Outsource repetitive tasks to robots

Robots are software tools that have emerged to simplify business process delivery. The technology behind this development is called Robotic Process Automation. - Supplied photo

Humans can focus on more intelligent tasks and decision making by outsourcing the repetitive tasks to robots, said Khurram Siddiqui, Mena Leader for Advance Process Assurance and Data Analytics (APADA), Financial Accounting Advisory Services (FAAS), EY
Robots, are software tools that have emerged to simplify business process delivery. The technology behind this development is called Robotic Process Automation (RPA). These software robots offer improved business efficiency, data security and effectiveness by mimicking human actions and automating repetitive tasks across multiple business applications without altering existing infrastructure and systems. Enhanced productivity, reduced cycle time, and improved accuracy and compliance are some of the benefits of this technology.

"We believe RPA is the next step, with the potential to significantly reduce the requirement for employees to perform rule-based high-volume activities. Embedding RPA in leveraging automation across various processes does not replace the value brought by human beings. In fact, the combination of bots and humans makes the most efficient and effective business environment," said Siddiqui.
EY was promoting its new Finance Data Analytics product at 10th CFO Strategies Forum Mena organised by Naseba.
The tool offers a 360 view of not only finance, but also the operational trends and developments that constitute a crucial input to strategic decision making. It produces comparative analysis and detailed evaluation using information from peer companies, budgets and prior years using EY Market Intelligence Database.
Finance functions are under significant pressure across all industries but more specifically in the financial services sector. Some of the major challenges are: to shrink costs and support decreasing margins; to improve speed, volumes and quality of information provided; and to focus on the delivery of value adding insights to the business.
RPA is evolving into a new hot topic in the finance world. Its significant potential to become a differentiator in finance functions has become evident. Most of the large players in the financial services sector are either assessing possibilities to benefit from this new solution or even proceeding with the first implementations. The RPA implementation burdens (costs and timelines) are relatively insignificant, compared to major IT platform updates. Therefore, it is likely that RPA will quickly convert from being a differentiator delivering a competitive advantage to a standard practice that needed for survival and eventually, better customer satisfaction.
In the age of digital transformation, CFOs have a mandate and, equally, an opportunity to play a pivotal role in the digital transformation of their organisations. Data analytics remains at the core of the digital transformation agenda.
Organisations prepared to embark on the digital transformation journey, recognise the tremendous potential value of the data they hold, and are working hard to exploit that value. Initiatives in better data management and analytics are beginning to take shape. However, realising and creating value from data - turning information into insight and practical action - is challenging and most companies have much more work ahead.
"It is an EY offering based on our intellectual property (IP), that has been developed over time, based on a number of both regional and global case studies. The pricing of the product is based on multiple factors, which may vary based on the client environment, frequency of service and specific client requirements. All sectors can use our tool. The product is designed for a strategic function that is crucial to all organisations and sectors," said Siddiqui.
The game changer is CFOs embarking on the digital transformation journey in a quick manner and laying the foundation of a sustainable digital journey, on an on-going basis. The tools help CFOs focus more on the strategic goals of the organisation while tactical areas could be taken care by the FDA tool. The tool provides dashboards to CFOs, enabling them making timely decisions on key issues.
EY's session on Finance Data Analytics (FDA) showcased the new and innovative tools, which leverage the power of data and analytical techniques to identify insights and trends, and to identify control weaknesses across the finance function and operations on 100 per cent population of finance data, which is a transformational change from sample selection techniques. This will enable unparalleled business success for clients - which typically was not possible with limited enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. - sandhya@khaleejtimes.com