eg solutions white paper

intelligent operations management

Is Robotics the Right

Choice for You?

A White Paper by John Bailey of eg solutions

Have you noticed how much coverage robots are getting in the media? It seems
that we are obsessed with robots and how they are going to transform our lives.
What will it be like when we are living next to these creations of ours?
This white paper tackles the real issues concerned with choosing what robots
should do, and how to control them. It is aimed at organisations who are trying
to improve their back office, order-to-cash, procure-to-pay and record-to-report
processes, and achieve productivity and service level improvements for their
organisations.

About John Bailey

John is an acknowledged
thought leader in the field
of workforce management
and workforce optimisation
solutions. For over
25 years he has been
involved in delivering
solutions that add value
to organisations through
the effective management
and deployment of their
workforce.

eg solutions plc.

The paper looks into what robots actually do in these operational areas, and
proposes a journey that business leaders take in order to make the most
effective use of robots. Robotics Process Automation (RPA), currently enjoying a
lot of interest, forms part of this discussion.

What are back office Robots really doing?

Like it or not, robots are working in many offices around the world. They are
being used by public sector and private sectors alike. The reason they are
becoming so popular is largely driven by the relentless journey organisations
are taking to provide customers with more and more access to their data. This
digital agenda to provide information at the front-end does not mean that
organisations are replacing what systems they have in their back-end.

eg solutions white paper

Robotic Automation
enables organisations to
automate existing user
actions as if the user
were moving through and
across their current raft
of applications
Forrester, Feb 2014:
Building a Centre of
Expertise for Robotic
Automation

The role of robots in back office environments is to replicate what humans do,
when they are using computers to process work.
Robots themselves can only do what they have been programmed or configured
to do. Robots without any artificial intelligence (AI) do not learn anything. They
just process work according to a set of instructions that are configured by super
users of the systems that they access.
They therefore replicate what a human would do by accessing the same user
interfaces (UI) as a human would do and then replicate the typing action as
well as reading the returned output from the UI.
This behaviour has been termed swivel chair robotics. There are huge
numbers of organisations using RPA solutions for example with a loyalty card
reward scheme, the customer claims their reward from the loyalty scheme, and
a robot is responsible for taking the customers data from the back end of the
reward scheme and entering it as a new customer into the new customer entry
screens of the company who actually provides the reward.
The following diagram shows the actions that swivel chair robots take:

Start

Robot logs into

systems with
user account

Entry data
provided

Task list with

entry data

Robot access
screens with
data

Systems return
data on screen

Robot uses
predefined logic
to determine
next acon and
types the
result

No

Robot reads
data from
screen

Finished?

Yes

79
Robot logs out
of systems

End

Is Robotics the Right Choice for You?

The Rise of the Robots

The swivel chair approach uses a UI to pass data between systems to
achieve the desired outcome. Why this is necessary is because using the UI
is the easiest way of integrating the different systems. Robots are being used
to overcome the inability to integrate all of the systems in use. Rather than
spending the time and effort to develop an interface with all of the new and
legacy IT skills that would be required, RPA replaces the need to integrate
and can deliver pseudo-integration much faster and cheaper than ever
before.
That is mainly because the UI is where all the effort (and possibly logic) was
originally placed in order to achieve a desired output. Many legacy systems
are like this where the effort has been placed on the UI and not on the
ability to read and write data to the database/storage mechanism.
Logic would dictate therefore that swivel chair robots will have a finite
life modern systems/apps/databases, typically used at the new digital
front end are much easier to connect to, and do not require clever UIs. As
time progresses, for example, pension schemes held on legacy systems are
phased out, robots that just represent integration will not be required in say
30-40 years time. After that robots that add value will remain.

Some robots cost the same

annually as a worker from
the Far-East annually,
and there is always the
professional services or
knowledge required to
configure robots, so you
have to think carefully about
if robotics is financially the
right choice for you.

How much better are Robots than Humans?

Robots do not need feeding, need comfort breaks, need a desk or to be
scheduled because they can be constantly available 24 x 7. They only
require one login to all systems, reducing the maintenance cost for named
user software contracts.
They potentially can work faster than humans, so long as the computers
they are driving respond however, the service level agreements (SLA)
in back office work mean potentially they do not need to work faster than
humans. Robots can work to a higher quality than humans, because they do
not suffer from finger or eyesight problems, and work to a predetermined set
of rules. There are many upsides to using robots in repetitive transactional
work, replacing humans who are also doing that repetitive work.
You might be surprised at the cost of a robot though. Some robots cost the
same annually as a worker from the Far-East annually, and there is always
the professional services or knowledge required to configure robots, so you
have to think carefully about if robotics is financially the right choice for you.

