cBEYONData

What is RPA?  Let’s try to break through the jargon to discover exactly what it is and how it can be utilized.

RPA and the GPS Analogy

First, let me start with an analogy and ask, what is GPS? Today we know GPS as one of the multiple apps on our phone that we use for directions when we go for a drive.  Simple right?  These GPS apps get us from point A to point B by telling us all the directions regarding how to get there; including street names, left and right turns, traffic congestion, hazards, and police warnings.  It’s a perfect example of technology freeing us up from a time-consuming task.  However, this technology wasn’t always available.

When I was a kid and our family was planning a road trip or vacation, my dad would clear the kitchen table, break out a box of maps by county, region, etc. and start laying them out on the table.  One by one, starting from our house, he would identify the roads on the map that we needed to drive, highlight the trip’s path, and look for the next road we needed.  We had yellow highlighter across the multiple maps we needed to make our journey.  A great bonding moment – yes, however, it was a repetitive, time-consuming task.

Done, right?

No.  When it was time to go on vacation, someone was designated the navigator.  This was an important task.  Not only did you have to hang onto the maps, but you had to pay attention the entire time to make sure you didn’t miss an exit or a turn.  You had to know when to switch maps so you could continue on the correct leg of the journey.  Ugh… this was a process.

Fun?  At times, but it was daunting and consuming valuable time I (the navigator) could be doing something else.  I inevitably became a GPS early adopter – grateful for the technological advantages of GPS apps that have eliminated the need for maps.

RPA the Tool

Now, let’s jump back to RPA.  What is RPA?  RPA is the technology behind taking a daunting, repetitive process and automating it so that you can have the valuable time back to do whatever else it is you need to be doing.

RPA is visual macros on steroids with the ability to interact with almost any (most likely any) application, website, or process on a computer.   The build process is both visual and click oriented.

RPA’s popularity, in my eyes, is due to its click-by-click development style with extremely basic knowledge of .Net programming.  It excels with repetitive tasks but can do nearly anything you ask it so long as you take the time to build it.  Let’s look at the GPS example.

Process:

1. Insert starting location.
2. Insert destination.
3. Identify the first road from the starting point heading toward the destination.
4. Identify the next turn off of the first road that is necessary to get to the destination.
5. Repeat as necessary from current road to the next road needed to get to the destination.

This may be oversimplified, but you can see this is repetitive, time-consuming, and daunting.  Most importantly, it screams of potential for human error (the family never likes it when the navigator misses the exit).

So, RPA:

• Is a software package that lays on top of all software on a computer
• Can identify and mimic all the clicks a human would do within a process
• Can identify and mimic all the text-based inputs a human would do within a process
• Can replace human input with database, Excel, csv, etc. driven input
• Can replace human output with a database, Excel, csv, SharePoint, web update, custom software update, etc.

How RPA Can Be Used?

1. Accounting

I recently built an RPA automation to free up accountants.  I was presented with a highly repetitive, time-consuming task, wrought with potential for human error – copying hundreds or thousands of lines of credits and debits for end-of-month, quarter, and year processes from excel into a custom accounting program.

The process went like this:

• Download the report of debits and credits for the selected time period
• Open report in Excel
• Open accounting program
  • Navigate to proper screen
• Copy 10 cells of data from each row in Excel into the accounting program, one at a time
  • Make Excel the active application
  • Copy row 1 cell 1
  • Make accounting application the active application
  • Paste copied data into appropriate field
  • Make Excel the active application
  • Copy row 1 cell 2
  • Make accounting application the active application
  • Paste copied data into appropriate field
  • Repeat for each cell in row 1
  • Repeat for each row in sheet

You can see the potential for human error.

What cell did I just copy?  Did I already paste it?  What row am I on?  Is it lunch time yet?  Did I really drink four cups of coffee already?

This process takes a minimum of one eight-hour workday and can take multiple days.  Our automation in a development environment completed its run in an hour and a half and it runs in the background freeing up an accountant to be better utilized.

2. Help Desk

Now, it’s been quite a while since my help desk days (mid 2000’s), but we utilized automation constantly while manning the phones to provide technical assistance.  However, we had to write all of our automation tasks in pure code.

