1.
STORIES
Scaling the benefits of
intelligent automation
Automating
Procurement Plus

2.
Copyright © 2022 Accenture. All rights reserved
Call for change
Long before the disruption of the pandemic,
Accenture recognized the need to transform the
way we operate and adopt the Human+Machine
mindset. We could see that the future is less about
managing transactions and tactical spending and
more about driving real value—value that impacts
the Accenture bottom line.
Having renamed our procurement organization
“Procurement Plus” to reflect everything we do beyond
procuring goods and services, we set about
reimagining our procurement function. Part of the
transformation excelled by making the most of
intelligent automation. Intelligent automations,
like robotic process automation (RPA), natural
language processing and virtual agents, can help
organizations improve efficiency and productivity. But to
be truly effective, intelligent automation needs to be
fundamental to the heart of how an organization
operates—and it needs to be effectively managed to
ensure continuous expansion of value delivered.
A secret formula
for success
Copyright © 2022 Accenture. All rights reserved

3.
Copyright © 2022 Accenture. All rights reserved
Call for change
It’s an approach that’s not without its
roadblocks. Many organizations have
applied pockets of automation but
failed to scale the benefits across the
enterprise. Whether due to a lack of
skilled talent or the absence of a
clear vision from the top, automation
investments can often proliferate,
without ever reaching their true
potential.
So, what is the secret formula to
achieve widescale intelligent
automation? We discovered that
what’s needed is to adopt an
enterprise-wide approach. This
involves a new way of working—
automating at scale.
By bringing together technology and
the best of human ingenuity,
Accenture has been able to solve and
anticipate some of our biggest
challenges—and future-proof our
procurement operations.
Today, we have introduced
automation to more than 30% of
our processes, reduced operational
costs by 25% over three years and
created a 10% increase in resource
capacity annually to further progress
our transformation journey.
“Effectively managed
intelligent automation has
enabled our business to
achieve significant
performance gains from
greater workforce agility,
predictive insights and
scalable solutions.”
DAVID SMITH
Senior Manager
Procurement Plus, Technology & Tools, Accenture

4.
Copyright © 2022 Accenture. All rights reserved
When tech meets human ingenuity
The initial stages included bold actions that quickly brought improved operational efficiency.
These actions included:
Creating enterprise-
wide bots
Eliminating existing silos
We knew individual groups were automating their
processes in pockets of the business. While our business
excellence teams and other process experts were helping
us reimagine multiple disparate processes (such as how
we handle contractors, payables, or buying), these efforts
were often uncoordinated and failed to keep ongoing
operations or scalability in mind.
Increasing visibility of our bots
We created an inventory of our bots and documented
their source or destination systems. This enhanced
visibility, testing and proactive code management has
enabled us to reduce or outright eliminate system
release-related bot downtime, reduce operational costs
and increase security, all while driving scalability.
Enabling performance management
Much like an organization nurtures employee
performance to ensure that people are achieving their
maximum potential, we have implemented automation
performance management for our bot workforce. For
high-performing bots, we look for ways to actively
promote them to other geographies or to address similar
use cases.
Accelerating our move to the cloud
While we already had plans to host our bots in the
cloud over time, the COVID-19 pandemic triggered the
acceleration of this transition to ensure they could be run
anywhere in the world with a secured internet connection
to support our remote working efforts. Not only did this
eliminate dependence on individuals, but also it fortified
our broader business continuity efforts.

5.
Copyright © 2022 Accenture. All rights reserved
When tech meets human ingenuity
By adding command and control capabilities to our
most critical automations, we can encourage
innovation while maintaining the standard of new
automations so that they are more suitable for
global adoption. When automation reaches a
certain threshold of use—whether that is measured
in terms of spend, volume, savings, or business
criticality—then the automation is transitioned to
the Global IT team for ongoing maintenance and
development.
The Procurement Plus team is tapping into the Global
IT team’s expertise to execute more than 50 planned
automation updates. Now, the 15 new advanced RPA
solutions are contributing to our journey toward
frictionless and efficient procurement—from sourcing to
buying, to facilitating on-time invoice payments, to
onboarding contingent staff with the tools they need to
become productive.
Procurement Plus serves more than 710,000 Accenture
employees through a range of services that help to
make hiring and buying processes simpler, more
compliant and more consistent.
Here are some highlights of the bots being used as part
of our intelligent automation journey:
Procurement Plus Virtual Agent
Enables self-service access to process instructions or
technical procedures, to chat with an agent if they
cannot find the solution they’re looking for and, in some
cases, the user can obtain a status or even make
updates to their records in source systems. For
example, customers can check the status of invoice
payments, or they can extend their contingent worker’s
end date directly from the bot without having to navigate
to another system. These capabilities significantly
improve the customer experience while also reducing
the number of tickets our support organizations field—to
the tune of 16,000 per month—freeing them up to focus
on more value-added work.
Contractor Onboarding Automation
Facilitates the data processing necessary to onboard
and manage 5,000 to 7,000 contractors per month,
including provisioning and de-provisioning access and
assets, such as enterprise IDs, laptops and building
access. It frees up capacity for people involved in the
resource administration and delivers more accurate
data.
Purchase Order (PO) Release Bot
Automates the process of releasing purchase
orders to suppliers so they can undertake work with
Accenture. It enables users to search for a particular
purchase requisition and extract details that can be
issued automatically as a purchase order to the
supplier. On average, the bot processes more than
7,500 purchase requisitions in a month and helps to
increase accuracy and turnaround time in processing
documents and releasing the purchase order on time to
the supplier.

6.
Copyright © 2022 Accenture. All rights reserved
A valuable difference
Today, all RPA automations use
virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI)
so that there is no dependency on
any single business contact,
technical contact, or piece of
hardware. This means that various
procurement contacts across the
world can connect and operate
automations anywhere with a
secured internet connection like
Global Protect.
In addition, we have realized the
following benefits:
• Reduction of hardware
infrastructure and license
costs by consolidating duplicate
automations or combining bots
that run on extended frequencies
into a single virtual environment.
Accenture reduced hardware
needs by 50% and licensing needs
by 50% through centralization.
• The latest version of the intelligent
automation tool gives us greater
security, speed and scalability.
The Accenture Procurement Plus
operation is constantly evolving and
looking for opportunities to forge new
and deeper relationships to deliver
value above and beyond what would
be expected of traditional procurement
operations.
Going forward, Procurement Plus is
adopting a proactive, centralized
approach that can make intelligent
automation even more accessible
across the whole enterprise—
continuing our journey toward
unlocking more value.
Proactive
centralization
Copyright © 2022 Accenture. All rights reserved

7.
Copyright © 2022 Accenture. All rights reserved
Meet the Team
Balaji Poonkundran
Senior Manager – Global IT,
Intelligent Technology Operations
Balaji Poonkundran
David Smith
Senior Manager – Procurement
Plus, Technology & Tools
David Smith
Vijay V. Kumar
Manager – Global IT, Intelligent
Technology Operations
Vijay V. Kumar
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All rights reserved.
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are trademarks of Accenture.