What is INX +Automation?
INX +Automation is an add-on for the SAM Suite INX Workflow application and supports the application by using rule based robots to automatically identify and process the simpler Workflow requests without human intervention at the final step of approval.
By automatically handling simple requests, INX Workflow +Automation relieves your Site Travel approvers to focus on more complex requests and enable visibility for your administrators to see how many documents have been processed by each robot. Having this automation in place enables an increase in efficiency and visibility of data to enable further analysis of booking trends and behaviours.
How does it work?
INX +Automation is made up of set of rule-based robots which can be enabled to automatically complete specific kinds of Site Travel booking requests or other Workflow documents such as Roster Bookings, Profile Update or Demobilisation.
Each Robot is designed to process one Workflow document type – Remove, Add/New or Reschedule/Change. The Robots may have multiple rules for processing a particular document type.
When +Automation is installed, Workflow is extended to have a dashboard. The dashboard provides users with insights into document activity. The level of detail available to users varies depending on their access level, and the Dashboard may even be completely disabled for general users.
The Dashboard displays information related to the supported documents only. This currently includes Folio Travel, Site Travel, Demobilisation, Profile Change and Roster Booking.
The Robots
Robots identify and automatically process INX Workflow documents based on your business rules freeing up staff to work on more meaningful tasks.
You define the rules for the robots that fit your internal business processes – trying to capture as many documents as possible, while leaving the complex documents or those with off-system changes for the Site Travel and Accommodation Team. INX Software will implement these rules in production. Once operational, authorised users can see how many documents have been processed by each robot.
Here are some examples of Robots and robot rules:
Image: Dashboard showing Robot options that have been deployed.
Image: Examples of Robot Rules that have been deployed.
Why do you need it?
Organisations need +Automation so that the Site Travel and Accommodation team has availability to focus on the requests that require deeper attention. INX +Automation frees up your team to work on more interesting things. It processes requests 24×7 whilst people typically work an 8-12 hour day giving you greater coverage and confidence that whilst you are sleeping the Robots are still hard at work.
On average a processer can approve around 150-250 requests per day. As an example, one of our clients generates approx. 2300 requests per day and their robots can process around 700 of these which is approximately 1/3 of all travel/accommodation requests received on one day. As you can see this could easily equate to an additional four people in the team’s headcount.
Image: Activity Report displaying how many documents the Robot has processed.
Who uses it?
INX +Automation is used by companies of all sizes and industries who require large amounts of approval requests to be processed as part of their business processes. We have mining industry clients which have 100 people on site to clients who have 10,000+ people on site at any one time who use INX +Automation to assist them with getting people where they need to be, when they need to be there, so they can provide optimal workforce care. Depending on their workforce size, INX clients can have only one robot whilst others have the full suite of robots.
We can’t name our clients here, but we can share their experience of INX +Automation!
One of INX clients is a large mining organisation, which uses multiple robots. The bots are working for them, processing a range of different documents with rules which fit their business, says:
The best thing about automation is that documents will be processed accurately because you have put the rules in place. I love it because there is no manual processing and as you dictate the rules there is no room for error. Automation takes the pressure off the team and allows them to work on more complex items. As an example, we had to turn robots off in the last COVID event. Within hours of being re-enabled the robot processed 700 docs. This would usually take a team of people to action. We are also able to update the rules as required, which is terrific because as the business changes +Automation changes with it, keeping it up to date with our requirements.
An organisation with a smaller site, using the Profile Change Robot, says:
“(+Automation) is fabulous and ticks away in the background and one job less for my team to action. In the early days of having this robot we were getting about 100 of these documents per day, automation took away the pressure of completing these documents when there are other requests that require more attention. Knowing that it is working for us 24×7, 365 days per year gives great peace of mind.”
A large organisation with multiple robots working for them, processing a range of different documents with rules which fit their business, says:
Why do you need Automation? “Mostly to ensure that requests submitted after hours may still be processed in time to amend/cancel a booking, resulting in less flight and accommodation discrepancies as well as minimising our team having to open very simple remove and change requests. This ensures the team can spend more time looking at the more challenging requests and providing customer service.”
How does it help your team? “Having afterhours support without having to physically have a team member processing these. Some support to process the easier requests, resulting in a good balance of the amount of requests needing to be actioned by a person in my team, especially during the very busy times (i.e. shutdown) where we see a major influx in amount of requests being submitted.”
The Ro-bottom line
With INX +Automation, you can free up to 4 headcounts to your team. That’s valuable time your team can use to action meaningful activities instead of repetitive tasks. If you are interested in seeing how you can better optimise your workforce logistics contact us for a demo and consult. If you are an INX SAM Suite customer contact us to see if you are eligible for a free trial.
