Maximizing your digital workforce

Webinar Report

This month, CSIA was delighted to co-host an informative webinar with Customer Science where we explored how organisations are successfully deploying their digital workforces. Matthew Green shares the key takeaways from this session.

It is no secret that here in Australia and New Zealand we are a little bit behind the likes of USA and Europe in terms of digital strategy and automation. The recent pandemic has given all the industries a big boost on the digital journey and enhanced the speed at which companies have adopted a Digital & Cloud-first approach across the globe.

As a result, the leaders in digital workforce technologies have been swiftly moving their entire offerings to be cloud-based. Digital workers in the cloud simplifies the infrastructure, improves scalability, and lowers the total cost of ownership all while making getting started easier than ever.

The rise of the digital workforce has now been through the hype cycle, the benefits are proven and are as real now as they were 10 years ago. The digital workforce is fast becoming a victim of its own success now with so many software vendors and partners including some that over promise and under deliver… Simply thinking about getting started can seem risky and daunting, so what are the key things you should consider when getting started?

Mission

Have a clear objective if you want to improve your customer journey and lower costs, then build your success factors and prioritisation around that.

Prototype Small

Identify a relatively simple process that is seen as valuable, visible & painful (or annoying). These processes exist across most businesses but are not always front of mind.

Some example processes are:

• change of contact details

• reconciliations

• payments

• email requests

• Onboarding

These can be a great starting point delivering ROI within weeks.

Partners

The marketplace is filled with Vendors and Consultants that are actively playing in this market having completed little if any training and having no real world experience. To illustrate this point, just under 70% of the clients I have worked with in Australia so far have been burnt by prior promises that weren’t delivered against. And in my past European life I lost count of the clients that we helped after they had poor experiences at the hands of self-proclaimed ‘Experts’. If you are going to partner, pick well! This WILL mean the difference between achieving your goals or not.

Scale Quickly

Once you have proven the ROI, don’t lose momentum, start to identify your pipeline and roadmap, and start thinking about how to operationalise.

Expedite Understanding

Never assume that understanding is truly there, as in many occasions many people never truly ‘get it’ until after they have seen it running in their own business on their own process. This is when the mental block vanishes and ideas for things that could be done by digital workers start to come thick and fast. There are many ways to expedite understanding with the impact being a better pipeline in a shorter time span.

Next Steps

Want to learn more to consider your next steps toward a digital workforce? Review the “Event Recap” and hear how Hunter Water started their RPA journey or even follow the link and watch the full webinar.

EVENT RECAP

In our latest webinar Customer Science and Customer Service Institute of Australia (CSIA) were joined by business leaders from Hunter Water and Automation Anywhere to breakdown their experiences in developing and implementing Robotic Automation Processes in their businesses.

Our guest speaker Doug Lucas from Hunter Water, along with case studies from Anglicare, Community Options Australia & Australian Government each showcase how small-medium businesses and fortune 500 companies alike are transforming and adopting a digital workforce whilst also providing a unique perspective in their market sectors.

Here’s a quick review of the insights shared by Doug Lucas at Hunter Water, around how engaging a digital workforce has changed the roadmap for their organisation.

From the inception of identifying what routine and repetitive processes could be automated, to delivering the solution, RPA for Hunter Water has been all about fulfilling a need for the broader strategy business, building trust and confidence in the technology, and having the right partner to implement quickly. Listening to their people as they developed processes, and ensuring all aspects work company-wide, has been a key to the success of this RPA technology moving forward .

Doug shared that RPA has formed part of a larger road map for activities, where they want to build capability within the business. Building assets to solve problems for the community has moved their customer experience into a new era. Allowing the company to focus on roles that support building relationships with their customers and community.

What rang true in this conversation was “start small and keep it simple!” As an organisation Hunter Water started with 2 processes, automating their liquid trade waste docketing system and streamlining updates from their website with customer contact details into their billing system.

Over the last 3-4 years they have actively gone about building & updating digital capability, upgrading website functions & any processes that can engage electronic automation hence removing backend dissidence for their people. When a business can improve accuracy, reallocate people into more important activities within the business, future proof with a solid and reliable human and digital workforce flow, measure efficiency gains and improve turnaround times for customers, you know that you’re moving in a positive and thriving direction.

Hunter Water’s Key Tips

• Start small, build value, commit to building confidence with the techn ology so that the people in your organisation see it as a friend to support the business.

• Know your processes, work with skilled subject matter experts like the team at Customer Science and understand your endto-end processes.

• Work with the talented people in your business to get a real time 360-degree view, drive this technology from within the business & fill the need.

• RPA is not a set and forget process, be agile and allow the technology to grow and transform your digital workforce in line with your company’s evolution.