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Retail is experiencing a digital transformation explosion after Covid-19. Automation is the trend

Digital transformation in retail has revolutionized every step of the process – from inventory management and merchandise handling and training through to marketing, customer support, and loyalty programmes. Now with the Covid-19 pandemic and its Omicron variant, its main mission is to keep customers shopping in physical stores while offering them the same experience online. This can be achieved by making offline shopping as similar to online shopping as possible. How does automation help the retail industry bridge the gap between the two worlds and succeed?

Retail has always been based on trust, which is built through outstanding customer care and delivering an exceptional customer experience. This will remain to be true, but the ways and means of serving customers will change dramatically over the next decade. “At the heart of the change is technology. In the future, the shopping experience will be more engaging and convenient both for remote and in-store shopping. Compared to today, more transactions will be made with mobile devices and through social networks – with the physical and virtual worlds merging as a result of the omnichannel concept. Customers will be able to serve themselves to a greater extent, and brands will know each customer perfectly, which will allow them to provide a personalized customer experience,” predicts Viktória Lukáčová Bracjunová, the RPA business unit manager at Soitron.

Modern technology has transformed retail and customer interaction

Martin Ohradzanský, the CEO of the NAY Group – a consumer electronics retail chain that also includes the Electro World subsidiary in the Czech Republic – is well aware of the dramatic changes under way. When he took the CEO’s position some ten years ago, online sales accounted for only a fraction of the company’s total revenue. A decade later, they account for roughly a third of total sales. “In the next few years, more will change than just the online to offline sales ratio. That’s why advances in digitalization and automation are an integral part of our long-term strategy,” adds Ohradzanský.

If a company is to be competitive and profitable in the long term, it needs to be able to serve more customers with existing resources and cope with increasing fluctuations in demand. These occur during seasonal peaks and during pandemics and can be the result of suddenly introduced measures or supply chain disruptions.

A long-term journey

A digital transformation is not a short and quick sprint for any retailer. But it’s not a long and strenuous marathon either. The most fitting sporting analogy would be a long-term series of runs – some for shorter distances and some for longer ones – through which a company gradually and systematically moves towards a more digital future.

Companies that have completed several such runs – from basic enterprise information systems through to specialized software solutions for delivery and order management automation – make it easier for their employees to do their job and improve customer service.

Process automation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence

The potential for the application of machine learning and artificial intelligence in retail is limitless, and the industry has barely scratched the surface in this respect. The same is true for Robotic Process Automation (RPA). This allows selected tasks, especially those that require a sequence of repetitive steps based on clearly defined rules, to be done by a software robot instead of a human.

Robots processing cancellations or complaints in call centres

Process automation makes it possible to improve customer service and relieve the burden on staff – initially and mainly on those working in the back office or a call centre. “We were increasingly running into capacity constraints when processing orders during seasonal peaks. It was always difficult to handle these situations with temporary staff, and with online sales growing, there was a risk that we would not be able to complete some orders quickly enough,” says Ohradzanský.

That is why Electro World used RPA to automate some processes, such as the order cancellation process. Call centre agents used to handle several thousand order cancellations per month. For each such cancellation, several steps have to be taken in different systems, for example, checking whether the goods have already been dispatched and paid for. “Today, these tasks are performed automatically by a robot instead of people, which gives the staff more time to deal with more complex customer queries and suggestions,” says Lukáčová Bracjunová.

The call centre of the retail chain also automated the process of handling claims under extended warranty as well as selected finance and HR administrative processes. “We plan to introduce robotization wherever it can help us relieve people of work or improve customer service – and ideally do both,” explains Ohradzanský.

The pandemic is a catalyst for retail digitization

One of the main goals of automation is to increase customer loyalty – whether that be by reducing waiting times, providing better information, or introducing new self-service options. “We used to stand in queues in banks for every payment order, but today we do all transactions via internet banking. Retail is moving towards a similar level of automation,” concludes Ohradzanský.

The future of retail: personalized, digitalized, and automated

The NAY electronics retail chain is working hard to thrive in an increasingly digital world.

Retail has always been based on trust, which is built on exceptional customer care and providing an outstanding customer experience. This will remain the case in the future, but the ways and means of servicing customers will change significantly in this decade.

Technology will be at the centre of this change. The shopping of the future will be more interesting and convenient both online and at physical stores. More transactions will take place through mobile devices and social networks, and the physical and virtual worlds will be even more interconnected thanks to the “omnichannel” concept. Customers will be able to serve themselves to a greater extent than today, while brands will get to know each client perfectly; this will allow them to be able to provide a personalized customer experience.

A step into the digital world

The CEO of the NAY electronics retail chain, Martin Ohradzanský, is well aware of the upcoming dramatic changes. When he took over as CEO about a decade ago, online sales accounted for only a tiny proportion of the company’s total revenue. A decade later, online sales now account for about a third of total sales. In coming years, however, more than just the online to off-line sales ratio will change in the retail world.

