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Tangentia + Dynamics 365 Business Central – Cloud ERP made easy

  • Tangentia + Dynamics 365 Business Central
    Cloud ERP made easy

Tangentia + Dynamics 365 Business Central – Cloud ERP made easy

The latest trends in the marketplace have shown that companies have begun to be more and more open to keep their data on the cloud. This is fast becoming true with their ERP systems. For Microsoft, it is not just a strategic decision to therefore re-brand their ‘on premise systems’ but a means of keeping up with the competition. Customers these days are not just looking for an ERP system that handles the finance and operations of the company but also embeds ecommerce solutions. This allows for a one stop shop cloud based solution that companies can exponentially benefit from.

Keeping the above in mind Microsoft has introduced ‘Dynamics 365 Business Central’ (formerly known as Microsoft Dynamics Navision) which is available on both “Premise” and on “Cloud.” Business Central offers organizations a single, end to end solution for managing finances, operations, sales and customer service and a solid opportunity to easily upgrade from entry-level accounting software and legacy systems.

Business Central is customizable and brings the full power of Dynamics NAV to the cloud. One of its most telling features – it provides businesses with tools that they can use to analyze their cash flow by analyzing historic data to make predictions for future periods. The cash flow forecast feature is made all the more dynamic as it can utilize the Azure Machine Learning to model various scenarios and provide groundbreaking insights into what to expect for the future. Azure Machine Learning allows the business to extend the time horizon for cash flow forecasts. It has the following models to calculate forecasts:

  • ARIMA (Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average)
  • ETS (Exponential Smoothing State Space)
  • STL (Seasonal Decomposition of Time Series by Loess)
  • TBATS (Exponential Smoothing State Space with Box-Cox transformation, ARMA errors, Trend and Seasonal components)

What it does differently is that it applies advanced statistical methods to the historical data to generate data in the future and include that data when calculating the forecast. When we predict receivables or payables, we use the due date as a date field and not the document date or posting date, so we don’t need to define and apply a payment term to the predicted results.

Azure ML is free in Business Central; you just need to turn it on. If you have two years of data, you can expect to forecast values accurately for up to four months. Business Central has introduced a ‘threshold’ factor that can be adjusted in the Cash Flow Forecast setup. The field is called “Variance %” and allow you to specify range of deviation, plus or minus, that you’ll accept in forecast.

The Tangentia Advantage

Tangentia EDI Engine

Tangentia has been at the forefront developing custom integration solutions that has previously connected the client’s Microsoft Navision ERP system to their Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), ecommerce and Warehouse Management Systems. (WMS)
The Tangentia Navision Engine (TNE) has supported MS NAV version 4.0 all the way to MS Dynamics NAV 2018. As of May 2019, Tangentia Navision Engine also seamlessly integrates and connects your EDI trading partners with the Business Central Cloud ERP. TNE has the following features:

  • Single user interface for all your EDI, WMS and ecommerce needs
  • Guaranteed EDI connectivity to 2000+ retailers worldwide
  • Supports ANSI X12, EDIFACT, RosettaNet, cXML, Tradacoms, ebXML etc.
  • Lifetime EDI Compliance – no additional cost for trading partner mapping changes or label modification
  • One-time flat EDI integration fee utilized across all trading partners
  • Highly customizable to meet business processes that might vary from company to company

Tangentia RPA and AI

RPA is making a real impact in enterprise space and empowering knowledge worker by helping them focus on the more meaningful and value-added side of their work and offloading more mundane and repetitive tasks to an RPA powered robot. There is an enterprise workforce revolution underway led by RPA and AI/Cognitive technologies.
There is a plethora of solutions providers in this space, each with its own specialty. However, there are three main vendors that come to mind. They are – Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism and UiPath in alphabetical order. Among these, UiPath is probably the fastest growing since it has recently received funding from big Silicon Valley Venture Capital firms in series C and D rounds.
Gartner predicts that by 2022 worldwide RPA spending will total $2.4B with an expected CAGR upwards of 30% in the next five years.
Here are some of the trends:

