It May Be Mundane, Boring and Repetitive… But It Still Could Be “Mission Critical”!

Quite often we read and speak about RPA Bots being most suited for undertaking tasks that are mundane, boring and repetitive in nature. Whilst this is true there is a Mission Critical outcome that is often missing from this conversation and this is where the true power, reliability & outcome focus that RPA offers become apparent. 
 
 
During the Christmas & New Year break in 2021 we had an opportunity to undertake 3 such Mission Critical tasks for 3 different clients, each of which had one common thread… the execution window available was from 24th Dec to 31st Dec. Now, this was not the first time that there was such a requirement, and we are seeing an increasing trend where the speed, power, simplicity and, above all, the ability to rely on the fact that Jo will get the job done, no matter what, gives our customers the confidence to undertake such mission critical tasks at the most opportune moment. 
 
Case in point 1: For one of the large clients in the Infrastructure Construction space there was a need to realign the operating business unit, which required a series of steps to be undertaken over this 7-day window which involved taking purchase orders out of workflow, creating new purchase orders and submitting back to workflow, Reversing Goods Receipts transactions of old PO’s and subsequently closing the old PO’s down. To undertake such a task there is a significant effort involved in orchestrating the service as the work requires sequential execution of the task for the entire data set in one go, with some intermediate activities being undertaken by the client as well. We unleashed the power of 4 Jo’s (Cevitr’s RPA based Digital Workmate) simultaneously by distributing the entire volume of transactions across the individual Jo’s and sequentially executing each task in tandem with the client. The end outcome was as expected as the entire activity was completed by 27th Dec, a good 4 days before the cut-off date, allowing the client to troubleshoot a few failed records. Yet again, Jo’s delivered outcomes were well ahead of schedule, in a silent and slick manner, with no noise in the system. 
 
Case in Point 2: For a large FMCG client, Jo has been creating orders for an impending launch of a new product range due in January. The advance booking of the orders was predicated on a Ship to Date post the launch. However, the pandemic now meant that the launch date had to be postponed, which then affected the Ship to Dates. Given that there were thousands of orders that needed to be changed before 31st December, we were required to unleash the power of Jo to make the changes. Jo worked round the clock over the 7-day period and was able to easily accomplish the task yet again ahead of schedule. This gives the client tremendous confidence that, should the pandemic throw further “curveballs”, they have the capability to act swiftly and decisively with zero incremental cost. 
 
Case in Point 3: For another large client in the Infrastructure Construction space, we have been getting Jo ready to execute several new business processes over the last few months. One such process required Jo to start executing a business process that was currently being executed by a third party outsourced provider. Avoidance of duplication of effort and a seamless transition of the service with minimised service disruption was the key to commissioning the new process and transition of the service execution to Jo. The Christmas – New Year window was chosen by the client as the ideal time to transition the service due to reduced business volumes and the fact that there was availability of a few holidays as a buffer if necessary. Jo started executing the process in a calibrated manner (increasing volume of records) and the service was stabilised by 29th Dec which then allowed for a seamless transition of service in the New Year. 
 
The processes that we have referred to above, while being very simple from a processing standpoint, are classified as mundane, boring and repetitive but yet have an important business impact. For our clients this now ushers in a new business capability delivered by Jo that allow planners, strategists and business leaders to take those business calls with increased confidence in achieving critical milestones on time. 
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