Digitalization and automation are an integral part of NAY’s long-term strategy that has been set out by Ohradzanský and communicated by the company at annual employee conferences.

“It is not enough to present the vision and strategy just to the managers. All our people need to know it to see where we are heading and why it is important,” he says.

The need for automation stems from the idea that for a company to be competitive and profitable in the long run, it must be able to serve more customers with existing resources and cope with growing fluctuations in demand. This is due to the growing seasonality of consumer electronics purchases and the unexpected introduction of various measures during the pandemic.

A long-term journey

Naturally, the digital transformation of a large traditional retail chain, such as NAY, is not a short and fast sprint to the finish; however, it is not a long and challenging marathon either. The most fitting sports metaphor would be a comparison to a long series of runs–some of them are short, while others are long – whereby the company is gradually yet systematically heading towards a more digital future.

NAY has already made some progress. In recent years, it has implemented several software solutions – from the basic SAP enterprise information system to specialized software for distribution and order management automation. This has made it easier for employees to do their job, and it has improved customer service.

Technologies that benefit both employees and customers include things such as self-service terminals that assist customers with selecting a case for their mobile phone. In several NAY stores, customers have tablets where they can enter the brand and model of their mobile phone; on the basis of that information, all compatible cases in the display case are then highlighted with LEDs. This is a fairly simple self-service technology that can make the purchasing experience more pleasurable and convenient, while also making things easier for staff.

The beginnings of process automation

NAY’s robotic process automation (RPA) project was driven by similar motivations. This allows selected activities – especially those that require a repetitive sequence of steps based on clearly defined rules – to be performed by a software robot instead of a human.

Process automation makes it possible to improve customer service and make things easier for staff – especially those working in the back-office and the call centre. Due to large demand surges, the company had been increasingly hitting their capacity limits during peak seasons. Covering these peaks with a temporary workforce was always challenging. With online sales increasing, there was a risk that the company would not be able to process some orders in a sufficiently short time.

NAY worked with Soitron to automate processes, such as order cancellation requests, using RPA. Call centre agents used to process several thousand of these requests each month. For each cancellation, they had to conduct several steps in various systems–such as checking if the goods had already been dispatched and paid for. Today, these tasks are performed automatically by a robot, which gives the staff more time to answer other questions and solve other customer issues.

An essential part of the future

Similarly, the call centre managed to automate the process of handling claims under extended warranties as well as selected administrative processes in finance and HR. Ohradzanský’s vision is to extend the RPA concept to other departments and processes.

“We want to implement robotization wherever it can help us unburden our staff or improve customer service, or ideally both,” he explains.

One of the main goals of automation is to help improve customer care and thus increase customer loyalty – be it by shortening waiting times, better information, or introducing new self-service options. It is here that Ohradzanský sees a great future.

“We used to stand in lines in banks with every payment order, and today we do all our transactions via internet banking. Retail is moving in the same direction,” he says.

Naturally, more extensive self-service options would not be possible without process automation. Although the combination of these terms may lead some employees to have concerns about becoming redundant, Ohradzanský keeps assuring people that this concern is unjustified.

“The goal is actually to stabilize the team and create conditions that would allow us to handle seasonal peaks while freeing up employees to work on tasks with a higher added value,” he explains.

If this vision is achieved, it will undoubtedly ensure a bright future for the company and its people.

The best Christmas presents this year will be enjoyed by hackers

This year’s Christmas winners will be hackers. Seriously. Cyber security is currently one of the main issues being addressed around the world. With many people being forced to stay at home due to the Covid pandemic, online shopping is growing. The growth of the e-commerce scene is a major impetus for hackers, who keep coming up with new and more sophisticated strategies. This is one of the reasons why Christmas scams are in full swing, and their rise is even more accelerated by a newly emerging trick which is set to fully appear on 26 November (Black Friday).

As online stores are getting ready for the expected increase in daily sales, we also need to be prepared for the increasing number of cyber-attacks in the upcoming period. This year, due to the ongoing pandemic, this will be true more than ever before. Christmas is a very lucrative time for hackers. With the holiday season and the end of the year approaching, the vigilance of shoppers is often reduced, and people let themselves be tricked by a variety of forms of online fraud.

Companies are under great handling pressure

This has been exploited by attackers for years, and their techniques now increasingly focus on abusing automated systems in order to take a specific action or obtain certain information – the principles of social engineering. In automatically sent phishing emails, fraudsters lure victims with attractive pre-Christmas loans and discounts on electronics, toys, and other Christmas presents in order to get access to cash and sensitive data. They have been increasingly using mobile phones for these schemes.

Re-delivery fees can be a problem

“We all get packages with ordered Christmas presents. However, with the growing number of these packages, we often lose track of what we have ordered and when it is due to be delivered. Hackers have taken advantage of this and invented a new type of attack where a customer receives an innocent-looking SMS message on their mobile phone,” says Martin Lohnert, the head of the Void Security Operations Centre and an IT specialist at Soitron.

