Automation for the Intelligent Enterprise - ey.com · EY is a global leader in assurance, tax,...

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Automation for the Intelligent Enterprise Robotic Process Automation's role in today's tax department Sharda Cherwoo

Transcript of Automation for the Intelligent Enterprise - ey.com · EY is a global leader in assurance, tax,...

Automation for the Intelligent Enterprise

Robotic Process Automation's role

in today's tax department

Sharda Cherwoo

Page 2

Disclaimer

► This presentation is provided solely for the purpose of enhancing knowledge on tax matters.

► It does not provide tax advice to any taxpayer because it does not take into account any specific taxpayer’s

► facts and circumstances. These slides are for educational purposes only and are not intended, and should

► not be relied upon, as accounting advice.

► This presentation is © 2017 EYGM Limited. All Rights Reserved.

EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services. The insights and quality services we deliver help build trust

and confidence in the capital markets and in economies the world over. We develop outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our

promises to all of our stakeholders. In so doing we play a critical role in building a better working world for our people, for our clients and

for our communities.

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms, of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which

is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients. For

more information about our organization, please visit ey.com.

Ernst & Young LLP is a client-serving member firm of Ernst & Young Global Limited operating in the US.

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RPA for Finance

…What if it meant

25% to 40%+ sustainable

cost savings?

…AND improved

accuracy?

Robotic

Process Automation1 Overview of RPA

• What is Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?

• RPA reinventing productivity

• A quick demo

2 Tax hotspots for RPA

3 EY’s RPA experience and lessons learned

4 How to get started

5 Open discussion

Contents

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1. Overview of RPA

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Disrupt or be disrupted?Headlines capturing the attention of the C-Suite

30%–40%of existing business process

services are likely to be impacted

by RPA

Gartner

Cost reduction of

35%–65% for onshore

operations and 10%-30% for

offshore operations

Institute for Robotic Process Automation

RPA is estimated to lead to

30%–35% reduction in

entry-level roles and increase mid-

level roles

Everest Group

Estimated that 85% of a typical

firm’s 900+ processes can be

automated; 110m to 140m FTE

capacity could be released by

2025

McKinsey & Company

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“We are going to move from people to things," explained Jane Fraser, CEO of Citigroup's Latin America

business”…We are expecting 500 billion objects…connected to the internet…automation will hollow out middle and

working class jobs…Technology is replacing these jobs."

Source: http://fortune.com/2016/10/17/human-workforce-ai/ /

Source: https://hbr.org/2017/02/25-percent-of-ceos-time-is-spent-on-tasks-machines-could-do

Source: http://fortune.com/2016/10/17/human-workforce-ai/ / Source: https://thenextweb.com/artificial-intelligence/2017/01/06/japanese-firm-ai-artificial-intelligence/

Automation: Challenging the nature of work, and the future of employment

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RPA is being focused primarily on back office operations, shared services and bringing outsourced work back in-house

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/cfo/2015/05/05/the-new-bookkeeper-is-a-robot/

“A computer “robot”—basically software—automates these

tasks…Robots are taking over corporate finance

departments, performing work that often required whole

teams of people.”

Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/cfo/2015/05/05/the-new-bookkeeper-is-a-robot/

“Demand for RPA tools is growing quickly, at about 20

percent to 30 percent each quarter, according to Gartner.”

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Pattern-based machine learningStatisticalOptimized process

through automation

Improved workflow

Cognitive intelligence(CI)

Semi-cognitive

Robotic Process Automation

Structured data interaction

Incre

men

tal

valu

e

Mimics human actions

Augments human intelligence

Mimics human intelligence

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

RPA is the application of software “robots”, not physical robots, that mimics human action and connects multiple

systems through automation without changing the existing IT landscape

What is Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?

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Low riskNon-invasive

technologyOverlaid on existing systems and

integrated with existing data

minimizing disruption to IT strategy

and architecture. RPA technology

can begin with simple rules based

tasks and scale to more

sophisticated algorithms and

machine-learning functions as the

organization matures.

ConsistencyIdentical processes and tasks,

eliminating output variations

AccuracyDouble digit reductions in error

rates

Cost savings

Business led transformation under IT governanceWhat are the benefits of RPA?

ReliabilityNo sick days, services

are provided 365 days a year

Audit trailFully maintained logs essential for

compliance

ScalabilityInstant ramp up and down to

match demand peaks and

troughs

RetentionShifts human effort toward more

stimulating tasks

ProductivityFreed up human resources for

higher value-added tasks.

