THE EVOLUTION FROM

ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION

TO INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION
Six best practices to delivering value
Preface | 5
throughout the automation journey
 CONTENTS

3 Preface
4 Introduction
5 Lay of the land
6 Six RPA best practices to adopt
11 The future beyond RPA

Preface | 5
 PREFACE
SIX BEST PRACTICES TO DELIVERING VALUE
THROUGHOUT THE AUTOMATION JOURNEY

The opportunity to apply robotic automation to business processes has captured the
attention of many organizations as they compete in a digital-first world that requires
seamless operations, and greater value from resources.

By adopting robotic process automation (RPA), organizations are automating rule-based

processes with software programs that do not require human interaction, and are applying
them to systems, such as ERPs, workflow, and databases. When combined with additional
digital technologies, RPA evolves into intelligent automation (IA), delivering exponential
value by learning and adapting as it automates.

While interest in RPA continues to soar, clarity on what this technology is, how it can be
adopted successfully, and where it is going has not kept pace. To clear the ambiguity
around RPA and its future, Genpact partnered with Zinnov, a research firm, to produce
this practical paper.

Encompassing the insights from over 25 interviews with RPA practitioners and subject
matter experts, plus Genpact’s lessons from automating more than 750 sub-processes,
this guide offers best practices to organizations at all levels of maturity. Looking beyond
the immediate productivity benefits, we also explore how firms are impacting top-line
growth as the evolution into intelligent automation progresses into artificial intelligence
(AI), and the creation of tomorrow’s truly transformational workplace.

Preface | 3
 INTRODUCTION
Robotic process automation has evolved significantly over recent years. When applied with systematic
planning, RPA substantially improves performance and counters inefficiency across business processes.

Most enterprise processes are manual, deterministic, and repetitive, and more than 70% can be automated
using software robots. Processes that have greater complexity and require human judgment can also be
automated by 15–20% through strong collaboration between software robots and human workers. Figure 1
shows process complexity and automation opportunities in financial services as an example.

STANDARDIZED PROCESSES

Payment processing Tax calculation & filing Reconciliations Invoice processing

Trade processing and settlements Corporate reporting Funds transfer & review Account closure

Loan account & credit line setup Customer account opening Data migration Interest payments

Setting credit limits Periodic accounting books closure Loan disbursements KYC/AML process

Loan applications processing Updating accounts details Regulatory reporting Card account interchange & settlement

Fund accounting Trade confirmations & settlements Transactions authorization Tax claims management

Document processing Overdraft/advances provision management Contract compliance Credit underwriting

Foreclosure audit review & resolution Collateral review Personalized offers & promotions Risk exposure monitoring

Internal communication monitoring Fraudulent transaction detection Customer queries Personalized financial advice

COMPLEX PROCESSES
STANDARDIZED
PROCESSES

INCREASING PROCESS COMPLEXITY

COMPLEX
PROCESSES

Figure 1: Automation in banking & financial services processes

As RPA technology evolves at an accelerated pace, enterprises are becoming more aware of the need to
align their technology investments to customers’ needs and business outcomes. For these organizations,
value is captured in RPA systems that cut across some of the most complex processes and truly mimic
human action. In this setting, process automation requires cognitive abilities, such as natural language
processing, speech recognition, computer vision technology, and machine learning, to comprehend the
vast amount of structured and unstructured data, learn on the go, and intelligently automate processes.

As the early majority – the first sizable part of a population to embrace innovative technology – adopts
the technology and explores new use cases, the convergence of RPA and digital is moving the goal from
simply adopting robotic automation for productivity gains to achieving intelligent automation.

Introduction | 4
 LAY OF THE LAND
Gartner predicts that “by 2020, end-user spending on robotic process automation software will reach
$1 billion, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 41% from 2015 through 2020.” The
forecast says that “by 2020, RPA tools will have evolved to include more types of functionality, such as AI
software, but will experience strong downward pricing pressure.” In addition, “by 2020, 40% of very large
global organizations will have adopted an RPA software tool, up from an estimated less than 10% today.”1

Some industries, like financial services and retail, have taken the lead with RPA, while manufacturing and
healthcare firms have recently increased traction. Over 50% of Genpact’s large enterprise clients have
either invested in or are actively considering investing in RPA.

