Replace Repetitive Processes and Tasks with MuleSoft RPA

Sep 16, 2022

Replace Repetitive Processes and Tasks with MuleSoft RPA

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00:14:49

Replace Repetitive Processes and Tasks with MuleSoft RPA

Episode Notes/Resources:

On this episode of “Salesforce Simplified,” we’ve invited MuleSoft Account Executive, Wes Disher, to talk about an exciting new offering at MuleSoft, Robotic Process Automation (RPA).

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Info:
https://bit.ly/3T69A43
https://bit.ly/3Cijcmw

MuleSoft:
https://www.mulesoft.com/

AdVic/MuleSoft Partner:
https://bit.ly/2VZV9SZ

Transcription:

Speaker 1
This is Salesforce Simplified, the podcast from Ad Victoriam Solutions. Here’s your host, Mike Boyle.

Mike Boyle:
Well, good day, everyone. On this episode of Salesforce Simplified, we have invited MuleSoft account executive Wes Disher to talk about an exciting new offering at MuleSoft called robotic process automation, or RPA, for short. Hello, Wes. Thank you for joining us today. How are you?

Wes Disher:
Thanks for having me, Mike. I’m looking forward to talking automation today with you.

Mike Boyle:
Tell us a little bit before we get into questions about things that you do there at MuleSoft.

Wes Disher:
Absolutely. Like you mentioned, I’m an account executive here in Atlanta for MuleSoft. I’ve been working here for about four-and-a-half years now. My whole role is centered around customer success and ensuring that our technologies align with our customers’ business outcomes.

Mike Boyle:
Wonderful. You’re right there in our backyard in Atlanta. Very cool. What exactly is robotic process automation? Tell us what it is and how it works.

Wes Disher:
Robotic process automation is a software technology that combines robotics and automation to perform repetitive tasks. RPA is a method for business process automation that uses an application or bot that replicates an employee’s desktop actions by interacting with an interface in the same way that a human traditionally would.

Mike Boyle:
What are some of the common use cases for RPA?

Wes Disher:
Some of the common use cases for RPA, especially what we’re seeing in our space, it’s kind of two spectrums. It’s a simplified version of, “What are those manual tasks that we can essentially eliminate to focus on more important responsibilities for our clients?” And so, a lot of what we’re seeing is around manual data entry and manipulation. Think about manually entering data into Salesforce.

We’re seeing employee or partner onboarding use cases. Reporting an aggregation is another big one. And then, a lot of the other ones, when we get a little bit more verticalized … You’re going to start to see loans and claims and appeals processes for more of our services space and our financial services. There’s a wide variety of use cases that you can leverage RPA for. It’s just truly understanding, what’s the right fit and how do we align those processes together?

Mike Boyle:
What are some of the benefits associated with RPA?

Wes Disher:
That’s a great question. I think there’s really four main benefits that we’ve identified here at MuleSoft. The first one is essentially reducing the overall cost and improving that customer and employee experience. And so, how can we automate the processes for the customer? Shorten their time manually entering a claims process or a loan process. And then, also, taking that task and not putting that on as the responsibility of those agents or those customer success reps and streamlining it.

It’s really an efficiency and a cost perspective. But also, when we start to think about legacy applications. How do we simplify that data extraction and that data entry across multiple applications? That’s really another exceptional benefit when we’re talking about RPA. Because overall, what we’re truly trying to do is drive customer and employee experiences to improve those processes by making them more accurate. Also, keeping it within compliance of the organization.

Mike Boyle:
Well, conversely, what challenges are associated with RPA?

Wes Disher:
Since we released our automation package, we are having a lot of conversations with not only existing RPA users, but companies that haven’t yet embarked on their RPA journey. When we actually look at RPA as a standalone product, more often than not, you’re going to find that it lacks intelligent capabilities.

RPA as a standalone technology can only perform tasks that it can copy from a script. And it lacks the ability to learn and improve that script it’s performing. It’s an ongoing evolution of how you’re using RPA. One of those challenges, when it becomes stagnant and processes change, is not adopting with those.

