Robotics to support growth

Here at Staria we have already successfully eased the administrative and manual processes of our customers by developing robots to replace repetitive manual tasks that are time consuming. While the robots are working hard in our client’s systems, we also want to offer advanced services within our own company and with this to enhance our services even more with companies who use our financial services and the overall service package. We invest heavily in automating processes inside our own company. Dozens of robots are already assisting Staria’s financial team and we are constantly developing more as we speak. With the help of robotics, we can minimize human error such as, typing errors and organic procedures. As manual labor reduces we can shift our focus to supporting our client’s businesses and our role as consultants.

The inspiring journey of turning an idea into a virtual assistant

A few years back we started out with the idea of being the forerunners in utilizing Robotics Process Automation in our financial administrative processes. We started mapping the processes in which robotics would be the most useful and we set realistic goals in achieving them. The finance teams were a bit skeptical about future improvements. “Could it truly be possible, that we do not have to manually post purchase invoices in the future? Or record salaries manually for bookkeeping”. How is it possible for a robot to be able to document depreciation?

Each team were set with a suitable objective. We started working on the robots one team at a time with tight co-operation together with RPA professionals and among the teams. Now, nearly a year has passed since we started the project and robots are assisting teams in different processes. The doubt we had at the beginning is long gone by now and all that remains is coherent co-operation between humans and artificial intelligence. Robots are designed to assist variety of teams in different stages of manual labor which is customized in the desired needs of the teams. The idea has become functional reality! We have had the chance to witness how great the benefits can be when companies are utilizing RPA.

What can robots do and what are the concrete benefits?

Staria’s finance team robots facilitate multiple different accounting tasks. For instance, the robots make postings of e-invoices and handle customer’s payroll files along with salary bookings in the accounting system. The robots also create tax payments, depreciations and reconciliations of personal ledgers among other things. Each finance team has its own assigned robot owner who plans and executes robotics projects with an RPA specialist. The robot owners also guide other teammates and helps with projects related to robotics. The robot owners are not professionals in the field of software but act as finance officers. They are all connected by genuine interest of the topic and development of work tasks in their field.

Staria’s finance teams have gained concrete benefits for daily tasks by utilizing robotics. According to robot owner Kaisu Ahonen, her team’s daily working hours have been saved by dozens of minutes weekly per customer with the assistance of robotics in posting purchase invoices. The immense amount of working hours that we are able to save if each employee responds weekly to dozens of clients purchase ledger documentation is tremendous. “The customer’s way of documenting becomes more unified and the human typing errors disappeared when we added robotics into the equation”, Ahonen says. She uses a short amount of her time each week to guide the robot and for development work. In the beginning more resources were needed when Ahonen was developing robots together with the RPA department.

In the robot owner Sakari Vanha-Similä’s team, robots assist with different processes in accounting and with ledger. Vanha-Similä tells, that after the early phases of the robotics development project the only time spent on the robot is when an update is required. 14 robots are currently used in Vanha-Similä’s team. “Robots have freed time for other work tasks and minimized typing errors that occur during manual work stages. The robot does not get tired and it’s not bound to any specific working hours”, Vanha-Similä states. “The robot operates exactly the way it has been programmed to and you do not have to expect any surprises. However, some tasks can be too complex even for humans so adopting a robot in such tasks might not be the best solution” Vanha-Similä continues.
RPA specialist at Staria

The utilization of advanced robotics is possible because we currently have a team of 7 professionals working at Staria whose working days consist of developing robots for the benefit of our customers. We want to be forerunners in the robotics department in the future and to offer our partners the best service possible by exploiting modern technology.

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