Doing more work with virtual assistance

One of the examples that has already allowed us to gain a lot in several processes is the use of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) What is RPA and how does it help us to work even more smartly and efficiently?
To be able to process applications faster, we are always looking for innovative solutions. One of these is a solution that takes over a part of the administrative work: Robotic Process Automation (RPA). We can use it to have virtual staff mimic human activities. ‘Such a virtual staff member can really make a difference,’ Roos Marie explains. ‘It ensures that we can do a lot more work with less human hands.’ 

Virtual staff member Freddy

Roos Marie, project manager at the IND Information Provision Department, is closely involved in the implementation and use of RPA within the IND. ‘By now, we are using RPA for several processes,’ she tells. ‘For some processes, we often have to enter the same data multiple times in different systems, for example. This repetitive work takes a lot of time and we run the risk of making mistakes. A virtual staff member picks up this kind of task quickly and without any errors.’
Since February, staff of the Digital Registration and Preparation Department have been getting help from virtual ‘staff member’ Freddy. He links lawyers to asylum cases and this saves IND staff a lot of time. ‘They often carried out this time-consuming administrative activity between their other tasks.
Freddy has been working since mid-February, and has carried out his tasks successfully. He processed 6525 messages in total in a short time. Roos Marie jokes that ‘an added benefit is that Freddy works day and night. And he never complaints about it.’

Peaks in summer

RPA also assists IND staff responsible for processing applications by foreign students who want to study in our country. During peak periods, particularly in summer, the IND receives around 18,000 study applications. A lot of data need to be checked and ticked for these applications before a file can be labelled as ‘processed’.

‘For this, we often hired agency workers in this busy period. But they too needed to be trained, which took a lot of time for our permanent staff. And that while they already had huge amounts of work waiting for them. Because virtual assistants now take over part of the tasks, colleagues have time for other tasks.’

‘And here the effect is also clearly noticeable. Since March, 144 study applications have been processed with RPA. ‘The large peak still has to come. We expect that the number will increase by hundreds per week in the upcoming period. This way, we think that the virtual assistant will cooperate on 2100 study applications in week 24 and in week 25 – at the peak – on 2200 applications.’

By now, the IND is using RPA for eight processes, ‘and we will continue to develop,’ according to Roos Marie. In the short term, five processes will be added. 
Roos Marie emphasises that successful deployment of software ‘will always involve interplay between human and RPA.’ She says, ‘A robot can never take over all our work. It’s a great tool, but of course it will not solve everything.’

Space to catch our breath

Still, Roos Marie is mostly very happy with the arrival of RPA. Her opinion is that ‘especially now – now there’s so much work waiting for us – it is important to help applicants as quickly as possible.’ ‘And RPA helps enormously. By saving time, staff can focus even more on the important thinking and the human side of our work, because that’s something a virtual staff member can’t do. This gives us space to catch our breath and also provides an opportunity to think about the deployment of RPA in the future. How can we use it even better? How can we save time, costs and energy with it? This gain can then be reinvested in the services for applicants.’