And then, on the other hand, we’re also looking at project complexity. When you think about transformative RPA projects, they tend to be very complex and require a time commitment to see the return on the investment. And so, as a result, some RPA projects fail before the value is even realized. It’s extremely important to align what is the value that you’re trying to extract out of the RPA processes, how is that going to impact your business, and make sure everybody’s on the same page.

Mike Boyle:
I don’t want to get real techie here, but how do RPA and API-led connectivity relate?

Wes Disher:
That’s where it gets really exciting, Mike. When people think about RPA and APIs, they traditionally think that they’re competing against each other. The way that we view it here at MuleSoft is it’s truly complimentary. It’s all centered around the customer and the employee experience. There are situations where API-led is extremely collaborative with the RPA processes.

When we think about MuleSoft RPA, we want to enable that composable business by replacing repetitive tasks with bots that can intelligently process documents, enter data, or act on the user’s behalf. All without code. That end-to-end business automation will ultimately help our customers drive innovation and collaboration, streamline processes, and increase efficiency and speed, which is what they’re looking for.

We view it as extremely complimentary. Based on what we’re able to provide our customers in a single solution, there’s a ton of value of not only getting rid of these manual tasks, but also exposing that backend data that is crucial for the business for that RPA bot to capture. It really is complimentary in our minds. The whole goal for our customers is to help them realize that composable business.

Mike Boyle:
Now, Wes, I understand that RPA seamlessly integrates with MuleSoft’s Anypoint Platform and MuleSoft Composer. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Wes Disher:
The way we’ve actually built our RPA solution was through an acquisition of Servicetrace just about two years ago. Our product team has really put a massive emphasis on bringing these three technologies together. The best news and the best part about it is it’s all built on the Anypoint Platform. What you’re building and what you’re creating in RPA or Composer allows you to be able to reuse that going forward.

And it’s all being powered by the backend Anypoint Platform, which has been a tried and true technology over the last 20 years for our customers. It truly is an automation package that allows our customers to empower every one of their engine visuals. Whether they’re a developer or a business admin or in finance, it truly is complimentary. We’re seeing a lot of success in the marketplace because of it.

Mike Boyle:
I wanted to focus just a little bit on a few industries and how an RPA solution could benefit them. There’s four of them that I just wanted you to briefly cover with me. Financial services. What would be the benefits to that industry?

Wes Disher:
I think the main thing that we’re seeing is really streamlining your compliance, your customer service, your reporting processes, while reducing risk and exposure of your business. Making it easier to access and update data across systems, documents, databases and more. Whether it’s a claims process or a banking form, those are areas that we can automate a lot of those repetitive tasks.

To allow the folks, whether it’s in the field or digital in their call centers, to have a fully automated document process without having to manually enter all this data into multiple systems. We’re seeing that as a huge benefit in the financial services space.

Mike Boyle:
I’m actually counting these as two. Healthcare and life sciences. What benefits will those industries see?

Wes Disher:
You have the insurers, and then you also have the providers. From a healthcare and life sciences standpoint, what we’re really seeing as a benefit is really simplifying the process for both those insurers and the providers. With streamlined claim processing and chart management and improving the patient experience with automated reminders.

You think about scheduling for a patient that’s coming into a doctor’s office. You’re having to go in and actually write down every single one of what medications you’re taking, your address, name, fields. And so, being able to scrape that data, automate that into the provider’s systems, and then be able to share that with the insurers.

I know you mentioned it’s kind of two different … But at the same time, those use cases are acting as a cross-functional benefit for our customers. It’s really about, “How do we make a more simplified and easier patient experience for both the insurers and the provider side?”

Mike Boyle:
The other industry I just wanted you to briefly talk about the benefits of RPA. Manufacturing.

Wes Disher:
Manufacturing is in incredible space for RPA. Think about as manufacturing’s grown, as digital technologies have been adopted. With that comes a lot of legacy systems.

