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Automating the AP invoicing process proved to be more complicated than anticipated. Since invoices came from different vendors, there was no standardized version; They could be paper copies, PDF, or scanned files. The optical character recognition (OCR) reader had to be continuously tweaked, creating overhead, but IQ Bot was able to extract data from all the different document formats, then upload them into Oracle. While an agent took seven to 10 minutes to work on each invoice, a bot completed the work in just 30 seconds, making the process 10x faster. The automation was completed in just three months. Now IQ Bot processes 65,000 invoices annually, and that number is expected to increase in 2022.
RPA is also being used in the customer service center. The retailer is not just a consumer goods company, but also provides a line of credit for purchases. When customers call into the contact center it could be about anything from checking on a credit application and the amount approved or the status of a delivery or repair service. Prior to automation, employees had to log into multiple systems to pull up a customer’s information in order to answer those questions. Now bots recognize a customer’s phone number and automatically provide a 360-view of their profile in a single dashboard. Automation Anywhere Robotic Interface (AARI™) is then used to collect subsequent details and a bot updates all respective systems. Without automation, calls often ran well over the target 90 second SLA, sometimes even into hours. Now, employees are completing a customer’s request in 85 seconds on average, beating the target SLA.