OVERALL COST SPEED & ACCURACY & SCALABILITY & REMOVAL OF

REDUCTION PRODUCTIVITY COMPLIANCE FLEXIBILITY NON-VALUE-ADD
PROCESSES

The average cost of RPA is typically Robots work to Robots can easily Upskill the
implementing and 2X-3X faster than 100% accuracy be scaled up and workforce to
running a robot is humans levels and enable down to handle decision-making
much less than the compliance demand fluctuations roles
equivalent FTE costs Even if robots work and seasonal
and decreases at same pace Avoiding human variations
with large-scale as humans they error saves costs
deployments can work round
the clock, unlike
humans

Figure 2: Benefits of RPA adoption for enterprises

There are a variety of benefits that are driving enterprises towards RPA (see figure 2). Most significant
are the potential cost savings: up to 55% for deterministic, rule-based processes. Speed of execution,
accuracy, and compliance are key RPA benefits for organizations, in particular for financial services
firms. Retail companies looking for capacity on-demand realize that onboarding human resources for a
short period of time requires considerable effort and senior leadership bandwidth; for that reason they are
gravitating towards using RPA instead. Companies can also free-up human resources from non-value-
adding work, and redirect them to tasks that require judgment to gain more productivity per person and
greater employee satisfaction as they undertake higher value work.

Organizations that combine RPA with additional digital technologies, such as dynamic workflow, machine
learning, and/or natural language processing (NLP), are realizing greater value by achieving intelligent
automation. A commercial financial services firm, for example, has applied these technologies to its
underwriting process for loans. NLP reads an applicant’s financial statements and any information in
the public domain. Dynamic workflow ensures the lender reviews the analysis with scoring models for
decision-making, while robotics creates a customer profile sheet. Faster decision-making is a productivity
benefit, but the bigger value lies in making more accurate customer and pricing decisions.

1
Gartner, “Forecast Snapshot: Robotic Process Automation, Worldwide, 2016,” Tornbohm, Cathy, 30 December 2016

Lay of the Land | 5

 SIX RPA BEST PRACTICES
TO ADOPT
RPA offers tremendous opportunities, but enterprises need a carefully crafted strategy
and execution approach to harness them. A combination of deep process expertise,
technology prowess, and domain knowledge is also vital. An RPA deployment should
build on six established best practices (see figure 3).

Establish a Select capable

well-defined RPA tools
governance and operators
structure
Determine Re-engineer
realistic ROI
expectations 3 4 processes to
maximize RPA
benefits

2 5
Enable strong
Prioritize
collaboration
best-suited RPA
use cases 1 RPA BEST
6 between the
business and IT
PRACTICES

Figure 3: Six RPA best practices

RPA best practices | 6

 1PRIORITIZE THE BEST-SUITED
RPA USE CASES
“We want to pursue the low- Identify the most appropriate processes for RPA by looking for deterministic and rules-
hanging fruit first. based parts of a process (see figures 4 and 5). This will help quantify the value it can drive,
We are looking at very
transactional, rules-based
and enable automation initiatives to deliver the expected results. The best approach is to
processes, lower in the start small, achieve quick wins, and build internal stakeholder confidence. As enterprises
value chain. We will move gain more experience, it becomes easier to scale RPA initiatives to address complex
to processes higher in the processes.
value chain as we achieve
success.”

