Top consumer goods company streamlines processes with Power Platform

Capgemini creates custom business applications to automate arduous processes, enabling the company to focus on high-priority work

Client challenges: The company was spending tens of thousands of hours on repetitive tasks, such as chasing emails and managing data across many personal computers.
Our approach: Capgemini used its custom software engineering expertise and Microsoft Power Platform to create a series of automations that transformed time-consuming processes.
Business outcomes: In just two years, the new systems handled 100,000 requests, reduced the HR call volume by 50 percent, and saved 30,000 hours of manual work.

Workers in human resources, finance, and accounts payable at a leading US consumer goods company were spending tens of thousands of hours on repetitive, mind-numbing tasks.

Information was stored in various ways and locations across the company, so workers often spent as much or even more time searching – by writing emails, cold-calling, scrolling internal systems, etc. – as performing their main tasks.

For example, accountants cannot manage a balance sheet if they don’t have the necessary numbers for processing outgoing payments, receiving invoices, paying suppliers, updating ledger accounts, and so on. If any of these data languish on a personal computer or in someone’s inbox, it will take time to track them down.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, employees understandably had more questions – mostly related to benefits and policies – for HR and payroll. Most requests arrived through a shared mailbox and were answered by tracking down the appropriate documents and exchanging them over email. This cumbersome process opened the company to security risks and resulted in a backlog of requests, despite all the time invested.

Building a solution: Automated workflows for greater efficiency

Recognizing the need for change, the company reached out to Capgemini to request an all-encompassing solution that could improve productivity and reduce labor by streamlining and automating processes across the enterprise.

Capgemini relied on its expertise with the Microsoft Power Platform, a collection of low-code development tools for building custom platforms, to build a sleek, efficient solution that would modernize business processes from data collection and security to version capturing and reporting.

With a deep knowledge of Power Platform’s arsenal of tools – especially Power Apps, Power Automate, Power BI, and Power Virtual Agents – Capgemini worked closely with the company to target pain points and address the monotony of pushing paper, so workers could focus more on what they do best.

Data at one’s fingertips

Capgemini used its custom software engineering expertise and Power Platform’s capabilities to create a secure, cloud-based data collection system that automatically captures item-level version history. The new system rapidly and automatically delivers quick and accurate responses to frequently asked questions. These scalable automated processes, which also benefited from increased data security, provide near real-time reporting to drive insights for continuous improvement and quickly mitigate business risks.

Business teams could standardize their processes by using automation templates and workflows. This effort increased productivity and process accuracy. As a result, HR managers were able to find advanced insights using dashboards that allowed them to refine their processes based on employee feedback.

Better user experiences all-around

The overall experience for the end user has improved immensely thanks to easy-to-use web forms, instant text and email notifications, quick-action cards for approvals, digital signatures for documents, dynamic document generation through standard templates, and more.

The team built a centralized, digital interface to house the entire process of capturing, organizing, and retrieving data. This dashboard makes it easier to retrieve information users need to do their jobs more efficiently. In addition, the project team developed custom apps that run on company-managed mobile devices and support offline mode. If necessary, external users can get secure, temporary access to the app for information. When this happens, simple business-to-business integration using authorized guest accounts for suppliers and outside counsel bypasses the need for a virtual machine or laptop and the associated software licenses, which reduces costs.

It’s also become easier for auditors to accurately examine the company’s reporting, thanks to version control, change management, and automatic data retention.

All of these changes mean vital information will no longer get lost on someone’s personal hard drive, where it is inaccessible to the people who need it.

Unlocking productivity

Capgemini created automated solutions that handle manual processes, generate reports, and address other frequent pain points that had previously kept workers from focusing on higher priority work. These solutions have saved a substantial amount of time.

A team of three developers deployed around 40 automations that handled over 100,000 requests and saved 30,000 hours over the course of two years. In particular, the self-service chatbot resulted in a 50 percent reduction in HR call volume.

These initial business outcomes are cause for celebration, but they aren’t the only changes. The introduction of modern digital communications and collaboration tools has resulted in increased user adoption and engagement, and the use of Power Platform has expanded throughout the company. As the company continues its digital business transformation journey, Capgemini will provide ongoing support and stands ready to address ongoing needs as they evolve.