The challenge
Our client, a large British general insurance company, was impacted by growing operational costs and competition, which prompted the decision to automate processes to modernize operations and lower costs. The client’s prior IT supplier faced challenges setting up and deploying at scale a new robotic process automation (RPA) effort. The automation infrastructure was also out of date and created approximately 30+ incidents per day related to bots not performing. In addition, the older software limited the staff’s ability to make process automation improvements. This led to higher development costs, an opaque delivery model and a lack of trust with third-party suppliers. Goals of the engagement included reducing the average handling time (AHT) and increasing accuracy in processing third-party supplier invoice payments. Based on our capabilities and experience, Cognizant was chosen as the right solution provider to advance the client’s automation agenda.
Our approach
Cognizant began with an assessment of the legacy automations that were already planned for migration and analyzed new processes for automation. We conducted multiple workshops and roadshows with process owners to identify opportunities and presented these to the robotics team for discovery and validation. Working with key stakeholders and client teams, we helped the insurer move past its reliance on the previous supplier for RPA tech capabilities. The new technology platform now offers the latest RPA features and capabilities, a data visualization tool for reporting analytics and automated Task Capture for process discovery and mapping, based on cost and RPA capabilities.
We provided further exploration into how intelligent process automation can be used to continue optimizing processes and ran multiple proofs of concept on new technologies, including document understanding and process mining. For analytics and reporting, we implemented custom management information and reporting analytics to provide insights into automation health and operations for both automation teams and business leaders. We also introduced the idea of a reusable component library, which has helped save up to 5% in product development for new automation projects.