How JLL Made Light Work of Data Entry Bottleneck with UiPath RPA Technology

UiPath helps professional services firm JLL to create a custom RPA solution for data entry—enabling much-needed efficiencies and accuracy.

Upon winning a large contract to appraise an extensive portfolio of properties, JLL needed quick access to clean structured research data and analytics on the portfolio’s real estate assets to provide an accurate appraisal. Further, as a condition of the contract, JLL was responsible for collecting all information on the properties from an online resource. However, this had no API (application programming interface) for digital data extraction, and the property information was not available in a CSV file. Facing an ambitious technical challenge, JLL needed a highly secure, robust platform that could navigate each property page in the portal to collect data on 15 attributes and download images for each property.  

A task like this traditionally would have been completed through manual human processing and data entry. However, this roadblock would take significant extra human labor to finish and would require both the upskilling of data processing staff and new hires. The other option was to automate the entire process with an intelligent automation solution from UiPath and rapidMATION, the intelligent automation consultant and technology expert.

Partnering with UiPath gave us an opportunity to improve efficiencies and productivity by automating the entire process,” he said. “Using UiPath to automate, even eliminate, these time-consuming, repetitive data entry tasks was such a plus for us, not only financially, but the automation process freed up considerable valuable time. Our valuers have increased their accuracy of appraisals! Investing in UiPath RPA solution was the perfect choice for us.

Paul Fitzpatrick • Head of Global Business Application Support, JLL

Planning for RPA success 

Upon review of the task at hand, JLL realized that the project would require 18 extra staff members, 45-60 days to hire and on-board these employees, and a further five days for training. This did not seem workable within the required timeline. 

Upon extensive research on the potential of robotic process automation and its feasibility for the project, JLL partnered with UiPath and rapidMATION to develop intelligent automation solution to address their data challenge. 

Bot makes light work of 60 days of data entry in 6.9 days  

RapidMATION configured a UiPath software bot that could automate tasks and retrieve data with no need for API integration. UiPath runs automation under locked screens and uses the TLS 1.2 protocol to assure privacy and data integrity. All property data remained within JLL’s highly secure server environment, and rapidMATION was never privy to any property data. 

Running 24 hours a day, the software bot was able to: 

• Automatically open the Excel spreadsheet and iterate through each property

• Open the portal and securely authenticate

• Browse to the relevant property page and extract data to a secured JLL storage location

• Retrieve images and store these to the same location using specific naming conventions

• Hand over to JLL staff to securely upload the data into the JLL Valuation Advisory workflow tool 

The results were exceptional, with the bot running for 6.9 days with the processing time of 39 seconds per property, as compared 45-60 days with 300 seconds per human. The failure rate was very low, too, as compared to the potential rate of human error that could occur when manually downloading the data.

Another benefit of the bot was that it automatically flagged any failures, enabling JLL to resolve issues promptly.  

Investment in an RPA solution ultimately landed JLL in good stead to complete their valuations, delivering on significant time savings and an impressive ROI.  

The UiPath RPA solution was a good fit for us. Not only did it easily fit into our existing infrastructure without disrupting underlying systems, but it also significantly expedited what would usually be a time consuming, potentially error-laden data entry project. When we first started work on the project, we knew we’d need to invest upfront on either manual data entry or automation to complete the project promptly. Manual entry was time-consuming and more likely to contain human error, so we took steps to minimise risk and speed up with an automated solution. We’re delighted with the results the RPA technology solution has provided us.

Paul Fitzpatrick • Head of Global Business Application Support, JLL

Results speak for themselves    

Thanks to the automation, JLL could access complete, clean data and upload this to a secure internal workflow system for valuers to leverage while working on inspections. The system allowed for increased data accuracy (99%) and accessibility and seamless integration of admin and valuation processes.

Furthermore, the RPA automation saved their valuers time and, importantly, helped to mitigate any project risk. The system allowed for JLL to deliver on contractual requirements ahead of schedule!