Workflow, did you say workflow?

👋 Hello everyone and welcome to our new subscribers, 

We're delighted to welcome you to the third edition of the SmartMyData newsletter. We look forward to seeing you every month to keep you up to date with the latest news from the world of automation and RPA.

📰 Workflow, did you say workflow?

Workflow is an expression very commonly used in RPA. But what exactly is a workflow?

According to Wikipedia, a workflow is the representation of a sequence of tasks or operations performed by a person, a group of people, an organization, etc. The term "flow" refers to the passage of a product, document, information, etc., from one stage to another. The term flow refers to the passage of a product, document, information, etc., from one stage to another.

In RPA, it's exactly the same thing, except that it's a robot or an application that, having done its job, hands over the data to another application.

Illustration with a mini scenario created on the SmartMyData platform



The steps are shown on the left of the screen. Here, after having retrieved a series of announcements from the Bodacc (Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales) via a scraper, we extract certain information before recording it in the database. Each step performs a specific function.

The example here is quite simple, but by combining the functionalities of the various modules (scraper, text extraction, form generation, call to any online service...) the automation capabilities are very great and are often only held back by our imagination.

❤️ The quote to slip into an RPA dinner

A quote from Arnaud Lagarde of Automation Anywhere, who explains that RPA makes existing jobs sustainable. RPA may not be an engine for hiring, but it does protect jobs in their original areas.

Related article : "RPA saves jobs"

🌎 RPA key figures

The administrative tasks involved in data processing are increasing exponentially! They are all too often time-consuming and repetitive, and lead to loss of performance. This often leads to situations where value-added tasks are no longer at the heart of the work.

According to a study by Automation Anywhere, the average company employee spends only 43% of his or her working day on high-value-added tasks. That's precious time wasted.

😊 Well-being at work

Reducing working hours without cutting pay? These are organizational models that Belgium and Spain have adopted. In France, this is the challenge that 6 companies have set themselves for 2021 by switching to a 4-day week. In an article by Sylvie Laidet, they explain why they made this choice, and assess the benefits for their employees.

Here are just a few of them.

MV Group and individualized working hours:

Introduction of the 4-day week from January 1, 2022 on a voluntary basis with several options:

• keep your 21 days by working 39 hours a week
  

• or work a 37-hour week and benefit from 10-11 JRTTs
  

• either give up these RTT days to work a 35-hour week, with the option of concentrating them over 4 days

A total of 280 employees took part, 6 of whom switched to a 4-day week. 6 others bought back part of their RTT days in exchange for additional income. The remaining employees chose to modulate their working hours.

At Systemes B, 28 hours paid at 35, freely distributed throughout the week:

Following the integration of a new employee, Systemes B took the plunge into the 4-day week in August 2021. The company offers its employees a 28-hour weekly contract paid as a 35-hour week. For the time being, one of the employees prefers to continue working 5 days a week, but on a 28-hour basis.

Both the employees and the manager are satisfied with this work organization, but they feel that it works because of the company's small workforce. This organization will be formalized on a fixed day when the workforce increases.

📣 The offbeat definition

Workflou: where workflow describes a well-defined process, taking into account all possible scenarios and exceptions, the workflou is content with a little more or less.

Present in all sectors and departments, workflou loves to waste time.

Our recommendation: are you familiar with process mining? Process mining enables companies to see exactly how their business processes run on a day-to-day basis. The aim is to control and optimize processes in real time.

A demo given by our friends at Live journey on a logistics process blew us away!



Illustration of a workflou by the excellent Marc Dubuisson of En attendant la fin du monde.