Intelligent Automation is Advancing Organizational Performance

Intelligent Automation (IA)’s impact reaches from the private sphere of our personal decision-making … across corporate processing … to the far reaches of our solar system. While robotic operations have been used on the factory floor for decades, the adoption of similar capabilities in the “back office” processing environment is a trend that has only recently emerged. But it’s making up for lost time by rapidly assimilating cognitive learning and artificial intelligence to redefine business support services – creating digitally-enabled, agile enterprises that operate faster, better and more effectively. 

Indeed, intelligent automation is changing the very nature of support services like Human Resources (HR) or Finance & Accounting.

A recently launched Intelligent Automation world map (the Intelligent Automation Universe) highlights just how far IA has progressed in enabling smarter inhouse support services delivery – and points to a significant increase in IA and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) implementations in the near future. Indeed, AI and its cognitive counterpart are at the heart of many of today’s technical innovations.

Intelligent Automation
Many multinationals today leverage a “Shared Services” model to provide business services to global operations. As the operational “hub” of business services/support services, Shared Services Organizations (SSOs) process, and own, a significant portion of enterprise data. At Shared Services and Outsourcing Week 2017, North America’s largest industry event, Filippo Passerini, who up until his recent retirement was CIO and President of the Global Business Services group at P&G, told delegates that all relevant enterprise data runs through Shared Services. It’s no surprise, therefore, that SSOs have been at the forefront of adopting and integrating intelligent automation and cognitive processing to save valuable man-hours, FTEs, and processing time. 

Interestingly, cost is not the key driver for many of these implementations. Instead, enterprises across the world are recognizing that the intelligence and insights derived from advanced technology automation, lead to smarter sourcing, vastly improved Financial processing, and better resource allocation.

Given Shared Services’ key role in leveraging intelligent automation to drive improved business performance, there has been significant growth in IA and RPA implementations, which continues at ever faster rates.

The Intelligent Automation Universe (IAU)
The explosion of intelligent automation via robotic process automation, cognitive capabilities, and AI, within functions ranging from Finance & Accounting to HR, Information Technology, Customer Service and Supply Chain, represents one of the most significant enterprise transformations since the industrial revolution. Starting with a couple of pioneering vendors just a few years ago, the industry today is seeing enormous growth in RPA and AI driven solution providers, as reflected in the Shared Services and Outsourcing Network’s (SSON) world map below.

According to the IAU, which analyzes activity across all continents based on the extent to which robotics and AI have already been launched within business services, Europe (37%) and Asia (34%) lead regional activity, with each accounting for a third of global pilots and implementations to date. Another 20% of these are concentrated in the United States. The top 3 regions also show very high levels of project maturity (as measured by actual implementations vs. pilots): In Europe, 86% of projects are fully implemented, Asia is behind with 78% mature implementations, and the U.S. stands also at 78%.

Bangalore, in India, is the leading hub for this kind of work, accounting for 7% of all intelligent automation projects in the world. Bangalore thus stands in first place in terms of IA activity. India is the leading country for IA projects in Asia – unsurprising, given its leading status as preferred location for Shared Services and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) centers – representing 62% of all pilots and implementations in that region.

The leading country for intelligent automation across business support services, however, is the U.S. which accounts for 18% of all intelligent automation projects in the world. In this market, Tampa, Florida emerges as the leading center of activity.

Who is Championing Implementations Across Business Support Services?
Within the enterprise, the driver, or champion, of IA project implementations for business services varies across regions. In the U.S., Business Units account for most of the activity (6 out of 10), with Shared Services responsible for just over a quarter of the activity. In Europe, while Business Units still account for most activity, BPO centers are a close second. When it comes to Asia, however, we see BPOs overwhelmingly taking the lead for IA activity (six out of 10 projects). Business Units account for just two out of 10 implementations, and Shared Services’ role in driving IA drops significantly.

Find out more about intelligent automation activity and vendors across the world by visiting SSON Analytics’ Intelligent Automation Universe (IAU). The IAU also provides some of the market's most up-to-date information on vendors and business support services clients within the Robotic Process Automation, Cognitive and Artificial Intelligence technology field. This interactive tool presents a global overview of IA projects alongside a comprehensive vendor directory showcasing each vendor’s product capabilities and client footprint.

SSON Analytics provides digestible data insights into the global shared services and outsourcing industry through comprehensive analytics workbooks as well as interactive data tools. For more information, visit www.sson-analytics.com.