The message says something along the lines that a package could not be delivered and that in order to book a new delivery date or pick up the package, you need to click on the following link. If the recipient does so, it takes them to what looks like the web page of a parcel service delivery company. Since we are usually not familiar with what the websites of shipping companies look like, and we do not even remember who should be delivering which package, it never occurs to us that this may be a fraudulent website.

What is interesting about all this is that if the link is opened from a computer, a genuinely looking website will appear. However, if the link is opened on a mobile phone, part of the website address is not displayed; most people do not notice that. The trick is that the fraudulent part of the address is hidden

“If the package recipient trusts the SMS message and clicks on the link, a phishing web page will appear saying that your package could not be delivered and that you need to specify where and when it should be delivered,” adds Lohnert.

After the victim enters their personal information, such as a name and an address, a message is displayed with an apology and a text that says for the package to be re-delivered, it is necessary to pay a small handling fee.

The hacker gets the complete package

In the pre-Christmas rush, people usually do not have much of a problem to pay a little extra money just to make sure they actually get a long-awaited package. Such payments are made by card. The trick is that after the card details are entered, the fraudsters do not deduct a small fee. They completely steal your identity instead.

At this point, the hackers have all they need. They have your mobile number, contact address, and your payment card – they know your identity and your payment details. Such a full-detail package has a high value on the black market. “Logically, these scams can be expected to appear the most on Black Friday and in the following two weeks,” says Lohnert in conclusion.

Start metering your energy consumption and you will save on one of the biggest costs

Trading, manufacturing, and service companies as well as entities such as hospitals and public organisations tend to perceive energy as a necessary cost item which is constantly growing.

They do not pay much attention to it, because some of their managers believe that continuous consumption monitoring, identifying inefficiencies, and adapting their power consumption to the “reserved capacity” contracted with their energy distributor is too complicated, if not impossible.

And yet for many businesses, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, energy is one of the largest cost items. The most energy-intensive sectors include food, pulp and paper, and the chemical industry as well as services. Indeed, the industrial and services sectors account for almost two-fifths of the EU’s total energy consumption (including households).

It is often said that if you cannot measure it, you cannot manage and optimise it. Energy is a perfect example of this. Only a detailed overview of the largest expenditures or leaks and an understanding of when, where, and how they occur can make subsequent remedial action possible.

The good news is that current technologies based on the Internet of Things (IoT) make it relatively simple to monitor energy consumption in great detail. The basis for this is the use of smart meters providing real-time data on the consumption of energy such as electricity or water. Based on our experience at Soitron, our customers achieve energy cost savings by using this technology in the three following ways:

Identification of errors and energy wastage

The first way to use metering to reduce energy consumption, and thus also your costs and carbon footprint, is to compare invoices from the energy provider against your own metering. This can reveal energy losses, such as water pipe leaks in larger industrial facilities.

More detailed consumption metering, monitoring, and comparisons also tend to reveal unnecessary waste, such as when a specific facility has a significantly higher consumption than other comparable ones. A detailed consumption overview has helped some companies realise that they kept their air conditioning running unnecessarily, even on weekends or outside work hours. In our experience, organisations can save up to five percent of their energy costs in the first year after metering implementation.
Current consumption and energy supply contract optimisation

If a company is unable to monitor their electricity consumption over time and actively manage individual energy consuming systems, they can easily repeatedly exceed their reserved capacity. In such cases, distribution companies charge penalties for overconsumption, often amounting to several thousand euros.

Some organisations deal with this problem by increasing their reserved capacity. However, such a solution may turn out to be even more costly as they have to pay higher fixed charges for a capacity that they seldom use.

A smarter solution is to meter the energy consumption continuously and to intervene when necessary by temporarily turning down room chilling or reconfiguring the operation of any large appliances that do not necessarily have to all run at the same time. A similar approach can be used to avoid power outages if the infrastructure is hitting its technology ceiling and the distributor is unable to reserve a higher capacity.
Feedback for maintenance and changes in behaviour

Detailed reports on energy consumption down to the level of individual workplaces or even machines may also have other positive effects. For instance, they provide more insight into the technical condition and the intensity of use of machines. If the consumption is too high, it may indicate a fault, but if it is too low it may indicate that the machine is not being used enough.

Finally, if the metering results are well communicated, they also help to change employee behaviour, which can lead to further savings and higher efficiency.

Conclusion
Of course, there are several ways to achieve energy savings. A company can change their energy supplier, try to get better conditions by renegotiating the energy supply contract, and invest in more energy-efficient machines and equipment.

However, consumption metering is very affordable and can be implemented relatively quickly, which is why it is proving to be one of the most effective ways to reduce energy costs.
Contact our IoT team and find out how much your organisation can save on energy.

We can deploy various types of robots in your company

With Robotic Process Automation (RPA), i.e. software robots, we can streamline and speed up many business processes while reducing the error rate to a minimum. When deploying a specific type of a robot, it is essential to clearly describe the processes in which the robot is to be involved and to define the exact criteria it should follow. The following examples will show you what types of robots are available and what kind of tasks they can handle either with or without human assistance.

