Possibilities Unlimited

Maximizing Automation
ROI with Process
Discovery

WHITEPAPER
 Table of Contents

01 Introduction to intelligent automation 03

02 Why do Automation implementations 04

fail to meet expectations?

03 What is the alternative to manual 06

process mapping?

04 What is process discovery and how 07

does it work?

05 AssistEdge Discover-amplifying 08
Automation ROI with process discovery

06 How does AssistEdge Discover help 09

maximize ROI?

07 AssistEdge Discover use case 11

08 Conclusion 13

09 Contributors 13

02 ©2022 EdgeVerve Systems Ltd.

 Introduction to Intelligent Automation
As enterprises continue to transform into dynamic and customer-centric
organizations, Intelligent Automation has become more significant than
ever. Now, there is an increased pressure to get things done whether it’s
about launching products or making sure the customers realize the
value of products and services. Without Intelligent Automation it’s now
impossible to strive in a very demanding nature of change.

Enterprises are also figuring out how to creatively apply Intelligent

Automation in various areas. Automation allows businesses to
automate rule-based tasks by imitating users’ actions, driving business
agility and workforce transformation.

The ultimate goal of Automation is to replace mundane, repetitive and labor-intensive

tasks performed by humans with a virtual workforce. Implementing Automation into
businesses will help to digitize a considerable amount of labor, leading to increased
productivity, higher transparency, improved overall performance and faster ROI.

Intelligent Automation is now very much a silent yet swift revolution that has been encroaching
upon industries across all sectors, such as banking, healthcare, insurance and independent
software vendors. However, several enterprises that implement Automation often struggle to
fully utilize its potential, leading to promises and expectations surrounding ROI not being met.

Research states that 30%-50% of Automation

implementations are not successful.

03 ©2022 EdgeVerve Systems Ltd.

 Why do Automation implementations
fail to meet expectations?
As per a leading independent research firm, 30 % to 50 % of Automation
implementations are not successful¹. This is because Automation is a
strategic process, not a ready-made solution. Hence, the program can face
multiple challenges in its implementation journey. Though the benefits of
Automation are numerous and well-documented, organizations that look
to implement it often face the tough challenge of mapping all business
processes in order to identify which ones need to be automated.

The traditional method for this is manual process mapping that involves
Automation consultants, who spend time with SMEs and agents to
understand and document the as-is process. This includes identifying the
business processes, deciding the criteria to set Automation priorities,
documenting key data, evaluating recorded data to decide which processes
to automate, categorizing them and designing Automation workflows for
the bots. Let’s take a look at some of the risks associated with this:

Limited understanding of process exceptions and variations

In an enterprise, there is a big difference in the way business processes
� are designed and executed on the ground. While all companies have SOPs,
over time the personnel on the ground come up with their own ways of
conducting tasks, giving rise to business process variations. Apart from
process variations, it is a known fact that all business processes have
exceptions. As the depth and breadth of these business process
variations and exceptions are not recorded when a process is mapped
manually, a lot can go wrong. Often it’s only during the implementation
phase the team will realize that the lack of deep process understanding
has led to an ineffective RPA (Robotic Process Automation) strategy. This
leads to organizations failing to realise ROI and other benefits predicted
in the initial Automation plan and overshooting investment requirements.

Only during implementation the team realizes

that lack of process understanding has led
to ineffective RPA strategy

04 ©2022 EdgeVerve Systems Ltd.

 Failure to foresee an Automation roadmap
It’s not easy to predict how immensely an Automation initiative can grow
within an enterprise. Most businesses usually start their Automation
journey with relatively low-scale processes as they follow the proof of
value (PoV) model and look to establish efficiency. This often leads to
designing an Automation program focused on achievements set for the
first year or so, instead of targeting the Automation’s potential reach.
Though the initial scale is important, failure to consider larger parameters
and not having a plan in place early will hinder scalability prospects when
the organization looks to expand Automation to other processes.

