Vertu Motors is freeing up staff from repetitive data entry work by using robotic process automation instead.
The dealership group said it had ploughed money into the technology (RPA) to improve productivity by automating manual tasks that were high-volume, rules-based or prone to human mistakes.
Freeing up people from the monotonous duties would allow them to make more productive use of their time, it added.
Examples include vehicle taxation, service and MOT bookings, which will see RPA helping to stop or cut bottlenecks, and mean staff can develop their skills elsewhere at Vertu.
Michael Judge, head of digitisation and development at Vertu Motors, said: ‘When we talk about robots what usually comes to mind is something out of a Hollywood movie, like the Terminator!
‘RPA is not a physical or mechanical robot, rather, the “robots” in robotic process automation are software robots running on computers.
Bridge
‘Put simply, the role of RPA is to automate repetitive tasks that were previously handled by humans. It’s not about replacing colleagues but making them more productive.’
He added: ‘We are using RPA to create a bridge between two systems that provide us with no other way to “speak” to each other.
‘It allows us to improve productivity across a wide range of previously manual data entry and processing tasks.
‘We started off with the service booking robot in early 2020, just before the first lockdown, and from there more and more tasks have been identified where the technology could help the business.
‘Marcin Watroba, our lead RPA developer, and his team have now built and deployed more than 20 different bots around the business, with plenty more in the pipeline.
‘One of our key goals in the digitisation and development team is to strive for total systems and data integration in Vertu Motors, and RPA is an important tool in helping us achieve this.’
