The Situation
The client receives customer records from various service providers, typically through email attachments and links, or retrieves them from hosted portals. The company needs both an internal and offshore team to handle the massive volume of menial work required to process and organize the files for upload into its internal system.
With the help of Zia Consulting, the customer records retrieval company was able to automate its processes using Hyland Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to streamline the handling of records. This resulted in a sizable return on investment (ROI).
The Challenge
A typical client comes to the company asking it to retrieve records from multiple sources across the United States. Once the records are received, an employee must manually monitor the process and send them to the client via email attachment, fax, or portal link. The records retrieval company receives tens of thousands of records per month via multiple channels, each with a unique process, without a standardized way to process them quickly.
Manually handling the records is laborious, with logging into portals taking the most time and effort. Employees are tasked with managing the Outlook Inbox, opening messages, and downloading documents. Without an accurate reporting system, the company could not track who handled specific transactions or validate billing from the offshore team.
Slowed down by manual processes, the company struggled to meet a service level agreement (SLA). The company needed to reduce the cost per transaction and the time it took to process the records to maintain customers and stay competitive in the market.
Worker satisfaction was also a serious concern because high-value employees were bogged down with carrying out routine, manual tasks instead of engaging in more rewarding work and decision making that betters the company. One person’s entire position involved looking at messages and determining, based on employee workloads, who would handle each one. Employee churn was an issue, with 20% to 30% of internal employees leaving their positions and a staggering 100% annual churn rate for the offshore team.
The Solution
Zia Consulting carried out an assessment to identify pain points and determine if the company was a good candidate for automation. After workshopping with C-level employees, Zia identified areas within the organization that had the best opportunities for automation. Looking at the volume of incoming messages and the numerous channels they were being sent through, Zia determined that it made sense to automate 7 of them. These represented each of the major ways records were received: email, portals, SFTP, fax, and file shares.
The Zia team interviewed employees at the company to make sure the solution made sense for the customer, and then built a roadmap that ensured continuous improvement and demonstrated ROI. With Zia’s help, the company deployed Hyland RPA on a Microsoft Azure Cloud environment. The phased implementation included creating 9 automated processes to handle records using bots. Zia fully manages the infrastructure and the Hyland RPA software for the company.
Hyland RPA bots automated a significant portion of the records handling process, including high-volume portals, SFTP, incoming faxes, and emails. The goal was to have a bot handle every message first, automating the routine and routing edge cases to the team for manual review and recording where the message was sent.
“We do small sprints and quick wins to build a culture of automation.”
–Brad Steinmeyer – Enterprise Sales Director, Zia Consulting
The Results
Zia Consulting helped the records retrieval company gain a firmer grasp on its business. With Hyland RPA, the company can route messages quickly while attaining more visibility into the process through end-to-end reporting. The company reduced its turnaround time from an average of 24 hours to 30 minutes.
With automation, the company increased the number of transactions they could process per month. The company fully automated 13,000 transactions in September of the first year and reached a culminating number of 27,000 transactions by December. The company also automated 25,000 eFax messages each month.
Processes are in place to review the effectiveness of automation so the company can make improvements and demonstrate ROI. The anticipated 5-year ROI for Hyland RPA is over $1 million, with a predicted savings of $300k in 2024, $500k in 2025, and $600k in 2026. This is after paying back all the company’s costs.
Automating channels drove standardization and replaced highly manual and repeatable processes. Doing so repurposed 6 full-time equivalents (FTEs). Using bots with portals allowed the company to automate 72% of its traffic. This made it possible for the company to handle more traffic while experiencing less volume per day.
Automation enabled the company to reduce staffing, training, and employee churn. Before introducing automation, the company anticipated adding 8 employees. Instead, repurposing FTEs resulted in a 44% reduction in staff.
Because processing records has become easier for the offshore team, they were able to negotiate a 30% cost reduction. Now that bots handle routing, the company has records of what has been sent to the offshore team that align with billing.
With increased capacity and elasticity, the management can focus on high-priority tasks and the business can handle more traffic.
Futureproofing the Company With RPA
Zia Consulting’s implementation of Hyland RPA prepared the customer record retrieval company for future growth. Now that the company has established a culture of automation, the teams can work together to uncover and realize more opportunities across the business.
With an attainable budget and demonstrable ROI, the company won over stakeholders and experienced success after previous failed attempts at automation.
Zia Consulting works to understand our customers’ businesses so we can pinpoint opportunities for automation and then design, implement, and support a custom RPA solution.
Find out more about how Zia Consulting can help your company streamline business processes through automation. Reach out to us today.