A robot: your trusted colleague

One of the simpler software robots is an On-Demand Robot that works only when you need it. Let’s take the example of a contact centre. If a customer calls the contact centre with a request to cancel part of a purchase order, you as the operator then type in the purchase order number; this initiates the robot, which will find the necessary information about the customer and the ordered goods across various systems. The inquiry takes a few seconds. You then verify the information with the customer and modify the purchase order as requested. A more sophisticated solution is an Attended Robot working in tandem with you as the employee. Once the robot is running, you do not wait for the result and you can fully focus on the customer and other activities. The robot works in the background and notifies you when everything is completed. These types of robots function as virtual assistants, helping you when you need them, and are especially suitable for back-office tasks at Finance, HR, IT, and many other departments.

More work for the robot means less for the employee

By combining the two previous types of robots, we get a Hybrid Robot. This is particularly useful if the work takes a little longer to complete. An operator or other employee at the contact centre provides input data to the robot, which will check the original purchase order in all the necessary systems. This part is relatively fast, and the customer can stay on the line and be immediately informed that their request is ready to be processed. As the operator needs to continue using this robot, the collected data is sent to another robot that works independently. After working hours, or at a specifically chosen time, the second robot launches the completion process of things like cancelling all collected orders. When finished, it sends a notification about the job completion.

The robot can also work Partially Unattended, and hence you do not have to wait for the outcome. For example, if a company needs to refund a customer, a Finance Department staff member enters this request into a file (such as an Excel spreadsheet). At a specific time, the robot automatically activates itself, reads the file, checks the data, and then processes all the refunds. Similarly, this type of robot can also be utilised by IT departments for the onboarding of new employees, or for another process where you can enter specific input data and do not need to immediately work with the outcome of the robot’s work; in this case, the IT specialist only enters the necessary data, and the robot orders new devices for the new employee or generates access to the company’s systems. If a new hire is replacing a leaving employee, the robot revokes access for the offboarded employee and then generates access to the same applications and orders the same devices for the newly onboarded employee.

For processes that can be fully automated, you can use a Fully Unattended Robot. These robots need no assistance or activation. Whenever the robot detects a new request, it activates itself and performs the tasks based on predefined criteria. Flawlessly. We know from our own experience that the robot works reliably without any fluctuations according to the way we and our clients jointly set it up. If a new invoice arrives in our accountant’s e-mail, the robot opens, reads, processes, and books the invoice in all the required systems and we only get the final notification. We have used full automation for our clients to do things like process power supply disconnection and reconnection requests, generate various regular reports, and execute GDPR compliance processes where the robot’s task was to delete sensitive customer data.

Even though many business processes can be partially or completely automated, there are activities where the human factor is necessary and irreplaceable. Processes that cannot be completely automated include those where the robot does not have clearly set-up criteria for it to work reliably, where a decision or approval of a physical person is required, and where several departments need to be involved in the process: for example, a handwritten document can be digitised, but the robot cannot guarantee the collection of all the necessary data from it unless it is a structured document. A loan approval may require an assessment of the applicant’s current income and liabilities, but another important factor is the applicant’s behaviour during their interactions with banking staff. In such cases, we deploy Long-Running Robots combining the work of a human with various types of robots. When the robot completes part of its work and the next step requires human involvement, the robot creates a task for the human, clearly specifying the expected outcome, and waits for the task to be completed. It then resumes the automatic task processing.
The robot can therefore help with the processing and preparation of all necessary information, do the necessary checks, and display all the relevant information to the human employee. The task for the employee is to make a single-click decision about the next steps. The robot then completes the job.

Flawlessly and with a quick return on investment

Robots work exactly the way they were set up. If we enter the right criteria together, the robot makes the right decisions. It accesses systems based on how we have set it up. It never gets tired or stops working due to being bored of repetitive processes. It is not a problem even if the system is overloaded or if it crashes. The robot reopens the system and resumes working where it left off because it continuously logs all completed operations. If you decide to invest into partial or full automation, the return on your investment depends on the size of the automated process. It may vary from three months for simpler solutions to one or one and a half years for automating more complex processes. The robots will also save you labour costs and eliminate errors. If you need advice on how to start or extend process automation and digitisation, we will be happy to help you, analyse options, and prepare a strategy for your company. Getting all the necessary licences will not be a problem for you either. We can rent them (RPA as a service) or get them for you. The benefit of renting is that you get all the updates as well as the IT support and service. At Soitron we take care of the robot completely. If you decide to purchase a full licence, we can train your specialists and provide them with all the necessary information.

Two important lessons e-shops have learned from the pandemic

What lessons have established e-commerce brands and brick-and-mortar stores with e-shops learned from the pandemic?

