How To Prepare Your Company For The Fourth Industrial Revolution
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Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything. – George Bernard Shaw

Automation is nothing new. In fact, it's been influencing manufacturing processes for centuries, allowing human beings to produce without constantly keeping their hands on the wheel. But as the head of a business process automation company, I can see that we're on the cusp of a Fourth Industrial Revolution that will see automation pushed to new heights and change our thinking in the process.

Cognitive automation, or using automation to complete information-based tasks, is poised to transform business as we know it. Bots like NASA’s George Washington, for example, can already log in to financial software and enter budget information, perform tasks based on received emails and report completed work to a manager. It sounds advanced, but over the next decade, continuous breakthroughs in natural language processing and machine learning will allow tools like George to resolve even more nuanced issues just as well as humans — maybe even better.

The potential here for heightened accuracy, efficiency and scalability is nothing to sneeze at. Unlike human employees, AI tools don’t receive paychecks, don't require lunch breaks and can be quickly scaled to meet growing demand. That scalability is key. It's easy to talk about automation in hyperbolic terms, but consider Gartner’s prediction that 40% of data scientists' tasks will be automated as soon as 2020.

From manufacturing and operations to customer service and a whole host of other nodes in the interconnected business ecosystem, cognitive automation is set to catalyze the Fourth Industrial Revolution. To prepare your organization, take the following steps.

1. Pin down use cases.

Automation technologies will impact different businesses in different ways. In industries such as manufacturing, automation has already ingrained itself into essential processes, but many businesses still perceive automation as just a flashy gimmick or, at best, a small supplement to traditional business practices. That viewpoint may not last long, though, given that Gartner foresees a 25% drop in customer retention this year among companies that fail to harness the power of automation.

To stay competitive, start by constructing an automation road map, identifying realistic use cases within your company. It's tempting to want to wow everyone with external-facing automation projects — think Amazon Go stores — but it's better to focus on value-driven, behind-the-scenes changes first. For example, automate your payroll, leave-of-absence requests, and billing and payments processing before moving on to the more visible areas of your business.

2. Conduct a workforce assessment.

Once you've determined relevant use cases, lay the groundwork for smooth implementation. You don’t want to funnel a fortune into automation only to find out later that it caused major disruptions to associated workflows. Make it a priority to gain buy-in from employees, especially the boots on the ground. Conduct workforce assessments to gauge employee sentiment toward automation. And hold hands-on training sessions to articulate the value of the change in tangible terms.

Members of my generation have conducted business through paper for almost our entire lives, so it's particularly important to help older employees see how automation will make their lives easier. First, explain why paper isn't always necessary — or efficient. This might seem obvious for digital natives, but for baby boomers, it can be a hard pill to swallow.

A few years ago, I made the switch to a completely digital mail system for my personal use. Because paper mail was all I'd known before, I hadn't realized how time-consuming it was to manually sort and read my mail and how unreliable my system for organizing bills and statements had become. Now my mail is automatically collected, digitized and sent to me via email, which allows me to read through it quickly and easily search through it later on if I need something. I’m to the point where I can't imagine doing it any other way. The same thinking can be applied to manual paper processes that your employees complete every day.

3. Consolidate databases.

Today, automated systems are commonly referred to as "smart." Smart speakers like the Amazon Echo respond to voice commands, and smart locks turn the deadbolt on your front door when you leave for the day.

These technologies seem like they're very much in the realm of hardware, but AI is software, and it relies on rules and processes to perform as intended. When the data that powers these systems is disjointed, the systems don’t run properly, and this point is all the more salient for businesses that depend on automation to manage large data sets.

To clear the way for automation, start by consolidating and scrubbing your data. When all your data is in one place, it is far easier to utilize it to the fullest extent. If physical consolidation isn’t feasible, you still have other options. A smart approach would be to integrate your data using a federated search solution that taps into disparate data sources simultaneously. This way, you can continue to maintain multiple data sources but still access each of them from a single entry point and enable your automated systems to do the same.

