CFO Studio magazine with Todd McElhatton

10 cfostudio.com The Challenge An $18 billion motor parts company tried to implement Robotic Process Automation (RPA ) in their Accounts Payable process and turned to Sutherland when it did not deliver the expected results. They’d attempted to deploy RPA software to achieve straight-through processing. However, they were only able to achieve less than 40 percent, which was well short of their 75 percent goal. The obstacle to automation was the wide variety of supplier invoice formats. The Solution & Business Outcome Sutherland took an intelligent automation approach. It first optimized the process and then deployed its Prodigy finance technology platform’s AP workflow and proprietary RPA. Even with the client’s thousands of invoice formats, Sutherland was able to exceed the stated goal and is on path to achieve 85 percent straight-through processing. The business result was improved supplier satisfaction along with virtually eliminating stop credits that were impacting sales. Key Client Learning RPA is more difficult to deploy than advertised and skills are difficult to find. The Challenge A hundred-year-old European construction materials supplier faced significant controls and compliance issues that led to the CEO and CFO being replaced. Their priority was to “comprehensively digitally transform” their UK-based Finance shared services center to reduce cost of operation and improve controls. They considered doing it themselves, but they hired Sutherland, based on “proven innovation experience and need to accelerate transformation.” The Solution When starting a Digital Finance Transformation, Sutherland takes an automation-first approach and uses design thinking to align on the required business outcomes. To accelerate automation, Sutherland deployed its Prodigy digital finance platform on Day 1. This is a cloud-based solution that effectively sits on top of the client’s ERP, so it does not require heavy IT involvement. Sutherland’s teamwas composed of both human and digital finance process transformation experts. The operations were transitioned to Sutherland Centers of Excellence in Chennai, India, and Sofia, Bulgaria, for European language requirements. The Business Outcome Sutherland’s automation-first approach delivered immediate savings and 45 percent overall committed savings. More importantly, with a robust controls-and-compliance framework that was put in place, the client was able to pass the first audit, addressing all the deficiencies that had been raised. Key Client Learning Accelerate automation by leveraging a proven partner instead of doing it internally. INTELLIGENT AUTOMATION Using Intelligent Automation to Drive Digital Finance Transformation A successful Finance transformation is much more than just deploying RPA software. It requires optimizing the process as well as leveraging the latest business process management, advanced automation, and AI. •Business ProcessManagement (BPM) encompasses the automated workflow technologies supporting Source to Pay (e.g., invoice processing), Order to Cash (e.g., cash application), andRecord to Report (e.g., journal entries). •Robotics Process Automation (RPA) is software designed to performrepetitive tasks faster andmore accurately than humans do. RPAdoes have huge benefits for Finance operations, and unlike people, robots won’tmake amistake. However, there are limitations and very few companies have deployedRPA at scale. RPA is not appropriate for all activities and, most importantly, you need to set up a structure tomanage this digital workforce. •AdvancedAnalytics/AI ismore complex thanBPMandRPA, as data is the newcurrency and the need to get relevant information into the business faster is increasingly important.The analytics platforms have becomemore advanced, andwithAI, are nowable to extract insights fromboth structured and unstructured data. Any finance transformation needs to take advantage of these capabilities. The key goal for any finance transformation is to take an end-to-end perspective and focus on the business outcomes that need to be achieved. CASE STUDY CASE STUDY

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