Internet shopping has become an integral part of the lives of most Slovaks in recent years. The popularity of e-shops had been growing steadily for a long time, but the corona crisis has significantly accelerated the adoption of new habits. For some months in the past year, online stores were the only way to get access to certain goods, and some consumers started to prefer using e-shops to eliminate the risks of infection.

As a result, some online stores enjoyed huge increases in sales. For example, the turnover of Alza, one of the largest e-shops in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, rose by 70% year-on-year. According to Eurostat, in the pandemic year of 2020 almost 70% of Slovaks shopped online, with an average of two purchases a month worth 214 euros.

Retailers realize that, to a large degree, consumers will maintain their newly formed habits. This is why many retailers took quick decisions to take actions they had originally planned for several years in the future. According to analysts’ estimates, the e-commerce sector as a whole has moved forward several years in terms of its thinking, strategy and, in some cases, investment in the past year.

So what were the most important lessons that retailers learned from the pandemic?

1. Scalability is the key

The first important takeaway was that only players who can respond to extreme sales fluctuations are able to ride the wave of online shopping growth. This applies to maintaining delivery dates as well as to responding to various customer requests, such as the refunding of payments for cancelled prepaid orders or handling claims.

Unlike in the past, when e-commerce retailers or companies with an online channel were able to predict and adequately prepare for fluctuations in demand, such as before Black Friday, no one could predict the sudden increase in sales during lockdowns. For example, Nay’s online sales grew by up to five times in the first days of the pandemic.

However, immediate revenue growth was not the only factor where scalability turned out to be the key differentiator for e-shops. To a large extent, scalability sets them up for future success or failure, which depends on their ability to build a reputation, acquire new customers, and deepen relationships with existing ones. Disappointed and frustrated customers do not come back.

2. Customer experience at the expense of price

This brings us to the second prerequisite of success in the world of e-commerce underlined and highlighted by the pandemic: customer service and the overall customer experience.

Despite rising unemployment, the economy slowing down, declining consumer confidence, and general economic uncertainty, price sensitivity in purchasing decisions has paradoxically been reduced during the pandemic. As many as three-fifths of consumers claim they have no problem paying a premium for products and services if a brand offers them a better customer experience.

In other words, today consumers are less willing to tolerate poor customer support, order delays, and the prolonged handling of complaints or refunds than any time before. One third of them lose patience with a retailer after their first bad experience, and up to 90% would not buy from a retailer anymore after two to five bad experiences.

If an e-shop fails to scale its processes and provide a first-class customer experience, it loses customers and unnecessarily increases customer support costs. Because, for example, if the customer does not have the information about the status of their order available, or if they cannot get it automatically on request, they will unnecessarily burden the customer helpline. Worst still, they can cancel the order. This also increases the risk that next time they will choose to buy from a competitor.

Automation is a must

The two key lessons for e-commerce from this pandemic – the need for process scalability and an improved customer experience – have a single common denominator. The principal factor in ensuring both prerequisites of success is automation and customer self-service, to the maximum extent possible, which includes Robotic Process Automation (RPA). In other words, this refers to software robots that are able to automate any repetitive rule-based processes.

Just for illustration, imagine the sequence of steps triggered by a simple order cancellation request. Staff must find the order, verify the status, stop the goods dispatch process at the supplier, inform the customer, and possibly also refund the payment. Software robots can handle all these steps almost instantly, regardless of the number of cancellations received by the e-shop per day.

The same applies to other processes, the volume of which may significantly vary depending on demand. This includes checking the availability of goods at suppliers, checking and handling complaints, and internal processes such as report generation and the processing of the attendance records of temporary workers.

Naturally, even robotic software automation is not a panacea. If appropriate processes are not selected and the availability of input data and the natural limitations of robots are not considered, it can fail like any other project. At the same time, however, there is no doubt that to scale traffic and provide exceptional customer service without RPA will be extremely inefficient, if not impossible, for e-shops in the future.

Soitron at the Jasna 2021 World Cup event

We will be there over the weekend of 6 to 7 March 2021. Of course, not as competitors. Even though we are at the top of our field, winter sports are not our discipline. We will not be there as spectators either, because no sports fans are allowed to attend due to pandemic measures.

Together with Cisco, we will participate in this downhill skiing World Cup event as a technology partner. We will take care of the Wi-Fi coverage of outdoor and indoor areas during the championship. Our task is to provide access to the Internet (including a firewall for Internet connectivity) for the entire organizational team, TV commentators and journalists, paramedics, the registration system, and all support systems (other than the timing system) that are necessary for the smooth running of the race. Unfortunately, Wi-Fi will not be made available for the public, as spectators will not be allowed at the World Cup Jasna 2021 event due to current Covid measures.

The Wi-Fi signal will cover all outdoor and indoor areas defined by the event organizer, such as tents, portable cabins, and mix zones. Our network will also be used to transmit images to large screens throughout the site. On top of that, we will also provide a cable LAN connection.

