Global consulting firm Accenture will soon begin selling its SynOps software, based on robotic intelligence, which has led to the redeployment of 40,000 employees internally.
The software, which performs the roles pertaining to accounts and finance, will not only help Accenture's clients increase their savings but also reduce the common human errors performed in ritualistic accounting tasks such as data entry and customer service.
Accenture's Operations group, which handles such basic level outsourcing work, is mostly based in low-wage countries such as India, hence the use of the automation software may impact the firm's headcount there.
Accenture's Operations Group Chief Executive Officer Debbie Polishook, however, said that the displaced workforce has been retained by the company in other roles.
The Accenture executive said that the move is not intended to get rid of the human workforce but to make them more productive and get them to focus on tasks they really should be doing.
Automation software has streamlined processes, especially backend operations and increased productivity globally.
The company intends to retrain its employees engaged in such routine tasks for some other skill sets without laying off, according to the report.
SynOps software will help Accenture clients save cost
The SynOps software took five years to develop and the headcount at Accenture had also gone up from 425,000 in 2017 to 469,000 last year.
Accenture hopes to enter the enterprise software industry by making robotic automation software that perform the mundane tasks of repetitive data entries and handling. The other rivals who have made similar softwares such as UiPath, and Blue Prism Group Plc.are currently valued at $3 billion and $1.5 billion, respectively.
Accenture's clients have already used the software for various processes such as marketing and finance and some others are using it on a pilot project basis.
"About 100 Accenture clients have used the system for procurement, with around 20 having trialed the finance product and five clients currently piloting the marketing offering," Polishook said
The software use may also trim down the bills paid by Accenture's clients as the accounting firm has set its fixed fees based on the number of people it employs to do the outsourced job.
Furthermore, the software will minimise human error by taking an order from a client, generating an invoice and then checking that invoice against a contract, eliminating any errors and even emailing to the customer.
"The clients can thus judge, how efficiently their work has been done in comparison with their rivals in the same industry and others," said Nirav Sampat, the technology officer at Accenture Operations.
