Global Intelligent Automation Survey for SSOs / GBS

This survey identifies the performance impact of Shared Services-driven Intelligent Automation. Here, we use the term ‘Intelligent Automation' as extending RPA by integrating cognitive and AI, as well as machine learning and data analytics – all applied to process execution.

As a thanks for supporting this research you will be offered a free SSON Analytics Data Report on IA (valued at US$500) at the end of the survey.

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* 1. Are you a:

BPO

Enterprise

Consultant

Other (please specify)

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* 2. In a few words: What drives Intelligent Automation in your organization? [choose best option]

Improving customer experience

Increasing process efficiency

Improving quality and compliance

Driving cost reduction

Optimizing workforce productivity/ focusing on high-value tasks

Minimizing risk / vulnerabilities as a result of relying on humans for work (e.g. COVID-19)

Other (please specify)

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* 3. What stage of the IA journey are you at? [choose best option]

We are considering RPA

Pilot / Proof of Concept stage for RPA

Some scaling of RPA solutions, but still a ways to go

Moving on to additional cognitive / AI-type solutions (ie cognitive, ML, AI, analytics...)

Mostly scaling IA solutions (ie cognitive, ML, AI, analytics...) successfully

We have no plans to use automation

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* 4. Who owns the IA agenda in your enterprise? [choose one option]

Center of Expertise / Business Transformation team

Business, with support from automation team

SSC / GBS

Finance / CFO office

IT / CIO office

Corporate

Other (please specify)

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* 5. If a Center of Excellence / Business Transformation Team leads the IA agenda, where does this sit? [choose one option]

In IT / CIO

In SSO / GBS

Finance / CFO

In the Business

Corporate / HQ

N/A (COE/BT does not own IA agenda; or we do not run a COE/BT)

Other (please specify)

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* 6. How many processes are automated in your organization? [choose one option]

< 5

6-20

21-50

51-100

101+

N/A / I don't know

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* 7. What challenges are you facing in implementing IA solutions? [select top 3 answer choices]

Lack of knowledge on IA technologies

Lack of change management

Lack of executive sponsorship

Inability to identify the right processes for automation

Lack of talent with relevant skills / difficulty in reskilling employees

Enterprise silos slowing us down

Other (please specify)

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* 8. Which automation solutions have you already adopted? [check all that apply]

Another Monday

AntWorks

Automation Anywhere

Automation Edge

Blue Prism

EdgeVerve

Kofax

Kryon

NICE

Pegasystems

Redwood

Softomotive

UiPath

WorkFusion

N/A / I don't know

Other (please specify)

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* 9. Which of the technologies ALREADY IN USE in your SSO are a PRIORITY for IA integration? [select top 3 options]

Office 365

Google G Suite

ERP/Accounting/Financial Applications

IT Service Automation Software

Business Process Management / Workflow Systems

Cloud Infrastructure

Document and Content Management (ECM)

Virtualization

CRM / Marketing Automation

Chatbots

Enterprise Social Networking

Business Intelligence and Reporting

HR/Payroll Solutions

Other (please specify)

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* 10. What are the top 3 factors determining process selection for IA? [select top 3 options]

# of process steps

# of participants in process

# of applications involved

# variations / exceptions

Extent to which required data is structured / unstructured

Repeatability of process

Time saved through automation

Potential for scaling

Other (please specify)

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* 11. What is your approach to assessing automation opportunities / process candidates? [choose one option]

Routine process analysis and optimization

Observing business users’ activities

Processing users’ complains about mundane tasks

Automatic process mining / analysis of system logs

Automatic process discovery / recording and analysis of user actions

Other (please specify)

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* 12. Which areas/functions do you see as holding the most promise for IA implementation – and why?

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* 13. What are the key processes to automate in each function you listed above?

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* 14. Where have you already implemented IA? [choose all that apply]

Finance

Supply chain

Sales / Marketing

Procurement

Customer Service

Other (please specify)

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* 15. In which area listed above has IA delivered the greatest value? Please describe.

