Case Study


Contract Close Out Automation

Challenge

Our client managed the end to end lifecycle of public building acquisition and contracting related tasks from funding of a procurement request to standardization of the solicitation and award packages, funding the certification, obligation, and administration of an award. There were many manual processes related to managing these contracts including the contract close out related tasks that the client wanted automated. Many contract officers and specialists manage the contracts lifecycle process and the client estimated 32,640 hours being spent on the contract closeout process alone including process errors due to the manual nature of the work.  To that end, by automating many of the repetitive tasks associated with the close out process it was anticipated that these hours could be redirected to high value work.

Solution

OmniSolve worked with the client and key stakeholders to discuss possible solutions. It was noted that in addition to the repetitive nature of the work, there were nearly a dozen points in the process that required human decision making.  The following areas of opportunity were identified:

  • Determining which contracts were ready for close out 
  • Creating deobligation PRs and contract modifications to facilitate the contract closeout process
  • Performing receivables and invoice reconciliation
  • Determining which reconciliation variances required human intervention

Based upon these discussions, it was determined that the advantages of implementing robotic process automation (BOT) could be leveraged to help alleviate this challenge.  Specifically, a BOT solution was expected to help improve inaccuracies due to the manual processing and compliance with mandates as well as increase productivity of the contracting teams.

Featured Experts
Bill Shah
Bill Shah

Key Performance Metrics

Automates the process in which 8,000 Projects are updated at multiple points throughout the life of the project
Labor hour savings estimated at 8,232 (8,232 projects x 1 hour per project for multiple updates and follow ups)

Outcome

  • Automates the process in which 8,000 Projects are updated at multiple points throughout the life of the project
  • Labor hour savings estimated at 8,232 (8,232 projects x 1 hour per project for multiple updates and follow ups) 
  • Moved away from manual, repetitive process that was open to user error 
  • Removed input and follow up workload from Regional users allowing them to focus on more challenging activities
  • Accomplished by in house OCFO resources in close coordination with application PM and Business Line

The BOT automated the entry of actual design and construction dates for the repair and alterations program and provided updates to current year project estimates.

  • Since going live, the automation has successfully updated 31 projects' actual award dates

Technologies & Methodologies


UiPath