Organizational resistance and inherent bias

The knowledge and expertise of process managers and the local team are
crucial in understanding the scope and nature of certain processes so that
they can be automated in the best possible manner. However, it is unwise
to assume that the people who are in charge of processes are the right
personnel to help automate it. If employees feel a sense of job insecurity
due to the introduction of a virtual workforce, it’s likely that they would
refuse to cooperate fully in process mapping and might even withhold
important information. Such inherent bias and cultural resistance within
the organization can adversely affect the Automation journey and success.

Lack of governance
Automation governance falls in a territory between IT and business, and if
� there is a lack of communication between the two teams, it will hamper
the Automation implementation. The process, software interfaces and
data formats alter during the implementation phase and require
continuous planning and communication. Without a well-defined
governance framework in place, it will be difficult to apply the Automation
software to key processes that require accuracy and efficiency.

05 ©2022 EdgeVerve Systems Ltd.

 What is the alternative to manual
process mapping?
While organizations understand how Automation can help cut costs,
increase efficiency and avoid human errors, some challenges still
remain-time, cost, process optimization, and most importantly, where to
begin? For most enterprises, difficulties in realizing the value of its
Automation is associated with the first step-acquiring an accurate and
comprehensive mapping of all their business processes. With business
processes changing all the time, manual process mapping doesn’t prove to
be very effective as the documentation process becomes outdated quickly.

Usually, a manual method of interviewing operations SMEs and agents,

and gathering data from process documents is used for identifying the
right process for Automation.

This method suffers from various disadvantages that affect not only the efficiency but also
the cost and time involved in set up and implementation. Some of these disadvantages are:

01 Significant manual effort from both consultants and SMEs�

02 Biased information being fed into Automation decisions gives incorrect

insights into the process, often hiding the real complexity of the process

03 Delays in requirement gathering due to lack of SME availability, quality

of data and lack of process documentation

Enterprises can solve these challenges by complementing the SME process knowledge
with on-the- ground real data that is captured automatically by a tool. It is critical to
capture user key strokes to understand the on-the-ground business process variations
and exceptions. Empirical data obtained from such a tool can mitigate the challenges
of the quality of data and help in identifying the right Automation opportunities.

With business processes changing all the time, manual

process mapping doesn’t prove to be effective

06 ©2022 EdgeVerve Systems Ltd.

 This also helps in:

01 02 03
Realizing the Capturing and mining Creating process
real value from on-the-ground data transparency to
Automation as automatically to create allow enterprises to
the right process realistic process maps drive efficiency,
can be automated and insights covering quality and
using the right all process variations productivity and
technology and exceptions exceptions

What is Process Discovery and how

does it work?
Process Discovery is a machine learning-based tool that helps
organizations maximize the value of Automation. It identifies business
processes, tallies all possible variations using proprietary machine
learning algorithms and makes recommendations for Automation.
Process Discovery not only distinguishes business processes that can
be automated but also designs Automation workflows, making the
design, development and implementation of Automation quicker and
more efficient.

Process Discovery bots monitor an organization’s business processes

for a specific period. They run on employee machines in a non-intrusive
way, without hampering daily work and collecting data on how the
organization uses various applications to perform its tasks. AI then
analyses the data, recommending the best contenders for Automation,
by weighing up the time, effort and finances that can be saved through
it. It then generates Automation workflows that can be moved to an
Automation tool for a seamless Automation journey.

The ultimate automation platform

07 ©2022 EdgeVerve Systems Ltd.

 AssistEdge discover - Amplifying
Automation ROI with Process Discovery
EdgeVerve’s AssistEdge Discover tool offers all the benefits with a
simple yet smooth user interface and process design. AssistEdge
Discover is a non-intrusive product that leverages user key strokes and
sophisticated neural network algorithms to create insightful business
process maps.

These maps, along with insights generated by the analytics engine,

provide a powerful foundation for inter-functional collaboration,
effective change management and continuous improvement; all of this
is free from human bias. AssistEdge Discover reveals crucial process
nuances essential to create an effective Automation blueprint and
provides an ability to unlock the true value of Automation.