More than one-third of American consumers have bought into the idea of the automated, connected home, but the potential applications of cognitive automation mean commercial adoption is about to increase rapidly. As businesses embrace automation and all its operational benefits, those that choose to retain more antiquated processes will quickly be left behind. With some preparation, though, you can reserve your company’s spot in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

This article was originally published on Forbes.com March 8, 2019

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Ron Cogburn
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Moving Toward Processing Inbound Transactional Content

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Organizations can cut costs by centralizing and automating the processing of inbound transactional content – any content of an inbound document that initiates a business transaction on the back end. The first post in this short series discussed centralized versus distributed processing, re-use of existing assets, and planning for e-discovery. This one explores issues raised when transitioning to such a model.

The information contained in different pieces of digital content varies, from names and ID numbers to addresses, dates, procedure codes and more. By the time the content is fully processed, it will flow through many different stages and potentially will be handled by several authorized users. Organizations need to implement safeguards that ensure the content isn’t accessible by unauthorized persons and that the content has gone through the necessary stages before reaching its destination.

This can be achieved through service level agreements that define certain parameters at different management levels, based on the regulatory requirements at each stage. Any activity that occurs through this process should be recorded for tracking purposes, as well as any potential audits.

Handling a Variety of Document Types

Each line of business will have a different type and volume of inbound documents. These documents will have an impact on the type of authorization that takes place through the processing workflow, including the achievable SLAs and the technological components of the solution.

Organizations should evaluate what type of documents need to be captured and then design the documents in such a way as to optimize the ability to capture the information to cut the processing time and reduce manual handling.

Compliance

Organizations that have a large geographical footprint might want to move into a centralized shared process in order to leverage a low-cost and effective resourcing model. Business leaders will need to assess all applicable regulations related to every area in the end-to-end processing of the content.

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Nick Loy
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A Harsh Reminder from Hurricane Harvey: 3 Key Considerations for your Business Continuity Plan

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Gartner research shows that 43 percent of enterprises that experience a substantial loss of business-related data, with no continuity plan on the books, never resume business operations again. Another 51 percent of those that do manage to re-open their doors after a major loss of data, close within the next two years after an incident.

The historic flooding seen in the Houston, TX area in late August serves as a stark reminder of the importance of having an effective business continuity plan (BCP) that can mitigate the types of consequences described above.

While most enterprises have at least a rudimentary plan in place, it can be difficult to determine how expansive the parameters of a BCP need to be.

Such an exercise requires business managers to consider exactly what ways a substantial disruption to their operations will impact them. Will it disrupt digital communications? Or impact other technology-based workflows like enrollments and application processing? What about on-site or near-site production facilities? Stakeholders must also determine how to protect electronic payment systems and other data-driven platforms in the event of a major disaster.

Putting together such a plan can be difficult for even the most experienced business leaders, but as we were all reminded with Harvey – it is a base that every business simply must have covered.

While daunting, there is no better time than the present to take the necessary steps to prevent your enterprise from losing irreplaceable data, processing incoming payments, producing outbound communications, and performing any number of other mission-critical, time-sensitive tasks during and after a major disruption – weather-related or not.

To help you narrow the scope, here are three concepts to consider and include in your BCP to ensure it encompasses the areas you’ll need to keep critical processes flowing during a disruption. These steps can help you resume operations after a flood, tornado, or other event that causes damage to your offices or facilities, or causes you to shut them temporarily.

     1) Off-Site Data Storage for Mission Critical Information

As an increasing amount of business processes became digitally based in the ‘90s and into the 2000s, many continuity plans featured models that relied on off-site data centers to back up data that was generated over time. But building a secondary data storage site internally can be quite costly, and ensuring consistent back up can be difficult, and involve manually collecting and sending data to an off-site data storage location.

Due to the cost and complexity involved in operating such a program, many businesses simply operated without a comprehensive BCP. But, cloud-based data storage has shifted this paradigm to a more user-friendly model.