  • Digital Transformation: Traditional businesses are faced with competition from the likes of Amazon, Airbnb, Uber, Google, Microsoft and Facebook to name a few and are forced to change their business models to adapt to the new digital reality.
  • The rise of the Omni channel: Consumers are increasingly preferring to do their shopping digitally and interact with merchants with minimum touchpoints in a seamless manner across all channels.
  • Availability of Actionable Data: Digital businesses are able to collect data and actionable insights about their customers in real time and adjust to the market demand accordingly. For example, Uber rates go up if there is a high demand in an area for its rides on account of some event. Similarly, Airbnb is able to hike its listing rates based on the demand in an area.
  • Scalability: It’s much easier to scale up if you are a digital business. It took much less time for Airbnb and Uber to overtake their traditional counterparts in terms of market size and market cap.
  • Flexibility: Digital business is more efficient, responsive to customer needs and able to cross-sell.

Tangentia provides end to end implementation services around the three main automation solutions – Automation Anywhere, UiPath and Blue Prism. Some of the benefits of choosing Tangentia are:

  • A strong commitment to client success over our own.
  • A rich history of past experience in implementing RPA solutions.
  • Knowledgeable resources with certifications in RPA solutions.
  • Strong domain expertise in specialized verticals e.g. BFSI, Healthcare, Telecom, Insurance etc.
  • A strong partner ecosystem that brings the best of breed solution offering.
  • A delivery model that is global and based on Agile Methodology and best practices.
  • A metrics-based approach to ROI.
  • Good past client references

Identifying and working with a right partner is the most important and crucial step to ensuring a successful RPA journey.

Tangentia Procure-to-Pay

  With Tangentia’s EDI, Automation, and Ecommerce services, we can provide a complete streamlined Procure-to-Pay process for the Global enterprise. The Procure-to-Pay (P2P) is an end-to-end process starting with requisitioning goods and services and ending with making payments for them.

The 7 Steps Procure-to-Pay process involves:

  • Raising the Purchase Order
  • Vendor confirmation of Purchase Order
  • Advanced Shipment Notice
  • Receipt of Goods
  • Submitting Documents to Finance
  • Vendor sending Invoice to Customer
  • Final Payment to Supplier

This apparently simple process can be complex due to legacy systems, and errors from manual entries, leading to unnecessary costs. Implementing an Procure-to-Pay cycle can provide an opportunity to bring efficiency to the process and save costs.

Tangentia Order-to-Cash

With Tangentia’s EDI, Automation, and Ecommerce services, we can provide a complete streamlined Order-to-Cash process for the Global enterprise. Order-to-Cash (OTC or O2C) is the top-level business process for receiving and processing customer orders.

The order to cash process is simple and can be illustrated with the following steps:

  • Customer sends a purchase order
  • Vendor creates a sales order
  • Vendor ships and delivers goods
  • Vendor sends invoice to customer
  • Customer pays the vendor

Order-to-Cash systems affect all areas of a business and are critical to operational success.

In a standard system, orders are received via different sales channels, such as phone, emails, fax, online channels or through sales persons. This input complexity added with other manual entries, makes the process error-prone and the system inefficient. Implementing an Order-to-Cash cycle can provide an opportunity to bring efficiency to the process and save costs.

With Tangentia’s EDI, Automation, and Ecommerce services, we can provide a complete streamlined Order-to-Cash process for the Global enterprise.

About the Author

The author, Akash Singh is the Head of Project Management Operations(PMO) at Tangentia. He oversees projects around EDI/ Ecommerce/ RPA and AI from a delivery standpoint ensuring client satisfaction and success.

Tangentia is an expert in implementing Digital Transformation solutions leveraging technologies like RPA, Artificial Intelligence, EDI and Ecommerce.

Tangentia implements solutions around Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and you can learn more here.

To learn more about Tangentia EDI solutions Click Here

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RPA and AI : Powering the Intelligent Enterprise

  • RPA and AI
    Powering the Intelligent Enterprise

RPA and AI : Powering the Intelligent Enterprise

Current Landscape

RPA is making a real impact in enterprise space and empowering knowledge worker by helping them focus on the more meaningful and value-added side of their work and offloading more mundane and repetitive tasks to an RPA powered robot. There is an enterprise workforce revolution underway led by RPA and AI/Cognitive technologies.