eg solutions white paper

So how do you go about picking the right

processes for RPA?
On which processes, sub-processes or tasks is it then appropriate to use a
robot? Following the logic discussed it would be obvious to use RPA to integrate
between your new app system and your legacy ERP. It is not sufficient to
wander the corridors of your offices and look for people madly typing away.
You need to take a proper inventory of all the processes, sub-processes and
tasks, measure unit times and understand individual as well as end-to-end SLAs.
After all, those people madly typing away may well be doing the same piece of
work 10 times, and a simple analysis of the actual work they are doing would
cut out that unnecessary repetition, and eliminate the rework. If you knew that,
you might not choose to apply robotics, and would rather fix what is wrong in
the first place.

60.5%

The
recent market research
report IT Robotic
Automation Market Global Industry Analysis,
Size, Share, Growth,
Trends and Forecast
2014 - 2020 published
by Transparency Market
Research, expects
the global IT robotic
automation market to
take a significant leap at
a CAGR of 60.5% during
the period between 2014
and 2020 estimating
the global IT robotic
automation market to
be worth US$4.98 billion
by 2020 compared to
US$0.183 billion in 2013.

Similarly, you might elect a process to apply RPA where it is not necessary for
example in cases where the end target date for service levels to be met are so
far off it doesnt make sense. Better to pick processes, sub-processes and tasks
that, when RPA is applied actually improves your end-to-end service. You are
not going to know which ones they are unless you a) audit all the processes and
b) pro-actively allocate the right work to the right humans. In this way youll be
able to collect real data against the most efficient way humans are working.
From the data you collect and the analysis that data provides, you will be able
to see who is doing what (and how well) and make an informed judgement
about which areas of the business are candidates to apply robots. Using other
analysis tools then you should be able to simulate the impact of swapping out
human for robots.
You should make your judgement on the following important operational KPIs
across the whole of your business processes, and not just those that you will
apply robots:

Quality
Service
Productivity
Skill utilisation
Volume and Backlog
Capacity Management

Dont think of robots as an IT exercise think of them as a process exercise.

Is Robotics the Right Choice for You?

Where does Desktop Analytics come in?

Organisations use desktop analytics (DA) to collect data automatically on what
people are doing, and dump that data into a central database. DA systems
are often intrusive as they demand that software is loaded onto all of the
PCs to be monitored (part of the desktop build and therefore the domain
of the overworked IT department). DA does provide valuable information
on the applications in use by PC users, but often are not suitable for legacy
environments and remote control systems such as Citrix or remote desktops.
With many implementations they are not subtle enough to be able to capture
individual transactional level information and then be able to report end-toend
SLAs, or actual unit times.
There is another mode of DA, where the human goes through the different
processes, screens and logins, data is gathered by DA, formatted correctly and
then deposited into a final screen that the human accesses. Some say that this
form of Process Automation is the first step towards robotics.
In this example you could consider this to be like a powered exoskeleton
rather than a robot. It might do some of the same things as robots, but has
no decision making skills and always needs a human inside to power it. When
considering using Process Automation using DA make sure that you examine
the business case it will not be as strong as RPA in the first place.

Like Humans, Robots need to be managed too

Now you have a candidate for RPA, and you have had business analysts look
at the process, sub-process or task, worked out the mechanics of getting the
rules together, configuring it, testing etc. where does the robot get the work
from and in what order?
It is not conceivable to let the robot decide what to do next. Doing the next
incoming piece of work may not be the right approach, as the list might be
endless. Robots do not cherry pick, so they will do whatever you send them
in the order you dictate. You need to make sure that the order is prioritised
correctly and is dynamic as more work might come in at the bottom of the todo list that is needed to be completed first.

Like Humans, Robots need

to be managed too. Now
you have a candidate for
RPA, and you have had
business analysts look at
the process, sub-process
or task, worked out the
mechanics of getting the
rules together, configuring
it, testing etc. where does
the robot get the work
from and in what order?

For example, you may want to prioritise all of the work with a large
outstanding balance before some of smaller values, or you might want to
prioritise all premier customers work first before the standard customers,
or you might want it to work closest to individual work items external or
internal service level target. You will want to have the pot of work assigned
dynamically so that when the robot has finished processing one item, the
next most appropriate piece of work is fed to the robot(s). Prioritisation and
allocation is no different to a human, really.
5

eg solutions white paper

And when it goes wrong?