AssistEdge Discover
leverages user key
strokes and sophisticated
neural network algorithms
to create insightful
business process maps

AssistEdge Discover in action

Insightful Empirical Effective Unlock

Business Decision Automation Automation
Process Map Making Blueprint Success

08 ©2022 EdgeVerve Systems Ltd.

 AssistEdge Discover helps enterprises in:

01 Accelerating Process Discovery by reducing manual effort of large-scale

process identification and mapping all process variations and exceptions

02 Amplifying Automation value by leveraging the potential of AI as an

integrated approach to maximize the business process outcome

03 Improving Automation success rate by creating an effective Automation

blueprint, bringing transparency and eliminating human bias

04 Increasing predictability by avoiding potential errors and pitfalls through

smarter exception handling

How does AssistEdge Discover help

maximize ROI?
AssistEdge Discover is a holistic product suite that helps enterprises
navigate their entire Automation journey, all the way from crafting an
Automation blueprint to realizing Automation success, and tracking and
capturing the data. It helps enterprises manage their Automation
program from value definition to value creation and management.
Powered by machine learning, AssistEdge Discover helps enterprises
unlock the true value of Automation by:

Strategizing and establishing ROI

Since AssistEdge Discover captures user key strokes and combines it
with the power of neural network algorithms, it delivers empirical data,
reducing human biases, errors and risks in Automation. It helps identify
the processes for Automation and maps them out realistically, covering
all process variations and exceptions. With the help of an Automation
blueprint, AssistEdge Discover establishes and builds business value
proposition around each process that helps strategize and maximize on
the expected ROI from Automation.

09 ©2022 EdgeVerve Systems Ltd.

 Accelerating Automation value
Automated Process Discovery through AssistEdge Discover overcomes
the shortcomings of a manual approach to create a business process
model at a fraction of the time. Rapid Process Discovery and mapping
at a large scale leads to faster Automation project execution by
avoiding midcourse correction due to exceptions and process
inconsistencies.

Navigating and realizing Automation blueprint

�
The Automation blueprint generated by AssistEdge Discover covers
realistic on-the-ground process maps and can be put into immediate
effect by an enterprise. AssistEdge Discover helps navigate across the
Automation journey by creating the business process value proposition,
validating it and helping realize the full Automation blueprint. It can be
plugged at any time into an Automation journey to fine-tune the strategy.

Amplifying Automation success

�
Powered by AI, AssistEdge Discover has powerful analytical reports that
give insights into the nuances of process executions happening on the
ground. It can amplify the Automation success by providing insights
around where intelligence can be used and what kind of intelligent
technologies can be brought forth, be it OCR, sentiment analysis or
machine learning.

Tracking Automation ROI

�
AssistEdge Discover helps enterprises capture the value that has been
created through Automation by baselining and assessing continuous
process improvement and ROI. It creates a transparent approach to
tracking Automation ROI and managing governance.

Unlock new possibilities by unleashing the power

of future workforce

10 ©2022 EdgeVerve Systems Ltd.

 AssistEdge Discover ROI framework

Strategizing & Accelerating Navigating &

Establishing ROI Automation Value Realizing Automation
Blueprint

Strong change
management
Amplifying Tracking strategy &
Automation Success Automation ROI
governance

AssistEdge Discover use case

Business challenge
A 100 year-old global technology company wanted to understand how
� its overall procurement processes including ‘request for quote’, ‘letter
of intent’, ‘supplier onboarding’ and ‘purchase order processing’ are
executed. The aim was to understand user behavior on the ground.
Through this exercise, the enterprise is expecting to streamline existing
processes either through process reengineering or process Automation.

11 ©2022 EdgeVerve Systems Ltd.

 Solution implementation
AssistEdge Discover was deployed approximately on 30 different user
desktops in three different business units. Data was captured for four
weeks and then analyzed to derive the user productivity and behavioral
aspects like working hours, unnecessary usage of backspace, delete
keys and more. Manual surveys/interviews were conducted to collect
data of the business processes with respect to their volumetric,
financial details and any regulatory guidelines that define process flows.