VP – Finance Transformation
(Leading European
Reinsurance Provider)

RPA CRITERIA FOR SHORTLISTING USE CASES

1 2 3 4 5

Labor intensive/ Basic procedure with Standardized/ High fluctuation Bottlenecks causing
high number of FTEs simple rules & logic structured data in demand high cycle times

Processes requiring Lower cost and less RPA tools can process Processes with Automation of sub-
a high number of time to automate for standardized, structured fluctuating demand processes with
employees are processes with simple digitized data require full-time staff high cycle times
prime candidates for rules and logic but automation can reduce time to market
automation kick in when demand
Processes should have increases or to clear
low exception rates backlogs

Figure 4: Criteria
Figure for prioritizing
3: Six RPA the best-suited RPA use cases
best practices

There are three process types that are excellent candidates for RPA implementation:

Data-entry procedures in workflow processes: such as entering data from claims

documents into a claims management system, and invoice-processing functions

Data extraction from standard databases: for example, extracting customer information
to file tax claims, and data migration activities from one system to another

Routine decision-making processes: such as processing insurance claims, and banking

transactions

RPA best practices | 7

 2 DETERMINE REALISTIC
ROI EXPECTATIONS
“The ROI we have been able to achieve
The time taken to achieve ROI is one of the biggest challenges in RPA adoption.
is much less than projected but it is still
fairly good. We had a mismatch in terms
Enterprise processes continue to increase in complexity with greater seasonality,
of the time we would take to recover regulatory requirements, geographic variations, or numbers of exceptions, which
the investment because when we hired result in longer development times and more user-acceptance testing. The time
the vendor we thought it would take 4-6 to reach break-even could range from six months for standard processes to up
weeks for the automation to be up and to two years for complex ones. The cost savings also range between 10–50%
running. However, it took much longer. depending on the complexity (see figure 5).
In our experience, for best results
the process to be automated needs
Enterprises should look at robot utilization in a critical way and use RPA platforms
to be standardized along with clear
demarcation of rule based vs. non-rule
that allow robots to shift between processes during lean periods. Businesses
based parts.” managing large virtual workforces can consider creating centralized control to
manage bots, monitor performance, and track benefits.
General Manager
(Large Global Container Shipping
Company)

Illustrative

T O TA L R PA C O S T

CONFIGURATION & MAINTENANCE & IT INFRASTRUCTURE

RPA TOOL LICENSE COST
IMPLEMENTATION COST OTHER OVERHEADS COST
Number of robot licenses • RPA solution architecture • Application changes • IT environment cost:
required; prices reduce with • Development • Process changes in-house vs cloud
increased volume • Deployment & testing • RPA software upgrades • Desktop: physical vs virtual
desktop infrastructure vs
desktop as a service

VARIATION OF COST AND SAVINGS

The cost per robot increases and the savings that can be achieved through
RPA decrease with increasing process complexity
Scenario: Process with 100 FTEs pre-RPA deployment
57%

Per robot cost (in USD)

28%
% savings post- RPA
deployment
9%

6800 IT environment: cloud

6100
5700 RPA project deployment: offshore
Desktop: cloud-hosted desktop
Location of FTEs replaced: offshore

Low Complexity Medium Complexity High Complexity

Figure 5: RPA ROI considerations

RPA best practices | 8

 3 ESTABLISH A WELL-DEFINED
GOVERNANCE STRUCTURE
A governance structure that defines roles and responsibilities for automation activities will help deliver
successful RPA initiatives (see figure 6). Key elements include:
Guidelines and templates for assessing, designing, developing, and deploying robots, and enabling
collaboration between business units
Frameworks for internal change management
The ability to track performance and productivity metrics to assess impact and highlight areas for
improvement

A GUIDE TO GOVERNANCE

RPA vision / roadmap

Create a center of excellence early in Ownership
the journey to accelerate adoption of
RPA across the enterprise Involve legal, risk, IT, and other teams
that are involved in the processes due
Set deadlines for achieving intelligent to be automated
automation to leverage the full
value of RPA Include process-specific SMEs for
insight on the process nuances

Enterprise change
management
Communicate the benefits:
RPA helps to eliminate repetitive, non- Deployment
value-adding tasks so employees can framework
make a greater impact in their roles
Calibrate production and development
Involve HR to support employee environments to ensure smooth RPA
up-skilling, which brings value deployment
beyond the benefits from technology.
Organizations should prepare Ensure IT is aware of RPA-enabled
employees to work alongside processes, and that it communicates
automated processes Operational risk / data security any code changes to the RPA/
operations team before they go into
Create a cross-functional team to clear production
temporary backlogs in case of bot
failure
Maintain people in critical processes
for error-free delivery

