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Business Operational Process Challenges
In today's fast-paced environment, business challenges aren't going away. Organizations continue to grapple with high-volume operations, dependence on external parties for documents, processes outside of their control, increasing cost pressures, and the ever-growing need for faster turnarounds to meet customer expectations.
The Evolution of Intelligent Automation
Intelligent automation has come a long way, evolving from simple task automation to sophisticated, AI-driven processes that can revolutionize business operations. Let’s break down the core components that have driven this evolution:
Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
RPA started as a foundational technology in intelligent automation, designed to automate repetitive, rule-based tasks. Traditional RPA involves software robots or "bots" that mimic human actions—such as data entry, processing transactions, or responding to simple queries. These bots work across multiple systems, following predefined rules to complete tasks consistently and at scale, without the need for manual intervention. RPA was the first step towards reducing the burden of routine tasks on human workers, allowing them to focus on more complex and value-added activities.
Intelligent Document Processing (IDP)
As businesses sought to automate more complex processes, the need to handle vast amounts of unstructured data became apparent. This led to the development of Intelligent Document Processing (IDP), which uses Machine Learning (ML) models to extract and process information from documents.
Unlike traditional data extraction like the OCR (Optical Character Recognition), IDP can recognize and extract data from a wide variety of document types and formats, such as invoices, airway bills, and bills of lading. Pretrained ML models, which are trained on thousands of examples, make this possible by identifying patterns and extracting relevant information accurately and efficiently. IDP has transformed how businesses handle large volumes of documents, reducing errors and speeding up processes that were once manual and time-consuming.
Pre-trained models:
Invoices
Air Waybills (AWBs)
Bill of Lading (BoL)
Automated E-Forms and Workflows
E-forms replace traditional paper forms, allowing users to fill out and submit information electronically. These forms can be automatically routed through predefined workflows for approvals, reviews, and processing, ensuring that tasks move seamlessly from one stage to the next. Automated workflows not only streamline processes but also enforce consistency and compliance, by ensuring that every task follows the correct procedures. This technology is particularly useful in complex business environments where multiple departments or systems must work together to complete a task, such as onboarding a new employee or processing a customer order.
The Integration of Generative AI (GenAI)
The evolution of intelligent automation didn’t stop with RPA and IDP. The latest advancement is the integration of Generative AI (GenAI), which has unlocked the ability to process and understand unstructured documents—those that don’t follow a standard format, like emails, financial statements, and agreements. GenAI uses advanced natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to interpret text, extract key insights, and even generate responses or summaries. This capability expands the scope of automation to include tasks that require a higher level of understanding and interpretation, enabling businesses to automate processes that were previously considered too complex for automation.
Now there are more documents that GenAI enbled IDP can extract:
Examples:
Contracts, Emails, Financial Reports, Certificates, Medical Reports etc.
Common Business Use Cases
(1) Invoice Processing
Imagine receiving invoices via email, physical copies, or shared drives. IDP extracts necessary information, RPA performs three-way matching and reconciliation, and then uploads the data into your accounting system for payment processing.
(2) Order Processing
Customers may place orders online, via email, or even through chat channels like WeChat or WhatsApp. GenAI-enabled IDP extracts the needed details from these various channels, while RPA automates the entry into your order management system.
(3) Employee Onboarding/Offboarding
Managing employee onboarding or offboarding requires coordination across multiple departments: HR for system updates, IT for access control, and Facilities for desk assignments. Automated workflows can handle e-forms, coordinate tasks, and send reminders. RPA updates systems, performs reconciliations, while IDP extracts necessary details from documents.
Working with our Clients on Their Automation Journey
Automation is not a one-time implementation but a continuous journey of improvement. As your trusted partner, we work closely with you to understand your environment, challenges, and aspirations, mapping out a clear roadmap for technology adoption and change management.
Our approach ensures that you are supported at every stage of the automation journey, with a focus on long-term success and sustainable automation transformation. We offer a comprehensive range of services designed to address every aspect of your automation needs:
(1) Business Process Improvement (BPI)
Before automating any process, it’s critical to optimize it. Passing inefficiencies from human processes to robots only perpetuates existing problems. Our Business Process Reengineering (BPR) services are led by seasoned practitioners qualified in Six Sigma, Kaizen, and other proven methodologies. This can often yield a 10-15% improvement in quality, cost savings, and productivity. We help identify and remove inefficiencies before automation, ensuring that you gain the maximum benefit from your investments.
Domain expertise:
Finance
HR
Customer Service
Procurement
Biotechnology
Pharmaceutical
Logistics & Supply Chain
(2) Automation Design and Development
We bring extensive technical expertise in designing and developing automation solutions that leverage the best-fit technologies, including IDP and RPA. Our end-to-end approach covers the entire development lifecycle—from user requirements gathering, initial design and development through to unit testing and user acceptance testing (UAT). We ensure that automation is implemented optimally while taking care of internal controls, which is especially crucial in audit and regulated industries like financial services, pharmaceuticals, biotech, healthcare, and public services. Our experience in handling these environments allows us to navigate complexities and deliver secure, compliant, and efficient automation solutions.
Software expertise:
(3) Change Management
Successful automation relies on more than just technology—it requires the people within your organization to be ready and aligned with the changes. Our Change Management services focus on ensuring smooth transitions and adoption. We help to design and execute tailored strategies that address communication, training, and stakeholder engagement. By preparing your teams and minimizing resistance, we ensure that your automation initiatives are embraced and deliver the intended benefits.
(4) Creating a Target Operating Model
We assist our clients in establishing a robust framework to manage automation initiatives effectively. This includes building a target operating model that encompasses automation governance, change management strategies, training internal resources, and setting up an RPA Center of Excellence (CoE). Our approach helps ensure that automation becomes an integral part of your operations, supported by strong governance and best practices for sustained success.
(5) Ongoing Support
Automation is an ongoing process, and we’re here to support you every step of the way. Whether you need managed services, the secondment of skilled resources, or ad-hoc support, we provide flexible solutions to meet your evolving needs. We believe in building long-term partnerships, continuously refining your automation processes to drive further efficiencies, and adapting to new business challenges as they arise.
Contact us at info@bioquestsg.com to start your automation journey.
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