We will carry out this awesome assignment alongside our vendor Cisco. We will use Cisco’s industrial (outdoor) and office (indoor) switches on the slope and beyond. In total, there will be 35 to 40 pieces of hardware, 18 to 20 of which will be access points. These industrial switches are designed for a wide range of temperatures (from -30°C to +70°C), so they can handle the outdoor conditions.

We have huge respect for the championship. And we are very happy to be a part of it. Go Petra!

5 basic questions that need to be answered when choosing an RPA supplier

VIKTÓRIA LUKÁČOVÁ BRACJUNOVÁ

Digitalisation, robotisation, and automation have become an essential part of the strategic thinking of all managers and entrepreneurs who look for ways to improve performance of their companies so that they do not miss the boat and lose their competitiveness.

Anyone who has learned about the benefits of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and decided to use this technology to increase people’s productivity, reduce costs, speed up processes, and improve efficiency and customer service is inevitably faced with the dilemma of choosing a supplier.

Since process automation solutions can be based on several different technologies, and companies that implement RPA systems may be very different in nature, choosing the right supplier can be quite challenging. Soitron consultants have suggested five questions that need to be answered carefully when choosing an RPA supplier.

What technology will we use?

For robotic process automation, it is necessary to choose a supplier who will implement the RPA solution as well as the software technology the solution will be based on. The most frequently used tools include UiPath, Automation Anywhere, and Blue Prism.

Naturally, each of them has its pros and cons that make it more suitable (or unsuitable) for certain cases. They differ in what options they offer, the ways they are used, their abilities to collaborate with existing systems, and in their licence pricing.

This is why if the decision on which RPA to use is made by a company’s business department, it is advisable to also consult IT specialists or choose a supplier who is a partner of several RPA tool manufacturers, who can thus recommend the most suitable technology to each customer based on practical experience.
What type of supplier should we choose?

Today RPA solutions are offered by a plethora of different companies, such as consulting firms, software houses, and system integrators. There are pros and cons associated with each type of supplier.

Companies who have a core business of consulting may emphasise that they have a good understanding of business processes and have extensive experience in optimising them. On the other hand, technology companies may highlight the technical know-how needed to acquire digital data from various systems and integrate the RPA with the existing IT environment.

The ideal choice seems to be a supplier who has the consulting capacity for optimising business processes as well as strong development and integration skills that allow it to overcome potential technical issues and make automation work well with existing information systems and applications.
How are we going to operate the RPA?

In addition to choosing the tool and the supplier when implementing a robotic process-automation solution, it is necessary to decide how you intend to operate the software and how you want to pay for it. One option is to purchase all the necessary licences and install the RPA in your own IT environment.

However, a good supplier will also allow its customers to use software automation as a service. This option may be especially suitable for companies that do not have strong IT departments, or who lack the time and human resources to dedicate to automation.

Moreover, few companies have processes that require a non-stop robot usage. Some companies need to activate automation for no more than one to two hours a day. In such cases, it may be more cost effective not to purchase licences but rather to pay only for the time that the robot actually works.
How do we maintain and further develop the RPA?

Software process automation solutions are not off-the-shelf software. That is why it is better to avoid suppliers who approach RPA implementation as a one-off project which is completed by signing the acceptance protocols.

The way a supplier suggests handling the implementation says a lot about their approach. There is a world of difference between blindly following a customer’s assignment and striving to understand and analyse in detail what impact the automation will have on other related processes. It is equally important to test the solution in different scenarios before handing it over.

Thorough documentation and testing of the automated process reduces the risk of the solution not working properly. However, a fair supplier will also monitor the process in its live operation for some time and then guarantee support for possible changes in the future.
Will data be handled in compliance with legislation during automation?

Due to strict data protection legislation, companies must be extremely careful when handling data, including data processed by software robots.

That is why when choosing an RPA, one should inquire if the supplier can prove what activities the robot performs during the process and if they can support this with corresponding documentation if necessary. It is also important to make sure that companies involved in the project have developers who are certified according to the standards of the technology being used. Moreover, the supplier should guarantee that no data is permanently stored anywhere where it could be exposed to the risk of misuse or of being leaked without the customer’s knowledge.

Before handing the solution over, a meticulous supplier goes through the source code with the client and transparently explains what the software robot does in individual steps, what data is accessed by the robot, and how it is handled.

Viktória Lukáčová Bracjunová

Business & New Technologies Products Development Manager
viktoria.bracjunova@soitron.com

Three questions to answer before RPA deployment

If you have ever been interested in Robotic Process Automation (RPA), you are most likely familiar with its benefits, which include increasing productivity and efficiency as well as reducing cost.

A software robot never sleeps, which saves a lot of time and speeds up processes; it also relieves people of time-consuming and routine tasks. This results in improved services for customers and the general public as well as higher employee satisfaction.

But even RPA technology cannot do everything. For it to be successfully deployed, some necessary prerequisites must be met. Here are the three basic things to keep in mind before implementing RPA.

1. Nothing is done without input data

RPA needs digital data; it cannot handle paper documents. If you want the software to automate things, such as the processing of written customer complaints or invoices arriving by traditional mail, these documents need to be digitised first.

