How Automation Anywhere is helping automate processes at Dubai Asset Management

A Dubai Asset Management property.

Dubai Asset Management is a real estate partner committed to creating meaningful living experiences for anyone who wants to call Dubai home. The company offers a range of end-to-end solutions and services for its customers while focusing on long-term value creation through the development, acquisition and operation of residential and community real estate. It also oversees the property and asset management of all freehold communities within Dubai Holding.

Dubai Asset Management recently implemented robotic process automation solution from Automation Anywhere, helping to speed up repetitive and manually intensive front and back office workflows. “Currently we are using, Automation Anywhere’s Intelligent Automation Platform to augment our workforce strength and we are satisfied with the team that is working with us,” remarks Mohamed Roushdy, Head of Business Technology, Information Technology, Dubai Asset Management.

Process selection

According to Roushdy, a number of parametres describe the complexity of any of the organisation’s business processes. These include how many systems the process will interact with; the amount of data required to complete the process; the number of people involved in the process; and the duration it takes for the process to be completed.

An example of a complex process is bank reconciliation. A bank’s platform for statements of accounts, ERP, and backend systems would be involved in this process. A significant volume of data would be consumed, as well as time, in the traditional ways.

So how did Dubai Asset Management select and shortlist the processes for automation?

Dubai Asset Management’s Roushdy uses two principle criteria for identifying which processes should be considered and further shortlisted for process automation. These are Roushdy’s candidates for robotic process automation:

  • The first criteria for selection are daily, repetitive process with considerable volume per day, which takes time, and involves one or more employees to complete.
  • The second criteria for selection are periodic processes, which might be weekly or monthly, but by nature are tedious and complicated.

The second criteria of processes, may also require a large amount of data crunching in one or multiple systems. It may also take considerable efforts by the teams to complete, and have a high probability of generating errors and may be error-prone. Such cases would typically arise in finance, according to Roushdy.

Process reengineering

While embarking on a process automation journey, a key rider is whether the process is efficient and optimised enough to be automated. In the case of legacy processes, for example, many of the step-wise processes may be running for historical and hierarchical reasons and are more than ready to be optimised before they are automated. Says Roushdy, “This is a fundamental question, and I have been highlighting this concern in many automation forums.”

According to him, the catch here is to have a closer look at the processes and uncover any process inefficiencies before embarking on automation. Robotic process automation, while generating value through savings in time and cost, may in fact gloss over the hidden inefficiencies in a process. “We would have got much better results from automation, if we had a closer look at our processes, which we need to automate and see how much of it is efficient before automation,” stresses Roushdy.

The key here is to identify which parts of the process are efficient and which parts are less efficient, before automating the process itself. The parts of a process that are not efficient, need to be revisited by all stakeholders, and then be made eligible for reengineering. “Once we believe that the process as-is is optimal from a business and risk point of view, then we move to automation, bringing greater value,” emphasises Roushdy.

Implementing automation

In the initial stages of the roll out of robotic process automation, the IT department is best positioned and equipped to manage the implementation and monitoring of the roll out. Once the business departments are skilled enough to work with digital workers the control needs to shift, feels Roushdy. At this maturity level, “We will democratise robotic process automation in our organisation,” he remarks.

Once a specific process has been selected in an organisation, reengineered, automated, and piloted through the initial stages by the IT department, at some point of time, all stakeholders will want to measure the efficiency or improvement gained. There are multiple measures that can be used to assess the before and after states, and therefore evaluate the gains.

For Roushdy, a good benchmark is the time taken. “I would say the time it takes to complete the task by robotic process automation compared to the original time is the best and simplest way,” he points out. “The savings in time ranges between 25% to 75% in some of the processes that we have implemented.”

Another part of the evaluation process is to solicit and obtain feedback from the various business departments that have been impacted by robotic process automation. “Feedback from business on the automated process is the best way for improvement rather than looking at technology used,” reflects Roushdy. Better versions of technology or systems can enhance automation at a later stage.



Mohamed Roushdy, Head of Business Technology, Information Technology, Dubai Asset Management.
Mohamed Roushdy, Head of Business Technology, Information Technology, Dubai Asset Management.

Key takeaways

  • Feedback from business on the automated process is the best way for improvement rather than looking at technology used.
  • An example of a complex process is bank reconciliation, significant volume of data would be consumed, as well as time.
  • The first criteria for selection are daily, repetitive processes with considerable volume and which take time.
  • The second criteria for selection are periodic processes, which might be weekly or monthly, but by nature are tedious and complicated.
  • Once the process as-is is optimal from a business and risk point of view, then we move to automation.
  • In the initial stages of the roll out the IT department is best positioned and equipped to manage the implementation.
  • We will democratise robotic process automation in our organisation.
  • The savings in time ranges between 25% to 75% in some of the processes that we have implemented.
  • Gartner has found that 62% of organisations with revenue above $1 Billion in 2019 used bots.


 

A Dubai Asset Management property.
A Dubai Asset Management property.


Milan Sheth, Executive Vice President India, Middle East and Africa East, Automation Anywhere.
Milan Sheth, Executive Vice President India, Middle East and Africa East, Automation Anywhere.

Snapshot

Automation Anywhere, a global vendor in robotic process automation employs 2,600 globally and provides technology utilising software bots. It opened its Middle East regional headquarters in Dubai in July 2019.

Automation Anywhere received a $290 Million Series B financing led by Salesforce Ventures with additional funding from Automation Anywhere’s existing investors for a post-money valuation of $6.8 billion. The funding is planned to be deployed in 2020 across many regions including the Middle East to accelerate product development and strengthen AI capabilities and human-to-bot collaboration.

The company also announced that it has reached a key milestone achieving 100,000 bot downloads from its Bot Store since it was launched in 2018. About 1.8 million of the company’s bots have been deployed by more than 3,000 customers worldwide.

This is a major achievement emphasising the trajectory of robotic process automation, as one of the fastest-growing enterprise software categories across the globe. Gartner has found that 62% of organisations with revenue above $1 Billion in 2019 used bots.

In October 2019, Abu Dhabi Digital Authority and Department of Finance signed an agreement with Automation Anywhere to digitise government services using software bots. Other regional customers include Emirates NBD and Abu Dhabi National Insurance Company amongst others.

Automation Anywhere launched its flagship platform in October 2019, a web-based, cloud-native digital workforce platform, Automation Anywhere Enterprise A2019. And in November 2019, Automation Anywhere announced a collaboration and with Microsoft, which now allows customers to access the A2019 platform through Microsoft Azure.

“We have witnessed strong demand for new-age digital technologies in the Middle East, and we expect the enterprise segment will drive higher adoption of automation solutions,” says Milan Sheth, EVP-IMEA, Automation Anywhere.

Automation Anywhere’s Intelligent Digital Workforce, web-based, cloud-native, automation platform is designed for easy adoption. It provides enterprise-grade privacy, security, governance, and control, and is architected for scale.

Bots embedded with cognitive and analytics technologies, work alongside human workers as digital assistants, and are poised to drive efficiency by synchronising the front and back end operations.



A Dubai Asset Management property.
A Dubai Asset Management property.