IRPA AI Founder, Frank Casale, Speaks to VP Automation & Department Development at Deutsche Telekom Technical Services about his role and the significant benefits of RPA and AI.

Frank Casale: What role have you played in DBs Automation journey?

Sebastian Zeiss: I have introduced the concept of RPA to the technical services division of Deutsche Telekom and run the first POC. As that convinced our top management I got the role to create a team that would run the robots, and equally important identify new potentials and actually find ways to digitize our processes. In later stages I was also tasked with identifying and implementing new technologies that would help us to even further digitize our process landscape.

Frank Casale: What has been your biggest lesson learned so far? 

Sebastian Zeiss: It´s about people and ideas à RPA is just a tool and you really night the right people with the right ideas to successfully implement automation concepts. That is even more true for cognitive automation. You need both: top down and bottom up commitment. For a successful start the top management needs to fully support what you do, only that will allow you to overcome barriers. And equally important, the frontline employees have to be willing to play along, so change really plays an important role. Sometimes you need to be a “guerrilla” in your own company. if you always ask if you’re allowed to do something you won’t get anything done.

Frank Casale: Beyond cost save, what in your opinion is the most significant benefit of RPA and AI?

Sebastian Zeiss: There are several benefits:

• Scalability -> Suddenly increasing transaction amounts can easily be covered with RPA (and AI), while it would be almost impossible to get more workforce on short notice
• Quality increases -> Once you have programmed /trained a bot It will deliver perfect quality
• Agility -> RPA/Bots allow you to develop new concepts agile.  You don’t need to make changes to your core systems, but you can still deliver helpful tools within a few months.

Sebastian Zeiss is the keynote speaker at the 4^th Annual Automation Innovation event, on December 13^th in London. He will presents thought provoking ideas about the future of RPA, AI and cognitive, as well as their expected impacts on corporations, citizens, laws, and the industry players who will be introducing revolutionary technologies. For more information on his session, and a glimpse at the other high-level speakers, take a look at the agenda. To receive a copy directly to your inbox, email Carrie.Simon@irpanetwork.com.

Making Digital Transformation Work for You and Your Customers

Digital transformation is dramatically transforming the landscape of business process outsourcing.  Automating out manual work in services the way manufacturing automated assembly lines offers the prospect of reducing variation, increasing velocity, reducing cost and improving quality – all at the same time.

The “robots” here are not mechanical arms assembling autos, they are workflow tools armed with business rules automating repetitive tasks and routing the output to the next step in the process.  Where these technologies have been fully leveraged the result is processing without human intervention.

For BPO providers whose business model is to do manual work for less this represents an existential threat – but also an opportunity.  The question for the BPO industry going forward is will leaders ride this wave of change positioning themselves as automation experts or will new players leveraging cloud based automation platforms disrupt the market establishing a new model of digital services?  Whichever way it goes there is no question one word will keep coming up again and again in the lexicon of automation:  Process.

Process is key to automation success in two ways:

1. A process is the focus of business automation.
2. How that automation is done is also process.

The thing that is being automated is a process.  Understanding that process – its inputs, steps and outputs –the variation in how it is performed – the rules that govern how it flows – understanding all of this is key to getting automation right.  Even more important is choosing the right process to automate.  Processes selected should be ones that are strategic.  Transformation of these processes should create new capability, open new markets, take customer experience to a new level.

For digital transformation to have the full benefit it must re-imagine processes not just repair them.   Time and money invested in automating a bad process or the wrong process is waste.  Therefore, process led automation – understanding which processes to automate and designing those processes with mission success in mind – is key to success in digital transformation.

The importance of process led automation is already observable in the rapidly changing landscape of the Business Process Outsourcing industry:

• BPO leaders emphasize importance of process in automation, highlighting their experience in managing processes and their Lean Six Sigma capability
• New players offering automation services bundle these with process consulting skills to frame and execute automation opportunities
• Some of the most successful examples of digital transformation to date have been BPaaS, where a business process is offered as a service or with Straight-through-processing (STP) where end-to-end design has eliminated the need for manual work.

What are the implications for companies looking to automate?

• Take a strategic step back and ensure there is a systematic process in place for determining where and how they should invest their digital transformation dollars.
• When selecting partners look for strong capability to assess, model, design and streamline, not just automate process.
• For those whose portfolio includes process excellence the time is now to step up and play a leading role on the front end of digital transformation.

In this Age of Digital Business there are a dizzying array of new technologies – the Internet of Things, Big Data, Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, Robot Process Automation, Blockchain and others – all vying for our attention and investments.  We know they are vitally important to our future, potential disrupters of our markets – but where to start?

At the Outsourcing Institute, we believe the right place to begin is with something we know a lot about – process.

