Intelligence Automation Company - IAC: A Strictly Results-Driven Approach

IA C: A S TRI CTLY RE SU LT S- DRI VEN AP P R O A C H

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IAC: A STRICTLY RESULTS-DRIVEN APPROACH Olivier Gomez, CEO and Co-founder at Intelligence Automation Company (IAC), takes us through his company’s plans to disrupt the service provider market.

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ntelligent Automation Company (IAC) is a service company specialising in intelligent automation. Intelligent automation is defined as the combination of automation technology and AI, and is one of the fastest growing markets in the software industry.

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Olivier Gomez is CEO and Cofounder at IAC. He explains, “We automate processes for our clients. And what makes us different from other service companies is that we are willing to go as far as signing outcomebased contracts with them. This means we simply commit on results. When the environment allows it, we go even further with gainshare contracts, where we commit to delivering certain results and then share the benefit with the client. For instance, if the current cost of delivering a service is $1 million per year, we drop it by half a million, and share the benefit with the client.

If we don’t deliver results, then we do not get paid by the client.

From our point of view, we are all about de-risking the client.”

Previously, a client had to take all the risk, for example, by buying intelligent automation software or subscribing to a software or a service provider without any guarantee that they would get any return on their investment.

Olivier continues, “We share the risk with the client by coming up with a win-win solution. To ensure there is a return on the client’s investment, the first thing we do is to leverage existing 4

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investments in technology that the client has already made. Some companies have already invested in automation and AI, and have software on their shelf. We try to optimise what has already been deployed before introducing any new solution.”

Having successfully delivered automation in the past, against a range of verticals, industries, and business processes (e.g. HR, finance and IT), IAC has many uses cases in its automation library, and these can be leveraged to map opportunities 6

in a client’s environment. Olivier says, “When we have done it before, our time to value is much shorter, so we do not need to reinvent the wheel. The confidence level that we are going to deliver results is also much higher.”

Having said that, Olivier adds that IAC has no issue in adapting, modifying, or customising existing market solutions to suit a client environment. He confirms, “We like to deliver something that we know will work, but we also want to be able to adapt to the client

“WE LIKE TO D E L I V E R SOMETHING T H AT W E K N OW WILL WORK”

environment and therefore offer both standard and bespoke solutions.”

Olivier makes the distinction between intelligent automation and AI, as he explains, “What we are doing is looking at how we can use AI in a situation where we are trying to automate something. If automation is the leg and the arm, AI is the brain. We take the legs and arms, and add a brain.”

Olivier refers to three phases within any intelligent automation project:

1. Discovery – This phase involves understanding and analysing a client’s environment by using process or task mining tools to build a digital blueprint of their environment; utilising AI to analyse, clean and structure the client’s data (especially if unstructured or semi-structured); then correctly identifying the opportunities and understanding which solutions are needed to achieve substantial business results.

2. Build – This phase involves designing, building, testing and deploying a given automation solution, as well as injecting AI into the solution in order to make it more intelligent.

3. Automation Ops – This phase involves running and maintaining a solution whilst making sure the automation continues to do what it is supposed to do. AI is used to help identify a problem before it occurs, using the data to fix it fast.

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As far as the finance industry is concerned, IAC has a number of well-defined use cases that can be applied to a typical finance department. Olivier elaborates, “In order for an intelligent automation solution to have a tangible business impact, we need to identify the consolidation points. For example, finance has an operation team that manages the bills, processes the invoice, chases the client if the money is not forthcoming, and makes sure the process is working smoothly.

Companies must apply a lot of people to these separate activities.

By automating a large number of them, the finance department can apply less operational bandwidth to running those business processes, saving costs whilst making quality improvements.”

But, if fewer people are required to run such activities, thanks to intelligent automation, does this result in a loss of jobs? Olivier answers, “Every time a major disruptive piece of innovation enters an industry, people are afraid that they are going to lose their jobs. But, what we see is that technology simply changes the nature of the jobs that humans do. By removing boring, repetitive and mundane tasks, people can be redeployed more effectively elsewhere. In fact, automation 8

“WE ARE A PURE P L AY E R B U T W I T H G LO B A L D E L I V E R Y C A PA B I L I T I E S .