What is RPA? RPA stands for Robotic Process Automation. As the name suggests, it is the automation of tasks within a business process that can be handled completely or in part by a software robot. These tasks are repetitive, rule-based and most often are not a good value for human intelligence or time. Therefore, it makes sense to have the robot take care of these tasks. The robot can handle these tasks either in Attended or Unattended mode. In Attended mode, the robot works with the user in completing certain tasks while in Unattended mode human intervention is not required.

There is a plethora of solutions providers in this space, each with its own specialty. However, there are three main vendors that come to mind. They are – Automation Anywhere, BluePrism and UiPath in alphabetical order. Among these, UiPath is probably the fastest growing since it has recently received funding from big Silicon Valley Venture Capital firms in series C and D rounds.

Going by the interest in RPA technology, even by small and medium enterprises, it is not surprising that RPA has gained so much traction in so little time. Gartner predicts that by 2022 worldwide RPA spending will total $2.4B with an expected CAGR upwards of 30% in the next five years. The industry itself has seen rapid progress with new providers entering the market to cash in on this big opportunity. The recent push towards integrating AI solutions with RPA notwithstanding.

So, why is there so much interest in RPA/AI? Is it just hype or is it for real? Should you invest in it or should you wait?
To answer those questions, one has to see the bigger picture and what is shaping at the macro level. Here are some of the trends:

  • Digital Transformation: Traditional businesses are faced with competition from the likes of Amazon, Airbnb, Uber, Google, Microsoft and Facebook to name a few and are forced to change their business models to adapt to the new digital reality.
  • The rise of the omnichannel: Consumers are increasingly preferring to do their shopping digitally and interact with merchants with minimum touchpoints in a seamless manner across all channels.
  • Availability of Actionable Data: Digital businesses are able to collect data and actionable insights about their customers in real time and adjust to the market demand accordingly. For example, Uber rates go up if there is a high demand in an area for its rides on account of some event. Similarly, Airbnb is able to hike its listing rates based on the demand in an area.
  • Scalability: It’s much easier to scale up if you are a digital business. It took much less time for Airbnb and Uber to overtake their traditional counterparts in terms of market size and market cap.
  • Flexibility: Digital business is more efficient, responsive to customer needs and able to cross-sell.
Merits of RPA

RPA has many things going in its favor:

  • It has matured as a technology in a very short time.
  • It is widely accepted in the enterprise space and almost all CIOs/CEOs have RPA and by extension AI technologies in their digital transformation strategic roadmap.
  • It is non-invasive and can sit right on top of the existing infrastructure.
  • It is fast and easy to develop, implement and deploy.
  • It does not cost as much as some of the promised technologies before it.
  • It can be used to integrate your broken processes and streamline them.
  • It can bridge the disconnect between disparate legacy/internet systems and achieve a high ROI.
  • It is the last mile solution for deploying Cognitive and AI technologies in the enterprise.
  • Its open architecture allows it to integrate with third-party solutions. In other words, you can fit in your in-house solutions and AI/ML models within the RPA.
  • Last but not least a robot is highly productive and does not suffer normal human traits. It does not take breaks, does not ask for a raise, is less prone to errors, can work 24x7x365 without complaining and does not mind doing boring and repetitive work day in and day out.

So, what’s not to like about it? Nothing really if you ask me!!

In my opinion, the biggest value will come from engineering business processes. RPA/RCA will make the business processes faster, less error-prone, more intelligent and self-improving. This will also make the tasks of C-Suite executives easier to transform their organizations digitally and as a result, become more proactive to marketplace dynamics and more responsive to customer experience. AI will play a vital role in all of this. Some of the areas where AI is already making inroads is in enterprise space are in:

  • Visual Understanding: Being able to understand a graphic and identify the elements
  • Document Understanding: Being able to understand the document context e.g. extract information from legal contracts, invoices, etc.
  • Process Understanding: Being able to observe user behavior to learn and discover common tasks and processes. Identify processes for automation based on ROI.
  • Conversational Understanding: Being able to analyze sentiment, chat and voice input and able to route requests to the right team or department and integrate with chatbots and voice

All this sounds great but as we all know the challenge lies in implementation. So, let’s consider what is involved and how we can go about implementing these technologies. The first step is choosing the right consulting partner. It is very hard to do everything on your own and doing it right is even harder. So, as a first step, it is imperative that you choose the right consulting partner.

