Application of Intelligent Automation to Shared Services

September 21st, 2017 - Swiss Post Solutions (SPS), a leading outsourcing provider for business process solutions and innovative services in document management, today announced the findings from a recent NelsonHall survey that identifies opportunities to apply artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic process automation (RPA) to shared services. The assessment covers functions and processes within shared service centers (SSCs) that include unstructured data. The survey was carried out across three industry sectors, namely retail and commercial banking, telecoms, and property and casualty, as well as finance and accounting (F&A) cross industry.

Based on the study, shared service centers across all sectors surveyed have started to adopt robotic process automation and artificial intelligence technologies: 67% in telecoms, 70% in retail and commercial banking and 69% in property and casualty. F&A has been the initial focus area for basic RPA applications in organizations with F&A shared service centers appearing to take a relatively decentralized approach to RPA and AI.

Improvements in unstructured data handling in F&A

Discover more about the improvements of unstructured data handling in F&A here

SSCs from all sectors examined expect to achieve cost savings with the ability to redeploy full time employees from deployment of RPA and AI technologies. Increased processing accuracy is another important benefit that organizations expect from automation by shared services in F&A and telecoms. For organizations in retail and commercial banking as well as in the property and casualty sector, achieving faster processing times is another principal benefit they seek to achieve.

NelsonHall CEO, John Willmott, said, “While SSCs typically start their automation journey with basic RPA, they quickly come to realize that the biggest benefits will only be achieved once they enhance their ability to handle unstructured documents by combining Artificial Intelligence with Robotics. SSCs currently exhibit low to moderate satisfaction with their ability to capture and process unstructured data in support of key business processes, and are facing significant issues in the effective introduction of Intelligent Automation, and in achieving high accuracy of data capture at an acceptable cost.”

Most SSCs are likely to purchase services, with 77% in the telecoms and 72% in the property and casualty sector to purchase RPA and AI capabilities as a standalone document processing service. SSCs in retail and commercial banking expect to purchase services for document classification and data extraction both as part of wider services and as standalone document management services.

“The findings of the survey underline that organizations are increasingly striving to take their intelligent automation and shared services solutions to the next level. We offer the right approach at Swiss Post Solutions in that we leverage RPA and AI in providing end-2-end services, tailored to the specific requirements of each organization,” says Joerg Vollmer, CEO Swiss Post Solutions.

Survey Methodology

Swiss Post Solutions commissioned NelsonHall in 2017 to conduct the survey among 127 executives in six countries (Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, UK, USA) in the following industry and company sectors: retail and commercial banking, telecoms, property and casualty, finance & administration (cross-industry).

More about NelsonHall: NelsonHall is the leading global analyst firm dedicated to helping organizations understand the ‘art of the possible’ in next generation IT and business services. With analysts in the U.S., U.K., and Continental Europe, NelsonHall provides buy-side organizations with detailed, critical information on markets and vendors that helps them make fast and highly informed sourcing decisions. And for vendors, NelsonHall provides deep knowledge of market dynamics and user requirements to help them hone their go-to-market strategies. NelsonHall’s research is rigorous and all-original, and widely respected for the quality, depth and insight of its analysis.

About SPS

We connect the physical and digital worlds

SPS is a leading outsourcing provider for business processes solutions and innovative services in document management. A strong international client base relies on SPS’ ability to envision, design and build end-to-end solutions, and to be its trusted advisor for the key value drivers in BPO: location strategy, process optimization and technology, such as intelligent automation. SPS’ over 8’500 employees and specialized partners span the full range of the industry with a focus on banking, insurance, telecommunications and healthcare, addressing customer needs in more than 20 countries and a revenue of over 600M CHF. SPS is owned by AS Equity, an active technology investor with the intention to scale up SPS’s business and elevate its strategy and performance to be a dominant market leader. There are substantial opportunities for technology innovation to boost growth seen. AS Equity Partners is planning to invest in new technologies to enable digital access to customer consumption and demand data, greater customer intimacy through self-service and the sharing of data and insights with clients, and real time capacity, system and process performance monitoring and reporting.

Application of Intelligent Automation to Shared Services

Survey Methodology

About SPS

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