Right shoringGeographical independence

reduces need to offshore jobs

while still delivering cost savings

Cross-industryAcross industries, since it follows

procedures in use

ROITypical RPA projects include

multiple functional “pilots” but the

program is completed in 9 to12

months with an ROI < 1 year

Ranging from

20-60% of baseline

FTE cost

RPA often “fills the gaps”

between existing systems

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RPA survey: Companies are focusing on quality, predictability and speed as key components of intelligent automation

What do you believe to be the most important components of the value proposition for Robotic

Process Automation? (Choose Top 3)

3%

18%

21%

24%

29%

32%

35%

38%

50%

65%

Gaining a competitive advantage in my industry

Increasing control/visibility of end-to-end processes

Eliminating staff positions

Enabling us to move business-outcomes vs. FTE…

Increasing the standardization of processes

Creating more reliable data sets for analytics

Reducing cost on the continual basis, beyond the…

Freeing up staff to move to different projects

Speeding up the time to complete the process

Driving more predictability and higher quality in the…

Source HfS survey of 800 C suite executives 2015

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The value proposition: ~10X ROI coupled with ~50X less difficult to implement

Key: Relative ROI %, Relative difficulty/time to

implement

Robotics

Task specificity

Frequency of

tasks

ERP, CRM

BPMS

1X

50X

2X

10X

10X

1X

low

low

high

high

Hardest, Consuming

Big, Risky

Scalable, Fast

Illustrative automation horizon

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Robotic process automation (RPA)

A software solution that runs unattended, working like a virtual employee with legacy applications performing repetitive tasks reliably at the User Interface level

Current workforce

Taking the robot out of the human allows your employees to focus on driving growth in the top line, reducing costs, and focusing on value added activities

Systems upgrades/rollouts

Analyzing data

Tax planning/issue resolution

Completion of auditable activity logs

Entering data into a system

Composing and sending emails

Rules-based processing and decision

making

Comparing data sets

Reading, copying, aggregating data

Automation of clicks, data entry

Develop customer relationships

Landed cost reductions

Management decisions

Interaction with the business units

5

Strategy

Managing exceptions

Bot management

Reinventing productivity: Taking the robot out of the human

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2. Tax hotspots for RPA

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With robotic automation, the virtual software bot has authorized access

rights to perform the activities undertaken by a human, by moving through

and across the relevant applications.

Process characteristics to consider for RPA

Activities typically performed by RPA

Multiple tasks to perform the

process

High manual data entry

Multiple systems to perform a task

High, repetitive transaction

volume

Data entry and validation

User interface navigation

Automated formatting

Copy/paste operations

Login/logout of applications/emailing

Bot Bot Bot

XML and

e-file return

Populate

returns

and do

cross

checks

Consolidate reports,

supporting

worksheets and

reconcileEmail

Process characteristics to consider for tax

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efiling

Automation

hot spots

1

2

3

4

6

7

8

9

10

5

High volume Repetitive Timing

Extracting information from systems

Automation hotspots for Business Tax Compliance Common areas where bots help to drive value

Formatting and work paper creation

Data validations and roll-

forwards

Inputting data into tax systems

and forms

Generating reports

Saving work papers and tax returns

Mailing and printing

Disclosures and attachments

Reconciliations

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Case study: tax provision reporting

Link to video

HumanRobot

Log-into

ONESOURCE tax

provision application

Combine and format

reports into a single Excel

provision workbook

Review provision

workbook

Generate tax provision

reports from OTP

Notify user via email

once workbook is posted

to document

repository and ready for

review

The challenge

► Numerous tax provision reports

generated from ONESOURCE Tax

Provision (OTP) are used by the tax

departments during the period close

cycle.

► Data frequently changes, so the

reports must be re-run. Delay in

getting the reports to the department

has adverse effect on meeting the

critical close cycle deadline.

What we did

► Used Blue Prism RPA tool to

generate tax provision reports from

ONESOURCE Tax Provision.

► The key steps below:

Why automation

► During critical quarterly and annual

close periods, tax professionals

constantly need to run and format

reports during the review of the

provision, interim provision and

estimated payment data.

► This is time-consuming and the

reports are prone to errors, if they are

done manually.