What to look for in the consulting partner?

Consulting partners come in various shapes and sizes especially those that want to cash in on the flavor of the day. Here is what to consider when looking for the right consulting partner.

  • A strong commitment to client success over their own.
  • Strong brand presence and value recognition.
  • A rich history of past experience in implementing RPA solutions.
  • Knowledgeable resources with certifications in RPA solutions.
  • Strong domain expertise in specialized verticals e.g. BFSI, Healthcare, Telecom, etc.
  • A strong partner ecosystem that brings the best of breed solution offering.
  • A delivery model that is global and based on Agile Methodology and best practices.
  • A metrics-based approach to ROI.
  • Good past client references.

Identifying and working with a right partner is the most important and crucial step to ensuring a successful RPA journey. Here are the other steps once a partner is on board.

Steps in an RPA implementation roadmap

Below are 4 broad steps to implement RPA in your organization

  • Identify a suitable RPA implementation scenario
  • Have a phased approach to RPA implementation
  • Build a Robotic Operating Team to carry out the execution process
  • Establish a Center of Excellence or CoE
  • Have dedicated individuals for process discovery, governance and change management within the CoE.

Identifying and working with a right partner is the most important and crucial step to ensuring a successful RPA journey. Here are the other steps once a partner is on board.

About the Author

The author, Jaideep Kala, is a Sr. Manager with Tangentia Automation Practice (North America) based out of its HQ in Toronto, Canada.

Tangentia is an expert in implementing RPA solutions and has partnerships with UiPath, Automation Anywhere and Blueprism.

To learn more about Automation and what Tangentia can do for you please follow this link .

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Automation is changing insurance and here’s why

  • Automation is changing insurance and here’s why

Recently, we had a meeting with one of Canada’s largest insurance companies discussing Robotic Process Automation(RPA). The internal champion had spent months reviewing the top RPA software vendors. His conclusion was that they all do essentially the same thing. He found there were some major differences in how much these systems cost and a big difference between the price of unattended and attended robots.

Innovation

This insurance company is no stranger to innovation as over a decade ago they made the leap to transform their company from 70% paper: 30% electronic to 70% electronic: 30% paper. At this time they were at the forefront of innovation and almost 20 years later the challenges are less about paper and more about how people are working with scanned documents and the manual processes that still hold the company back from optimal efficiency.

The Challenge

The new challenges ahead are equally as daunting as they may have seemed when making the transition to a paperless office. In a large organization there are many stakeholders and all departmental decisions inevitably effect each other. Robotic Process Automation is a department agnostic solution as its only prerequisite to improve a processes speed is if the process is highly manual, repetitive, high volume and rules based.

Homework

Our team was impressed by the work that had already been done internally. This champion had identified over 80 different processes that could benefit from RPA. Each process had been documented in an excel file that included aspects of our RPA opportunity checklist. It was an extremely thorough document and we were happy because it made the next step a lot easier.

Where to start

No matter how big a list of processes you hope to automate, they all start the same way. Selecting one process for a Proof of Concept(PoC). Possibly the most important step in any RPA process is picking the right first project. If it is too simple it may not have the impact and ROI that is expected. This could stunt future investment in rolling out other RPA initiatives. If the selected process is too complex it could delay the completion of a successful first PoC. Just like Goldilocks and The Three Bears, you want to select the one that is just right.

Launching an RPA project

If you are looking to launch an RPA program within your insurance company. It’s realistic to have a fully functional full process within a 4 week period. At Tangentia we break down the Proof of Concept as follows:

Week 1. Prepare and Engage

  • Collaborate with stakeholders to identify and assist in identifying the candidates of RPA PoC.
  • Engage process owners via discovery workshop to confirm scope of PoC (assuming prior engagement to this point)
  • Prepare base infrastructure to host the RPA application.
  • Install the RPA tool in single environment.
  • Set up system access and credentials

Week 2. Select, Build and Analyze

  • Select & confirm 1 process for PoC.
  • Conduct workshop for documenting current state process via existing documentation and job shadowing.
  • Meet with process owners or stakeholders to explain what will be done in the PoC
  • Confirm the objectives of the PoC and “success” criteria
  • Build PoC

Week 3. Build and Test

  • Continue Building PoC
  • Test PoC with test data
  • Record a “before and after” to communicate the concept to a larger audience.