THIS MEANS WE A R E A S A F E PA I R O F H A N D S FO R OUR CLIENTS” Olivier Gomez creates more jobs than it removes.

If you take the automotive industry, cars are now built by robots in the factory line, but there is still a large number of people doing a whole host of different jobs in the factory.”

As a service delivery company, IAC helps a client to decide which is the best software for them to utilise. To this end, IAC’s strategic direction is to partner with key players in the industry to enable the client to make the right decisions for their specific company. Olivier says, “We have a technology agnostic approach, which means we come with a business, outcome and return on investment first mindset. We

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www.robocorp.com 10

always make technical decisions solely based on the impact they will deliver to a business. By using the right tool for the right job, we deliver best-in-class results. In fact, if there is a specific business need that is not fulfilled by an off-theshelf product, we also have the capability to develop, engineer and integrate a bespoke solution for our clients. Our software development team is entirely focused on making our clients’ services better.”

To enable IAC to focus on what it does best, the company has curated an ecosystem of trusted partners. Olivier continues, “Our partner ecosystem is very important to us. We have formed strong commercial partnerships with the best partners in each industry space.

Each partner has committed to supporting IAC to deliver a return on investment and each possesses the same mindset as us, which is an obsession to

“ W E A R E PA RT N E R I N G W I T H R O B O CO R P B E C A U S E T H E Y E N A B L E U S TO B U I L D B E S T- I N - C L A S S R PA S O LU T I O N S T H AT O F F E R A N OVERALL RETURN ON INVESTMENT” IAC leverages a variety of intelligent automation capabilities to: 1. Decrease the time to value for its clients.

2. Increase confidence levels that a solution will work and deliver results.

3. Allow IAC to deliver a much better price point to a client than if it were to start developing a technology solution from scratch.

committing to and delivering results.”

One such partner is Robocorp.

Olivier enthuses, “Robocorp is a Generation2 RPA software provider. They are an opensource platform, which means that one of their key values is being able to provide highquality software at a very reasonable price point. This has been a game-changer for our clients who were historically 11

using Generation1 RPA solutions, which did not allow them to see a return on investment.

“We are partnering with Robocorp because they enable us to build best-inclass RPA solutions that offer an overall return on investment. They also have very high innovation capabilities. We are currently working on a conversion solution, focusing on how to enable a client to quickly move from one software provider to Robocorp. Given their innovation capabilities, Robocorp is able to quickly come up with a robust solution that will allow us to migrate clients from a Generation1 RPA provider to a Generation2 RPA provider.”

To conclude, what is IAC’s global vision for 2022 and beyond? Olivier answers, “We aim to disrupt the intelligent automation service provider market by establishing a new industry norm. Going forwards, de-risking a client will be the only way for service providers to deliver an intelligent automation program. We want clients to 12

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“ W E R E A L LY P R OV I D E T H E B E S T O F B OT H W O R L D S FO R OUR CLIENTS” 14

understand that service providers are now past the automation innovation phase and very much in the maturity phase. There is sufficient industry understanding of intelligent automation technology use cases for service providers to share program risk and establish win-win partnerships with their clients. We want clients to start challenging existing one-sided

service provider contracts and demand their provider shares the risk.”

Headquartered in France, IAC has delivery centres in the Philippines, Slovakia and India. Olivier concludes, “We are a pure player but with global delivery capabilities. This means we are a safe pair of hands for our clients, at the price point of

a company that has both nearshore and offshore operations. Typically, these are attributes of only very large companies. At the same time, because we are a pure player, we have the agility, flexibility and reactivity of a smaller company. We really provide the best of both worlds for our clients.”

For further information, visit www.iac.ai 15

www.iac.ai

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