Bringing Employees on the Automation Journey Boosts Efficiency for Migdal

Insurance, pensions, and financial services are some of the most heavily regulated and process-driven sectors in the modern economy. As a result, it’s vital to find ways to improve the agility of operations and increase speed. Migdal has achieved this with automation.

As a large-scale financial services firm, Migdal deals with mountains of administrative paperwork. This can be a monotonous task, yet every piece of paper, every email, every completed field in a web form can have a huge impact on a customer. Each piece of information could make the difference between a claim being paid or not. Processes must be stringent and efficient.

This is why the business is constantly innovating to ensure it is taking advantage of digital technologies that improve it’s already exemplary track record. Part of this has been the adoption of robotic process automation (RPA). “We became aware of RPA a few years ago,” explains Maor Cohen, Business Development and Analytics Manager. “We’d started our automation journey but needed a platform that would scale for our business. UiPath provided what we needed.”

Having already set the groundwork for widespread automation throughout the business, Maor says there are three things he can solve with RPA: “Efficiency of processes, quality of data and creating employment that is meaningful and frees people to use their ingenuity.”

Software robots in action

He and his team are taking it a step at a time in meeting these challenges and are showing great progress with 15 software robots currently undertaking 10 key tasks, all on new customer registration. “When a customer applies for a product, they have to fill in many forms,” Maor explains. “Some are digital, but half come on paper via mail. Before automation, our people had to input the data into our operating system. Each form can have up to 400 fields from date of birth and name to much more detailed information.”

This manual process took up to 30 minutes per applicant, with thousands of forms being sent in every month, processed by 100 to 150 members of staff. It was a huge, unrewarding yet vital task that was ripe for automation. Now, staff simply scan the applications so that optical character recognition (OCR) software can extract the relevant data, which creates an XML file for robots to input it into Migdal’s operating system. The whole process, including a manual check at the end, takes about 10 minutes, with the software robots only needing three. It’s a significant reduction in time taken and the OCR capability boosts accuracy.

We’d started our automation journey but needed a platform that would scale for our business. UiPath provided what we needed.

Maor Cohen • Business Development and Analytics Manager, Migdal

Creating a strategy

Getting to this maturity level of automation doesn’t happen overnight. As Maor explains, it takes serious effort. “We have a digital strategy with a goal of automating 15-20 processes a year, each of which takes two or three months to manage. This year, we will automate processes in our claims handling department in addition to application management.”

However, this isn’t without its challenges. “Extracting data from an application form and adding it to an operating system is relatively simple,” he says. “But making a decision about a claim requires judgment and an understanding of nuance. While there are rules to follow, the process requires human ingenuity.” As a result, Migdal aims to use attended robots for claims, ensuring that an employee always makes the right decision for a customer.

Extracting data from an application form and adding it to an operating system is relatively simple, but making a decision about a claim requires judgment and an understanding of nuance. While there are rules to follow, the process requires human ingenuity.

Maor Cohen • Business Development and Analytics Manager, Migdal

Bringing staff on the journey

With employees in mind, Maor says, “The most important aspect in our automation program is our employees.” This is a crucial point given that the introduction of software robots to the workforce can lead to anxiety. “At the start, there were a few worries from people, but we made it very clear that automation was here to help and make their working lives better. It was being introduced with staff in partnership.”

To bring people on the journey with them, Migdal introduced the concept of software robots with videos and worked with those staff who were interested in learning more. This led to a proof of concept automation in the early days, before UiPath, which helped get teams and management on board. It illustrated both the benefits of working with software robots. “Once the proof of concept was complete, we had advocates at management level.” In fact, Maor’s RPA project has been placed first in a special CEO innovation contest. Meanwhile, staff could see the benefits of using RPA and fear quickly disappeared. This laid the ground for the business to scale automation with UiPath.

The impact to date has been impressive. Efficiency is up across the business by up to 40 percent, accuracy has been improved by XX%, and staff are focusing on more meaningful work. Given these fantastic results, it’s unsurprising that in the 2022/23 financial year, the business intends to automate 80 percent of its processes.

However, it’s not just Migdal that’s keen to see its operations take advantage of new and emerging technologies to drive efficiencies. Israeli regulators are pushing all businesses in the sector to transform their operations through digitization—and RPA is an important way of achieving this.

The most important aspect in our automation program is our employees. At the start, there were a few worries from people, but we made it very clear that automation was here to help and make their working lives better. It was being introduced with staff in partnership.

Maor Cohen • Business Development and Analytics Manager, Migdal

Advice for others

This begs the question; how can others follow the trail that Migdal has blazed? Maor smiles as he considers the advice he might give. “Build a team that combines a range of skills,” he says. “You need business, technology, and decision making skills. Also, get management support early on. This can be achieved with a successful proof of concept.”

He pauses, then reiterates what he believes to be the most important factor of all, “It’s all about the employees. For a successful RPA program, don’t focus on the technology or the leadership first. It must be about people. Listen to them and their problems. Work with them to understand their requirements from automation and then build a solution with them. Change a little at a time and get them on board. Take a step-by-step process and you will succeed.”

Maor’s sage words illustrate that with the right approach, automation can truly transform a business such as Migdal.

It’s all about the employees. For a successful RPA program, don’t focus on the technology or the leadership first. It must be about people. Listen to them and their problems. Work with them to understand their requirements from automation and then build a solution with them. Change a little at a time and get them on board. Take a step-by-step process and you will succeed

Maor Cohen • Business Development and Analytics Manager, Migdal