Week 4. Demo, Document, and Plan

  • Demo the PoC to stakeholders
  • Document key learnings, point of view on key questions and next steps
  • Document Requirements to move RPA bots into other environment

4 Weeks?

There is a lot of work to be done in 4 weeks. However, at Tangentia we are no stranger to doing what other companies can’t. For example, before beer and wine were available in grocery stores in Ontario, Kathleen Wynne made an announcement that alcohol would be available in Ontario grocery stores by Christmas. At the time, Christmas was only 6 weeks away. There were a number of companies that bid on this LCBO project but did not want to stick their necks out to deliver the project in that amount of time. They all said it couldn’t be done. We knew that simply wasn’t true.

Success

We won the project and successfully worked with the LCBO, its suppliers and vendors to support them and the millions of dollars of commerce that flowed through our backend system. This project was a big win not only for Tangentia but for the people of Ontario, who now have a more convenient way to pick up a bottle of wine.

Why choose Tangentia?

Now, why would you choose Tangentia to provide you with Professional Services for your RPA project? With over 150 people globally and a recognized partner with the top 3 RPA platforms including UiPath, Automation Anywhere and BluePrism, we understand business and RPA very well. In addition, RPA companies don’t want to be in the business of Professional Services and rely heavily on partners like us to carry the baton over the finish line.

How can I help?

I advise companies in insurance, banking and finance on robotic process automation. I am also a certified RPA developer. When you sell technology I believe it’s important to know your products and to use them yourself. Only then can you truly be an trusted advisor. If you would like to have a conversation about RPA leave a comment below or send me a message and I will be happy to help.

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Bringing Shadow IT Back Into the Light

  • Bringing Shadow IT Back Into the Light

First post in our new Shadow IT Strategy Series sharing ideas, methods, and strategies to help CEOs, CIOs and most importantly users, to find greater success with Shadow IT!

Shadow IT has gotten a bad rap. Over the last several years mainstream IT leaders and minions alike, have decried Shadow IT as a blight upon the IT world to be purged from the body of the corporation like some fatal viral infection. For those unfamiliar with the evil and dark voodoo of Shadow IT, here's how Wikipedia defines it:
ShadowIT is a term often used to describe information-technology systems and solutions built and used inside organizations without explicit organizational approval. It is also used, along with the term “Stealth IT”, to describe solutions specified and deployed by departments other than the IT department.

.In my early corporate days at HBC we called these projects skunkworks and we truly got some amazing things accomplished with no budget assigned to support and I even have the letter to prove it! But somehow over the years through the growth of an IT culture of control, Shadow IT has now become something to root out and extinguish like a small brush fire under the shadow of the IT castle walls. Well, I say it's time to bring Shadow IT back into the light and here's why!

Improve Relationships – When behavior in organizations turns to rebellion, and users resort to buying new systems and services using their corporate cards, there's usually a reason. Current budgeting, decision, and procurement processes are slow to the point of being broken and cannot keep up with the need for new types of systems in a variety of areas. Reactions simply to fight this phenomenon will only further fray fractured relationships. Better to see this as your chance to more closely bond with your business users harnessing their initiative to drive innovation.

 Innovation Driver – Having worked inside billion dollar corporations and witnessed first hand the inertia of bureaucracy crushing the life out of rapid innovation, perhaps Shadow IT can become an innovation facilitator. An initiative is needed to kick start innovation and if users feel strongly enough about needed IT system to go out and buy it there's true motivation and initiative. So by developing your own Shadow IT strategy, you can then more effectively work with users to tap into this wellspring of innovation.

