Efficiency Through Business Process Automation

Customer Snapshot

A small, woman-owned business needed a new business process automation system to help them take control over their process. The business was a designated national contractor responsible for processing retroactive healthcare and prescription transactions, or plans. Due to the strict Standard Operating Procedures and sensitivity of the information, they ran into many issues with their current system. These problems included:

• Difficult and tedious manual processes
• High cost for quality
• High maintenance cost and lack of flexibility to upgrade
• High shipping and document handling costs

In the spring of 2008, the client approached Q.A. Technologies (QAT) to help create a new system for a more efficient, flexible, and cost-effective solution.

QAT Global’s Solution

Working alongside the company, QAT started with a Business Requirements Specification to fully document the business requirements and goals of the project. One of the major business goals discovered was to improve the process and give the new product the flexibility to respond quickly to business changes without costly development efforts. Instead of replacing the current application, the solution was to implement QAT Flow for the client. The QAT Flow product allows the client’s business experts the flexibility to change and enhance the processes in real-time vs. managing and paying for a development project on each instance. QAT worked with the client in building and training their business analysts on the QAT Flow business process automation tool so they could manage future process changes on their own. To increase efficiency, the entire audit process was automated through QAT Flow, including the ability to view the associated documents using a real-time document managing solution from DocLanding. The developed QAT Flow process was integrated into the client’s enterprise database to draw initial information and store completed Plans. A few written processes were maintained but were tightly integrated with the automated steps to better track every part of the audit process.

Results

The solution provided by QAT provided high-impact results for the client. The initial business goal of improving the process and increased flexibility was met with the implementation of QAT Flow. The automated business process through QAT Flow allowed for:

• Faster turnaround on services
• Increased productivity
• A flexible and efficient process that can be changed by the company’s business analyst any day/time
• Dramatic cost reduction through these process improvements that resulted in reductions in shipping, training, and maintenance cost
• A new competitive advantage that allowed them to adjust and respond to opportunities and business changes

Through this 10 month process, with the partnership of QAT, the client went from a slow, inefficient process to one that allowed them to take control of their business process and be more flexible to change and develop new and better ways to be efficient in their business through business process automation.
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