Ardent’s FinTech Influencer Series highlights innovative voices in the world of Accounts Payable (“AP”) automation. This series is the go-to spot for progressive thoughts on how technology, transformational thinking, and revolutionary ideas are changing how AP work gets done. Continuing our FinTech Influencer Series, today we are speaking with Enrico Liverani, Chief Consulting & Key Account Director, Digital Technologies, Italy.
Ardent Partners: Welcome Enrico and thank you for spending some time with me today. Let’s get started. For those who may not be familiar with ‘hyperautomation’, can you please explain what it is and how it works?
Enrico Liverani: Hyperautomation is a mix of automation technologies that allows organizations to quickly identify, control and automate as many processes as possible.
The main technologies involved are: Intelligent Character Recognition (ICR), Robotic Process Automation (RPA), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Process Mining, Chatbots, and Business Process Management.
Combined with each other, these technologies allow companies to make business processes more efficient and faster, reducing errors and increasing productivity: in fact, the true value of hyperautomation lies precisely in the fact that the different technologies, which are already effective by themselves, are used simultaneously to transform and enhance processes, making them more intelligent, automated, and digital.
To a achieve results exploiting the potential of hyperautomation, organizations must define (and implement) a coherent and structured strategy, starting from the identification of the inefficiencies of the existing processes.
Ardent: What can organizations achieve by utilizing ’hyperautomation’? What are the benefits?
EL: Hyperautomation is a trend which can represent a differentiating factor in a company’s digital strategy to achieve significant results.
Through the combination and mix of different automation technologies, organizations can scale up their operational performance, shifting from simple to hyperautomation: while the first (simple automation) is focused on optimizing processes and speeding them up through the execution of automated tasks, the second (hyperautomation) makes them more intelligent, exploiting the learning potential of AI and ML.
The transition from automation to hyperautomation focuses on two main aspects in the process management and execution:
- the presence of artificial intelligence in automated processes, which – therefore – become “intelligent”;
- the fact that entire processes are automated (not only individual activities/tasks), which are managed through a hyper-connected and intelligent technological layer.
- Hyperautomation can support companies in achieving the following benefits:
- Intelligent automation of all business processes, even in an end-to-end mode
- Faster business processes mapping the use of intelligent technologies allows you to manage and analyze both structured and unstructured data, that can be collected throughout the entire process (even where simple automation alone would not be enough) to identify operational inefficiencies which could be solved thank to the introduction of automation.
- Data-driven approach to guide business decisions – the introduction of this technological mix for process optimization allows organizations to access to a huge amount of data and information; these can be collected, analyzed, and monitored – even in real time – allowing the companies to gain valuable insights and useful information that can guide strategic business decisions.
- Increased efficiency/productivity and human error reduction – it allows to streamline and speed up the processes: moreover, the automation of the most repetitive and routine tasks frees resources from low added value activities, allowing them to concentrate / focus on more relevant activities for business.
- Operating costs reduction
Ardent: What challenges are there with ‘hyperautomation’? How does an organization get started using ‘hyperautomation’?
EL: When approaching hyperautomation in fact, it is not possible to ignore some preliminary assessments, which are crucial for a project to bring the expected results: it is necessary that hyperautomation is included within a coherent strategic business vision and digital strategy.
One of the main reasons for unsuccessful hyperautomation initiatives is, in fact, that companies implement spot solutions and technologies, without considering an overall strategy.
Therefore, before starting a hyperautomation journey, companies should address some of the most common challenges, considering the following implementation roadmap:
- Digital maturity assessment
- Strategy and objectives definition
- Ongoing processes assessment and prioritization of the initiatives
- Roll out and measurement of the success
- Scaling of the initiatives to create a digital ecosystem
From this perspective, therefore, one of the main steps – and probably the most important – that organizations must take, is the prioritization of which processes should be automated, through the analysis of inefficiencies, identifying subsequently the most suitable technologies to adopt in the automation and digital transformation of traditional processes.
Ardent: How can ‘hyperautomation’ be used in Accounts Payable? What tasks can it be used to automate? What benefits and results can be achieved?
EL: Hyperautomation, and its combination of technologies, can be used to automate the AP cycle process in an end-to-end mode.
- Some of the most successful applications in the AP cycle are:
- Supplier management
- Invoicing Processing
- Invoice categorization, registration, and data entry
- ICR data extraction
- Two/three-way matching (PO, invoice, PODs)
- Accounts payable approval processes
Some of the benefits include:
- Improved turnaround time
- Increased process transparency
- Better compliance and process control
- Significant improvement in data accuracy
- Reduced human errors and costs
- Optimized cash flow
- Improved relations with vendors
- Enhanced customer satisfaction
Ardent: What ‘hyperautomation’ trends should we be paying attention to with respect to Accounts Payable?
EL: Probably the most interesting trend is the diffusion of intelligent automation technologies, such as AI and ML, which allow process transformation in those cases where an extra layer of intelligence—beyond the capabilities of simple automation —is needed.
Ardent: Thank you for your time and best of luck on your presentation at the E-Invoicing Exchange Summit on September 26th – 28thth in Lisbon, Portugal.
