Why using automation can help finance teams reduce tedious tasks
Although there has been a lot of discussion around digitising the finance function, many businesses are still at an early stage when it comes to using technology to increase efficiency, value and insight. Your company might be one of them. It’s an area in which, as the CFO, you need to take the lead, as […]

Automation vs artificial intelligence
It’s important to understand that automation is not the same as artificial intelligence. Automation follows pre-programmed rules to run processes, but is only a part of AI. AI is about moving in a direction where it’s about getting machines to replicate human behaviour and make their own decisions. However, this is a different level to AI software, which displays self-learning capability through machine learning. Mahmood said: “AI is such as big word and uses a bunch of technologies. But if you’re talking about automation, you’re talking about things like machine learning and natural language processing, and how these can be used to optimise processes.” Automation is certainly not new. After all, with Excel spreadsheets, macros are designed to automate tasks that are considered repetitive and tedious. However, automation has evolved and we now have Robotic Process Automation (RPA) – the use of software with AI or machine-learning capabilities to handle high-volume repeatable tasks. RPA is a systematic way of automating with controlled governance, while a compatible technology in process orchestration ensures workflows are managed throughout process lifecycles. Mahmood said: “We’re at an intelligent automation stage where you’re optimising business processes through automation technology such as RPA, machine learning or NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Processing) to carry out activities. “After this stage comes autonomous intelligence, which is basically processes operating themselves without any human intervention.”Learn what automation can do for your business
If your business is looking at automation, Mahmood pointed out that it’s important to thoroughly understand your processes. “It’s about understanding your business processes and your pain points,” he said. For example, the finance function has to deal with lots of repetitive and tedious tasks, which are ripe for automation. Your company’s finance staff might be spending a lot of their time gathering data rather than analysing it, making them human ‘automation agents’. As the CFO, you should look at ways that the finance team can take the robot out of the human, letting their systems do this robotic work so they can spend more time on useful tasks. Areas where RPA could free up time include:- Bank reconciliation
- Sales ordering
- Invoicing
- Financial reporting
- External reporting
- Inventory management
- Tax planning
- Accounting.
People and culture are key to your automation strategy
The second step is to make sure people and culture feature prominently within your automation business strategy. It’s important for your company’s business leaders to make sure they’re transparent about the automation strategy, and what it means for the workforce. “With automation, we’re talking about digital labour and a digital workforce, which will impact human labour,” Mahmood said. “And as part of that, a question we need to address is, are people and culture at the heart of our technology? “People have to be part of an automation strategy because automation works at such a detailed level, that most organisations won’t have processes documented at this level. “You need to involve the people in coming up with ideas for what areas can be automated. Having people and culture involved in developing your automation strategy is really important.” Mahmood described how PwC has embarked on a large-scale automation programme, ensuring people understood what automation means, what it is, how to identify it, and how to design it. He said: “We’ve put a lot of people through digital upscaling, increasing the skills of our employees. You get two main benefits. First, your employees are involved in the automation journey and they accept it as a cultural change effort. “The second is that over time, they will cope with their role changing as automation is implemented. They must understand that might be doing new jobs that currently don’t exist right now.”Automation efforts need to be sustainable
Automation isn’t a process than can be left on autopilot. Mahmood said there are lot of examples in businesses where the initial excitement around automation has fizzled out. This is because it’s relatively easy to start with automation but more difficult to scale. If you’re a business leader thinking about automation in your company, you may want expertise to answer questions such as:- How do you choose your automation projects?
- What tools are you going to make available to business users?
- How are projects supported and monitored?
- What regular requirements will affect data handling?
Automation can save time and money
Mahmood described an example of how a law firm that works in property law now automates a repetitive process with RPA that saves the work of 30 paralegals. He said: “The business sends out what is called a sellers’ information pack when selling land to potential buyers. The buyers will come back with a number of queries on these packs. “It’s the job of 30 expensive legal people to read email queries, go to the information pack, find the answers, compose a response email and send these to the seller. “The process is fully automated now. The questions go through to an automation engine that uses a combination of technologies to answer the queries around them.” He also described how automation has saved another law firm from having to spend money on people who were ‘cash matching’ for them – matching returns if a bond portfolio to future capital outlays.Mahmood said there’s more than one bottom line for automation. “Automation starts as a cost play, and it does save costs as well as increase revenue and profit,” he said.
“But it quickly becomes a customer service play – it moves from being able to do things more efficiently, to doing something in a much more responsive manner.”