Australian audit, tax and consulting firm RSM Australia is now over 100 years old. However, the company is keeping its eyes on the future with a move to implement automation and artificial intelligence technologies in recent years to improve the experience of its employees and customers.
Paul Joseph, chief digital officer at RSM Australia, tells TechRepublic how the company's implementation of UiPath has resulted in significant efficiency gains and cost savings. He is also engaging a multigenerational workforce in more fulfilling, less mundane jobs.
What problem is RSM Australia solving with automation?
RSM Australia's pursuit of automation began with a desire to create better experiences for more than 1,800 employees. The company wanted to give back time through smarter, more efficient work so employees could spend time doing more satisfying tasks and achieve a better work-life balance.
Town hall meetings with Gartner employees and workshops were held to shape the technology strategy.
“We took a company-wide approach to that innovation,” Joseph said. “Every member of the team, from interns to executives, had a say in shaping the strategy and it was about the technological evolution and the journey we were embarking on.”
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32% of the project work that emerged from their initial round of employee engagement workshops was robotic process automation. Joseph said RSM customers also expect the company to use the right technology platforms to maximize efficiency internally and provide better service.
Automation and AI that graduates expect
There are expectations among graduates that employers will be up to date with technology, Joseph said. Graduates who joined in February 2024 have been exposed to AI tools like ChatGPT for 14 months, while next year's cohort will have used AI for most of their career.
“They are coming into day one at RSM expecting a sophisticated level of technology adoption in the business, so they are not expected to perform mundane, repetitive tasks,” he said.
Which automation solution did RSM Australia choose?
RSM adopted a robotic process automation platform, but couldn't gain traction as quickly as it wanted, according to Joseph. This led the company to make the decision to “fail fast” and move to UiPath, which provides an AI and business automation platform for business transformation.
UiPath is used to automate a number of processes in the business. It's integrated into your API and your business, from infrastructure and document and content management systems to data collection through online forms. “The entire ecosystem is working together,” Joseph said.
What are some of the use cases for automation so far?
Automation has been applied to several use cases across RSM Australia's business.
Checking for conflicts during the customer onboarding process
Automation is now part of RSM's conflict checking process, an essential part of onboarding new clients. Automation can provide analytics and eliminate mundane procedural tasks in the process, as well as manage risk by having a dedicated process for customer onboarding.
Automated submission of customer communications to the ATO
The firm has improved, through automation, the filing of clients' tax returns and communications with the Australian Taxation Office. This has resulted in considerable time savings for its workforce, allowing them to apply their cognitive skills to the delivery of higher-level customer services.
A source of labor for time-consuming data enrichment
The company has been able to carry out projects using its “digital worker” as a source of labor. This includes a data enrichment project that, after being scheduled by an RPA engineer, ran 24/7 for several weeks while the engineer was on leave.
How has RSM Australia benefited from automation?
Employee adoption of automation was faster than expected across RSM's multigenerational workforce. Figures provided by RSM show that automation with UiPath has delivered a number of benefits, including efficiency gains, cost savings, job growth and employee satisfaction.
- RSM saved AU$350,000 (US$230,000) through increased efficiency in the first year.
- Savings increased to AUD $4.2 million (USD $2.8 million) in the second year of RSM's automation program, and the company is on track to achieve a total of AUD $6 million (USD $3.9 million) in savings in the current program year.
- In the last calendar quarter from January to March 2024, the company estimated that it had saved approximately 6,500 hours of work across the company, which was worth A$1 million to its bottom line ($661,000) when calculated using a “conservative office position.” rate.”
RSM has been able to offer graduates tools, skill sets and training tailored to new technologies in the workplace. For previous generations, intuitive automation has closed the gap by running back-end processes and giving them deeper data analytics and insights faster and easier.
What has helped RSM implement automation in the business?
Standardization and structure
RSM's enterprise document and content management systems, implemented a decade ago, provided the standardization needed to support RPA implementation. Supported coding of workflows by creating rules and eliminated potential complexities.
The application of Six Sigma
RSM mapped its processes before undertaking any coding for automation and applied Six Sigma methodologies on those processes to eliminate any deficiencies. This allowed RPA through UiPath to be applied to efficient processes and avoid coding inefficiencies.
Process design documentation.
Process design documentation, or PDD, is used in RPA in the solution design phase. RSM said the PDD was an important foundation for developers during the software design lifecycle, supporting their ability to leave and code the processes the company wanted to automate.
Measure and demonstrate success
The success of the automation implementation depended on being able to measure success to establish credibility early on in the business. Joseph said RSM knew what to measure and provided those measurements, allowing it to gain acceptance for downstream process automation.
How does RSM plan to capitalize on automation in the future?
RSM Australia believes the combination of automation and artificial intelligence will be “really powerful” in the future. With automation as the “brains” and AI as the “brains,” the company believes the two technologies could provide a multiplier effect of business benefits over time.
Employees will suggest new automation and artificial intelligence use cases
The company has initiated a citizen development program that allows employees to create innovative AI-powered tools that they can immediately apply to their roles. This puts RSM Australia on a continuous path of innovation driven by employees across the business and at all levels.
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Automation with AI will save time and provide insights
The company is currently working on using automation to perform the procedural part of ingesting document sets, which can consist of hundreds of documents, and using a custom AI model to extract meaningful information for its team . Joseph said he is already delivering “exciting” results.
RSM Australia can stay ahead of regulatory changes
RSM Australia hopes AI-powered automation will help it keep pace with, and even stay ahead of, emerging regulatory requirements facing Australian organisations, such as new mandatory environmental, social and governance standards and digital identity. .