Cloud-based business continuity solutions now allow service providers with the right internal capability and IT architecture to offer best-class continuity capability at an affordable rate. Other benefits of such an approach include:

  • Easier Access: With this type of solution, you’ll be able to access your password-protected files from any internet-connected computer – even if your office or other facilities are unreachable
  • Attractive Pricing Options: With no capital expense involved, contract-based subscription pricing keeps total cost of ownership affordable
  • Scalability: Traditional data centers can reach capacity. But with a cloud-based solution, increasing (or decreasing) the amount of data storage you require can be changed on-demand

     2) Access to Off-Site Operations & Production Centers

A best-class continuity solution will not only store your data in the event of a disruption, but it will allow you to continue leveraging said data during your recovery period – which as we have seen in Houston, may be quite lengthy.  Depending on the harshness of the event, moving certain operations and mission-critical processes to an alternate site may be required. One way to help avoid extended periods of downtime for other processes, such as customer or internal employee communications, is to leverage a Disaster Recovery as a Solution service that includes not only cloud-based data storage but access to such facilities as well.

With this type of solution included within your BCP, the benefits regarding comprehensive continuity for a myriad of mission-critical processes become apparent. If your data is stored in the cloud, and you have a process support partner retained who can not only store that information, but effectively manage it to create and send communications – multiple, critical processes can resume quickly. Even if your facilities are shuttered for a lengthy period, both your data and ability to communicate with customers and employees in their preferred manner, are backed-up.

     3) Cloud-Based Processing Support for On-Going Account Management

Effective business communication is a two-way street. This means you’ll need to include a way to continually process invoices, submitted applications, or enrollment forms as just a few examples, during a disruption.  

Cloud-based gateways to transact, collaborate, and manage these types of processes provide several obvious benefits, but these become even more pronounced in the event of a disaster. Operating a cloud-based platform to process these types of incoming documents not only provides a more secure, paperless manner to do so during normal operation – but delivers the sort of anywhere-access that business managers need when their office is unexpectedly closed due to an adverse event. If your payment platform resides in the cloud, you’ll be able to log in from a secure location, and from there, effectively send, receive, approve or refer invoices while your physical office location is affected.

If all of this sounds costly or overwhelming to create internally, that’s because a comprehensive BCP is something that will by nature include robust back-ups for business-critical processes. It can be wise to partner with someone who already has the cloud-based and physical infrastructure you’ll need to continue operations during an event that disrupts your business. 

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Peter Bohjalian
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Claims Processing & Adjudication

A better way to manage health insurance claims.

Claims Processing & Adjudication

Upgrade your claims processing by unifying data from all incoming communication channels, performing pre-submission checks to create clean claims, and intelligently routing claims for optimal processing using systems capable of intelligent decisioning.

Exela’s PCH Global is a powerful digital exchange platform for the insurance industry that provides a single point of access for claims management, correspondence, and payments.

Through digitization and automation, PCH Global provides a claims revenue cycle solution that is capable of handling multiple payers, improves first pass accuracy across all payers, provides visibility and tracking of claims status, and provides digital collaboration with payers to accelerate cycle times and reduce DSO.

PCH Global’s claims processing infrastructure, certified by HiTrust, streamlines the flow of information for healthcare providers by supporting digital submission of claims, health records, payments, and correspondence, the platform enables automation, streamlining all aspects of the revenue cycle claims billing, payments, and revenue integrity.

Omni-channel claims ingestion.

Automated high-volume data capture and routing.

Efficient processing through clean claims enablement.

Reduced resubmission and follow up.

Universal Gateway

Capture claims at the point of service, from any channel (paper, email, fax, mobile apps, digital portals, and EDI), with translation to location-based language. Ensure the most accurate and efficient compliance and payment processing services, using intelligent intake, extraction, and data enhancement tools.

Appeals & Denials Management

Our system applies business rules to produce clean claims, both prior to submission and during pre-adjudication. This helps prevent denials and resubmissions, reduce print, mail, and call volumes, and increase auto-adjudication rates so that we ultimately increase member and provider satisfaction.

Intelligent Decisioning

Relevancy tools automatically route documents and claims for appropriate reconciliation. A comprehensive review process reduces downstream manual processing.

Automated Processing

Strategic use of robotic process automation helps to increase auto-adjudication rates, improve processor claims per hour, and reduce pended claims and number of edits.

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Healthcare Solutions Suite (HSS)

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Operations

No business can thrive without a well-run operations department, which is why it is critical that operations personnel have the tools they need to perform at their best.

