Mike Stewart, Business Development Director – Digital Automation at Arvato CRM Solutions
Automation can be a transformative force in the back office and it can be easily applied to existing systems without the need for complex integration in as little as 30 days per process.
However, generating the very best results requires careful design and consideration.
Here are the three key stages we work through with our clients when implementing our end-to-end ProcessAutomate solution to optimise the benefits to their operations.
Assess – identifying the opportunity
The very first step is a broad review of an organisation’s opportunities, looking at pressure points on a departmental or process level to see where the technology could drive efficiencies.
Automation is a flexible, powerful tool that can be applied across industries and across functions. So, where there are multiple parts of a business that could benefit, this involves identifying the priority areas where it should be deployed first.
Once these have been pinpointed, an automation consultant meets with an organisation’s management team and in-house experts to break down the processes under consideration.
This stage includes determining how much of a process could be automated, and what type of automation would deliver the best results.
This could range from agent augmentation, a solution that collects data and shares it with agents to then review and process, to virtual workforces and intelligent automation, which combines robotics with cognitive computing to provide in-depth analysis and insight to support human decision-making.
With this complete, the consultant generates a business case for approval. This includes a calculation of expected return on investment so management teams can clearly see the value that robotic support is expected to bring.
Build – developing the technology
Once a business case has been approved, work then begins on creating the solution itself.
Continuing to collaborate closely with an organisation’s own in-house experts, an automation developer breaks down and translates the tasks to be automated into a robotic workflow and designs how the technology will operate.
From here, the developer works with an automation process designer to put the design into code, before thoroughly testing the solution to ensure quality, check that it is delivering against specifications and examine how it handles exceptions to its rule-based processes, which often need to be passed on to a human agent for closer examination.
This stage is often the most time-intensive part of the process, but is still relatively quick to complete, typically taking around 24 days from start to finish.
Deploy – putting automation into field
At this point, organisations have a functioning, tested, automation solution that is ready to be put into action, and it usually takes just one day to apply it to a live environment.
With the technology up and running, ongoing focus will be on monitoring and maintaining the technology to ensure it is delivering as planned, and to make any updates or changes as necessary.
Automation’s long-term operating model can be adapted to fit an organisation’s specific needs and preferences. For some of our clients, we assume full ongoing management of their solution. But for others, such as Neath Port Talbot Council, we can provide best practice consultation and training to upskill employees so that they can run and monitor automation independently – enabling their organisation to become entirely self-sufficient.
Ultimately, having the right partner, with the right expertise, will ensure your automation experience is as smooth and as productive as possible.
At Arvato, we have the experience to help you apply the technology to your operations, quickly and effectively, and can support you at every stage of your journey – whether that involves building a full, end-to-end system, assessing where automation could be deployed in your processes, or helping to run and maintain an existing solution.
Contact us to learn more about how your business can benefit from automation today – CRMSE@arvato.co.uk.
