Intelligent automation (IA) technologies are becoming more important and strategic for businesses. They’re not just for day-to-day operations anymore—they’re making a big impact on profits.
A study by SS&C Blue Prism, done by Forrester Consulting and published in April, looked at five of their customers. They found that over three years, these customers saw big benefits from IA, like better productivity, saving on compliance costs, and improved employee experience and retention. This added up to an overall value of $53.4 million (£42.5m) per customer.
And that might just be the beginning. Dan Segura, a sales manager at SS&C Blue Prism, mentioned a healthcare client who saved over $140 million in costs. Another healthcare client had a use case where a bot saved $43 million by recouping overtime pay for nurses and staff during the pandemic.
“They built it in an afternoon,” Segura explains. “It’s a perfect example of being in the right place at the right time, and having the right skills and technology ready.”
Many of the technologies that make up intelligent automation, like classic robotic process automation (RPA) or optical character recognition (OCR), have been around for a while. SS&C Blue Prism’s document automation, which uses OCR, is a ‘game-changer,’ according to Segura. “There are a lot of processes, whether executed by a robot or a human, that start with getting data off documents,” he says.
“Automation isn’t just for simple tasks anymore, thanks to AI and generative AI,” he adds. “Now, automation can understand and process information from documents, messages, and even semi-structured or unstructured data, which helps drive and complete various processes.”
Segura describes the wider business process management (BPM) and process orchestration tool, Chorus, as “one of the world’s best-kept secrets.” At least, it was until November when analyst Everest Group named it a leader and star performer in its Process Orchestration Products PEAK Matrix.
The tool is now being used beyond its traditional finance and insurance fields. “It’s how millions of transactions and tasks are getting done every day,” Segura says. “We’re now seeing adoption in other areas where automation is used to manage work, providing end-to-end orchestration, visibility, and efficiency gains.”
So how does a use case come to life? It often involves a mix of inspiration and hard work. SS&C Blue Prism helps customers “catch lightning,” as Segura puts it. “We’ve all thought, ‘if I were in charge, here’s what I would do.’ Intelligent automation lets you reimagine your processes and transform how work gets done. Once the initial use case is built, that’s where the magic of SS&C Blue Prism happens; it’s about realizing and understanding what intelligent automation can achieve.”
“We’re always learning from our customers,” adds Segura. “They know their business and processes better than anybody. When you combine their expertise with the transformational power of intelligent automation and its digital workforce, that’s where the magic happens.”
Segura believes any organization, regardless of industry, has potential change agents and “citizen builders” ready to make a difference. The term “builder” is intentional.
“I hear about these citizen developer programs with 500 or 1000 citizen developers,” says Segura. “But what I don’t hear is, ‘and with this army of citizen developers, we’ve achieved this.’ On the other hand, I have customers where just two people have become citizen builders with a more robust approach.” He cites the $43 million healthcare use case as an example. “That’s the core philosophy of SS&C Blue Prism,” adds Segura. “We’re designed to target higher value chain automation that can make a tangible impact on a company’s key objectives.”
So, you have the idea, the value proposition, and the capability to build it out. How do you make it stick? Every organization is different, but if your company has a continuous process improvement department, that’s a good place to start. Segura likens it to offshoring processes. “You don’t just wave it goodbye and never think about it again,” he explains. “At the end of the day, it still has to function.”
“You’re not just ‘digital-shoring’ [automation] and expecting it to be completely self-sufficient. Someone has to continuously improve the process; monitor changes in business rules or regulatory compliance; and ensure those changes are implemented in an agile manner.”
SS&C Blue Prism has a longstanding, large US retail customer that combines capturing innovative ideas with the right internal culture around automation. This company, with 72,000 employees and 60 ‘digital workers’ executing over 150 automations, exemplifies this approach. One of their automations uses OCR technology to process inbound customer orders received via digital fax, streamlining their workflow and increasing efficiency.
The overall result is 6.2 million transactions processed to date and 250,000 hours of work returned to the business. But for a big company, there’s one more crucial ingredient: discipline.
“It took them a while to get to that level of maturity,” explains Segura. “They have a very central intelligent automation team. One of their processes is in the supply chain, regularly reviewing 4.2 million purchase orders, managing 50 million inventory cases, and handling two million SKUs for 8000 suppliers.”
“This process is highly iterative,” Segura adds. “It involves capturing requirements and providing a platform and methodology for people who aren’t necessarily technical to closely collaborate with the intelligent automation team.”
Think of what SS&C Blue Prism does as providing a superhero cape for those who don’t usually get a chance to shine. This is a message the company plans to highlight at the Intelligent Automation event in Santa Clara on June 5-6.
“SS&C Blue Prism opens up the opportunity for your citizen builders to make a significant impact and deliver strategic benefits to the company,” says Segura. “You’re not just tinkering with a pilot project; you’re addressing the company’s strategic objectives in a meaningful way.”
