Grupo Assa and UiPath partner to help clients navigate digital transformation with Process Mining and RPA

Grupo Assa (gA) partners with UiPath to create impactful and effective digital transformation solutions. The combination of Process Mining and RPA has proven to be a breakthrough for clients as they define and execute successful transformation programs.

With 27 years of experience in digital transformation, Grupo Assa (gA) thrives on delivering exceptional service to support their clients in future-proofing their business and remaining competitive in a disruptive world.

Through a close-knit partnership with UiPath, gA is a pioneer of hyperautomation, adopting a combination of Process Mining, data science, machine-learning (ML) and RPA to deliver an end-to-end solution.

Before partnering with UiPath, gA evaluated several technology partners but their decision ultimately hinged on which vendor addressed business transformation holistically. With their decades long experience, gA knew that a more integrated approach was the way to go. Given that UiPath is the only RPA vendor with integrated Process Mining, the decision for gA was an easy one.

Not only is UiPath the most robust platform in the market, with the best combination of technology, but the team behind it has great values, and a vision very aligned with gA’s culture and credo”

Nicolas Chercasky

Understanding processes with UiPath Process Mining

One of the key technologies in gA’s digital transformation solution is UiPath Process Mining. gA works closely with the UiPath Process Mining team implementing projects across the globe, in industries as diverse as healthcare, retail, and professional services.

For gA, understanding processes is one of the key success factors before, during and after a digital transformation program. With proper awareness of the current process, gA is able to accurately diagnose which part of the process needs to change, and how they can best address it using the technologies in their toolset.

But it wasn’t always this easy. Before Process Mining made its way from academia to wide enterprise use, some of the challenges they faced when embarking on their transformation programs included:

• Lack of visibility into complex processes

• Time-consuming and costly workshops to discover processes, supported by interviews, employee know-how and opinions that were often unreliable

• Partial information about processes

• Difficulty to visualize processes based on available data

In UiPath Process Mining, they found a solution that solved all these challenges instantaneously, and accelerated their client projects, eventually leading to a higher success rate of transformation. One client saved an astounding USD $350K in consultancy services, just by making the switch from manual process discovery to Process Mining.

Leveraging data to inform decision-making

With Process Mining, gA essentially did a complete 180 in how they approach their digital transformation projects.

The 100% objective nature of Process Mining provides near instant transparency into processes. No need for workshops to identify process weakness; no need to rely on the views of a select group of people. By securely tapping into existing data stored in the client’s systems, the technology makes discovering business processes fast, accurate, and continuous.

Now, gA’s clients can easily and quickly identify bottlenecks and inefficiency within their processes. More crucially, clients can identify automation opportunities by analyzing how long certain activities take, and the cost for the business. And automation isn’t always the answer, Process Mining visualizes areas of the process that would benefit from additional rethinking or reengineering before introducing RPA. For example, gA worked with a large oil and gas company on their transportation process to reduce the number of ways the process was carried out to save USD $230K, a project involving both automation and other methods of process optimization.

Integrating Process Mining and RPA

After introducing RPA, gA’s clients use Process Mining to measure the impact of changes and how RPA performs in the context of the process. Sometimes, clients think they have removed a bottleneck in the process, only to find it has moved further along in the process. This concept is called ‘bottleneck shift’ and can be observed and corrected with Process Mining. To that end, gA recognizes that process monitoring needs to be done continuously, so they can find further automation and optimization opportunities.

Using Process Mining to create an automation roadmap is one of the most impactful use cases we have; from finding automation opportunities, and streamlining the process, through to measuring the positive impact of automation. We use Process Mining across the entire automation journey”

Nicolas Chercasky

gA is also enthusiastic about the ability to combine the power of UiPath Process Mining with UiPath bots. Using the integration between UiPath Process Mining and UiPath Action Center, they can trigger automatic activities based on findings in client data. In this way, clients can use the outcomes of the process to trigger both people and robots in real-time.

Overall, Process Mining gives clients the ability to discover, monitor and optimize processes quickly and reliably. Used throughout the automation life cycle, it increases the chances of achieving successful digital transformation and fosters a cycle of continuous process improvement.

Customer success stories with gA and UiPath:

1. Used Process Mining to optimize supply chain processes for a top 3 global health company in EMEA

Challenge

The client wanted more visibility into their supply chain processes to improve delivery times and enhance customer experience. ERP systems involved included Oracle, SAP and legacy systems.

Solution

• Gained real-time monitoring of their procurement, sales and delivery processes, by combining data from different systems using UiPath Process Mining

• Quickly able to identify bottlenecks that were slowing down their processes.

• Used algorithms to anticipate future challenges in their supply chain

Results

• Saved 350K USD in consultancy services, and internal resources by eliminating the need for manual discovery of processes

• 100% objective

• 100% process transparency

2. Used Process Mining in a global Oil & Gas company to monitor different activities across the value chain, including the transportation process and assets maintenance.

Challenge

The client had the challenge of re-inventing their customer experience, and innovation was key in driving their strategy. The client wanted a tool to monitor their processes, find bottlenecks, potential improvements, and automation opportunities.

Solution

The client used UiPath Process Mining to monitor the different customer touching activities across the company. The project involved a data-driven, thorough review of processes and the various ways in which they are performed, root cause analysis, and how to achieve potential savings.

Metrics

• Found opportunity to reduce process variance and achieve savings of USD $230K

• SAP License optimization – 110K USD reduction

• Financial month end automatization – 100K reduction

• Reduced average throughput time by 12 days

• Found opportunity to reduce manual transport order creation and processing by 8,000 person hours (per year)

3. Used Process Mining as a continuous audit solution for a global retail company

Challenge

Audits are traditionally time-consuming projects, that rely heavily on data sampling, interviews and sifting through piles of paperwork. The client wanted a digital audit solution to be able to differentiate from their competitors and accelerate the audit process.

Solution

• Used UiPath Process Mining to continuously monitor compliance risks

• Able to flag deviations in near real-time using alerts

• By recreating a digital twin of the process using digital footprints, the audit preparation process became simpler and faster

Results

• Audit is now based 100% on data, no sampling needed

• Audit time reduction by 40%

• Key risk indicators available in real-time

Using Process Mining to provide full visibility into the patient journey

Challenge

The client provides personalized oncology treatment and wanted more visibility into their patient journey and how they could improve the experience.

Solution

• Information was retrieved from multiple sources (ERP, CRM, excel files, IOT devices)

• Using a combination of Process Mining and machine learning, they mapped the entire patient journey

Metrics

• Provided complete transparency on the process to patients and healthcare providers

• Improved process throughput time by reducing bottlenecks