Ideally, input data should be “structured”, i.e., organised in a predefined way. The data available in companies and organisations (such as emails, audio recordings, videos, and images as well as digitised handwritten forms) is often unstructured, which may seem to be a major obstacle to the effective implementation of RPA.

However, having data in a form inappropriate for robotic processing is not an insurmountable problem. Today, paper documents can be quite reliably “read” using Optical Character Recognition technology. Similarly, there are solutions for transcribing audio recordings from contact centres and turning them into text files.

2. A software robot has no brain

Robotic software can process anything it was programmed to do, but it is not intelligent enough or able to learn on its own. So you cannot expect it to answer questions that have no clear answer to them. Such questions require careful consideration by humans and cannot be outsourced to robots.

For example, when approving loans or any other type of application where an applicant may meet some yet not all criteria, an automatic rejection could possibly mean the loss of business or an unhappy customer. This is why the automated application approval process should be complemented in some cases with the expert opinion of an experienced person which may be partly based on feelings.

However, the need for human judgement and decision making at some stages of the process does not automatically mean that the activity is not suitable for automation. It only means that the automated process conducted by a robot may sometimes require the involvement of a human. This can be done, for example, by a window popping up on the screen of the person in charge whenever the robot is unable or unauthorised to do something on its own.

The lack of RPA intelligence can also be dealt with by incorporating artificial intelligence and machine learning elements. In such a combination, the software robot is able to adapt and learn to make decisions based on the broader context as well as past experience.

3. Necessary integration

For RPA to be effective, it may sometimes be necessary to process large amounts of data in a variety of formats from multiple sources. For example, accounting departments tend to receive invoices from multiple vendors in a variety of formats, with individual data being located in different parts of the document. For the software to be able to read the data, it is necessary to either unify the format or adapt the robot to be able to read the data from any required form and shape.

As with the previous points, the diversity of formats and data sources is not an insurmountable obstacle. It is merely a complication to consider when determining the total labour intensity and making a costs-benefit analysis when deciding which processes are cost effective for automation and where the return on the investment may no longer be adequate.

When considering limitations and possible obstacles to the implementation of RPA, it is worth remembering that a software robot will not fix an essentially faulty or inefficient process. This is the reason why we at Soitron analyse the affected processes and, if necessary, propose how they can be improved using business process management tools before the automation.

To sum it up, when considering RPA, it is essential to find a partner who knows the prerequisites for the successful implementation of automation very well and who provides a wide range of services (including integration and process management) that may be critical for the effective use of RPA.

Location data will make your customer service perfect

MARTIN ČAPRNKA

The way we work will be changed by the quarantine. And so will our offices. More and more people and companies believe this to be the case. However, the question that no one has a definitive answer to is “HOW WILL IT CHANGE?” One of the solutions can be provided by location tracking and the data produced as a result of it. Let’s take a look at what we can use location data for and in which other areas these analytics may be useful.

Do we really need such a large space? Or would a smaller space suffice? And wouldn’t it be better if we removed few desks and built another meeting room instead? Companies started asking these sorts of questions long before we all moved to home office. There are basically two ways to find an answer. One option is to make an intuitive decision and if it doesn’t work to change it again. However, this way you risk wasting precious resources and frustrating your employees.

The second option is to make a change based on data. Today it is possible to detect how many people are present in a company or how much time they spend there based on the number of devices connected to WiFi. However, this data quality can be taken to a whole another level. You can have a look at which departments have the most intense collaboration, which meeting rooms are the busiest, and even whether or not the capacity of the staff kitchen is sufficient. This will help you reduce the cost of renting space, use space more efficiently, and save the time spent on moving between (unnecessarily distant) departments.

FROM BASIC ANALYSIS TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Of course, analytics can be used in many other areas as well. For example, imagine visitors to a museum, castle, or zoo. Location tracking allows you to see if visitors saw the entire exhibition, if they continued to other parts of the museum or castle, if they visited the gift shop, and where they spent the most time. The goal is not to track individuals, but rather to evaluate what exactly visitors want and then modify the services accordingly. Based on such data, a museum or castle may choose to change the location of an exhibition or better inform visitors about any new ones by placing promotional material in the busiest locations.

Analytics also have a great potential in shopping malls and recreational facilities such as ski resorts, water parks, and amusement parks. There are a large number of people moving around, and without proper analytics it is extremely difficult to tailor the service to their specific needs. Location tracking allows you to evaluate what services they would like to use and where. Combining this with some other data in the evaluation process (e.g., data from the operation’s application) will further broaden your service personalization options.

But, of course, the more data there is, the more complex is the evaluation. That is why in cases where several different data sources are combined, we increasingly use artificial intelligence (AI). AI can effectively evaluate the data, suggest the best way it can be used, and then implement it. For example, it can contact customers for you by SMS, email, or in-app messaging, or it can suggest the sending of information by conventional mail. It can tailor the notifications to the preferences of particular users and send them information so that it is as effective as possible, such as when the user is in the vicinity of a store. In addition, AI can learn on its own and improve the results.