Boost efficiency and productivity, while driving down costs, with the help of Exela’s operations solutions designed to manage your data, documents, cases, claims, projects, and records.

Where efficiency, productivity, and team collaboration are the foundation for success.

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Exela’s Centralized Mail Hub Empowers Workers with Technology

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Education
Features & Benefits
CHALLENGE:

Each Cleveland anchor institution operates its own mail services hub with disparate systems, staff, and facilities. This causes equipment, labor and supplier redundancies, lack of standardized USPS, HIPPA, and ACA compliance practices, and inconsistent mail preparation, delivery and tracking processes. A decentralized service delivery model also means added overhead costs and inefficient use of real estate. Institutions are slow to adopt technologies, relying instead on hand-sorting and other manual processes. The absence of skilled labor opens the door to processing and delivery delays and errors. Finally, there is no tracking system or formalized chain of custody procedures to ensure mail accountably and security.

SOLUTION:

Case Western University, Cleveland Clinic, and University Hospitals consolidated operations to form a single centralized mail hub, managed by Exela. The facility offers the following services:

  • inter-office courier services
  • outbound/inbound mail gathering
  • sorting and distribution to appropriate carriers
  • outbound/inbound package induction
  • outbound metering and postage induction
  • postage management and reporting
  • research on undeliverable mail/packages
  • basic mail screening

The facility is located on the campus of Case Western University, in Cleveland, and encourages the employment of local residents to help stimulate economic growth in the surrounding areas. Exela offers comprehensive skills development resources and training to facilitate expertise and technology competencies.

The facility is scalable to accommodate large volumes of inbound and outbound mail. Currently, Exela processes and meters over 5.1M pieces of USPS outbound mail annually; and receives, sorts and delivers over 5.2M pieces of inbound USPS mail/packages annually. By transferring operations to Exela, the hub benefits from an infusion of technology that is readily available to employees. Technology implemented includes:

  • Mail Sortation Automation Technology (2D Bar-Coding)
  • Mail Metering Equipment / Reporting (Novimetrix)
  • Package Tracking Hardware and Software (Podtracker)
  • Online Reporting / Data Entry / Database Management
BENEFITS:
  • Eliminated redundant resources, including two facilities
  • 75% of employees come from Cleveland, with a high concentration from surrounding neighborhoods
  • Potential for an estimated 20% in cost reductions for existing mail services at anchor institutions
  • Re-purposed and/or eliminated redundant resources
  • Centralized mail operations and consolidated workflows for more effective utilization of technology and implementation of best practices
  • Implemented better security and quality controls to avoid the co-mingling of confidential information
  • Achieved process efficiencies while maintaining 100% accuracy
  • Preserved jobs currently performing Mail Hub functions at other providers
  • Created the opportunity for a higher-skilled labor force through extensive professional development resources
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Retailer Uses Digitization to Transform Human Resources

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How one national retailer’s growth strained the HR department before Exela helped them  digitize.

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Human Capital Management
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CHALLENGE:

A nationwide retail organization’s expansion and workforce growth placed a huge strain on their internal Human Resources department’s ability to maintain a sufficient level of efficiency and quality of service. Managing and storing paper-based records presented a daunting task as the number of storefronts continued to increase. In particular, they were having difficulty with ongoing recertification of expiring employee documents and the ability to generate timely reporting for auditors.

SOLUTION:

Exela’s solution was to digitize all existing employee records, and to implement entirely digital onboarding and record-keeping procedures. This solution included a customized onboarding workflow for new hires, added system functionality that addressed the tracking and management of expiring documentation, and dynamic dashboarding capabilities for Human Resources managers.

BENEFITS:
  • Unified and centralized employee records and associated documents

  • Instant online access to all corporate documentation

  • Improved compliance and legal oversight

  • Rapid information retrieval capabilities

  • Greatly simplified auditing workflows

  • Eco-friendly solution that supports the company’s “green” initiatives

Mail of the Future

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Major high tech company benefits from a unified shipping, receiving, and mail solution serving the entire flagship campus.

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Digital Mailroom
Features & Benefits
CHALLENGE:

A giant in the high tech industry was undergoing a multi-billion dollar renovation to create a collaborative campus environment. Exela was tasked with transforming the end-user experience for mail and logistics services campus-wide. The solution provided had to be hosted on Azure.