In every RPA implementation, there will always be times when the robot cannot
process the work - for any number of circumstances that were not foreseen at
the outset during the robot configuration phase, such as the systems did not
provide the anticipated output, so the robot did not have the logic to know what
to do next. These are referred to as Exceptions and are then normally worked
on by humans.
So the robot actually becomes a source of work for a human worked process,
sub-process or task via the exceptions that it cannot handle. Now the human
has to ensure that they have a prioritised list of work to work through too, and
probably is required to process exceptions in a timely manner to keep within
service levels.

Look at RPA and Humans Holistically

This white paper proposes that in modern operations centres, there is a role for
RPA doing the swivel chair work that humans do. It proposes that a full audit
and inventory of work tasks be taken, work allocated and analytics used to
identify all the different work types will allow Lean and Six Sigma consultants to
pick off the processes, sub-processes and tasks as candidates for robotics, and
using that same system, to understand and simulate the effect of the robot and
their exceptions on the complete business unit, cost base and value proposition.
As it progresses through time, an organisation will be able to identify all of the
easy-to-robotise processes, and then as the skills of the business consultants
who configure the robots improve, more and more sophisticated and complex
processes will be able to be tackled. This will go hand in hand with the shifting
skill requirements of humans who will need to deal with a) the exceptions and
b) the work that the robot configurers were not able to achieve.
What is clear is that to
get a real understanding
of the whole
organisations ability to
deal with work, that an
effective human and
robot monitoring system
needs to be put in place.

What may also happen is that RPA is used at certain peak times of the year
(perhaps because of the cost of the software licences) and at other times of the
year the robot is then asked to perform different duties.
What is clear is that to get a real understanding of the whole organisations
ability to deal with work, that an effective human and robot monitoring system
needs to be put in place. Reporting on quality, service, productivity, skills
utilisation, attendance, volume, backlog and Capacity Management should not
be siloed between human and machine.

Is Robotics the Right Choice for You?

The next generation of Robots

What is likely to happen is that humans will do much more complex and
sophisticated work. They will not be required to do repetitive manual and
transaction work. So there will be a requirement to re-deploy these staff,
either to upskill them to perform the more complex work, or to move them
to other roles.
It is not as simple as saying robots replace humans and therefore they must
be a force of evil. Back office repetitive work where swivel chair robots can
work should free up humans to perform front line work, such as caring and
human-to-human contact especially as the demographics show that the
population is aging and will need more and more front-line work.
Back office repetitive work will no longer be needed to be outsourced to
off-shore human factories, thereby keeping the delivery of service within the
parameters of the geography where that service is promised.
Service Levels will be driven right down as businesses begin to look at their
global operations, using robots and humans most appropriately, so that
processing times get driven right down, follow the sun human workers are
used in such as way so that service levels of sub-24 hours are achievable for
all controlled work.

Back office repetitive

work where swivel
chair robots can work
should free up humans
to perform front line
work, such as caring and
human-to-human contact
especially as the
demographics show that
the population is aging
and will need more and
more front-line work.

When robots have run out of all un-sophisticated swivel chair work then
a new generation of robots equipped with Machine Learning and Artificial
Intelligence will be able to take over, where exceptions from the swivel
chair robots are reduced even further, and by pulling in more data, are able
to make more complex decisions based on listening and watching the more
complex human behaviour, than simply being configured.
Other AI will be able to predict what the right solutions are, and help the
most complex processes become less complex by proving a range of riskmitigated choices for complex humans to decide on.

eg solutions white paper

Conclusion
Robots are here to stay.

RPA will deliver

improvements in their
back office, order-tocash, procure-to-pay
and record-to-report
processes, and achieve
productivity gains for
their organisations.

To start with, businesses of all types, be they in financial services, utilities,

media organisations, healthcare, retail, local or central government should
regard robots as their friends. RPA will deliver improvements in their back
office, order-to-cash, procure-to-pay and record-to-report processes, and
achieve productivity gains for their organisations.
All organisations need to get to grips with which processes, sub-processes
and tasks are appropriate to apply robots to, and by the same token which
are appropriate to apply humans to. Through simulation of the outcome,
the business case for RPA will become clear, not just as a moment in time,
but holistically across the organisation and across time.
Managing the work that humans and robots do, in order to achieve
competition-beating service levels, will require that the work fed to either
party is correctly prioritised and allocated, and the results of that work is
then reported on, across the whole business and across the end-to-end
customer journey.
As time progresses, robots will evolve and the requirement for what they
are required to do will change. Legacy systems will eventually be replaced
and the newer digital systems will do a better job of integration front end
and back end, changing the shape of what robots are required to achieve,
and leading to full AI.

Next Step:
Contact us for more
information on how
eg can guarantee
improvements in
your back office
on +44 (0) 1785
715772 or email
ask@egoptimize.com

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