Robotic Process Automation
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) sounds like a wonderful new buzzword and for many, it opens up a world of marketing opportunities however for us at Prosperity, it is simply an evolutionary step following years of applied business process automation, straight through processing or simply business process improvement.
When our colleagues help businesses to work in a better way, these engagements start with the business need, not the technological solution. In many instances, an engagement defined to solve a process issue can be undertaken, initiated and process enhancements recommended without any technological intervention whatsoever. Classic ‘Five Why?’ questioning strategies or well led business analysis sessions with key stakeholders from the business will reveal the inherent challenges that exist within businesses spanning any sector.
Often legacy processes have been introduced due to the inability of technology to support a process, so we often reveal and document a plethora of supporting stages which leverage human intervention, Excel spreadsheets, Word Documents, check lists and other traditional approaches.
Another reason for cumbersome processes relates to either a historical audit outcome or a ‘one off’ human error which created ‘robust controls’ to ensure that the issue never happens again. We have seen this latter scenario constrain an organisation so much that the cost of the one off loss was less than a week in process burden subsequently – the ‘robust control framework’ had been in place for three years when we reviewed it – just imagine the costs incurred in the period through manpower and frequent leavers who were asked to run a poorly considered and burdensome process.
Robotic Process Automation supported by technology
Ordinarily our Business Solutions projects involve a level of process re-engineering – it is common sense to improve a process when reviewing it no? Therefore we deploy supporting technologies to both enhance a process (ensuring consistency) as well as introducing pragmatic automation to radically reduce the cost of high-volume, low-complexity, and routine tasks.
Tasks often undertaken by humans, like transferring data from one software system to another can be delivered through a blend of integration work and process work utilising technologies such as Dynamics 365, APIs and the Azure Service Bus (if we are talking large scale automation) but often Dynamics 365 alone is sufficient to radically improve the productivity of our clients through the excellent user interface, dynamic data management, inbuilt artificial intelligence and the ability to surface data from disparate systems into a single operational tool to deliver workforce or sales force automation.
In all these projects, what sets Prosperity apart is that we approach projects of this nature sensitively, RPA is not about radical headcount reduction, more about helping your colleagues to deliver the best service and complete processes right first time. This approach reduces errors, administration and greatly reduces workplace stress which has a positive impact across the broader organisation.
If you need more time to apply yourself to more taxing challenges, now is the time to implement Robotic Process Automation with Dynamics 365. Our colleagues at Prosperity are here to help, as our ‘Great Minds, Always Innovate’.