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* 16. Is the skills shortage in IA real, and is it impacting your automation potential?

Yes

N/A

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* 17. If yes, how are you filling the gap? [choose best option]

We are not suffering a skills shortage

We are not filling the gap, just lagging compared to where we could be

Using vendor resources

Using consultants / integrators

Hiring in – but it takes time

Upskilling – but it takes time and money

Other (please specify)

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* 18. What ratio of your total bots are attended (interacting with humans) vs. unattended (operating without humans)?

100:0 [Attended:Unattended]

25:75 [Attended:Unattended]

50:50 [Attended:Unattended]

75:25 [Attended:Unattended]

0:100 [Attended:Unattended]

N/A / I don't know

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* 19. Please comment on the use / value of attended vs. unattended in your organization.

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* 20. What has been your experience in scaling attended / unattended solutions?

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* 21. What is your strategic preference regarding attended / unattended automation?

We would like to shift to more attended automation

We would like to shift to more unattended automation

N/A

Please explain why:

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* 22. What is your preference as far as accessing IA capability goes?

A single provider for the entire IA stack: RPA through to AI

Reliance on RPA vendor to integrate relevant technology to the platform

Integrating the best technology components in-house via a multi-vendor stack approach

N/A

Other (please specify)

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* 23. What’s your approach to get from proven IA capability to enterprise-wide implementation? [choose the single best answer option]

Democratization of automation (empower users to automate own processes)

CoE-driven and controlled expansion

User-driven, CoE-controlled expansion

Relying on 3rd party consultants to scale automations

Hyperautomation (automation of automation / using automated tools to identify processes and create bots)

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* 24. Will the impact of COVID-19 and any subsequent downturn accelerate the adoption of automation technologies?

Yes

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* 25. What’s the current hurdle to progressing your automation strategy? [choose top 3 answer options]

Human resource availability

Skills availability

Data availability / format

Green light / business case / commitment

Lack of alignment with enterprise digitization strategy

Funding

Tools availability

Other (please specify)

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* 26. What are the 3 top barriers to scaling IA? [choose 3 answer options]

Complex / too much time required

Too much training / support required

Process reengineering / standardization is slow

IT function constraints – implementation, security, governance

Siloed operations limit progress

Data not accessible

Cost of tools

Other (please specify)

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* 27. How do you determine priorities for scaling IA?

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* 28. How would you rank your investment priorities below?

