital workers are always on the task, working error free, 24/7 to maximize productivity for operations. No coffee breaks required. Digital Workers are simply intelligent software that works with your existing systems!
Expedite Decision-making on Loans and Car Finance
RPA within Leasing & Automotive Robotic Process Automation has been used for the typical back offices processes for some time. The kind of processes where they are partially automated through computer applications (ERP/PMS/Payroll), but where there has still been an element of human control. Back in 2019, Audi started using software robots/Digital Assistants to aide their employees and help them complete tasks quicker. Slow route to decisions for car finance One area where Digital Workers are being used to help within the sector is within financing decisions. Think of a typical process for when a customer is applying for car finance: Customer chooses vehicle they want Determines the term/loan details they would like Input personal information and financial documentation The customer has to wait, but there are a multitude of tasks that happen behind the scenes for the customer to get their decision and finalise the sale of the vehicle. These tasks are usually repetitive, routine, and carried out manually which is why the customer is left waiting. Introduce RPA to speed up the route to sale This is where RPA can help. RPA is an automation system that automates these repetitive tedious tasks and expedites them quicker than we are able to as humans. It also carried them out more accurately as unfortunately we are prone to mistakes, but a Digital Worker will do exactly as you tell it to. The benefit to this is for the bulk of the applications, a decision is reached quicker. For those that have been accepted, the sale is processed sooner and generating revenue for the company. For rejections, even though it is not that answer the customer wanted to hear they are not left waiting. And for the applications that need intervention or a human eye to help make the decision……fortunately we now have our employees who now are not constrained by churning the bulk, and can apply their brains to the more cognitive cases and focus their energies there. WIN WIN. Customer wins, Company wins. To find out more, please contact sales@centelli.com
RPA & Digital Workers in Retail Banking
We use the UiPath software to support us in all of our automation projects. RPA & Digital Workers in Retail Banking From ATM data processing to fraud detection and direct-debits management, here are 5 ways the UiPath Platform has helped commercial banks around the world become more efficient. By Improving the Exchange of ATM Data 90% of their process became automated. 0% manual effort was required. a 70% reduction in processing time. By Streamlining Account Creation for Mortgage Customers 70% of the costs were reduced. Their error rate dropped to 0%. 75% faster processing times. By Detecting Financial Crime Time spent processing requests dropped to 20 minutes (down from 45 minutes). 95% of the process was automated. 1 hour of manual work was replaced with 5 minutes of automated work. By Avoiding Revenue Loss and Improving Dispute Resolution Perform 95% of all daily transactions. Save two full-time equivalents (FTEs). Slash turnaround time to 6 hours daily (down from 16 hours). By Verifying Loan Application Documents After automating their loan-application verification process, the bank saved 20 hours per week and get clients a response faster than the manual process. Contact Centelli for a no obligation consultation to review your processes and challenges to see if Digital Workers can help you execute your strategy more efficiently and effectively.
Optimizing Supply Chains – Vendor Selection
RPA is being increasingly adopted within the supply chain to mimic the actions of human employees: capturing, replicating, and processing data, communicating with customers, as well as making judgements and learning from past actions. Intelligent Process Automation in areas such as Vendor Selection, Shipment Status Communications, and Demand Planning are just some of the examples that streamline current processes providing increased customer experience and higher staff satisfaction. A recent study suggests that 72% of global supply chain companies plan to implement RPA solutions leading to process efficiencies by as much as 43%! Benefits of RPA in Vendor Selection & Procurement Selecting and procuring vendors is a highly manual process that normally involves employees preparing an RFQ (request for quotation), communicating to vendors, performing a preliminary analysis of vendor documents, evaluating the vendor, running a credit check, and finalizing the vendor selection. Deploying RPA solutions systemically can automate almost the entire process. Human intervention is only needed when developing initial specifications, generating a list of potential vendors, and engaging in face-to-face conversations or onsite visits and negotiations. This could lead to cycle time improvements by as much as 50% and processing time by as much as 45%. Digital Workers from Centelli are like having low cost workhorses that operate 24×7 without coffee breaks or ever calling in sick. Get started today and put your manual and repetitive tasks on autopilot!
Will RPA take away human jobs?
Over the last few days, I have been asked quite a few times – will RPA take away jobs? Adoption of technology or any automation (whether it be through RPA or through the implementation of enterprise applications or robots in a factory) will always get asked that question. Impact of Automation can be categorised in to two types: Labour augmentation: Automation that complements a human, making them more effective. E.g. a forklift enables a worker carry weight many times greater than they would be able to carry with their bare arms Labour replacing: Automation that takes the place of a human worker. E.g. machines in factories that can do the job of multiple workers For us at Centelli, we focus on enabling outcomes and delivering business benefits. Once those outcomes are achieved, benefits are unlocked, it is up to the customer to determine the appropriate way of capitalising on it. We start all exploration of possible areas for automation with a simple question – “If you were given a magic wand to make any task go away, what would you want to stop doing?”. The response becomes the target for automation. These answer to this question are inherently oriented towards labour augmentation. The work that has been taken over by the Digital Workers has been work that the human workforce was doing but was never thrilled by it. Once the Digital Workers have been deployed, there is a significant positive impact on the staff. Human workforce is freed up from repetitive tasks and is able to focus on more value adding tasks, tasks that require greater thinking, provide a greater challenge. Mckinsey in an article published as early as 2017 on Intelligent Process Automation, has identified freeing up of skilled resources as one of the 4 major benefits of RPA. In one particular implementation at a hotel contact centre, there was an improvement in motivation levels, better output and overall greater job satisfaction. Automation is about people and how we can best use the experienced and cognitive capabilities of the human workforce the best. We say that RPA is not Robotic Process Automation but is Routine Processes Annihilated! If you are doing tasks that are repetitive and should ideally not be done by humans, get in touch. Find out how our Digital Worker solution can help.