Back then I was helping a hospital and the associated medical college.  We had three people on the phones and had to support all the doctors, all the nurses, all the staff, all the professors, and all the students.  Did I write “all” enough times for you to see how outnumbered we were?

Identifying solutions and being proactive was the key to our success and we were highly successful.  However, we needed to make sure that those of us who were answering the phones were not slowed down by repetitive processes that took significant time – especially if we could find a way to use code to tackle the bulk of the work.

One example would be a new user request.  New users had many variables.  Was the user a student or staff?  What organization did they belong to within the hospital or college system?  What folders were defaulted for those organizational users?  What software should we push to their machine by default?  How many additional software system logins did they need access to?

Today, with RPA, a solution to this would include a method of collecting the answers to the necessary questions.

For example:

1. New user request form filled out in Word or a website with inputs (the website requires more effort to get started but still possible)
2. The request form emailed to the helpdesk@yourcompany.com
3. The email subject line to include “New User Request”

In this scenario, I could write an automation to:

• Run on my machine
• Access my Outlook email
  • Identify all the emails by subject line
  • Move the emails to a New User subfolder (let’s throw in a check here in case there is an issue with the subject line)
    • Also, scan the rest of the emails regardless of subject line and simply look for the new user form
    • Move those emails as well to the New User subfolder
• Run a process on the New User subfolder
  • Digitally scrape the form for:
    • User’s first and last name
    • Organization
    • Supervisor
    • Etc.
  • Open the necessary network administrator tools to set up the new user
  • Create the user and establish the correct groups for the user account
  • Set the users account to automatically download the necessary software to the new user’s computer once he or she logs in
  • Email the verification info to the requestor
  • Close the network administrator tools
  • Copy the new user request form to an archive folder in the help desk team’s network share
  • Archive the email
  • Repeat for each email

New users are being created and the time-consuming task is removed from the help desk individual or network administrator’s duties so that they can be freed up to do what they do best – answer questions that are not simple or repetitive.

3. Data:  The Last Mile

Ah… data.  My favorite.  I’m a data guy.  Dashboards, reports, KPIs… stop.  You’re getting me excited.

Every year, just about every project I’m on, I come to the same realization… it’s (name the year) 2020 and your data is not in a trusted system?  You do what to your reporting systems data to make it accurate?  It’s FAXED?  Who left or retired and now you don’t know how they did it?

Be still my heart.  There are roadblocks.  I get it, but we still need to get that data into a system.  We still need to make that data accurate.  We still need to know that process.  And, we often just sit there wishing and waiting, hoping there was a software solution to get us over the hump.

This is called the Last Mile.

This term popped up in my vocabulary in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s as I was researching telecommunications across the globe.  There was a unique phenomenon in emerging nations.  They were faced with the difficulty of building telecommunications and internet infrastructure to the far reaches of rural land.  The complexities of terrain made the task overwhelmingly difficult.  However, some of these countries were on the verge of leapfrogging the United States in telecommunications.  How were they accomplishing this?

Without the sunk cost of existing lines and infrastructure, they were able to think outside the box.  The solution was simple, spend the money to get the infrastructure as far as possible, but then provide the “last mile” with new technology solutions.  In this case, that was wireless.  With the United States already heavily invested in old, antiquated technology (physical lines), these countries were able to break free from that mold to provide their country a solution that was better and less expensive.

Hope in a new, off-the-shelf or custom software package is our sunk cost.  Waiting is our dilemma.  We can feel the wind as people, companies start passing us by.  Our mindset is stuck on the idea that we need a new accounting program or reporting solution.

RPA is the last mile.

It’s the outside the box solution to get us around the cost and time it takes to build a new complete software package, and it utilizes our existing, in-house processes.

Instead of hiring a firm to come in and write a custom piece of software, or converting over to something new off the shelf, and just hoping we get it right this time, take a second look through the lens of RPA.

You have a process.  Now, your process might be that everyone sends their reports to Bob who tweaks them and then sends them back out via email, but you have a process (let’s hope Bob doesn’t retire).

Create an SOP (Standard Operating Procedures)

1. Identify the process
2. Write down the steps of the process
3. What current programs or software solutions are utilized?
4. How many screens are being accessed?
5. Are special permissions required?
6. Who receives the output?

