Rise of the Robots!
Tuesday June 3, 2014
Lee Coulter
SVP Ascension Health
CEO Ascension Health Shared Services
Lee COULTER
CEO Ascension Health Shared Services
Lee joined Ascension Health in September 2010 and is currently leading multi function
shared services for the Symphony transformation as CEO of the new Ministry Service Center
based in Indianapolis.
Lee Coulter is an internationally recognized expert and sought after speak in Shared Services, Information
Technology, Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and Business Process Transformation. Lee is an industry
analyst with HfS Research, a senior advisor with Frontier Strategy Group, and serves on the Global Steering
Team of the Shared Services and Outsourcing Network and the Global BPO/ITO Forum.
He has consulted and advised many of today’s largest companies in shared services, outsourcing, and
business process transformation. Lee has more than 24 years of experience in shared services. He spent 15
years as a commercial service provider with General Electric in healthcare and hospital services as well as IT
services. In the last 9 years, he has built and led multi-function shared services internally for companies such
as AON and Kraft.
Lee also has been deeply involved with the emerging market regions for more than 15 years having lived in
Asia and Latin America. Mr. Coulter holds a BS in Electronics Engineering from DeVry University and has
completed all course work for a BS in Electrical Engineering and a Master’s Degree in Biomedical Engineering
at California State University at Long Beach.
The next and perhaps final frontier of low cost labor:
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is here today and
here to stay. Today’s robots are far more than screenscraping click-trainers. RPA is advancing quickly as a
platform delivered service and being upgraded with
cognitive capabilities that will change service delivery
forever. RPA is creating new opportunities and
challenges for BPO providers and clients alike.
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Business Processing Robots
• What is Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?
• And what it is not
• What can they do?
• Yesterday
• Today
• No sleep. No food. Always on time
• In your basement and in the clouds
• Tell no secrets. Full disclosure
• Smarter every day
• Automating decisions
• Should you? Yes, fast
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What is RPA?
• Not a click-trainer
• Smart software platforms replace tasks previous done by humans
• Rules-based automation capable of accessing multiple systems, and
integrating multiple data sources
• Successively smarter process exception handling
• Fully auditable transaction record
• SME managed
• NOT defect elimination or workflow automation, however
• NOT an IT system
Platform management of smart, autonomous, rule-following
technology instances executing routine transactions, and making
data-based decisions that replace repetitive human task-based work
Yesterday and Today
• Used to be:
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PC based
Click training
Screen scraping
Single use
Either IT tool or super simple
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Object oriented. Reusable library
Multiple systems capable and interactive
Process exception capable
Platform based. Full Change Control
Fully auditable transaction history
Up to 90% less costly than offshore labor
• Today:
Work from Anywhere
• The power of a laptop
• Runs in VM computing environment
• Purchase SAS or instance based
• Remote control
• Team and fleet control
• In-house IT capacity not a limiter
Multiple sourcing options and cost models
Tell No Secrets and Full Disclosure
• Robust access controls and Change Management
• Any collectible data can be captured
• Great for PHI and PII that needs to stay in house
• Definable data capture
• Date, time, source data, system response data
• Individual, group, and fleet robot controls
• External audit capable – proven in highly regulated industries
Perfect for work with data humans shouldn’t see. Full
disclosure of every event in processing history
Smarter Every Day
• Exception processing automation
• Knowing when to call for human assistance
• Complex data-based decision capability
• Reusable object, process, and event library
• Neural network training
• Cognitive models and robotic decision making
Rapidly integrating leading edge research
Should You?
• Low barrier to entry. Get started. Learn quickly
• Will BPO lead? Or Buy side?
• RPA is “no-shore” sourcing
• Landmark BPO deals with industry leaders Blue Prism and IPSoft
• BPO might offer more than offshore
“Professor Clay Christensen explores this inability to
embrace a new era of technology in his pivotal research,
Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave. A cautionary tale
for the BPO market, Christensen points out that “the processes
and incentives that companies use to keep focused on their
main customers work so well that they blind those companies
to important new technologies in emerging markets.”
Alistair Bathgate – CEO BluePrism
Questions?