Robotic process automation has freed up 70% of the working hours spent on reporting .

Sirpa Jalola is no longer generating and saving monthly reports as it is a manual and tedious job. Soon she will also be partially outsourcing testing to her colleague, who will spend approximately 60% less time doing the work than it would take Jalola. Jalola’s colleague is a software robot that handles simple routine work on behalf of Jalola. Thus, she is able to concentrate on more meaningful work tasks and leave the boring jobs to the robot. 

Jalola works at Enfo where she does, for example, work related to the testing of various applications for Enfo’s client HSL. Also, approximately 300 individual reports are generated for the client every month. Because Enfo has in-house expertise in robotic process automation, the question arose whether a robot could perform the manual reporting tasks repeated in an identical manner month to month. 

“Utilizing robotic process automation is relatively straightforward,” Jalola explains. “In automating reporting work, I used software to record the various steps that are being completed in the reporting portal. Once the recording is complete, the robot can repeat the steps on behalf of the user.”

According to Jalola, the software is easy to use. “I have taken some studies in coding, but those skills are actually not needed for recording. In the process automation, my colleagues Marko Ikäheimo and Jere Tuppurainen assisted me in the initial stages because, for the purpose of further enhancing the automation, the robot was coded with background logic for controlling the work stages.”

“If necessary, I will regulate the robot’s work, for example, by programming it to add delays in various phases. The robot is so fast that the reporting portal cannot keep up with it!” Jalola chuckles. 

Robot frees up time for thinking

Previously, it took Jalola two working days each month to do the reporting. When the robot is up and running at full speed, up to 70% of this working time will be saved. Initially, the work of the robot requires some monitoring and you need to ensure that, for example, it does not remain stuck in some work phase. After this, all working hours saved can be used for more meaningful and productive work. 

“In the future, the goal is to make the robot operate according to a schedule, so that it would work, for example, during the night or at weekends. This will free up even more working time,” Jalola says. 

The next goal is to automate the testing work of public transport systems. Jalola has already made recordings of the test runs included in her work, and Tuppurainen has coded the intervention logic on the background to accelerate the use of the robot. Automation has not yet been put into practice with regard to testing, but the results of the test environment have been promising. The robot handles all the clicking required during test runs in the blink of an eye, and it appears that approximately 60% of the working time could be saved. 

“At times, there are error notifications, and human intervention is required. However, robotics speeds up the work immensely,” says Jalola. “This frees up my time now for tasks requiring thinking and planning; real brain work and not just clicking to move to the next stage. The client has also been really interested in process automation. They are interested in utilizing the robot for other tasks as well.”

“I am not afraid of being made redundant, and of the robot taking care of everything. I am now able to concentrate on more sensible tasks,” Jalola sums up. 

Do you want to free up some of your working hours for productive work? We will assist you in optimizing your processes and outsourcing your routine work to a robot. Robotic process automation (RPA) is here to assist you 24/7, every day of the year.