What is RPA & What can it do for your company?
Robotic Process Automation (RPA), is the use of technology to automate a process or task that has a
logical flow and does not require prior working experience/knowledge to complete.
It is a non-invasive automation tool that can automate processes quickly with low technology
requirements. Providing the right process or task is chosen, quick payback periods can be achieved
(“ROI: 30-200%” McKinsey, March 2017).
Sales / Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
Client Research to Improve Sales Life-cycle
Discover the ideal discount rate should be for a proposal to ensure that you’re most likely to win the deal by looking at specific features of each past deal that was won or lost.
Automated Communication via Chat, Emails & Calls
Respond to common customer/supplier questions, requests. RPA can read emails and identify what actions are required.
Client Information Management
Bot can compile information on customers across different channels or points of contact. These channels include company’s website, telephone, live chat, direct mail, marketing materials and social media.
Conduct Market Research
Conduct market research via data collection through web scraping and information dissemination.
Reporting
Combine data sources from separate applications into a report.
Supply Chain Management
Order Status Communication
Robots can be used to automate communication, automatically triggering an email or text when an order is processed, shipped, or delayed.
Supply and Demand Planning
Gathering and merging the necessary information from various sources, running data cleansing tools, as well as transforming the final data into a plan and providing the necessary communication to stakeholders.
Order Processing and Payments
Processing of customer orders and shipping confirmations as well as tracking the changes in company’s database.
Customer Insights
Robot can collect valuable data on your on-going operations as well as supplier interactions via social media, mobile and online communications.
Inventory management
Monitor inventory, generate notifications when levels are low, and reorder products when levels go below a set threshold. In addition, real-time reporting provided by RPA can be used to determine optimal inventory levels based on previous needs and modify levels accordingly.
Accounting
Journals
Creation and upload of Journals to ERP.
AP Automation
Invoices are processed, with the exception of handwritten invoices.
Data Extraction for Accounting Close
Machines can post data from a number of sources, consolidate and reconcile it.
Invoice and Bank Statement Reconciliation
Robots can perform data extraction from bank statements, thereby augmenting the likelihood of accurate comparisons.
Cost Allocations
Robots can perform manual cost allocation processes.
Procure to Pay
Supplier Onboarding
Launch a robot that vets new suppliers with a complete report on credit scores, tax data, etc.
Portal Queries
A robot can connect to all of your portals and automatically gather or post information either at pre-set times or as part of a defined workflow.
Vendor/Supplier Maintenance
Ongoing maintenance of the supplier information within ERP.
Allocating Payments Against Outstanding Invoices
Bot can read bank statements and match with invoices in your ERP system.
Contract Terms
Validate vendor contract data on invoices to ensure compliance with contract terms.
Billing
Supplier Pricing Comparisons
When preparing a customer quote, comparing your suppliers’ prices is often a time-sensitive manual process. Let a robot gather that data and deliver it in record time.
Order Exception Processing
Sales orders often have stipulations such as holding the price for a number of days. A robot can automatically do a price check and verify the current price against the sales order.
Customer Onboarding and Master Data Maintenance
As with suppliers in the procure-to-pay cycle, new customers must be vetted and onboarded and their data periodically validated and updated.
Delivery Reconciliation
Delivery notes are reconciled with purchase orders to validate orders against shipments. A robot can check and approve all matching orders and only notify a human when there’s an exception.
Call Center Operations
Integrate Data
When preparing a customer quote, comparing your suppliers’ prices is often a time-sensitive manual process. Let a robot gather that data and deliver it in record time.
Ongoing Customer Engagement & Follow-up
Sales orders often have stipulations such as holding the price for a number of days. A robot can automatically do a price check and verify the current price against the sales order.
Handle multiple interactions
Delivery notes are reconciled with purchase orders to validate orders against shipments. A robot can check and approve all matching orders and only notify a human when there’s an exception.
Reduce Staff Training Costs
Bot can serve the agents with related information; the agents won’t need high-level training to learn everything.
Field Calls
As with suppliers in the procure-to-pay cycle, new customers must be vetted and onboarded and their data periodically validated and updated.