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Case study

The challenge

Our client, a large British general insurance company, was impacted by growing operational costs and competition, which prompted the decision to automate processes to modernize operations and lower costs. The client’s prior IT supplier faced challenges setting up and deploying at scale a new robotic process automation (RPA) effort. The automation infrastructure was also out of date and created approximately 30+ incidents per day related to bots not performing. In addition, the older software limited the staff’s ability to make process automation improvements. This led to higher development costs, an opaque delivery model and a lack of trust with third-party suppliers. Goals of the engagement included reducing the average handling time (AHT) and increasing accuracy in processing third-party supplier invoice payments. Based on our capabilities and experience, Cognizant was chosen as the right solution provider to advance the client’s automation agenda.

Our approach

Cognizant began with an assessment of the legacy automations that were already planned for migration and analyzed new processes for automation. We conducted multiple workshops and roadshows with process owners to identify opportunities and presented these to the robotics team for discovery and validation. Working with key stakeholders and client teams, we helped the insurer move past its reliance on the previous supplier for RPA tech capabilities. The new technology platform now offers the latest RPA features and capabilities, a data visualization tool for reporting analytics and automated Task Capture for process discovery and mapping, based on cost and RPA capabilities.

We provided further exploration into how intelligent process automation can be used to continue optimizing processes and ran multiple proofs of concept on new technologies, including document understanding and process mining.  For analytics and reporting, we implemented custom management information and reporting analytics to provide insights into automation health and operations for both automation teams and business leaders. We also introduced the idea of a reusable component library, which has helped save up to 5% in product development for new automation projects.

Improving quality of service delivery by scaling automation

We helped the client reduce AHT to process invoice payments for third-party suppliers by 50%, down from one to two weeks to four to five days, with 99% accuracy. In the client’s quarterly QA audit, our automation workflows consistently return none-to-minimal faults in production. Now, more third parties are being represented by our client’s Legal services due to the ability to contact them faster for in-house counsel and this is boosting revenues.

Additionally, indemnity savings from the ability to pay bills on time allow for exact amounts to be paid and prevent other charges from third-party suppliers. Going forward, we are working with the client as its sole implementation partner for RPA and Desktop Automation for its Claims and Customer Servicing departments.

~£7.5M

generated in annual savings

Gained

operational bandwidth equal to ~260 FTEs, by implementing 70+ automations

Reduced

incidents from 30+ daily to one to two per month, by updating out-of-date automations