Context
At the beginning of 2020, the emergence of Covid-19 had a strong impact on Andalusian society and forced the Administration to take measures to speed up the distribution of aid. This need led to the creation by the Digital Agency of Andalusia of a centre of excellence, the Intelligent Automation Unit (Unidad de Automatización Inteligente – UAI).
Objectives
The objective was to define and implement a model that would successfully automate, through robotisation techniques, the processes with the greatest impact on citizens and which represent a greater workload for public managers. The intelligent management of aid to citizens and companies represents an innovative approach to improve efficiency and agility in the processing of aid in the region. Aid processes involve the processing of a high volume of files with a large number of requirements to be verified within tight deadlines. Intelligent management takes advantage of the common elements in the aid processes for their agile development and release, enhancing the response capacity of the Administration to achieve the following objectives:
- to guarantee the correct distribution of aid
- to improve the Administration’s efficiency
- to contribute to regional economic stability
- to promote digital transformation.
Implementation
For the implementation of this intelligent aid management model, the Digital Agency team has the support of the EY–Servinform joint venture for everything related to the governance of the robots, the identification of automation opportunities. This encompasses the design, development and support, and the expert advice resulting from the extensive experience in digital transformation projects through the use of intelligent automation technologies. In addition, the joint venture’s knowledge of the Junta de Andalucía, gained in previous collaborations, has ensured the success of the automation initiatives. A service contract was awarded at the end of 2021 with a total estimated value of more than €4.4 million and a duration of 2 + 2 years. The implementation of the project has been highly effective, processing over 500 000 aid applications and distributing over €2 billion in a timely and efficient manner, which has had a positive impact on Andalusian society.