Cloud Migration – As the future of IT is in the cloud, the sooner you can overcome doubts, fears and negative perceptions of migrating to the cloud the better. As by their very nature, most if not all Shadow IT implementations are cloud-based, by developing a program strategy for how best to roll out Shadow IT projects you can effectively frame positive perceptions and also successfully facilitate the process of cloud migration.

Safe Shadow IT – Just like there are recommendations for industrial safety to prevent accidents when it comes to Shadow IT there's definitely a set of prerequisites and steps which can be put in place to help users avoid pitfalls and maintain systems integrity. Safeguarding Your Success with Shadow IT can be done through taking some initial review steps on key factors as well as bringing in verified partners to assist users in configuration, training, and rollout of their Shadow IT projects. Look out for upcoming Shadow IT strategy posts for the CEO, CIO, and of course users, as we try and do what we can to further fuel innovation by bringing Shadow IT out of the shadows and back into the light!

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Pros and Cons of Robotic Process Automation Implementation

  • Pros and Cons of RPA Implementation

Pros and Cons of Robotic Process Automation Implementation

Tangentia Automation

The global robotic process automation (RPA) market size is expected to reach USD 3.11 billion by 2025, according to a new study by Grand View Research, Inc. When implementing a new technology, you must consider the benefits and potential drawbacks. Robotic Process Automation has many benefits and potential challenges in the form of product selection, process evaluation, bot architecture, user training, and scaling up.

When evaluating RPA solutions, it is important to understand that there are many adoption challenges and opportunities. To take full advantage of an RPA solution, it's the teamwork that makes the dream work. It all starts with asking the right questions. Like, as “What are the challenges with implementation? What value-added services are there to ensure RPA success? What are the tough lessons learned during implementation that have led to success?”

An automation strategy's costs and benefits are complex as they can affect both front and back-office processes. This is why we'll highlight both the pros and cons of implementing RPA within your organization. Some of the leading software providers like UiPath, Automation Anywhere, BluePrism, Work Fusion and Pega RPA, all have their strengths and customer success stories.

However, finding the right product for your RPA initiative is an important step that starts with discovery and education. Let's take a look at what RPA can do for your business process.

The Pros of RPA

Picture a Credit Union (CU's) thinking about introducing automation in an effort to streamline administrative tasks. To make the CU's business process much more efficient, this CU is looking for an automation solution to rapidly transform there back office processes. They are interested in leveraging the increased accuracy and speed of its business services. By implementing robotic process automation, this Credit Union can foresee immediate benefits including reduce time for consumer loan processing, enhanced accuracy of manual data input, and the elimination of repetitive copy and pasting between applications.

The benefits of RPA are quite similar across industries. RPA's capabilities are of course quite incredible, and this is really a case where seeing is believing. The following are some less obvious benefits that Credit Unions find important.

Improved Compliance

Data gaps between separate sources of information are removed and all actions executed by the RPA robots are logged during automation. This allows for simple compliance management for running regular internal reviews. RPA systems work across many industries and have been built with a compliance first architecture. If compliance is important to you, RPA makes it easy to stay in line with even the strictest regulations.

Non-Invasive Compatibility

RPA is compatible with virtually any system that a human uses on a computer. Robots recreate the same activities people do everyday like copy & paste, navigating the internet, using banking applications and of course Microsoft Excel. With incredible speed, a bot can move between applications to get more work done, faster. The RPA technology works with the user interface elements on the presentation layer of your screen. This means you do not need to update your legacy systems when you bring RPA into your company. RPA is a unique type of automation because it is Non-Intrusive. It can also reduce the time pressure on IT as users do not need coding ability to work with the RPA.

Increased Management

RPA provides a platform to centralize an organizations management of bots, auditing and analytics to remotely model, monitor, control, schedule, and execute the deployment of RPA software robots. Enhanced governance can be achieved by creating automation rules to manage business operations. High levels of security can be managed and maintained through secure remote server control.

Enhanced Customer Experience

Relieving employees from the burden of repetitive work is what most companies view as one of RPA's big benefits. Even though back office automation doesn't seem to impact front office work. RPA can drive customer improvements. Through automation an organization can deliver quality services faster and decrease the chance of errors.

The Cons of RPA

It's easy to see how RPA can benefit a CU by improving business operations and customer service. Rolling out a new enterprise solution without challenges isn't realistic based on most organizations historic experience.

