The helpdesk receive 2,000 part queries per week (96,000 in a year). For each query the help agents collate information from several systems so they can respond to the query. The average cycle time for a single query is 20 minutes.

Due to high volumes and limited resources, the SLAs are suffering. In an effort to keep up with the volume, agents have been working overtime on Saturdays. Of the 20 minutes taken to address a query, 10-15 minutes are spent collating data. Due to the nature of the applications they require a considerable amount of data input to reach the screen containing the required information. RPA has been deemed an appropriate solution due to the processes large volumes, highly manual nature and its repetitiveness.

The solution will work through tickets, using the referenced part number to collect the generic data from each system. The automation will save this data in PowerPoint (one for each ticket), which will be saved to the shared drive. This will allow the helpdesk team to focus on responding to queries rather than spending their time collecting data. This will save numerous hours and help improve the SLAs. The realised benefits will go towards cost reduction with third party suppliers, and allow for some resource reallocation to more value added activity.