How automation sped up billing and enabled a seamless SAP migration at Protelindo

Protelindo has been using automation since 2020, enhancing the efficiency of its business operations through faster billing and smooth SAP S/4HANA migration. Now, it is empowering its staff with automation skills and pushing for greater automation adoption across departments.

Scrambling to process tens of thousands of invoices every cycle time used to be a common challenge at Protelindo. The Indonesian infrastructure provider is one of the country’s largest, currently owning and operating approximately 35,000 telecommunication tower sites with more than 54,000 tenants across the archipelago.

Operating such a large tenancy number means processing an incredibly high number of documents for invoicing. The company processes invoices for more than 54,000 tower tenancies annually and approximately 56,000 fiber segments on a quarterly basis. The sheer volume of documents forced Protelindo to hire up to 30 temporary workers at one point just to manage invoicing.

But this changed when Protelindo adopted automation to process its bills. Automation has now taken over the repetitive task of processing and emailing invoices, and at a much faster rate. Today, instead of taking a month, the company can process the same number of invoices in just one week, and without having to hire temporary workers.

“We looked to UiPath at the time to help automate certain processes and increase efficiency,” said Tjin Tak Wong, Chief of IT at Protelindo. Faster billing meant quicker payment processes, too, which ultimately improved Protelindo’s cash flow.

That project with UiPath in 2020 was the company’s first foray into automation, and the results sent a clear message—automation made business sense.

Speeding up SAP S/4HANA migration with UiPath Test Suite

Protelindo has since leaned into automation to enhance its workflows. Most notably, UiPath Test Suite, a testing automation tool, has helped the company with its SAP S/4HANA migration.

Part of the migration process was testing existing reports and workflows with the new system and making sure they would work properly. Failing to do so would have a major impact on Protelindo’s daily operations, something the company could not afford.

So, Protelindo turned to UiPath. “We didn’t have a testing automation application in our environment then, and we were already familiar with the UiPath Platform,” said Rengganis Permesty, Head of IT Support and Automation at Protelindo.

Using UiPath Test Suite, Protelindo was able to rapidly test to ensure all its programs would operate smoothly after the migration, preventing any potential hiccups. The tool was also easy to pick up, since it operated in ways similar to other UiPath products, which Protelindo had already been using. In total, automated testing covered approximately 400 transactions and reports.

The application also helped Protelindo speed up the entire migration process. By leveraging UiPath Test Suite, the team was able to cut 50% of the initial expected timeline. “This success story with our SAP migration spurs us on to use Test Suite for more. We hope to use it in our other internal applications,” said Permesty.

Wong, too, believes that automation has massive potential at Protelindo, thanks to UiPath. “We see that we still have a lot of areas where automation could be implemented, so I think this will be a continuous process of adoption.”

Educating employees to enhance daily operations

In order to maximize the potential of automation at the firm, Protelindo is striving to bring relevant knowledge and skills to everyone in the company. In February 2024, it launched ProAction—an innovative initiative to educate non-IT employees on the benefits of automation, while also training them to adopt it in their daily tasks.

The two-month-long event featured a two-day workshop where employees learned how to operate automation systems. Trainers from UiPath conducted the workshop, guiding some 200 automation newbies as they tried their hands at automation for the first time.

After the workshop, the participants, split into groups of three to four, were tasked with coming up with a use case for automation in their respective fields of work. From accounting to administration, these employees worked tirelessly to develop their projects, with their eyes on a 150-million-rupiah prize, roughly equivalent to over USD $9,000.

As a result, a total of 29 projects were submitted during ProAction, covering use cases from administrative automation to data validation and reconciliation processes. “Buddies” from Protelindo’s IT department were available as consultants throughout the entire event.

The real prize for Protelindo was the time savings and increased efficiency reaped from the numerous ideas developed by its employees. All the projects developed during ProAction were collected and published on UiPath Automation Hub, where Protelindo employees can access and learn from.

“We organized ProAction because we wanted to let our employees know that there is technology that can help them do their jobs faster, and empower them to create such robots to automate tasks for themselves,” said Permesty.

Throughout the planning and execution of the event, UiPath supported Protelindo by sharing its experience in organizing similar hackathon events and providing every participant with StudioX, the application used to develop robots.

The support has been great and I am very happy with our ongoing collaboration with UiPath. We started with zero knowledge, but now my team is quite established in dealing with automation, thanks to the knowledge imparted by UiPath.

Tjin Tak Wong · Chief of IT at Protelindo

Scaling automation across Protelindo

Heartened by the success of its inaugural edition, Protelindo even plans to turn ProAction into a regular initiative as it pushes for greater automation adoption across its departments.

Protelindo can grow faster if we continue to adopt automation in our work processes. Our experience so far has been great thanks to our strong partnership with UiPath, and we hope to continue pursuing this technological transformation with them.

Rengganis Permesty · Head of IT Support and Automation at Protelindo