If you would like to schedule a briefing call to learn more about how process is key to your organization’s success with digital transformation email us at inquiries@clear-barnacle.10web.cloud.

Gregory North

Principal, Digital Transformation

Outsourcing Institute

Our annual discussion of the themes that will define the year ahead. What can you do now to prepare for success in 2017?

pwc-top-financial-services-issues-2017.

Vendor management is increasingly becoming the primary role of IT. As the cost effectiveness, reliability and flexibility of third party services increase, more applications, infrastructure and platforms are moving from in-house to the cloud. This is driving a fundamental restructuring of IT with a greater focus on building relationships with providers and working with them to deliver IT services to support the business. As this transformation takes place, IT leaders need to optimize their VMO and implement initiatives for better strategic vendor management.

WGroup Insights - Optimizing Vendor Management Organizations - Strategic...

You’ve all heard about user experience (UX), and if you haven’t, you can read an introduction here. A lot of information out there about UX can seem a bit vague, so here are five myths that we’d like to clear up before you dive into UX.

Myth #1- UX = UI (User interface)

The UI is just the face of the computer system the user is interacting with. UX isn’t just about the appearance of a system, it is about the how the user thinks, makes decisions, and integrates your product/service into their lives.

Reality- UX = Perception + Sensations + Interactions

Myth #2- UX is a box to be checked.

UX starts long before you start designing and lasts long after you are done developing. It is the entire process of learning about your users, adjusting to their behaviors, and evolving the product/service. It unites the user’s needs with the business digital strategy, and in turn affects that very same strategy. It’s not a step; it’s a way of life.

Reality- UX is a continual process of evolution.

Myth #3- UX is all about technology.

Like we said before, UX is a way of life and, unlike the sci fi will have you believe, technology isn’t quite life. UX is ultimately about helping people with technology simply being the tool that we use to do this. We don’t use technologies just for fun. We use them with strategic purpose.

Reality- UX uses technology to help people accomplish their goals.

Myth #4- You already understand your user.

Most companies believe they know their user, but what they have are just assumptions. User research is crucial before any designing or developing can be started. Testing is also integrated into every part of the design and development by testing your prototypes with your target user population. You also need to remember that people’s goals and needs change as society and trends change and you must be ready to respond.

Reality- User testing helps you understand your user’s needs and goals and how they change over time.

Myth #5- UX adds time and money

If you just look at a side-by-side scheme of a traditional design and development methodology next to one which integrates UX, then it might look more expensive. But you have to consider how expensive and time-wasting is it to design and develop a product/service that users don’t want or need. Building the right product from the beginning is much faster and cheaper than trying to fix a failed product.

Reality- UX ensures you build the right product/service from the beginning, saving time and money.

Like all methodologies and changes, UX must be well thought out and strategically applied. There’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all in business. But when done right for your brand and business, UX will give you the confidence to know you’re actually making a difference with your target audience.

3 Advantages for your product (with UX)

• Decisions are based on data and research, not on intuition
• Allow your application to engage users and early adoption
• Everyone in the organization is part of the process, same message across all channels/departments

User experience is at the center of the organizations as a top priority for transformation. It’s what drives brands, finds, converts, and retains users, and ultimately boosts revenue. A majority of decision makers have it in their top three priorities and most organizations see a ROI almost immediately. It’s not something you can afford to ignore.

“But what is user experience,” you ask yourself. Don’t worry, you are not the first person to ask this question. Let’s lay it out for you.

User Experience (UX) is the sum of all your feelings while interacting with a human designed object, in this case software interface and it involves:

• → How useful and adaptable a system is
• → If the users can do what they need to do
• → How fun, attractive, and pleasant to use it is

When a user feels valued because of their experience with a system, service, or product, they’ll become a fan and they’ll talk about it. They’ll do your marketing for you. Great UX shows the difference between customers and fans. Customers use a service or buy a product.  Fans use it, talk about it, and come back for more.

Most importantly, great UX saves you money and boosts your revenue.

Skeptical? Here’s how:

1. Loyal customers (Fans) come back and spend more. Forbes estimates that boosting customer retention by 5% can increase profits by at least 25%.
2. Great UX makes your products easier to find and buy. Combine this with users who feel more loyal to and excited about your brand and you get sales.
3. You’ll save money on marketing. The first step to great UX is knowing your users inside and out so you’ll be able to get straight to the marketing methods that reach your target audience best.
4. Designing for UX will reduce the risk of building the wrong product. It’s much cheaper to design and develop a system based on UX research than it is to develop a system that needs to be changed or scrapped later.
5. It will make you more innovative. All the research and analysis you do to create a great UX will naturally launch your company into this frame of mind. It will push you to constantly be at the top of your game and at the front of the market.

