Page 30 - GCN, June/July 2018

Statuscheck AUTOMATION
Agencies see big
upsides to RPA
Federal agencies are experimenting with robotic process automation, a technology that could save billions of dollars
BIY MATT LEONARD
n a recent “race the bot” competi- tion at the Defense Information Systems Agency, officials gave a
bot and an employee 15 minutes to pull supporting documentation for an audit request. The employee was able to pull two items; the bot pulled 150.
The results “spoke volumes,” said Bar- bara Crawford, chief of DISA’s Account- ing Operations and Compliance Division, at an event hosted by UiPath, a company that develops robotic process automation technology.
DISA began piloting four RPA applica- tions in 2017 and went into full produc- tion with one bot just a few weeks ago. DISA’s first bot is being used to gather in- formation and financial data required to present an “accurate and reliable” finan- cial picture of the agency, Crawford said. The information is needed to support financial decisions and a current compli- ance audit.
Moving the data-gathering responsi- bilities to the bot will allow employees to conduct more analytical activities, she added.
At the same event, Chris Huff, public- sector robotics leader at Deloitte Consult- ing, said 21 federal agencies are using the technology.
“I’ve been working with technology in the public sector for 25 years, and I’ve never seen the inbound interest, the ex- citement, around a truly transformational
technology,” said Jonathan Padgett, vice president of UiPath’s U.S. Public Sector. “I can’t think of a sector that can better ben- efit from a new technology like RPA than the public sector.”
A 2017 report from Deloitte’s Center for Government Insights estimates that a significant investment in RPA could save federal agencies $41.1 billion in five to seven years. However, Forrester analyst Craig Le Clair told GCN that the govern- ment is not adopting RPA as quickly as the technology, financial services and insur- ance sectors.
Nevertheless, some federal agencies are leading the way. The U.S. Postal Ser- vice has taken RPA from the pilot phase to full implementation and even created an organizational chart for a team that will oversee the technology’s implementation.
USPS launched its first bot in January; it automates the process of supplying miss- ing information on package weights to help determine shipping costs.
Vice President and Controller Maura McDevitt said USPS plans to launch a sec- ond bot for human resources “probably within the next 30 days” and a third bot for payroll, which will take another three months to complete.
The General Services Administration is also testing RPA, said Jeff Lau, acting regional commissioner for the Northeast and Caribbean region of GSA’s Federal Ac- quisition Service. In less than 10 seconds, the software was able to accomplish a task that took a human worker 15 minutes, he added.
Experts noted that when a bot takes over mundane tasks, it frees employees to focus on more meaningful activities, such as industry partnerships, customer engagement and training. •
GCN.com
30 GCN JUNE/JULY 2018 • GCN.COM
GCN covers RPA, machine learning and other emerging technologies on a daily basis at GCN.com. For more on machine learning, go to GCN.com/AI.
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