Processes are the engine that drives the business. And fine-tuning that engine means improving the business, either to increase it or to make it more efficient. Evolution is a constant in the history of mankind and technology has been its eternal ally. Today, Artificial Intelligence is the game-changer.

A TECHNOLOGY TO CHANGE EVERYTHING

Processes are based on documents, since information resides in them, but how to convert these documents into valuable data? Traditionally, in back offices and BPOs, teams of operators were formed to validate, classify or extract information to enter it manually into the system. More documents meant more operators, which meant more cost and more complexity in scaling.

But robotizing is not the same as automating: applying rules does not work in a real world full of exceptions. This is where Artificial Intelligence shines and Serimag has been implementing the TAAD system in demanding environments for 10 years. Based on in-depth training, it analyzes the documents and finds the necessary patterns that will help it to perform the tasks automatically when they are put into production. The same document that used to travel to an operator, now comes to an automated system with greater availability and ease of scalability.

TECHNOLOGY AND EXPERTISE

AI technologies within TAAD could be explained as neural networks, machine learning, computer vision or natural language processing. But the differential value of Serimag lies in the knowledge of its application in the business of companies. It is not only about applying technology, but also about understanding the process and the document in order to know how to choose the best technique for each case.

Being a process automation provider for CaixaBank, Santander or BBVA is an indicator of the levels of excellence achieved. During 2020, more than 400 million pages were processed (more than 1 million per day) obtaining a 50% reduction in costs and an 80% improvement in SLAs. In addition to the inherent better control of data and regulatory compliance.

ARAG, A SUCCESS STORY

The insurance sector is one of the most sensitive to documentary processes, such as on-boarding of claims, which require handling documents with the greatest possible agility to provide a quick response to customers and mediators in one of the most critical points of customer service. This was one of the reasons why ARAG, several years ago, decided to go for automation through Serimag’s services.

In ARAG’s operations there is a lot of interaction with the client and the documentation provided, therefore, the document is one of the critical elements to control and homogenize. A study of the process determined the key points to transform. First, by classifying the documents in a centralized mailbox to determine the branch to which they belong, and then extracting the necessary information from each document to feed the management systems.

The aim was not only to be more agile, but also to eliminate errors, and this technology, with AI in continuous learning, also makes it possible to anticipate operational incidents by detecting if a transaction contains incomplete or incorrect documents and then sending them back to the client requesting their correction.

For Guillermo Herrera, CIO of ARAG, “the implementation of this technology has meant a boost in the speed of response we have with our client”. He also assures that “maintaining these processes manually through operators would have been costly and susceptible to errors”. In this sense, the company has been innovating for years in this sector with different technologies and indicates that “joining these new technologies is a necessity, but the choice of supplier is crucial to ensure that the pilot is transformed into a productive process with the desired results”. Guillermo points out: “Serimag’s value lies not only in its constantly evolving AI and technical know-how, but also in its experience in terms of the business, flows and document processing that we require”.

“There were no major obstacles beyond what was already known in terms of the quality of the documentation received, but the TAAD technology helped to jump over these kinds of barriers” according to Toni Pagès, Head of IT Applications at ARAG. “The initial objectives were met and we are working to see new applications of this technology in other areas, within our continuous improvement process” comments Guillermo Herrera.

Finally, Guillermo Herrera comments that “AI will continue to evolve, making new leaps linked to the logical and physical evolution of the systems that support them, and the constant learning of these, but one must be prudent in the applications, and most importantly, never obviate the responsibility of controlling their application and execution in the business by the owners of the processes and data.”