Creating an exceptional user experience takes research, data analysis, creativity and deliberate planning. It´s aligning all touch points -branding, marketing, customer service- to have happier users and boosted sales.

Our new Cognirati video blog, created by IRPA founder Frank Casale, delivers a sneak peek into what CXOs are most concerned with when it comes to RPA & Intelligent Automation.  From getting clarity on industry jargon, figuring out where to started, deciding whether to make vs. buy, sorting out the pricing confusion and understanding where the real cost savings are, CXO’s are thinking hard and looking for answers.

View the Video Here

The travel industry is increasingly fragmented, full of different players in a very competitive environment; this situation leads to massive restructuring at all levels, disruption of vertical value chains, and “friend-enemies” environments.

2017 Travel Tech Insights-1

Digital Transformation is hot, no question about that. Every company knows they need a digital strategy. Every competitor is seeking a digital edge. Hundreds, no thousands of companies are out there right now, ready and willing to help you find your digital way. Talent is twice, no ten times more marketable when RPA or AI appears somewhere on the resume. And so we will all march off to become digitally transformed. What that means depends on who you ask.

Ask a room full of leaders from across many industries, both consumers and providers of digital services, and you will get a very wide range of answers, as I did when I posed that very question at an automation conference last week. But there was a common thread in their responses, suggesting a limit to what digital transformation is for – efficiency. Many see digital as just as the newest version of business transformation, supplanting shared services, offshoring, and outsourcing as ways to make work more efficient. Bots, placing their digital “hands” on virtual keyboards will take on all those manual, repetitive office tasks, enabling the elimination of associated costs. Contributing to this perception is the messaging of many Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) companies, positioning their new digital offers as shiny new hammers for the same old cost takeout nails. While there is no question the new digital toolkit can dramatically reduce the cost of human labor associated with business processes, to believe that is mostly what it is for is to largely miss the point.

• Driverless cars are amazing not because they eliminate the cost of a human driver, but because of what they liberate humans to do when the car drives itself.
• A full service mobile banking app is revolutionary not because it eliminates maintenance cost of ATM’s, but because it allows people to do banking transactions anywhere, anytime – expanding services to parts of the globe that have never had that capability before.
• Digital companions like Amazon’s Alexa are not top sellers because they reduce the cost of searching the net for recipe ideas, but because we can now do that while at the stove, preparing dinner, signalling a new era of convenience in the home.

The bottom line is digital transformation is about a lot more than the bottom line.

Company leaders and those looking to start new companies who grasp this insight are focusing on new business models, services and products – and this approach is paying off. “Unicorns,” startup companies valued at $1B or more, like Uber and Airbnb have achieved explosive growth with innovative business models that capitalize on digital business capabilities.

Note that when Airbnb launched in 2008 the technology to book a room online already existed. What was new was the idea that the room or apartment or house was being offered by an owner directly via an easy to use, robust, secure online platform.

A challenge for existing firms is can they adopt the startup mindset and open the strategic aperture beyond their existing business models? Can they imagine wholly new offers that while directly flowing from their core competence have the potential to redefine their industry – or will they take the easier course, focusing only on the low hanging fruit of automating out the waste in their existing processes? But it does not have to be a choice between optimize or transform. Why not opt for both, using savings from the quick wins that can be generated through an RPA deployment to fuel next generation efforts in analytics, IoT and AI?

Based on what we hear at conferences on digital transformation, many firms today are launching “random acts of automation,” tempted by the latest tech shiny penny. What is needed is a strategic step back, double-clicking out until the big picture is revealed and new possibilities emerge.

To begin the process of creating a digital transformation roadmap that goes beyond cost reduction, and starts to identify new value creation opportunities, consider three questions:

1. What new services can be delivered based on emerging tech?
2. What roles previously reserved to humans can be migrated to digital labor
3. What new technology “mashups” create the opportunity for new business models?

Then imagine a future state very different from the way things are done in your industry today – one in which dramatic growth comes from your organization creating new value.

To learn more about how digital transformation is changing our world, join the conversation at The Outsourcing Institute’s Special Interest Group on Digital Transformation Strategies.

Gregory North, Principal, Digital Transformation, Outsourcing Institute

The Digital Age is here and its changing everything about the way we live and work, including the composition of our workforce.  Going forward humans aided by new digital capabilities will collaborate with AI “team members” on new products and services, while “down the hall” bots handle all that front and back office work humans used to do.  How will these changes disrupt your industry?  How prepared is your organization to capitalize on the opportunities presented by the Digital Workforce? It’s time to move on from the questions of how many jobs of what type will be impacted by automation – they all will.

Gregory North OAISS Keynote - The Digital Workforce is Coming.