Next, hire an RPA consulting company for a fraction of a software development company.  Hand them the process, walk them through it, and take some screenshots.  With the existing software that you are already using and the addition of an RPA package, they can automate this process usually in only a few weeks.

Now that we are automating, what would make it better?  Do we want those updates from Bob to go back into the reporting solution so you don’t have to rely on emailed reports – people can just access the trusted source via your current tool?

What Else?

You tell me.

My world consists of accounting, network admin/help desk, and data.  I can see and discuss the potential there, but RPA can interact with any software application, website, or digital tool.  It can automate data processing and help with machine learning.  It can be leaned on for network security reporting.  It can automate form letter responses to incoming emails.  How many different emails can we respond to with automation?

The possibilities are endless.

“In your position, what “software solution” is missing?  RPA can fill in the gap to get you from point A to point B in your tasks while freeing you up to make better use of your productive time. As organizations look for ways to improve operational efficiency and integrate legacy systems with new enterprise applications and digital business, robotic process automation continues to grow its footprint.”
– 2019 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Robotic Process Automation Software

Next Steps

First, take a breath.  The excitement is real.  Next, contact an RPA consulting company.  I happen to work for one that I recommend – the wonderful folks at cBEYONData.  Let’s get a first-hand look and talk about next steps.

Links:

We are excited to announce that cBEYONData will be attending and exhibiting at the Association of Government Accountants National Leadership Training 2020! NTL2020 is a an amazing event to connect with senior managers, executives, CEO’s, presidents, accountants, and auditors, who are looking to be leaders in today’s competitive market. NLT2020’s mission statement this year is “developing and training government financial professionals to excel as leaders”, which aligns with our mindset for 2020, where we are aiming to be a leader in the Business Intelligence and Big Data industry.

From the NLT2020 website:

National Leadership Training (NLT) is an essential event for developing and training government financial professionals to excel as leaders in today’s competitive market. Don’t miss this opportunity to share best practices, find new solutions to challenges, network with peers and learn from the top financial management leaders and industry experts. This training offers up to 14 CPE hours.

Can’t travel to Washington? NLT offers virtual attendance — from your home or office — so you don’t have to miss out on this important leadership training event. Virtual attendance also offers up to 14 CPE hours.

NLT2020 is going to be February 12th-13th, in Washington DC. If you are interested in attending either digitally or in person, register on the AGA website.

cBEYONData is a results-driven firm that provides value to government agencies and organizations through Business Intelligence (BI) solutions for the CFO’s Office and end-user missions. We ensure our customers’ analytical and reporting requirements are met through solutions such as financial reporting, audit readiness, DATA Act analytics & submission, procurement & external reporting, dashboards, analytics, visualizations, and geo-mapping. cBEYONData is committed to customer success, as demonstrated by our strong customer retention rates, references and awards.

(Washington, D.C., January 8, 2020) – cBEYONData and UiPath, the leading enterprise RPA software company, today announced a partnership to provide Robotic Process Automation solutions to multiple Federal agencies. This partnership demonstrates a commitment from both companies to help government agencies establish a digital workforce of bots that automate numerous tasks across business functions, such as financial reconciliation, purchase requisition, invoice processing, and asset management.

Over the past 24 months, there have been consistent marketplace signals that federal agencies are ready to embrace RPA as a way to improve mission delivery. Working with UiPath, partners such as cBEYONData have been able to demonstrate how quickly and affordably RPA can make an impact for federal agencies.

cBEYONData is leveraging this partnership by integrating “bots” into the company’s CFO Control Tower Solution.  The CFO Control Tower is a scalable solution that provides Federal CFO organizations on-demand financial analytics and reports. It can be deployed on-premise or in the cloud and is available as a service combining infrastructure, software, and support.  The CFO Control Tower includes over 100 pre-built Business Intelligence (BI) components such as budget and procurement reports, analytics, dashboards, data models and data extraction routines.

“The U.S. government can benefit from automation just like the private sector has — driving improved operational efficiencies,” said Christopher Townsend, Vice President of Federal Sales at UiPath. “As interest in accelerated processes federal agencies continues to grow, we are ready to deliver exceptional deployments of our software through our collaboration with cBEYONData.”

