De Goudse Insurance

Once the first RPA robots have proven their worth comes the real challenge: scaling up, and making sure those robots become an integral part of the organization. Insurer De Goudse, together with Tacstone Technology, has taken a structured approach to this by setting up a Center of Excellence.

“Building a robot is not that difficult. But how do you do it in a structured and standardized way? How do you manage it?”, describes Joey de Ruiter the challenge he faced when he started working as Team Manager Digital Workplace, IT Service Desk, RPA and IAM at De Goudse two years ago.

Because that’s when Robotic Process Automation (RPA) started playing an increasing role in De Goudse’s IT landscape, taking repetitive processes away from employees. “What started as an experiment about four years ago had grown into an integral part of the organization. With that came the need for structure.”

“What started as an experiment about four years ago had grown into an integral part of the organization. With that came the need for structure.”

Joey de Ruiter | Team Manager Digital Workspace, IT Service Desk, RPA and IAM De Goudse Insurance

From improvisation to a solid RPA strategy

He describes the situation surrounding the development of RPA as “a kind of internal start-up. “There was a lot of improvisation, but we really had to start taking steps to become a mature part of the organization. But for RPA, finding and retaining people with the right skills is difficult. For example, two key engineers had just left, so we had to rebuild knowledge while putting that solid structure in place.”

To help with that, De Goudse knocked on Tacstone Technology’s door. “We had been working with them for some time. For example, they had previously supported us in a technical migration to the cloud. That relationship has always remained. The consultant we finally got turned out to be a hit. It felt right from the first conversation. Together with him we arrived at a concrete plan that we then implemented.”

Increase efficiency and build trust

The main goal was to increase efficiency by further automating processes. “For us it was about saving time: time that employees could free up by using robots. We translated that saving into hours, which ultimately amounted to an expected saving of one million euros.”

However, he stresses that this figure is not the most important “Of course the board looks at the financial benefits, but for me it was mainly about creating trust in the organization. Colleagues must be able to trust that the applications are reliable and effective. When you create that trust, robotization becomes part of the business processes rather than a nice gadget.”

Building a Center of Excellence

With this vision, De Goudse and Tacstone Technology set out to establish a Center of Excellence. “The basis is a good foundation with clear goals, clear principles and governance. This is not just about technology, but especially about processes and people.”

“Because of that solid foundation and the creation of trust, robots are now truly integrated into our organization.”

Joey de Ruiter | Team Manager Digital Workspace, IT Service Desk, RPA and IAM De Goudse Insurance

The RPA team currently consists of four developers and a Product Owner, whereas it started with two developers and a Product Owner. “With that expansion, we were also able to introduce a clear assignment of responsibilities. For example, we designated someone as technical lead. In addition, we have someone focused on opportunity generation. We also further professionalized the process with technical standards and a structured approach to bringing robots live.”

Concrete goals and a new perspective on robotization

He continued: “With Tacstone Technology, we have established a number of strategic pillars. Our goal is to achieve a 50 percent increase in the number of requests we receive by 2024, compared to 2023. In addition, we targeted an adoption rate of at least 80 percent. Those concrete goals will help us adjust and measure the progress of the Center of Excellence.”

A savings of 8% in personnel costs over 2024 has almost been achieved at a rate of 7.79%. “But what we have really achieved this year is a shift in the way people within the organization view robots. Where before it was often a sense of “A robot is taking over my job”-which was accompanied by fear of job loss-it has now become collaboration, a co-creation.”

Human-robot collaboration

He cites as an example the Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO) processes, a requirement within the financial sector with manual, repetitive tasks. “Together with the business, we started analyzing this process. The result is that a robot is now part of that process. When a UBO request is submitted through our website, the robot processes the request in the background. Where an employee took a certain amount of time, the robot now does it 14 times faster.”

“This is a perfect example of robot-human collaboration, where the robot does the repetitive tasks and the employee can focus on more complex work. For me, this is one of the greatest milestones of the past year and a clear demonstration of what co-creation with robots can bring.”

From RPA to innovation with AI

Working with Tacstone Technology in this process was very valuable to him. “Their consultant made the difference for us. From day one, that consultant was part of the team, actively engaging with different departments and people within the organization about the power of RPA. Tacstone Technology also brought knowledge and experience from other projects.”

He sees the Center of Excellence as a forerunner for more innovation. “We have plans for the next few years to further integrate technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI). The combination of AI and RPA can bring tremendous power. Currently, strategic, new initiatives include RPA and AI from the very beginning. This makes efficiency and process improvement built right in rather than reactive. That’s a fundamental shift in how we deploy technology.”