Here are some of the challenges that you should look out for if your are considering the successful implementation of RPA for your Credit Union:

Employee Resistance

People are habitual and organizational change can cause stress among employees. Employees who are part of a new technology implementation might be put-off by taking on new responsibilities. It means learning something new and not everyone shares the same level of enthusiasm. Setting the right expectations and communicating them through corporate leadership and executive sponsors will ensure employees stay informed during the RPA implementation process. For successful RPA adoption its best to create a culture of innovation to accelerate adoption.

Process Selection

It is best to select tasks that are repetitive, rules-based, high volume, and do not require too much human judgement. Those tasks are real winners as they will help you see the fastest ROI and greatest company-wide impact. Think “Where do we use copy-paste a lot? Where does data migration take a while?” The more non-standard the process the more difficult it is to automate and the more human interaction required to complete the task. More complex tasks include interacting with customers and developing human relationships. Of course, the upfront time it takes to identify the right process is necessary to successful process selection. You may not need to automate everything right away. Think “What one process could we change that would make the biggest difference?“

Managing Expectations

So as to not disappoint, be mindful when it comes to setting internal expectations for a new technology like RPA. The excitement for what's possible should not be overshadowed by the practicality of the processes that need to be improved first. RPA will not fix all operational problems or broken processes. Companies need to decide on the right technology for their unique RPA needs. By communicating expectation regarding results, point to other companies successes stories so people can see a road-map where they are going.

Navigating Obstacles

Proper prior planning will help you conceptually manage all the moving pieces. Working with a partner that has experience in the trenches of RPA projects can prove to be invaluable. To get the full benefit of an RPA solution, partners like Tangentia can provide best in class lean operation principles to your organizations workflow. When weighing the Pros and Cons of and RPA implementation, the right partner can really tilt the scale in your favor as you navigate the uncharted waters of RPA for your company.

PwC says in their white paper Organizing Your Future with Robotic Process Automation that “a couple of RPA’s greatest benefits are often overlooked…[such as] its ease of deployment.”

When you overcome the challenges of the automation selection process and minimize employee resistance, you will experience RPA implementation success. Few things are more gratifying than identifying a process that needs improvement and working together as a team to drive innovation. During the process, new ideas will emerge for other areas of the business to be automated. Widespread adoption can help the company realize the full cascading benefits of a true world class RPA solution.

Whether you are interested in UiPath, Automation Anywhere, BluePrism, Work Fusion or Pega RPA. Here at Tangentia we understand process automation very well and can help you throughout your implementation from initial discovery conversations to enterprise multi-bot rollout.

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RPA has been embraced by many sectors, such as medicine, hospitality, retail, & manufacturing. Now, the financial sector is gearing up for a shift in financial management that will see companies digitize and streamline financial processes. Read our latest blog on how financial companies and internal finance teams are looking to RPA to become more efficient in day to day operations.
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Paperless Factory: Invoice Processing Digitalization

  • Paperless Factory: Invoice Processing Digitalization

    By Shantanu Paknikar

Overview

Terms like “Paperless office”, “Paperless factory”, “Digitized Office” have been around for a long time, as an aspiration for the future. And yet, even today, the ground reality is that there are a lot of paper documents that are still in existence. Purchase Orders, Invoices, Shipping Notes, Goods received notes, Proof of delivery notes, and several other documents are still generated, received, and processed in large numbers in companies all over the world. Processes to handle paper documents are largely manual, time and effort consuming, prone to errors, require data re-entry at multiple stages, and result in operational inefficiencies. The need of the hour is to leverage technology to digitize such documents and automate the processes to handle them.

Example use case: Accounts Payable (AP)

Consider a typical use case for Accounts Payable (AP) and the Procure to Pay process at a factory that receives shipments from its suppliers. Trucks arrive at the factory gate with an invoice for the goods they are delivering, along with associated documents such as a shipment note and sometimes the purchase order (PO) corresponding to that shipment. Let us look at how the documents are typically handled.
The invoice and associated documents are in the form of a hard copies (physical paper copies). At the factory gate, this physical invoice is manually inspected, and tallied with the ERP system data. Once done, the gate clearance is recorded (manually again) on the physical invoice, or printed out as another physical document to attach to the received invoice. The invoice is then passed on for further processing.

