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The key to reaping long term benefits is to begin by examining processes, then find the right technology solution, writes Mike Stewart, head of digital practice at ArvatoConnect
The prospect of automation often instils a sense of nervousness in organisations, with the fear of possible consequences from trusting too much in machines.
But organisations can find assurance in a simple mantra: start small but think big. The idea is to understand the processes, run a limited early implementation, learn from it, identify issues to be addressed, then scale up.
In addition, people assume that automation is essentially for the processing of repetitive tasks, but it has a greater potential that comes when looking at a project and identifying hidden inefficiencies and uncovering issues that could have been missed.
This is as relevant to government as any other sector, and ArvatoConnect’s experience of working with Hertfordshire County Council on the transformation of its accounts payable processes provides an example of what can be achieved.
The project was described by Hertfordshire’s head of financial systems and transactions, Waqaas Munir, at the recent UKAuthority AI, Automation and Bots4Good conference.
Inefficiencies and backlogs
“Our team was processing a high volume of invoices manually, leading to inefficiencies, backlogs and time spent on repetitive tasks rather than value added work,” he said. “We needed a solution to streamline processes, free up employee time and reduce costs.
“Also, part of it was looking to boost employee satisfaction.”
As a first step, ArvatoConnect staged a workshop with the council, bringing fresh eyes to look at the potential for automation of a number of processes. This brought out the realisation that because some things have always been done in a certain way it does mean that this is the right way.
It led to a focus on purchase order invoice processing for a pilot project. This was an area in which the relevant team were in a lengthy back-and-forth between mailboxes, which inevitably led to inaccuracies and inefficiencies, taking up a lot of time that could be better spent on analysis and finding solutions to problems.
The company provided a tailored solution of an agile, virtual workforce to handle the processes, and soon produced a number of quantifiable benefits: over 2,500 hours of processing time saved per annum, £40,000 in cashable savings, and 87% of invoices processed automatically with 100% accuracy.
Munir said the remaining invoices showed the need to keep a human in the loop, dealing with discrepancies such as when bank account details and supplier invoices did not match the council’s records, but that the whole process is now much more efficient. There has also been a significant improvement in employee satisfaction.
Collaboration for continuous improvement
He added that the next steps are now being taken: “Collaboration doesn’t end here. We’ve also established a governance team working alongside ArvatoConnect for continuous improvement and to identify further automation opportunities.”
This is looking into areas including adult social care, children’s services, council tax and business rates – anywhere that automation can free up staff from mundane processes to spend more time on tasks where their knowledge, empathy and imagination can make a real difference.
The project provides an illustration of how the planning for an automation project can throw a light on the potential for further benefits. These can include helping to spot bottlenecks in processes before any deployment, highlighting any compliance risks in areas such as information governance, informing the design of solutions for maximum impact, and building a foundation for sustainable improvements.
It is in efforts like this that ArvatoConnect can make a difference, with a team that really understands the pressures facing local government. It has a proven track record in local and central government, providing a collaborative approach, tailored solutions and a sustainable impact of long term benefits.
Six propositions
Its intelligence engines power six key propositions in automating processes:
- Automate: streamlining repetitive back, middle and front office tasks.
- Review: bringing inconsistent performance and opportunities for transformation to the surface.
- Verify: minimising the risk of non-compliance by monitoring and checking outputs and inputs.
- Augment: creating decision flows to augment agent responses.
- Tutor: creating intelligent training tools and knowledge bases.
- Orchestrate: coordinating and automating digital tools, technologies and processes.
These can not only streamline processes, but also manage citizen requests more quickly by automated case routing, and integrate the automation with data analytics tools to support smarter decision making in the organisation.
The company has run successful projects in other areas of the public sector. It has supported the Department for Transport in achieving 91% first contact resolution for its customer enquiries, producing £3.6 million in savings and a 45% reduction in ongoing costs, along with the transformation of HR, payroll, finance and procurement operations.
A project with Wales Air Ambulance has produced £20,000 per year in savings through digitising member letters, cut the time spent on adding new members to the lottery draw by 92% and reduced the time spent on daily BACS reports by 50%.
The key point in all this is that we do not just bring technology for the sake of it; we begin by working with the organisation to understand the processes and problems, then come up with a solution. Then it is about starting small and thinking big. This lays the ground for successful deployments and sustainable benefits.
