Maximizing the Automation

Potential in the BPO

Industry

Abstract

Some degree of tactical automation has been

present in the business process outsourcing (BPO)

industry right from its early days. Most enterprises

had embraced automation early on to increase

overall efficiency and reduce the reliance on

manual processes. However, with cloud computing

gaining prominence with regard to enhancing the

ease and agility to onboard emerging technologies,

the focus is squarely on embracing a

comprehensive approach toward automation—

transitioning from tactical to completely unassisted

automation. In this paper, we present a framework

for businesses to implement automation in a

repeatable and consistent manner. When applied to

the existing set of point solutions, it can deliver

significant measurable benefits.

WHITE PAPER

WHITE PAPER

The Scenario Today

Typical back-office activities—such as data handling, filling and

validating forms, email generation, creating spreadsheets to

analyse data, processing server logs, monitoring server

performance, raising tickets for incidents, pushing data from

one system to another—are outsourced due to their manual and

repetitive nature. These tasks may seem simple, but they

support billion-dollar businesses. In 2017, BPOs generated as 1

much as USD 25 billion.

Although the concept of automation has been around since the

days of the industrial revolution, most enterprises have mostly

leveraged it for systems and tools that have been purpose-built

for meeting specific business needs. What these enterprises

lack is a unified strategy around automation, which results in

high maintenance costs of multiple point solutions. Not only

that, this fragmented and redundant infrastructure delivers

inconsistent customer experience.

As more enterprises move to the cloud and adopt mobile

computing, expectations from employees are evolving – from

executing repeatable tasks to ensuring excellence of and adding

more value to back-office tasks. With the IT automation market

slated to reach USD4.98 billion by 2020, robotic process

automation (RPA) will be a game changer in removing

bottlenecks across outsourced processes.

Building an Optimized RPA Framework

A holistic RPA framework can not only mitigate process-specific

roadblocks but also enable organizations to reduce the scope of

expensive technical maintenance or change management. The

underlying principle must be based on being agile, lean before

automation, and data-driven (see Figure 1).

Figure 1: Core Principles for Embracing RPA

Plug & Play

x xx

Optimization Future ofthe Ops

A ?

Adaptable to Change Lean before Automation Data driven OpsContinuous improvement

WHITE PAPER

When applied to process automation, these principles deliver

the following benefits: reusability, consistency, faster

development (reduced time to market), process optimization

(improved productivity and cost savings), and strong analytics

and reporting. Baselining key metrics such as reduced cycle

time, reduced manual intervention, and spike resiliency, and

reporting them on periodic basis will provide visibility on the

improvements and help identify opportunities for further

optimization.

We propose a framework that is designed as an assembly-

based model, with relevant business processes organized into

multiple steps with defined workflows and backed by rules to

arrive at the predetermined outcome (see Figure 2).

Depending on process analysis results and overall enterprise

requirements, these components can be customized, although

not all of them may be deployed.

Such a framework will include:

Multiple stages, such as input, validation, processing, quality

check, and output, which are meant to modularize a process.

These stages can be defined during the process analysis phase

and the relevant owner can decide these stages to reduce

development effort. Each stage can have sub-steps to

Figure 2: Proposed RPA Framework

INPUT VALIDATIONWorkow

WorkowOUPUT QUALITY CHECK

Analysis Optimize

PROCESSING

Catalog

Rule Rule

Rule

RuleRule

WHITE PAPER

modularize. If any changes are applied to a module, only the

associated stage(s) will be marked for updating instead of the

entire process.

Workflow, for deciding the next steps of a process based on

previous steps. These business processes are dependent on

human-led decisions and approvals, particularly from external

stakeholders, and therefore involve longer turnaround times.

With a workflow in place, it will be easier to coordinate the

inter-relationships between various steps.

A rules engine, which is at the heart of the framework, allows

reusability of repeatable steps within or outside the process.

This helps enterprises take better and faster decisions by

allowing end users to control and apply business rules (along

with required changes) without having to depend on IT teams.

This can be further enhanced with a cognitive learning system

that mimics human judgement.

Analytics, to develop an in-depth understanding of the input

and output of each step. This will help to categorize the steps

into various stages of the framework. The framework should

provide optimization capability to check and avoid redundant

steps. It should be able to evaluate the team and SLA

optimization based on automation and process optimization.

SLA realignment is also critical to help improve the turnaround

time with every iteration. This realignment exercise should not

only address the process which is being automated but all the

interdependent upstream or downstream processes as well.

Business repository, a collection of repeatable steps across

business processes and sub-processes, will help standardize the

automation scope by predicting the effort required for

processes with similar process steps. The in-built optimization

mechanism will help save time and increase accuracy, and allow

accurate measurement of productivity.

As the next level of maturity for this framework, new stages

can be determined that will involve human judgement and

applicability of cognitive intelligence. This will help enhance the

framework in terms of efficiency and flexibility.

WHITE PAPER

Conclusion

The proposed framework can be applied anywhere within an

organization to automate various processes, and will deliver

several benefits including:

n Consistency across groups with different processes for

automation: This will help the business view a common

structure across automation solutions and allow employees

to focus on core business activities during the transitions and

day-to-day processing.

n Fostering an Agile culture: Having an integrated platform

will help develop and test solutions in tandem.

n Increased throughput: The business repository will enable

faster development, thereby expediting delivery to end

users.

n Improved accuracy: With the elimination of human errors,

end users will receive accurate results.

n Enhanced visibility: The framework will provide extensive

reports to customers at each stage of the framework, which

will help streamline operations and strengthen process

governance.

References[1] Global outsourcing industry revenue from 2010 to 2017, by service type (in billion

U.S. dollars), accessed Spetember5, 2018,

https://www.statista.com/statistics/189800/global-outsourcing-industry-revenue-by-

service-type/

All content / information present here is the exclusive property of Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS). The content / information contained here is correct at the time of publishing. No material from here may be copied, modified, reproduced, republished, uploaded, transmitted, posted or distributed in any form without prior written permission from TCS. Unauthorized use of the content / information appearing here may violate copyright, trademark and other applicable laws, and could result in criminal or civil penalties. Copyright © 2018 Tata Consultancy Services Limited

About Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS)

Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, consulting and business solutions

organization that delivers real results to global business, ensuring a level of

certainty no other firm can match. TCS offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio

of IT and IT-enabled, infrastructure, engineering and assurance services. This is TMdelivered through its unique Global Network Delivery Model , recognized as the

benchmark of excellence in software development. A part of the Tata Group,

India’s largest industrial conglomerate, TCS has a global footprint and is listed on

the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange in India.

For more information, visit us at www.tcs.com

TCS

Des

ign

Serv

ices

M

09

18

II

I

WHITE PAPER

About The Author

Kapil Manshani

Kapil Manshani is a domain

consultant with TCS' HiTech

business unit. With over 12

years of experience in the IT

industry, he is currently leading

new platform development for

a global technology account to

improvise service and

operations excellence within

and outside the client

organization. A CSR champion

for the account, Manshani

regularly volunteers in

activities pertaining to

education, environment, and

health. He has a Bachelor's

degree in Electronics

Engineering from Nagpur

University, Maharashtra, India.

Manshani has vast experience

in business delivery, solution

design, and customer

relationship management.

Contact

Visit the page on Hitech www.tcs.com

Email: hitech.marketing@tcs.com

Subscribe to TCS White Papers

TCS.com RSS: http://www.tcs.com/rss_feeds/Pages/feed.aspx?f=w

Feedburner: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/tcswhitepapers