Leading asset finance companies have revealed how Robotic Process Automation can make repetitive manual processes a thing of the past to improve business performance.
The introduction of RPA can free staff from low-value manual tasks so they can focus their skills on generating business growth while improving customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Speaking during an International Asset Finance Network Online seminar, sponsored by VIP Apps Consulting, industry leaders revealed how RPA could transform business performance.
Gavin Dowding, head of technology, Propel Finance, said: “It is the digital touchpoints with the customer or with any of our other partners. If someone submits an email or a request for something, then something else happens, and then something else happens on the back of that. It is really having that full lifecycle flow of interaction and then action, so that, constantly, we are automating that experience.
“I don’t think it is something that, typically, equipment finance companies have been able to do historically. That’s where the opportunities are.”
During the seminar, hundreds of online delegates heard how Volkswagen Financial Services has used RPA to manage a massive increase in customer enquiries at the height of the pandemic.
Adam Goodacre, business application and robotic automation development manager at Volkswagen Financial Services, said: “The phone was always ringing, so one of the challenges was to stop answering the phone and fix the problem, otherwise, the phone will always be ringing.
“We quickly used RPA to solve the problem. We initially focused on our customer operations and fleet areas because that was where the volume was coming from. It needed to be something substantial rather than something that someone only does once a week, where you could live with a manual process.
“We were able to react very quickly because we had the technology.”
Panellist Daypesh Patel, managing director, VIP Apps Consulting (pictured), said RPA is just one solution option as part of an overall process automation strategy.
He added: “I think when you consider RPA, and especially when you combine it with other technologies (artificial intelligence and machine learning, optical character recognition and image recognition), these are all powerful components of an overall digital and automation strategy. What we call intelligent automation is really where the power is.”
For a detailed summary of the seminar, download the report using the form below.