The whole goal and some of the benefits that we’re looking to drive for our manufacturing clients is really increasing the efficiency of your ERP processes and the management of your bill of materials. Through automatic charge alerts, realtime analytics, and audit-ready reports.

Mike Boyle:
Wes, one of the big topics in tech across the board these days has to do with customer and employee experiences. Talk about how RPA creates better customer and employee experiences.

Wes Disher:
I’ll start with the employee experience. Because at the end of the day, the customer’s always at the center. But it’s really those employees that are driving that customer experience. Whether through digital technologies or over the phone providing that customer service. Really, how it creates a better employee experience is really seamlessly automating work across different docs, images, modern and legacy applications.

Instead of having to go in and scrape emails all day and enter them into the backend systems, RPA really enables that bot to go in and scrape that data, formulate it in a seamless manner, and take away some of those manual repetitive tasks that also have risk of compliance issues. And so, what we’re really seeing is that seamless, automated workflow.

And then, I’d also say that from a user standpoint. Whether you’re creating RPA processes or you’re leveraging what’s already been built … We’re really seeing, from an employee standpoint, you realize faster across your business. Because within our platform and within RPA, we’re really doing this through clicks, not code. You don’t have to have a robust developer background or engineering background to deliver these experiences. Any employee in the business is enabled to be able to create these automations.

And then, I ultimately think about, “What does the customer care about most?” That’s a great customer experience, and also that their data is secured. And so, by combining not only the RPA functions here at MuleSoft, we’re also putting the security in mind through our Anypoint platform. Which is a very powerful thing, when you’re talking about that customer and how we can keep their data safe.

Mike Boyle:
Can you talk a little bit about the training that MuleSoft offers for RPA?

Wes Disher:
This is one of my favorite things about being at MuleSoft. In general, our approach as a whole is to enable our customers to adopt our technologies. Adoption is huge for us. When getting started, we always encourage … Our customers are someone that’s interested in looking at one of our solutions like RPA. One of the great places that I always point people to is our training.mulesoft.com website.

You have a full repository of RPA trainings, Trailheads, and you even get access to the MuleSoft RPA community groups. I think that’s a really important piece about the training is you have self-service capabilities to go out there and enable yourself on RPA. But our go-to market motion and how we service our customers is always going to be hands-on. You also have your customer success teams who are going to be there to guide our customers in their RPA journey.

Mike Boyle:
Wes, the last question I have for you today is about automation strategy. In general, what would you say are the key components that companies need to consider to build a successful automation strategy?

Wes Disher:
That’s a great question. I truly believe as companies continue to adopt digital platforms, it’s extremely important to have top-down alignment on these strategic initiatives that you’re looking to enable for not only the company, but also deliver to your customers, and putting the customers at the center of everything that you do. That’s truly where MuleSoft is allowing these organizations and empowering them to really automate everything and empower everyone on a single platform.

When I think about what it truly takes to build an automation strategy, I always think about thinking it through the lens of the customer’s eyes. And then, how can we make the employee experience that much easier? By allowing them to focus on business-critical initiatives versus manual tasks that are slowing them down for delivering for the business. It truly is that alignment between not only the technology, but the process, and then the enablement that comes with adopting a true automation strategy.

Mike Boyle:
Wes, I want to thank you for filling us in on all the exciting details about robotic process automation from MuleSoft. RPA. I know there’s going to be some updates and enhancements to RPA down the road, so you’ll just have to come back and fill us in when you have the time. Okay?

Wes Disher:
Sounds good, Mike. Really appreciate you having me.

Mike Boyle:
For our audience, if you’d like to learn a little bit more about RPA, I’m going to put tons of links in this show’s episode notes to help you with that. Be looking for that. I’m Mike Boyle from AdVic. Thank you again for joining us for our latest Salesforce Simplified podcast. Our next episode is just around the corner.

Speaker 1:
You’ve been listening to Salesforce Simplified, the podcast from Ad Victoriam Solutions.