3 Types of Tasks that You Should Delegate to Digital Employees

The work that digital workers do differs depending on the department they support. As a part of their daily responsibilities, robots can book invoices, receive orders or monitor stock levels. But if we take a closer look at individual actions, it becomes clear that they can be sorted into 3 types of tasks you can automate.

These tasks are tedious and repetitive. Every office worker has to do them everyday and dislikes the whole process. These tasks require attention and accuracy but don’t provide any opportunity for growth. Often they are also time-intensive and error-prone. In other words: they’re basically made for digital teammates. People, on the other hand, have no chance to fully apply their knowledge and skills, which leads to frustration and lower efficiency.

In this blog post we’re going to look closely at routine tasks so that you can easily identify tasks in your own department that should be delegated to digital workers.

Entering, copying and pasting data

Processing data is a regular part of any office worker’s day. It doesn’t matter which team you check out – Accounting, Human Resources, Supply Chain, or Customer Service – you’ll see employees copying data from an application or digital documents and entering it into various systems.

Many companies also store information (e.g. customer or order data) in different unconnected systems. If that’s the case, employees have to copy and paste data from one system to another manually. Then they also have to update it every now and then.

Examples of copying and pasting data you can automate:

• entering received orders into software,
• placing orders into an ERP system,
• compiling reports with data from different sources,
• pasting offsets from a report,
• filling in customer or product data into software.

By assigning this kind of tasks to digital workers, you can eliminate errors and inaccuracy in stored data. Your team also gains valuable time. While robots dutifully process new orders or enter important information, office workers can apply their skills to projects truly impacting the company’s growth.

Monitoring and comparing data

Many business processes involve data stored in different systems. Often several employees enter information independently. Companies also use systems where data is out of the company’s control. It takes a lot of time and effort to make sure that data is consistent and complete over several (or even more than a dozen) systems and applications.

However, monitoring and comparing data is not just about having all your information in order. It also means that people have to check for data compliance each time they copy and paste data, fill in documents or compile reports.

Examples of monitoring and comparing data you can automate:

• matching invoices and checking incorrect records,
• checking applications for data accuracy and consistency,
• monitoring stock levels,
• verifying customer data compliance,
• monitoring the balance on various accounts.

When your processes involve invalid or inconsistent data, process and service quality suffer dramatically. It can lead to serious consequences for your company. But if you assign these tasks to robots, you can be sure that they will detect any inaccuracy. Digital workers do their job 100% accurately. When entering or verifying data, they don’t make such errors as typos or incorrect numbers. Once they compare information, they can automatically correct data so that it’s consistent over all systems.

Creating documents from templates

The last task on the list is filling in document templates. Many departments, in particular Accounting and Customer Service teams, have to create various types of invoices, orders, confirmations, or certificates on a daily basis. Usually, these tasks involve gathering data from different systems and databases and pasting it into a template, e.g. a Word document. This category also includes compiling reports and summaries with a set format.

Examples of making documents from templates you can automate:

• filling in applications,
• sending notifications to employees and customers,
• reporting your competition’s prices for selected products,
• issuing certificates, confirmations, invoices,
• compiling reports.

By automating the creation processes of these documents you can visibly improve customer service and speed up next stages of the process. As was the case with comparing data, digital workers will fill in documents without any mistakes, even if they’ve been at it continuously for several hours. Robots can also print out files. This way employees only have to send the physical copies to the customer.

If the process involves e-mailing documents, digital workers can easily send files to the designated e-mail address (of an employee or a customer). If documents require special protection, which is often the case in financial institutions, robots can additionally encrypt files before they send them.

Want to see more automation use cases? Download our ebook Digital Workers in Action