“Teaming with technology leaders like UiPath allows us to deliver a state-of-the-art solution for Federal CFOs to enhance the flexibility of the solution, and to show the power of RPA,” said Dave Schmidtknecht, CEO of cBEYONData.  “We are happy to forge this partnership with the leader in the RPA space.”

UiPath is leading the ’automation first’ era – championing a robot for every person and enabling robots to learn new skills through artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). UiPath’s hyperautomation platform combines the #1 RPA solution with a full suite of capabilities, including process mining and analytics, that enable every organization to scale digital business operations at unprecedented speed. The company has already automated millions of repetitive, mind-numbing tasks for businesses and government organizations all over the world.

cBEYONData is a purpose-built professional services firm that specializes in supporting mission-driven agencies and organizations with the enhancement of business processes, cloud migrations, BI, data management, data analytics, agile project and process management, dashboards and geo-mapping.

For more information on cBEYONData, please contact: Theresa.Backus.Dunn@cBEYONData.com

We are excited to announce that cBEYONData will be attending and sponsoring the Association of Government Accountants (AGA) Financial Systems Summit 2020! This year’s Financial Systems Summit will feature speakers such as Ann Ebberts, CEO, AGA, Craig Fischer, Innovation Program Manager, U.S. Department of the Treasury, Margaret Pearson, Associate CFO for Budget and Performance, U.S. Office of Personnel Management, Heather Putman, Product Director, General Fund Enterprise Business System (GFEBS), U.S. Army and many more! This year AGA is also introducing the “FSS Innovation Challenge”, where attendees can share their ideas and innovations with other agencies, to help the industry continue to grow and thrive!

From the AGA website:

The Financial Systems Summit (FSS) unites government leaders and industry experts to discuss how to improve government services through systems modernization in a budget-constrained environment. Sessions will highlight CIO/CFO priorities, agile, shared services, cybersecurity and emerging technologies.

If you are in the DC Metro area, or would like to attend digitally, head to the AGA Financial Systems Summit 2020 website and register to attend!

cBEYONData is excited to be named a leader in BI, Big Data Consulting, and SI! We are constantly growing and are excited for our recognition by Clutch. Our company works mostly with the government; however, we also have experience working with the education and financial service sectors.

Clutch creates review-based evaluations for service providers with the hopes of providing a resource for possible clients. Their team collects reviews over phone interviews with past clients. Clutch’s analysts then compare data from multiple companies and create lists of high performing companies each with a “Leaders Matrix”. cBEYONData has been placed as number five on the Leaders Matrix for the top big data analytics companies.

Take a look at what people are saying about cBEYONData!

“They have a very good corporate management structure that allows them to be very hands-on…” – Program Manager, Federal Agency

“The upgrades cBEYONData is making to our system is going to significantly improve internal efficiencies.” -Financial Systems Officer, Legislative Branch Agency

“Their work has been very well received over the years…” – Director of Information Services, Medical Device Company.

Visual Objects highlights business rankings in the form of a company’s portfolio work. A client is really able to visualize their ideas by seeing the past projects of various companies in the same service sector.

“We are thrilled to have been chosen as one of the leading Big Data Consultants two years in a row!” – Theresa Backus Dunn, Director of Marketing at cBEYONData

If you are looking for a solution for your next project, let us know today!

We are excited to be attending and sponsoring the Association of Government Accountants Shared Services Summit 2019! This event will be on November 14th and held in Washington, DC.

We are excited to be hearing from speakers such as Charles Keckler, Senior Advisor, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Dave Lebryk, Fiscal Assistant Secretary, U.S. Department of the Treasury,  Amy Edwards, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Accounting Policy and Financial Transparency, U.S. Department of the Treasury Fiscal Service, Matt Miller, Deputy Commissioner, Fiscal Accounting & Shared Services, Bureau of the Fiscal Service, U.S. Department of the Treasury and John Marshall, President and CEO, Shared Services Leadership Coalition.

cBEYONData is a silver sponsor of Shared Services Summit 2019, so if you are attending this event, please stop by our table and say hi!

From the AGA website:

The Shared Services Summit (SSS) will bring together more than 400 individuals from across the federal CxO community (acquisition, financial, HR, IT and performance) to address common opportunities and challenges in sustaining progress in shared-services implementation.