Outcome

► Significant time savings, increased

speed, accuracy and efficiency (less

manual keying of data)

► Teams spent more time on review

and less time on preparation (better

leverage of knowledge worker skills)

► Reduced labor cost

► Reduced human errors

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3. EY’s RPA experience & lessons learned

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EY has the experience to reinvent productivityOur 18 month RPA journey

► Implemented 160+ bots in 18 months

► Blue Prism & Automation Anywhere , RPA

tools

► 100,000+ annual tax filings

► Applied RPA to over 200 processes, 14

practices

► RPA has been a catalyst for process improvement

– 100+ process improvements

► Sustained business impact – driving value for

our clients and our people24/7

Quality: Significant increase in accuracy with

on-time delivery

Agility: Increased capacity to handle high

transaction volume

Compliance: Fully maintained audit trail for

compliance; enhanced controls and tracking

Talent retention: More intellectually

challenging work, leveraging potential of people

Value and insights: Improved accuracy,

responsiveness and on-time delivery while

gaining deeper insights into processes

Flexibility and reliability: Automated solution;

24/7 operations

Reinventing productivity… with scale in

mind

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Top 10 lessons learned during our RPA experiences

1 Not considering RPA as business-led, as

opposed to IT-led 2Not having RPA business case, postponing

planning until after proof-of-concepts (POCs) or

pilots

3 Underestimating what happens after processes

have been automated 4Treating robotics as a series of independent,

unrelated automation actions vs. an end-to-end a

comprehensive change management program

5 Targeting RPA at the wrong processes 6 Applying traditional delivery methodologies (not

agile)

7 Automating too much of a process and not

optimizing for RPA 8 Forgetting about IT infrastructure

9 Assuming RPA is all that is needed to achieve

great ROI 10 Assuming skills needed for a PoC are good

enough for production automation

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4. How to get started

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1. Business engagement

2. Business readiness

3. Business adoption

4. Rapid and sustainable benefits

realization

Visioning

Leadership alignment Stakeholder engagement

Change impact

and readiness

assessments

Training & performance

supportPerformance

monitoringImplementation

Business case

Current state

assessment

Organization and talent

realignment

How will RPA

enables our sub-

service line to

achieve Vision

2020 and our long

term business

strategy?

How do we prioritize by

modelling out the practices

and processes in scope for

RPA?

What will be our key

success metrics –

cost savings,

efficiency, improved

client service,

compliance so that

we can

communicate them

to our people?

Have we identified

leaders that need

to be aligned and

are they aligned

on the vision ?

Defined their

roles?

What stakeholder

groups do we need to

engage and in what

sequence to manage

the changes triggered

by RPA?

How will RPA impact roles and

responsibilities? Career

paths? What are there internal

mobility options that should be

articulated to our stakeholder

groups?

Do we need to realign the

organization, roles and

responsibilities for maximum

value from RPA?

What training and support

do our people need to be

successful?

How do we monitor performance

and embed IA goals in

performance management to

ensure value?

How do we implement and

communicate RPA successes

to drive support?

A four prong approach to deliver sustainable value through intelligent automation

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5. Open discussion

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EY Thought Leadership

A Digital Optimist’s Guide to Aligning People, Robots and Transformative Processes

“With AI programs doing more of the what, our professionals can focus on the why—getting us to the critical components of a solution much faster”

How to Win Friends and Influence Robots

“Robots don’t kill jobs, they free up talent human beings to focus on higher-value work.”

Tech fashion update: Robotic Process Automation is “the new black”

“RPA is the tip of a large iceberg of change; ironically, process automation teaches us that technology evolution itself is a process.”

Disrupt or Be Disrupted: 3 Important Lessons On Prevailing in Times of Great Change

“Never get complacent, consider convergent business strategies to be more agile and foster a culture of innovation…”

Effectively Incorporating AI in Professional Services: Path to First Mover Status

“To understand AI, think what it takes to be a thoughtful, analytical and decisive human.”

RPA: The quest to free-up our professionals for more challenging and rewarding work

“Drone work is an innovation killer. My job is to inspire creativity and liberate entrepreneurism.”

Embracing Automation for the Potential It Unleashes

“New roles are evolving that require ‘upskilling’ and re-training to meet new expectations…we see a transition toward the skills of tomorrow.”

Home hunting for your collaborative robots: Farm, cloud or back-office closet?

“RPA is probably the best example of how RPA takes the robot out of the human.”

EY | Assurance | Tax | Transactions | Advisory

About EY

EY is a global leader in assurance, tax, transaction and

advisory services. The insights and quality services we

deliver help build trust and confidence in the capital

markets and in economies the world over. We develop

outstanding leaders who team to deliver on our

promises to all of our stakeholders. In so doing, we play

a critical role in building a better working world for our

people, for our clients and for our communities.

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to

one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young

Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity.

Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by

guarantee, does not provide services to clients. For more

information about our organization, please visit ey.com.

Ernst & Young LLP is a client-serving member firm of

Ernst & Young Global Limited operating in the US.

© 2017 Ernst & Young LLP.

All Rights Reserved.

1701-2156777

ED None

This material has been prepared for general informational purposes

only and is not intended to be relied upon as accounting, tax or other

professional advice. Please refer to your advisors for specific advice.

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