If someone asked you what would help you more than anything in your daily work life, would your answer be ‘more time’? Laurent Launay is the Chief Engagement Officer at Definiti and his stated mission is to address this issue. “We have a clear purpose,” he says, “which is to create time.”

While that may sound like a goal from the realms of sci-fi and fantasy, Launay says it’s not only possible, but a reality and, unfortunately, Australia is somewhat behind many other developed countries around the world in this regard.

This is what has defined the purpose for his entire team, he says – developing a software robots automation solution to remove the ‘human glue’, which allows knowledge workers to focus on high- value tasks and no longer waste time on all the repetitive and mundane jobs.

Imagine the metaphor of an engine running but the parts getting glued together. Eventually, the engine becomes ineffective at best.

Software robots comprise RPA (robotic process automation) and IDP (intelligent document processing) technologies that mimic human action in front of a computer. IDP allows users to deal with semi-structured data such as an invoice, PDF or certain types of structured email automatically. By reading the source document, a bot can extract the relevant information and then perform the necessary responsive task through the RPA function – process a purchase order or enter information across multiple systems, for example.

Software robots work four to 10 times faster than a human working seven days a week, 24 hours a day, make no mistakes and are dedicated to looking after the daily repetitive grind, freeing up the knowledge workforce for more creative and conceptual work.

The technology has been evolving for the last 15 years or so, says Launay, and was first developed to enable faster testing at scale. Using sophisticated AI machine learning capabilities, it became possible to teach bots what a human would do in front of a computer, by understanding what is happening on the screen and keyboard and with a mouse, so that it can replicate those tasks or workflows on demand and at scale.

Repetition is an important element to make the technology worthwhile, as any written investment is based on volume or risk. There is little point in installing the technology to save 10 minutes a week, but when it comes to hundreds of hours across an organisation, the savings are considerable. Plus, it adds a real ability to attract and retain talent.

Australia playing catch-up

Launay references Japan as one of the leaders in the fields of software robots. Japan has been forced into innovating due to its well-documented ageing workforce problem. With such large numbers heading towards retirement, organisations “suddenly found they had no one to do the job,” says Launay. “So, they’ve embraced software robot technology because they had no choice.”

In Australia, there has long been an acceptance that the ‘human glue’ is simply part of doing business, but COVID-19 has had a surprising impact. “Facing your computer all day, people are starting to realise that their job is often very mundane and repetitive. So, job satisfaction is being questioned and people are getting tired.” This is where software robots can help, but Australians have traditionally been reluctant to utilise the technology due to the perception that it threatens jobs. The opposite is true, says Launay. “Software robots are here to augment employees and provide the time to do more meaningful and fulfilling activities.

“In fact, jobs without repetitive and mundane tasks are more engaging, more human,” he adds. “Over time, that technology will help us as a society work less for the same salary. That’s the holy grail.”

Cost savings

Launay says it’s difficult to quantify the money a company is saving today with software robots, both because it depends on how much ‘human glue’ there is in an organisation, but also because organisations are naturally protective when it comes to disclosing the levels of improvement they have experienced since they started using software robots in such a competitive environment. Definiti does, however, always help its clients achieve an ROI within three to six months.

“With the impact of the pandemic, organisations are now looking to do more with less,” says Launay. “It turns out that the timing is perfect to embrace a new chapter in the industrial revolution – digital co-workers, a software robots solution that creates time and value like never before.”