	Very important	Somewhat important	Not very important	Not important at all	N/A
Automated decision making with Machine Learning (ML)	Automated decision making with Machine Learning (ML) Very important	Automated decision making with Machine Learning (ML) Somewhat important	Automated decision making with Machine Learning (ML) Not very important	Automated decision making with Machine Learning (ML) Not important at all	Automated decision making with Machine Learning (ML) N/A
Data extraction from emails using Natural Language Processing (NLP)	Data extraction from emails using Natural Language Processing (NLP) Very important	Data extraction from emails using Natural Language Processing (NLP) Somewhat important	Data extraction from emails using Natural Language Processing (NLP) Not very important	Data extraction from emails using Natural Language Processing (NLP) Not important at all	Data extraction from emails using Natural Language Processing (NLP) N/A
Automated process discovery / process mining	Automated process discovery / process mining Very important	Automated process discovery / process mining Somewhat important	Automated process discovery / process mining Not very important	Automated process discovery / process mining Not important at all	Automated process discovery / process mining N/A
Customer engagements via conversational user interface, e.g. chatbots	Customer engagements via conversational user interface, e.g. chatbots Very important	Customer engagements via conversational user interface, e.g. chatbots Somewhat important	Customer engagements via conversational user interface, e.g. chatbots Not very important	Customer engagements via conversational user interface, e.g. chatbots Not important at all	Customer engagements via conversational user interface, e.g. chatbots N/A
Computer vision to analyze images (pictures, etc.)	Computer vision to analyze images (pictures, etc.) Very important	Computer vision to analyze images (pictures, etc.) Somewhat important	Computer vision to analyze images (pictures, etc.) Not very important	Computer vision to analyze images (pictures, etc.) Not important at all	Computer vision to analyze images (pictures, etc.) N/A
Document extraction like text / pdfs via Intelligent Data Processing / Cognitive Automation	Document extraction like text / pdfs via Intelligent Data Processing / Cognitive Automation Very important	Document extraction like text / pdfs via Intelligent Data Processing / Cognitive Automation Somewhat important	Document extraction like text / pdfs via Intelligent Data Processing / Cognitive Automation Not very important	Document extraction like text / pdfs via Intelligent Data Processing / Cognitive Automation Not important at all	Document extraction like text / pdfs via Intelligent Data Processing / Cognitive Automation N/A
Predictive Analytics	Predictive Analytics Very important	Predictive Analytics Somewhat important	Predictive Analytics Not very important	Predictive Analytics Not important at all	Predictive Analytics N/A
Voice to text and Speech Analytics	Voice to text and Speech Analytics Very important	Voice to text and Speech Analytics Somewhat important	Voice to text and Speech Analytics Not very important	Voice to text and Speech Analytics Not important at all	Voice to text and Speech Analytics N/A
Artificial Intelligence	Artificial Intelligence Very important	Artificial Intelligence Somewhat important	Artificial Intelligence Not very important	Artificial Intelligence Not important at all	Artificial Intelligence N/A

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* 29. How well are you integrating additional solutions (ML, Cognitive, Computer Vision, NLP, AI) with RPA? [choose best answer option]

Very well

Well enough

Struggling

Failing

N/A

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* 30. Are you using AI in Shared Services / GBS?

Yes

I don’t know

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* 31. If you use AI, are you scaling it across functions / services / business units? [choose best answer option]

Yes we are, successfully

Yes we are, but we are struggling

No, we have not been able to scale AI to date

N/A (we don’t use AI)

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* 32. What are the key benefits of IA to date? [choose top 3 options]

Increased speed of operations

Improved SLAs and accuracy of transactions

Improved use of automation-driven data analytics

Improved integration of technology stacks

Building block for further IA/AI opportunities (enabling digitization)

Reduced operating costs

Reduced FTEs

Too early to tell

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* 33. How are you measuring the performance of the digital workforce (i.e., robots)? [choose best answer option]

Dashboards within the RPA platform

3rd party dashboards

Manual assessments

We do not measure at this point

Other (please specify)

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* 34. What has the headcount impact been as a result of your IA implementation? [choose the best option]

Significant impact

Some impact

Not significant

No headcount impact

If not significant/no impact, how did you sell the business case? (or: Did the expected FTE reduction not materialize?)

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* 35. What impact has RPA had on your workforce? [choose most appropriate answer]

Too early to tell

Workforce interested in learning and training further in RPA

Workforce wants to create new bots independently

Workforce is resistant (e.g. concerned about job impact, etc.)

Definite positive, measurable impact on productivity

No discernible positive impact to date

Negative impact / experience

Other (please specify)

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* 36. How do you foresee IA solutions evolving? [choose best option]

Cloud-based platforms offering access to different vendors' solutions

Single platform provider will offer comprehensive solutions via its own platform

Best-of-breed technology stacks will be combined inside the enterprise

Other (please specify)

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* 37. How realistic do you think it is to integrate all IA capabilities into a single technology solution? [choose best option]

Entirely realistic / possible

Somewhat realistic / possible

Highly unrealistic / impossible

N/A

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* 38. Which industry does your organization operate in?

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* 39. What size is your enterprise (corporate revenue)?

<$500million USD

$500 to $2B USD

$2B to $10B USD

>$10B USD

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* 40. What role do you hold within the organization?

Executive Management

Middle Management / Director

Manager / Advisor

Staff

Other (please specify)