SOLUTION:

Exela’s technology-enabled solutions deliver the first-in-kind, end-to-end user experience revolutionizing traditional onsite mail and logistics services. The system included a one-stop customer portal (accessible via web portal and mobile app), Digital Mailroom, Intelligent Lockers, a white-glove service counter, robotic couriers, Exela’s shipping and receiving tool, our fulfillment platform with inventory management capabilities, and other equipment upgrades.

BENEFITS:
  • Customer portal provides improved visibility and control

  • Detailed analytics and reporting capabilities

  • Increased convenience and system flexibility

  • Ability to handle greater volumes at higher speed

  • Enhanced user experience

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Exela Helps Leading Benefits Administrator Optimize In-house Print and Mail Operations for Huge Savings

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Banking & Financial
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CHALLENGE:

A leading Benefits Administrator was struggling to maintain its in-house print and mail operations—suffering from high overhead costs and low productivity. The company was incurring unnecessary costs to maintain three facilities in North America, with wasted square footage and an under-utilization of equipment. It was experiencing a high volume of inventory (over 5,000 individual items) because it lacked any integrated printing capabilities, as well as a digital inventory management system. Its infrastructure did not support automation—workers had to manually accommodate highly customized jobs for each client, which required additional print runs and picking and matching inventory for kit fulfillment. There was also no inherent Disaster Recovery/Business Continuity solution. This meant that materials had to be physically shipped from one location to the other, which resulted in a 2-day delay. Fragmented, manual-based workflows (kit fulfillment) led to low productivity across sites, and slower print and fulfillment turnaround. Finally, production operations were not being leveraged for additional lines of business.

SOLUTION:

To address these challenges, Exela absorbed all of the company’s inbound processing and outbound print and mail operations, which included: production, fulfillment, return mail management, postal optimization, supply chain inventory optimization, and customer communications management. For starters, all operations were migrated over to Exela’s Mega Center and production facilities. This relieved the company of excessive overhead costs for real estate, security, technology and infrastructure. The implementation was rolled out over the course of a year to accommodate the transfer of hundreds of individual jobs, while User Acceptance testing took place at one of the facilities before any job went live. To help streamline, standardize, and unify operations; Exela rebadged more than two hundred workers. Formerly manual processes, such as customized print and fulfillment activities, were automated. Exela was also able to leverage its wide-reaching supplier network to secure the most competitive rates and drive economies of scale.

BENEFITS:
  • Reduced total spend by 20%; savings anticipated to increase year-over-year via value reengineering
  • Provided a scalable solution that meets sudden demand spikes and future growth
  • Optimized operations by creating fluid workflows; eliminating under-utilized real estate and resources; and integrating automation
  • Eliminated the need to make capital investments
  • Drove economies of scale by utilizing Exela’s supplier ecosystem of $1B in procurement spend
  • Mitigated risk through highly trained employees, detailed process documentation, and proven business continuity plans
  • Eliminated management of the hourly workforce
  • Introduced new color, onsert printing capabilities to reduce time, inventory volumes, and manual resources
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Claims Processing Automation

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Exela’s PCH platform enables automated claims processing for a top 10 healthcare payer

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Healthcare
Features & Benefits
CHALLENGE:

A top 10 healthcare payer organization was continually expanding its reach and market share and partnered with Exela to reduce administrative costs, improve control and accountability, improve EDI submission rates, and enhance the customer experience.

SOLUTION:

Exela met this challenge by leveraging the self-service, rule-based PCH web portal and increasing provider engagement. The intelligent document identification system enables provider offices to direct billers to submit claims appeals through the PCH web interface. Automated rule-based workflows drive document submissions to the relevant payer processing department for quick and accurate processing. E-presentment of post-processing notifications eliminates reprocessing delays for providers.

BENEFITS:
  • 35% reduction in payer processing costs

  • 50%+ reduction in cycle times

  • 20% reduction in resubmission rates

  • Increased transparency for payer, providers, and members

  • Reduced member outreach volumes

  • Fewer errors in payments

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