Solidaris selects the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software of Automation Anywhere with the help of long-standing partner IRIS Information Management Solutions (IRIS IMS). The objective? To accelerate its digital transformation by automating and simplifying its repetitive administrative tasks with low added value. Solidaris wants to automatically process one million cases by the end of 2023 thanks to RPA.
Solidaris is the Belgian group of socialist mutual insurance, supplementary insurance companies and associations. With more than 3 million members, it is the leading player in the mutual insurance sector in Wallonia.
As part of its digital transformation, Solidaris was facing several challenges:
- A technological challenge: a continuous quest to evolve and make optimal use of new technologies.
- A cultural challenge: keeping a balance between human interaction and the uprise of technologies.
- A strategic positioning challenge: the objective to offer new digitally native services.
- A challenge of new skills: the acquisition of skills and expertise in new (automation) technologies.
“We were looking for a partner in Belgium, nearby, with people who were available and who had skills that we didn’t have, and IRIS completely met our criteria.”
Solidaris realised that some of its repetitive administrative tasks could be simplified and automated, in order to increase efficiency and dedicate the capacity of knowledge workers to where a bigger difference could be made. Reference organisations, implementing similar solutions, acted as a good benchmark for this initiative. In addition, a pressure was felt from a decrease in the state budget for health care, requiring operational efficiencies to continue the delivery of quality services.
For this project, the group of mutualities wanted to choose a partner located in Belgium with good support and RPA skills. IRIS IMS had already contributed to the digitisation of Solidaris, by helping with the digitisation and online consultation of their documents. This in combination with the Automation Anywhere partnership and required RPA consultancy skills made IRIS IMS the ideal partner for Solidaris.
The project resulted in several solutions. In a first step, Automation Anywhere was installed on the entire infrastructure. The software provides functionality to create and manage robots. A robot is a program that reproduces the process normally performed by manual actions. It consists of a sequence of steps described by a human, then replicated by the program. Thanks to this, the robot executes, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, administrative tasks where human involvement would add little value. These tasks can be, for example, checking data or filling in forms. This allows processes to be optimized and more (automated) verification steps to be implemented.
In a second phase, a center of excellence was set up. The aim was to bring together in a single entity all the skills acquired in automation in order to become autonomous in the support and further implementation of bots.
The center of excellence has been active for two years now, and is bearing fruit, estimating a cost saving of €250.000 per year. Thanks to the creation of one or two new robots every quarter, Solidaris continues to automate processes and increases its return in the software investment. Since the implementation of RPA, several hundred thousands of cases have been processed, and Solidaris aims to process one million cases automatically by the end of 2023.
Where the solution is currently implemented in the departments related to affiliates (health care, compensation, insurance), Solidaris plans to extend to other departments facing the same problems. This includes accounting, HR, IT and call center departments.
“The relationship we have with IRIS goes way back. We realized that a partner who brings all technology solutions together, from document capture and content services to robotic process automation, is of great value to us. IRIS is polyvalent in terms of information management solutions, thereby selecting the best technology to create the most efficient and effective solution for us. In addition to this, IRIS is a solid partner in terms of consultancy skills.”
“Having a partner nearby that ensures excellent technology knowledge is a great asset in every project. Thanks to this, we have close communication lines and a trusted relationship. It really enables a team effort in deploying solutions like this.”
