Innovation Alphabet
Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
In a nutshell
Let’s face it, anyone would be happy to say goodbye to the small, tedious tasks that we perform every day. Well, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is an emerging technology that simplifies business operations and reduces costs by entrusting so-called “software robots” to perform the most repetitive tasks.
Application Fields
• Absence management: It can be difficult to manually manage employees absence for so many reasons. For example, employees might forget to log their time off and deductibles for unaccounted vacation days. The process is time-consuming and prone to human error. It is estimated that inefficient absence management costs companies almost $3,000/year for each salaried employee. But businesses can set up a simple RPA bot to cross-check absentee reports against time logged in the corporate network and let your teams fill in their absences.
• Periodic report preparation and dissemination: Every company requires regular reports to inform managers and teams of their progress. RPA solutions can auto-generate reports, analyze their content, and email them to relevant stakeholders. For example, a telecom operator who needs to send each report about connectivity issues to the correct person in charge. RPA bots could analyze reports to modify recipients according to provided criteria.
• Customer onboarding: B2C businesses usually have a customer onboarding process that is critical to reduce churn and prompt customers to start using their product. With RPA, most customer onboarding processes (e.g., contract generation) could be completed quickly even in companies that rely on legacy systems.
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Industries
• RPA in the pharmaceutical industry
Boston Scientific, a U.S. company involved in the development, production, and sale of biomedical devices, decided to implement robotic automation to improve processes related to customer care. Specifically, it came up with the Latitude Consult Communicator. It is an electronic device that can read data from another device implanted inside the patient. It then sends information about the body’s progress and proper functioning to a central server.
• RPA in the energy industry
Lyse, a Norwegian renewable energy production and distribution company, realized that RPA was the technology to invest in to speed up essential repetitive tasks that were not generating any added value. The first bots were used to help IT, human resources, customer service, and back-office departments. Smart software then enabled Lyse to recover valuable manpower, previously held back by slow but mandatory applications to dig trenches in which to run cables. The company was thus able to focus on the truly productive and high-impact processes, leaving employees to focus on the higher-value work.
• RPA in the service industry
Australia Post is an Australian government-owned company that provides postal services across the nation. The accounting team has to deliver efficient results and keep accounts in a timely manner. Those processes are largely manual and often inefficient, impacting workflows throughout the department. Robotic automation of 25 low-value-added tasks enabled Australia Post to strengthen productivity within the department and offer employees the opportunity to develop skills that software could not yet capture.
Business Functions
• RPA in support of HR
Efficient onboarding and offboarding can reduce the burden on the HR staff and ensure continuity. In the onboarding case, having an AI-enabled tool can further facilitate the process, and help recruiters assess candidates based on data-driven insights. For example, IBM’s AI-enabled RPA solution triggers a workflow process for each new application submitted. It also automates the capture of new application documents and centralizes the storage and governance in an applicant folder.
• RPA in support of management
State Auto Financial Corporation, a U.S. insurance company, uses robotic automation technology to optimize the management of claims-related activities. By harnessing software intelligence, the company is able to save more than 60,000 man-hours in one year, freeing up staff to act more closely with potential new customers, improving their experience. Sales doubled to $3 billion.
• RPA in support of CRM
Adding interactions with prospects to CRM is critical, even though time-consuming. Looking for a solution, companies are building bots to update CRM records with customer contact information. Take Cobmax, a sales call center. Staff worked long hours cutting and pasting information from one CRM system into another, due to outdated and manual administrative systems. And this led to their client reporting being frequently delayed. But after implementing IBM RPA, the company managed to produce accurate customer reports in half the time or less. They reduced back-office operations by half, allowing more staff to work in strategic, growth-supporting positions.
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Check out more of the Innovation Alphabet:
Gamification
Gamification
Gamification is actually adding a game-like element to make more fun and engaging something that’s not necessarily a game. It’s all about turning a task that might be boring or difficult into a more enjoyable and motivating activity. You can also earn points, badges, and rewards for completing certain actions or challenges. Are you ready to play?
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Business Intelligence
Business Intelligence
A smart business means efficiency: Business Intelligence represents the ability to collect up-to-date data, present it in easy-to-understand formats, and deliver it in a timely manner to employees. Making data-driven decision-making and management processes leads to competitive advantage, reduces inefficiencies, and improves productivity and service at all levels.
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Artificial Scarcity
Artificial Scarcity
We often tend to desire what we cannot have. Or what we are in danger of losing: Artificial Scarcity is a strategy that flaunts a limited number of items that do not correspond to actual availability. The goal is to stimulate the perception in consumers that the stock of items is about to run out and thus create a need based on the “fear of being cut off” or the intention to buy the item in order to resell it at a higher price.
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Subscription Model
Subscription Model
A subscription model is a business tool that generates revenue by charging customers a fee at regular intervals. The company provides products or services to subscribers on a subscription basis, usually monthly or annually. In this way, loyalty has become more important than acquiring new users.
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Holacracy & Flat Organization
Holacracy & Flat Organization
A “flat organization” breaks down the traditional hierarchy and removes its negative connotation, while “holacracy” is the business tool that facilitates its formation. Flat organizations place more emphasis on communication and collaboration, aspiring to a distributed decision-making process that gives each employee a voice. But this is a model that is difficult to implement.
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Mass Customization
Mass Customization
Mass customization is an initiative adopted by companies to embrace the increasingly diversified needs of customers. By offering customizable products and services, consumers feel engaged and can bring their creativity into play. Brands gain from this a boost in perceived value and the opportunity to fuel a positive word-of-mouth marketing.
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Coopetition
Coopetition
If you can’t beat them, join them. Coopetition is a business strategy that defines cooperative and competitive relationships between competing companies in the same young or high-growth market. The goal is to travel a stretch of road together to lower initial research and development costs. Once the desired results are achieved, the companies will return to being enemies as before.
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MVP
MVP
To the disappointment of all sports fans, this is not an article about Michael Jordan. In the language of business, MVP stands for Minimum Viable Product and indicates the version of a new product that has enough features to attract customers. In this way, a team can gather the most feedback with the least effort, improve the prototype, and validate its sale.
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Agile
Agile
Agile is an approach to software development designed to respond to change. Teams quickly analyze the context in which they operate, identify uncertainties faced, and figure out how to adapt to always move forward. Interaction between individuals comes before processes and tools; collaboration with the customer is more important than negotiating contracts.
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Bounded Rationality
Bounded Rationality
The best solutions always come to mind when it is too late. This is because human beings tend to make decisions on the basis of satisfaction rather than optimization. Bounded Rationality means that we are unable to think clearly and linearly, we proceed by trial and error and forget all the possible variables that affect the process. But we are also flawed.
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