White Papers

Situation: Manual processes are not without their challenges. In an article by Acubiz.com four major challenges are listed. The first being manual keying and handling, This time consuming process requires one or more employees to focus on a process instead of core competencies, meaning the job they were paid to do they aren’t doing. The second challenge is lack of data insight, as manual processing is slow the production of useful real time data becomes extremely limited. Data that could be leveraged to help management make important decisions is delivered when it has drastically less impact. Third, corporate policies aren’t incorporated, through manual processes shortcuts and fraud become far easier or if a policy is not known those performing the work complete work not in compliance. Lastly but also very common, is missing reports. When processes are done manually there tends to be oversight in transferring of information. That valuable information that could be expense reports to time sheets to even customer requests may be transferred incorrectly or not at all.  This of course can cost a company millions of dollars of losses.

Action: Manual processes can easily be taken over through automation, this when the process executes itself and that will generally work for simpler processes. However, when processes get more complex simple automation just won’t cut it. The emerging technology of robotic processes automation allows for the automation of far more complex processes. To utilize RPA a company needs to have strong process mapping and standardization to allow for the effective automation of critical business processes. The processes will be taken over by the RPA tool and will require very minimal human intervention if any over long periods of time. This is merely done to ensure the tool is learning and its performance is reaching the standards the company is given.

Result

The benefit of using RPA is having a tool that can take away mundane work from highly paid employees and have them focus on what they were hired to do. It also reduces errors in the transferring of data, leading to less rework, and far less risk. This technology is also highly scalable, this gives the benefit of automating processes across the enterprise over time. As the company designs news processes it will be able to automate them quickly ensuring speed and accuracy. An RPA tool can not only free up resources but it can process tasks at all times a day ensuring employees will face less bottlenecks in their daily activities. RPA is for companies looking to move fast, run lean, and grow.

Why do Businesses need RPA Technology? (leangroup.com)

What is meant by robotic process automation? Why is RPA important? – Techrish

Situation: According to Shiftprocessing.com “$24.26 Billion was lost in 2018 due to payment card fraud worldwide.” Credit Card Fraud is the leading cause of identity theft which has significant impacts to banks, business, and consumers. Currently with most fraud protection practices; it has become reactive instead of proactive. The general process of when credit card fraud occurs is the bank notifies the card holder or vice versa that suspicious transactions have occurred. Immediately after this occurs the bank cannot investigate until the funds have cleared, making the funds unavailable for the time being. During this time the card holder has less funds leading to stress and greater risk financially as that money could have been for bills, and other important transactions. The bank will be required to investigate which has become an expensive process. An article from Fraud.com stated “In 2016, U.S. merchants reported the total cost per dollar of fraud losses to be $2.40.” The cost of fighting fraud with current practices is unacceptably high. Costing more than double the original amount lost to fraud, the practice is fatal to business. However, the person who suffers the most is the customer.

Action

As technology for fraud detection has improved slightly it has not slowed the growth of cyber criminals. However, the combination of newer technologies through the application of digital transformation can provide a largely impactful preventive mechanism. Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence provide organizations a way to sort data quickly and with increasing accuracy, this can be used to detect unusual and unwanted behaviors. However, just detection alone will not stop sophisticated criminals. The preventive measure of this is done through a modern security measure called Multi Factor Authentication, mixed with blockchain that creates an immutable record of the transaction. But also, can provide authorization for transactions in a certain threshold. This threshold can be by frequency, location of purchase, amount, flagged vendors, and many other criteria. Once criteria are flagged the card holder will receive a push notification of the purchase and will have to authorize or report the activity through their mobile device. The criteria for all this activity will be safe inside the record created by the blockchain. This can be later used for investigations, and metrics to fight fraud.

Result

Through Digital Transformation the alignment of people, process, and technology to fight fraud will cause a significant reduction in credit card fraud globally. Though it will not stop all fraud it will reduce the overall costs to banks, businesses, and consumers, while simultaneously giving investigative bodies the ability to maximize data to fight fraud at its source.

Credit Card Fraud Statistics [Updated September 2021] Shift Processing

The Actual Cost of Fraud | Fraud.com

Situation

It’s estimated that timesheet errors lead to a daily loss of $7.4 Billion daily across the United States. Organizations involved in manual processing of time sheets such as working on paper deal with greater risk of errors. In an article published by attotime.com it was mentioned by the Americal Payroll Association (APA) that “errors resulting from manual processing of time and attendance alone can account for 1%–7% of total payroll costs”. Of course, this has a large impact on any organization’s bottom line, and overtime creating greater financial risk to the company.

Action:

Through the use of Geofencing companies can automate the timesheet process. After installing an application that allows for Geofencing on a person’s phone they are able to manage their time automatically. This works through setting a digital bubble around the worksite(s) and the moment the device with the application enters it checks them in, and when they leave it checks them out. This can be applied to fixed locations and delivery routes when a corridor is selected.

Result

This results in the timesheet process becoming autonomous and lowers the overall cost of timesheet errors. This also reduces the payroll cost of 1%–7% leading to greater savings for the organization and much higher accuracy of timesheets making life much easier for the accounting department.

Timesheet Errors: A Major Struggle for Small and Medium Businesses | Atto (attotime.com)