Figure 6: A guide to governance

RPA best practices | 9

 4 SELECT CAPABLE RPA
TOOLS AND OPERATORS
Leading RPA platforms are equipped to handle the most common automation scenarios.
Organizations should evaluate tools with pre-built automation libraries that have re-usable
components to connect to back-end systems, data-extraction capabilities, and cost and
licensing options. As companies mature to automate processes with unstructured data
and require cognitive abilities, they integrate RPA with wider technology solutions to
achieve additional benefits.

It is also important to work with service providers that can offer end-to-end process
support. Further, companies are investing in creating internal centers of excellence that
can support critical business functions or processes.

“Optimization of processes
5 RE-ENGINEER PROCESSES TO
through techniques such as
Lean and Six Sigma can also go
hand in hand with automation
MAXIMIZE RPA BENEFITS
through RPA, as the ultimate
aim for the company is to gain RPA practitioners recommend re-engineering business processes that are inefficient and
maximum efficiency.” have critical interdependencies on other processes and applications. Such processes,
along with those that are prone to a high degree of exceptions, would otherwise not
Director-Operations Enablement generate the desired RPA outcomes. Those with few exceptions are good candidates,
(Global Information Services which is how RPA is increasingly being included as part of broader process and digital
Provider) transformation initiatives.

6 ENABLE STRONG COLLABORATION

BETWEEN THE BUSINESS AND IT
A significant number of RPA failures are attributed to the lack of collaboration between
business and IT functions. Business leaders often fail to include IT in RPA planning
discussions as they assume that RPA systems don’t require extensive IT support.

On the other hand, in the case of IT-intensive projects, IT leaders often undermine
the value of a business function’s view point and do not take process nuances into
consideration. RPA enablement should be a combined effort between the business and
IT with an operating model that defines the roles and responsibilities of each player.
While the function needs to own the operational requirements, process design initiatives,
and performance monitoring, aspects such as reliability, risk management, technological
compatibility, identity and access control, and compliance are for the IT organization to
deliver.

Enterprises considering introducing RPA to their organizations should evaluate these six practices to prioritize
the processes that can best be performed by software robots, stay invested for the long term, create an effective
governance plan, and lead to intelligent automation.

RPA best practices | 10

 THE FUTURE BEYOND RPA
As the benefits of RPA adoption continue to grow, greater numbers of organizations are beginning their own deployments.
However, as RPA is still subject to much speculation, businesses need a well-designed strategy to pivot from boardroom
conversations to actual success. Directed systematically, RPA adoption is paving the way to achieving the cost and
operational efficiencies desired by most organizations.
The future of RPA and intelligent automation will be shaped by the following key forces:

Process-centricity as priority
A process-centric view is essential as multiple digital technologies start appearing in (and confusing)
organizations. This will become even more important as RPA is deployed as part of broader business
process management and digital transformation initiatives, and success is measured top-down. For RPA
to mature into intelligent automation, it is important for organizations to re-imagine processes using design-
thinking principles to create winning customer experiences, and end-to-end solutions, while managing
compliance and governance.

Integration of RPA and digital technologies

The combination of RPA and digital technologies is transforming deterministic and rule-based RPA into truly
intelligent automation. Enterprises are expecting to gain greater value from IA with its promise to process
vast amounts of data, learn on the go, and automate complex business workflows. Intelligent automation
will evolve to leverage artificial intelligence more over time, achieving the next era in automation, with more
significant benefits.
A global financial services firm, for instance, uses artificial intelligence to deliver personalized advice to its
high-net-worth clients. The solution scans through relevant data sets and crawls various publicly available
information sources and unstructured data to build a profile of the individual. It identifies behavioral patterns
using an AI engine to show potential matches with different types of wealth management products. The
relevant recommendations are shown on the client’s mobile phone, tablet, and other devices.