A set of Automation recommendations and an Automation implementation roadmap

based on ROI was provided by the consulting team, leveraging:

Analysis of business process maps and dashboards generated by

AssistEdge Discover

Inferences from interviews and process assessment

www Domain knowledge

Output from established Automation assessment frameworks

Business results
Process execution details were recorded using AssistEdge Discover. The
consulting team further collected all the process details through manual
surveys and interviews. All the observations were evaluated by the
consultants against industry benchmarks.

The final recommendations presented to the enterprise included:

The business process There is scope for Automation

maps generated through improvement in user opportunities were
AssistEdge Discover behavioral aspects identified and shared
depicted how the current with the enterprise
business processes are
executed on the ground

12 ©2022 EdgeVerve Systems Ltd.

 Conclusion
Most businesses are unsure of where to start their Automation journey,
and are not equipped to overcome the hurdles Automation might face
during implementation. Enterprises leave these decisions entirely to
consultants who bank on their experience in manual process mapping.
Process Discovery provides these organizations with a fast, reliable and
cost-effective way to identify the ideal processes for RPA and to
continue automating additional tasks.

Process Discovery bases ROI on empirical data and analysis, not

guesswork and forecasts. Thus, it ensures that the enterprise is not
automating broken processes. It identifies the processes to automate
and generates an Automation workflow. With such a complete map of
processes, initiatives won’t fail and can bypass bottlenecks caused by
inefficiency. This leads to value realization of RPA and better ROI.

Contributors
Sateesh Seetharamiah
Vice President and Global Product
Head, EdgeVerve

Shrikant Deo
Associate Director and Lead – Product
Management, EdgeVerve

Parijat Sahai
Director, Solutions Consulting,
EdgeVerve

13 ©2022 EdgeVerve Systems Ltd.

Possibilities Unlimited
Inspiring enterprises with the
power of digital platforms

www.edgeverve.com

AssistEdge Discover
AssistEdge Discover unlocks the hidden business value trapped in processes. It is a powerful foundation for enterprises seeking cutting-edge technology to drive
intelligent automation and process excellence. From non-intrusively capturing human-machine interactions to leveraging AI to creating actionable process insights,
AssistEdge Discover sets you on the right path to embrace continuous improvement with a relentless focus on creating a hyper-productive enterprise.
EdgeVerve. Possibilities Unlimited.
https://www.edgeverve.com/assistedge/assistedge-discover/

About EdgeVerve
EdgeVerve Systems Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Infosys, is a global leader in developing digital platforms, assisting clients to unlock unlimited possibilities in
their digital transformation journey. Our purpose is to inspire enterprises with the power of digital platforms, thereby enabling our clients to innovate on business
models, drive game-changing efficiency and amplify human potential. Our platforms portfolio across Automation (AssistEdge), Document AI (XtractEdge), and Supply
Chain (TradeEdge) helps inspire global enterprises to discover & automate processes, digitize & structure unstructured data and unlock the power of the network by
integrating value chain partners. EdgeVerve, with a deep-rooted entrepreneurial culture, our innovations are helping global corporations across financial services,
insurance, retail, consumer & packaged goods, life sciences, manufacturing telecom and utilities, and more.
EdgeVerve. Possibilities Unlimited.
www.edgeverve.com

Copyright ©2022 EdgeVerve Systems Limited, Bangalore, India. All Rights Reserved. This documentation is the sole property of EdgeVerve Systems Limited
(“EdgeVerve”). EdgeVerve believes the information in this document or page is accurate as of its publication date; such information is subject to change without notice.
EdgeVerve acknowledges the proprietary rights of other companies to the trademarks, product names and such other intellectual property rights mentioned in this
document. This document is not for general distribution and is meant for use solely by the person or entity that it has been specifically issued to and can be used for the
sole purpose it is intended to be used for as communicated by EdgeVerve in writing. Except as expressly permitted by EdgeVerve in writing, neither this documentation
nor any part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, printing, photocopying, recording
or otherwise, without the prior written permission of EdgeVerve and/ or any named intellectual property rights holders under this document.

©2022 EdgeVerve Systems Ltd.