Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems help businesses manage core processes like finance, HR, procurement and supply chain. These systems are the backbone of modern operations, but they often involve repetitive, manual tasks that consume employee time. This is where robotic process automation (RPA) comes in. RPA offers businesses a way to automate mundane processes while improving accuracy and efficiency.
The integration of automation with solutions like Deltek showcases an opportunity for improving operational efficiency without replacing existing infrastructure. By deploying robots to handle repetitive tasks, organizations can redirect human talent toward more strategic activities while maintaining the integrity of their ERP data. Baker Tilly has taken a bold step by integrating a digital workforce into its ERP deployments, ensuring these tasks are automated from the outset.
Robotic process automation (RPA) or intelligent automation (IA) as it is now being referred to, is central to this transformation, providing a means to automate mundane processes while enhancing accuracy and efficiency. By deploying digital workers alongside the new ERP system, Baker Tilly ensures that repetitive tasks are handled seamlessly, allowing human talent to focus on strategic activities. This innovative approach not only maintains the integrity of ERP data but also significantly boosts operational efficiency while driving bottom line savings to the organization.
Q: What is intelligent automation (IA) and how does it work in ERP solutions?
A: IA combines the power of RPA with advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). IA allows companies to quickly build and deploy enhanced digital workers capable of performing both routine and complex tasks, traditionally performed by humans, in a fraction of the time.
While traditional RPA automates repetitive, rule-based processes, integrating AI and ML introduces cognitive reasoning skills, which increases the capabilities of a digital worker. This enables your digital workforce to learn from data and user interactions; processes deemed too complex for automation just a few short years ago are now a reality!
Q: Which ERP tasks are most commonly automated with IA?
A: The optimal tasks for ERP automation are those that are rule-based with well-defined decision criteria, involve high volumes, have minimal exceptions or exhibit consistent exception handling, remain stable without frequent changes and are susceptible to human error when processed manually. Commonly automated tasks include:
- Data entry and validation: You’ll be able to transfer information from emails, spreadsheets or forms into data entry or even then transfer that information into ERP systems while performing validation checks. For example, digital workers can extract customer information from incoming emails and create new records in the system, validating the data against existing records to avoid duplicates.
- Inventory management: Updating stock levels and reconciling inventory discrepancies is another area of automation. Digital workers can monitor inventory levels against predetermined thresholds, create purchase requisitions when stock falls below minimum levels and reconcile physical counts with system records.
- Master data management: Creating, updating or deactivating vendor, customer or material records across systems can also be automated. Digital workers can ensure consistency by synchronizing master data across multiple platforms, such as updating vendor information simultaneously in the ERP system and procurement platforms.
- HR processes: As an example, onboarding employees, updating personnel records and processing payroll data are HR processes that can be shifted away from being a manual task. Digital workers can create user accounts across multiple systems for new employees, transfer timesheet data to payroll systems and update HR records based on employee status changes.
- Order processing: Managing customer orders from receipt to fulfillment, including order entry, credit checks and status updates are all areas of order processing that can be automated. Digital workers can monitor incoming orders from e-commerce platforms, enter them into the ERP solution, check inventory availability, verify credit limits and send confirmation emails to customers, all without human intervention.
- Invoice processing: Do you deal with extracting data from invoices, reconciling with purchase orders and entering payment information? Digital workers can handle the entire accounts payable cycle, from capturing invoice data using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology to matching invoices with purchase orders and receipts, routing for approval and scheduling payments.
- Financial closing and reporting: Performing reconciliation, generating reports and executing period-end closing procedures can all be tedious manual tasks. Digital workers can reconcile accounts, generate trial balances, prepare financial statements and distribute reports to stakeholders.
- Compliance: To follow many industry standards, you need to generate regulatory reports and ensure compliance. Digital workers can gather data from different modules, format it according to regulatory requirements and submit reports to authorities on schedule.
Q: What benefits do organizations gain by implementing automation for ERP processes?
A: Organizations implementing IA for ERP processes experience:
- Reduced Processing Time: Tasks that previously took hours can now be completed in minutes.
- Enhanced Accuracy: Automation eliminates human errors in data entry and calculations.
- Cost Savings: Significant reduction in labor costs associated with routine processing tasks.
- Increased Employee Satisfaction: Staff are freed from mundane tasks, allowing them to focus on higher-value activities. This approach ensures that organizations can maximize efficiency and accuracy while also improving overall employee morale.
Q: What is the return on investment (ROI) timeframe for IA?
A: The return on investment for automation implementation varies based on process complexity and organizational readiness, but typical timeframes include:
- Quick wins (1-3 months): Simple automations like data entry, report generation and basic validations show immediate returns.
- Medium-term returns (3-6 months): More complex processes like order-to-cash, purchase-to-pay and financial close automation generally require more time but deliver substantial returns. These implementations also improve accuracy rates to over 99%.
- Long-term value (6+ months): Enterprise-wide deployment with integration intelligent automation capabilities takes longer to fully implement but creates transformative value. Organizations have reported seeing up to 200% ROI in the first year, however this is influenced by factors like process volume, error rates and labor costs. The ROI is influenced by factors like process volume, error rates and labor costs.
How we can help
In the coming years, RPA will remain a valuable bridge between legacy systems and modern digital processes and at the same time accelerate the organization’s digital transformation journey. RPA can work 24/7 with technologies like Deltek Costpoint the same way a human user would, performing repetitive, rule-based tasks at lightning speed, eliminating human error to help your people focus on more value-add activities. Baker Tilly helps organizations identify automation opportunities and implement scalable RPA solutions. We combine deep industry experience with market-leading RPA tools to help you do more with automation.
Interested in streamlining operations, enhancing productivity and empowering your workforce? Check out our webinar with Deltek to learn how intelligent automation can future-proof your business.