RPA, enterprise software and APIs

Over time, RPA capabilities are likely to become more closely integrated in other enterprise software
products. Industry acquisitions in the RPA space are set to continue, while broader enterprise software
companies will integrate RPA into their offerings and build a software library of RPA use cases to enhance the
customer experience. APIs will play a big role in enabling the exchange of information across technologies.
This tighter integration will lead to less custom development work, and even higher levels of productivity.

It’s fair to say that the path to successful RPA adoption can be challenging given the multitude of decisions and choices that
enterprises need to make along the way. These range from where to apply and prioritize RPA with well-defined outcomes,
to how to adopt RPA: the tools, partners and governance. And while enterprises grapple with these choices, rapidly
evolving digital technologies are pushing the boundaries of what is possible even further.

The benefits, however, make RPA a key opportunity for enterprises to invest in today. The reality is that RPA should be
addressed as part of a bigger digital transformation initiative. CEOs and leadership teams must build an integrated RPA
vision, commit to its success, and develop measurable goals across the organization. Corporate leadership teams need to
amend their roadmaps based on pilot projects and continuously refine their RPA vision with clear rewards for executives
and employees to make RPA a priority.

Service providers that bring in the unique combination of deep domain knowledge, technology prowess, process handling
(including exceptions), and adherence to SLAs are indispensable for achieving ROI at scale. A service provider’s ability to
leverage design thinking to reimagine processes is also a critical factor in guiding enterprises through this maze. Successful
RPA deployment will depend on the provider’s automation experience, prowess in high-velocity engineering, and Lean
implementations to enable continuous iterations and improvements.

RPA is coming of age and becoming a mainstream investment focus across industries. As such, organizations are bringing
robotics and advanced digital technologies together, balancing human and robot workforces, and automating intelligently.
Pulling all of this together through intelligent automation—and beyond with artificial intelligence—requires strategic
planning, and the ability to break boundaries, convince stakeholders, and occasionally fail. These temporary failures lead
to greater learning for an enterprise’s overall digital transformation journey.

In today’s hyper-competitive world, the only choice enterprises do not have is to not make a move at all.

The future beyond RPA | 11

 GENPACT: RPA AND INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION

Genpact has led the deployment of robotic process automation in over 750 sub-
processes for more than 140 client functions — including finance and accounting,
supply chain management, insurance underwriting, and healthcare policy
administration. We have developed unrivaled experience and skills in bringing
intelligent automation to organizations worldwide.

Based on our Lean DigitalSM approach, which combines design-thinking practices,

process and domain knowledge, and digital technologies and analytics, we deliver
transformational impact and expected business outcomes. Our capabilities include
digital consulting, mature RPA assessment methodologies, end-to-end governance,
agile development, and deployment accelerators.

We have generated savings of over $200 million, with an average of 44% reduction
in processing time. In addition, our intelligent automation initiatives have improved
customer experiences, resulting in higher revenues, greater competitiveness, and
increased market share.

In recognition of our credentials, analyst firm HfS Research positioned Genpact in the
Winner’s Circle of its 2016 Blueprint Report on Intelligent Automation, which highlights
our holistic approach to intelligent automation.

About Genpact
Genpact (NYSE: G) is a global professional services firm focused on delivering digital transformation for our clients, putting
digital and data to work to create competitive advantage. We do this by integrating lean principles, design thinking, analytics,
and digital technologies with domain and industry expertise to deliver disruptive business outcomes – an approach called Lean
DigitalSM. We deliver value to our clients through digital-led, domain-enabled solutions that drive innovation, and
digital-enabled intelligent operations that design, transform, and run clients’ operations. For two decades we have been
generating impact for clients including the Fortune Global 500, employing 77,000+ people in 20+ countries, with key offices in
New York City, Palo Alto, London, and Delhi.

For additional information, contact, [email protected] and visit, www.genpact.com/leandigital

Follow Genpact on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

© 2017 Copyright Genpact. All Rights Reserved.

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Preface | 5