The further processing might involve invoice being sent to a verifications team, where the received shipment is checked for quality. Once done, the ERP system is updated (manually) indicating that the shipment received has cleared the quality check. The quality clearance might then get recorded manually on the physical invoice document, or a QC certificate might get printed out and attached with the invoice.

The invoice (and the received goods) are then sent to the stores section where there is a quantity verification (counting) process. This involves matching of the ordered quantity of goods from the original PO in the ERP system, with the quantity in the invoice, with the actual quantity received. The matching requires a visual inspection and a manual comparison of the PO and Invoice for quantity as well as other details.
Once the matching is completed, the goods are accepted at the store, the ERP system is updated (manually), a Goods Received Note (GRN) is printed out and handed over to the supplier's delivery associate, and the physical invoice is sent to the accounts team for the payment approval.

Business Challenges

The limitations of this process are obvious. It is inefficient to have the paper invoice (and other documents) being sent across from one department to another. There is quite a bit of work on data entry and re-entry including updates to the ERP system, which could also result in data errors. Also, with a paper-based process, search and retrieval of documents later (e.g. during audits) is a very painful process since the actual physical documents are not easy to find. These inefficiencies impact both the cycle time as well as productivity of the factory personnel involved in receiving and processing shipments.

The solution: Invoice Processing Digitalization

These inefficiencies can be addressed by a technology solution that involves converting the paper-based manual process into a digital, automated process. Such a solution involves two main steps:

  1. Digitization of the physical invoice
    This involves the following

    • Scanning of the invoice and converting into digital (e.g. PDF) form
    • Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to extract specific data fields and values from the document
    • Generating and adding “tags” or “meta-data” to the digital document, to help describe the document and to help for later search and retrieval
    • Storing the digital documents in a document repository or document management system (DMS), to be accessed when needed
  2. Intelligent automation

    Just converting the documents to digital form and storing them is not good enough. The next step is to have a process automation/workflow engine that can orchestrate the document workflow via a process application. The process application will handle approvals, automatic forwarding of the document to the right stakeholder, automated alerts and notifications, and integration with any back-end systems that might be needed. Process applications can be made “smarter” or “intelligent” through technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). The use of AI to complement automation is in fact what has given rise to the term “Intelligent Automation”.

Benefits

Invoice processing digitalization offers some obvious benefits. The scanning and conversion of the document to PDF form can be done at the gate itself, after which the physical documents can be sent for filing immediately, eliminating the risk of the physical document getting lost or damaged. Search and retrieval can now be done on the digital documents, reducing the time required from a few hours to a few seconds. With intelligent automation, manual data entry or re-entry can be automated fully or partially, reducing the chances of data entry errors. Overall, digitalization offers direct improvements in operational efficiencies with invoice processing cycle time reduction, reduced costs, and improved staff productivity.

Summary

While this article covers the AP area and a portion of the Procure to Pay process, digitalization equally applies to other areas such as Accounts Receivable (AR) and Order to cash processes. These processes are a part of any organization and digitalization of such processes goes a long way towards achieving the vision of the “digitized office” or “paperless factory”. This is of course, provided that companies are willing to invest in digital technologies such as intelligent automation. A lot of companies have already implemented such solutions, or are in the middle of doing so. Where does your company stand?

Footnote: Tangentia’s Invoice Digitalization Solution is designed to help you address the challenges related to handling physical invoices and related documents. Leveraging the power of Robotics Process Automation (RPA), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Workflow / BPM technologies, the solution delivers all the benefits of digitalization including reduced invoice processing cycle times, reduced invoice processing costs, elimination of data entry errors, improved staff productivity, significantly reduced time and efforts for document search and retrieval and zero risk of documents getting damaged or misplaced during processing. The solution is a part of our Digitalized Office / Paperless Office offering, which includes automation solutions for Procure-to-Pay as well as Order-to-Cash processes.

Please contact us for a complimentary, no-obligation demo and a free consultation with one of our experts.

Write in to automation@tangentia.com today!

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