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN LOCATION TRACKING?

DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?

Leave us your contact and our network specialists will contact you.

Martin Čaprnka

Network Presales Team Leader

martin.caprnka@soitron.com

Item location tracking saves lives and detects thieves

MARTIN ČAPRNKA

When hearing the term ‘location tracking’, most people picture the GPS on their mobile phones. However, in addition to the movement of people, location tracking can also be used for various goods or devices. Accuracy may vary from a few metres to a few centimetres. This can result in a more efficient operation as well as more saved lives. Let’s look at when and why it is worth knowing where some items are located.

IF IT MOVES (OR DOESN’T), EVERYTHING IS OK

The most common use for goods location tracking is in industry and logistics. In addition to helping reduce downtime and streamline production processes, location tracking can also be used as protection against theft. While goods should move as much as possible (rather than lay unused in stock) for operation optimization, in the case of theft it is the other way around: if we capture the movement of an item that should not be moving, we can detect a thief in real time.

FEWER DEVICES, MORE TREATED PATIENTS

Item location tracking in hospitals can be used to track portable devices such as X-rays and ultrasounds. This allows those departments that do not need their devices non-stop to share them with others. All they need to be able to do this is to see their device’s current location. This will reduce unnecessary costs and allow resources to be used elsewhere. Effective device location tracking will also allow patients to receive treatment faster and may even save lives.

WHICH TECHNOLOGY SHOULD YOU CHOOSE?

A number of different technologies can be used for item location tracking services, be it conventional WiFi, specialized static sensors, Bluetooth, or UWB (Ultra-Wideband). Which one to use depends on your goal: what you want to track, what you want to use it for, and how precisely you need to know the position. For example, if you only need to know a radius of ten metres, WiFi will suffice. However, if you need to know the exact position down to a few centimetres, Ultra-Wideband is the technology of choice. With Ultra-Wideband you are also able to detect an item’s vertical position (such as the shelf in the warehouse where these goods are located).

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN LOCATION TRACKING?

DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?

Leave us your contact and our network specialists will contact you.

Martin Čaprnka

Network Presales Team Leader

martin.caprnka@soitron.com

Office layout and cultural experiences: What location tracking can improve.

MARTIN ČAPRNKA

While location tracking during the pandemic has mainly been discussed in connection with quarantine, in business this service has many more potential applications. Let’s forget about navigation in our smartphones for a while and imagine, for example, an exhibition in a museum or an office layout. Even things such as these can be made more effective with the use of conventional WiFi or Bluetooth. So, let’s have a look at where else location tracking can be useful.

A NEW TAKE ON NAVIGATION

Imagine a tour of a museum or a castle courtyard, or a walk through the locations of your favourite movie. Now imagine that you can learn all the interesting details without an audio or live guide. You don’t need anything other than your phone. Your phone will be your virtual guide.

Take a gallery or a museum as an example. Whenever you come to a part of the exhibition where there is something interesting to be learnt, the information about it will appear on your phone. It can be any digital content: text, video, audio, or historical images. Just turn on the Bluetooth feature on your phone. It picks up a signal from a ‘beacon’ located near the installation. This is a small device that continuously sends a signal identifying the specific location you are standing in. When your phone receives the signal, it displays the corresponding content.

MOVEMENT CAN ALSO BE AN INTERESTING DATAPOINT

To be able to better customize your services for your customers, you need to know how, when, and how often they use them. Information such as the number of customers and the time of day they visit your business is commonly available. However, what is not so easy to find out without technology is how exactly they move around. This is a valuable insight that can make services significantly more effective and attractive.

Localization allows you to find out which branches clients visit, how long they wait there, and whether or not they are VIP clients. All it takes is for them to be connected to WiFi and to use your app.

Of course, all this is done in compliance with personal data protection regulations and the data is anonymized. The goal is not to track specific customers but rather to evaluate general trends. Based on this, businesses such as bank branches, ski resorts, shopping centres, and aqua parks can get the number of staff right and strengthen services that are of the greatest interest.

MORE EFFICIENT (AND LESS EXPENSIVE) OFFICES

Location tracking can also be very useful for office layout and employee collaboration optimization. This allows you to find out how much time employees are spending in the office and how they move around. It makes it possible to improve the building layout and redesign business processes so that they are no longer an obstacle to the collaboration of departments or work groups. Of course, the data in this case is also anonymous: the purpose is certainly not to check who spends how much time by the water cooler. The point is for the company to be able to make an informed decision on how much space it actually needs and to save on unnecessary costs and to learn which departments should be closer together due to their intensive collaboration.

ARE YOU INTERESTED IN LOCATION TRACKING?

DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS?

Leave us your contact and our network specialists will contact you.

Martin Čaprnka

Network Presales Team Leader

martin.caprnka@soitron.com