7 Ways Automation Helps Organizations Keep Employees and Systems Safe

In the face of an unprecedented global pandemic, many organizations are now confronting the harsh realities of keeping the lights on and continuing to operate under extremely challenging circumstances. Many are allowing their employees to work remotely to help keep them safe, but this involves granting access to corporate systems and data over home networks, which is inherently risky.

Automation can help organizations close productivity and security gaps when operating with a reduced workforce and/or one in which a large number of employees have shifted to working from home.

Here are eight ways automation can help organizations successfully and securely maintain productivity and security during this time of remote work:

1. Implement a cloud-based system that allows vendors to submit AP invoices as email attachments. It's important to note that this service can be rolled out in phases (e.g., invoices for one business unit at a time or invoices from specific vendors).
2. Provide a means to automate the extraction of data from invoices and the comparison of that data against vendor master and purchase order information found in ERP and financial systems. Identifying key information from invoices (even for comparison) is time-consuming and can be error-prone. This is an application where automation has a long track record of success and, again, can be delivered in phases.
3. Implement three-way matching. When colleagues are weak in the area, it is beneficial to implement systems that automatically provide the necessary checks and balances to ensure invoices match the vendor master file and purchase orders, and that goods or services have been accepted by the company.
4. Provide a system for assigning the applicable cost center to order lines. This should be accessible from a web interface and not require unnecessary access to the full ERP or AP system.
5. Implement robots or digital assistants to obtain only the necessary data elements to complete a task or make updates to the line of business systems, without remote users needing access to those applications. This is a classic “start small and grow” opportunity. Intelligent automation and RPA can be implemented one robot at a time to automate small task series and then scale them as the automation project scope expands.
6. Implement intelligent automation to review incoming emails, classify and tag them in CRM or workflow systems for remote users to handle efficiently. This is a proven approach to improving worker productivity by 3X-5X for this activity.
7. Adopt an “agile” approach to Intelligent Automation / RPA projects. Software robots can be rapidly developed to address specific process bottlenecks. Server-based development and deployment of RPA bots not only expedites development but also the rollout and management of the solution.