Be sure to register on the AGA website and we look forward to seeing you there!

We are excited to announce that cBEYONData is a sponsor at the SAP NS2 NOW 2019 Security and Innovation Summit! Our team will be exhibiting and attending NS2 Now 2019 in Tysons Corner, Virginia. We look forward to attending this year and hearing from speakers such as Mark Testoni, (CEO, SAP NS2), Fran Townsend, (EVP, WW Government, MacAndrews & Forbes) and more!

From the SAP NS2 website:

Join us for some great discussion with proven leaders on how to address the gaps – between data and capabilities, industry and government, cloud and security, critical infrastructure and cyber risks. At this free event for government and regulated industries, you can be part of the team that is Narrowing the Divide.

Be sure to head to the NS2 Now 2019 website and register to attend!

We are excited to be attending and speaking at the SAP BusinessObjects Federal User Group in Washington DC, on October 24th! We are excited to be part of this event with SAP, 360 Suite, Carahsoft, and NS2.

The SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Suite is a tool that we have used throughout our organization and in multiple projects. We are looking forward to hearing about topics such as “How the Environmental Protection Agency Maximized its SAP BusinessObjects Investments and Reduced Costs”, “Boosting SAP BusinessObjects with Hana” and more! We hope you will join us at this great event on October 24th at the Hilton Garden Inn Washington DC Downtown!

From the event website:

This complimentary user group aims to expand and refine the knowledge base of the SAP BusinessObjects community in the greater Washington, DC area through interactive sessions and presentations.

Everything on us! Register now to get free new knowledge on SAP BusinessObjects, free breakfast, free lunch, and free parking.

Register online HERE

We are excited to announce that we will be hosting an upcoming breakfast to present on Automating and Improving Federal Budgeting Processes! Join us on Monday, October 21st at the Ronald Reagan Building, downtown Washington, D.C., to learn about the CFO Control Tower, preconfigured to meet the needs of Federal budgeting requirements and industry best practices for your budgeting process.

Register here!

Gain real insight into:

– Your end to end budgeting process?
– Your budget data at any and all budget levels?
– Analytics which combine budget formulation AND budget execution data?

Our morning presentation will cover:
Full oversight and the ability to see into the process and data. For advanced integrated budget and actual reporting (status of funds) at every level of your organization.

Budget Formulation. Replace spreadsheets and manual integrations of multiple data sources and move to an integrated automated process.  Budget at the lowest levels of details and automatically roll up a budget to the highest levels, within multiple views of the data.

Budget Execution. Automatically perform budget realignments throughout the year and all the execution teams to easily share actual executed data with the formulation team.

Budget Automation. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and other automation tools to help build and manage the budget process.

Register online for free here!

This is a free event, so seats will fill up quickly.

This event is sponsored by cBEYONData and Column5 Consulting.

cBEYONData is a professional services firm focusing on Business Analytics, Data, and Visual technologies and implementations. Our team of highly experienced consultants will successfully design, execute and guide you through the implementation of your solution. We know the key to a successful implementation is to tailor the solution to the customer’s specific needs. We are being awarded Top IT Services Firms Award in Virginia 2019 by Clutch.

Clutch is a B2B market research firm featuring ratings and reviews for over 9,000 IT service firms agencies worldwide. Clutch helps businesses make the decision about who to hire to solve their firm’s challenges by providing reliable information on top-performing firms centered around client-feedback. 

We have many satisfied clients that have provided feedback, here is our latest review on Clutch:

We have been featured amongst B2B firms on The Manifest. As a sister site of Clutch, The Manifest is a B2B firm description platform that features top companies alongside business news and how-to guides for firms to help them improve and develop. It serves as a resource for small to mid-size companies in a blog type format and provides industry insight.

Check out Visual Objects, Clutch’s new sister site. It is a visual portfolio site that highlights top B2B companies. Take a look at company profiles that highlight the creativity of the work so that you can envision what your project might look like. We are featured here under their top custom software developers. We are grateful to Clutch for this recognition and we thank our clients who left us with feedback that not only helps us improve, but helps future customers me more knowledgeable. Contact us for more information!