In 2013, the Target Corporation experienced one of the largest credit card breaches in history, with hackers stealing nearly 70 million credit and debit card numbers. This breach had a significant impact on small and mid-sized card issuers, who were faced with the daunting task of manually changing card holder limits, noting accounts, and then cancelling and reissuing cards. A Massachusetts-based community bank with $500 million in assets found that approximately 10% of their card holder base (900 cards) was potentially affected by the breach. The traditional recovery process from such a breach involves manually sending a letter and e-mail to affected customers, manually lowering transaction limits, manually updating account information, and then manually cancelling and reissuing cards. This process is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and prone to human error.

Radixx International faced a significant challenge in testing its software quickly and efficiently to maintain its quality reputation, without slowing delivery to market and incurring excessive costs that would impact product profitability. The company initially replaced manual testing with one of the leading testing suites on the market. However, this solution required a substantial initial investment and significant staff hours for training, coding, and suite maintenance. After trying a second suite with similar poor results, Radixx returned to manual testing as the more cost-effective option. The company needed a testing solution that better fit its scrum-based agile development methodology, without the high price tag and labor costs of the testing suites currently on the market.

New Bedford Corporation, a healthcare service provider, was faced with the challenge of manually entering patient care data into their Vitera Intergy Practice Management application. This process involved keying in thousands of medical charges weekly, each with up to 40 different pieces of information such as name, address, and specific treatment. The manual data entry process was not only tedious and time-consuming, requiring up to 8 hours each day, but also prone to errors and delays. The company also faced the risk of legal implications due to the sensitive nature of the medical information being handled. Furthermore, the cost of employing workers to perform this task was a significant financial burden for the company.

Pay It Forward Scholarships, a non-profit organization based in Gainesville, Georgia, provides approximately $6 million annually to fund students' education at private schools throughout the state. The organization receives contributions from individuals, families, and businesses, which then become scholarships for children in grades K through 12. The organization also has access to $58 million in dollar-for-dollar tax credits to reserve for Georgia taxpayers who donate money. However, the state of Georgia gives Pay It Forward just 24 hours – January 1st of each year – to enter relevant information on each of its thousands of donors into their Department of Revenue’s (DOR) online portal. The non-profit risks losing the tax break for every potential recipient they cannot get entered into the system. It is a tedious, time-consuming manual process that requires considerable resources to accomplish. Pay It Forward sought a better way with Nintex Foxtrot RPA.

Standard Bank & Trust Co., a $2.2 Billion bank with 37 branches throughout Illinois and Northwest Indiana, was facing several operational challenges. The bank needed an efficient way to identify the various personal and business account portfolios for each customer, view the total account relationships, and understand the profitability of a given customer. However, the process of associating the accounts with one another and performing the thousands of necessary changes was proving to be a manual, time-consuming, and resource-intensive task. Additionally, the bank was also dealing with the challenge of reassigning accounts to different employees in the event of a job change, which could involve up to 5,000 accounts per incident. Another significant challenge was the annual dormant debit card purge process, which required the bank to manually search for cards that had been unused for nine months or more and change their status to “closed”. This process involved up to 10,000 cards per year and could take over 150 employee-hours to complete.

Scott & White Health Plan and Insurance Company (SWHP), a Texas-based health maintenance organization (HMO) with over 215,000 members, was facing significant challenges with their manual data entry processes. The company was struggling with a large volume of manual data entry, which included copying and pasting data, setting up new pay classes, and establishing new provider networks. The passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was expected to bring an influx of new applicants, which would further increase the time spent on manual data entry. The process of creating new networks involved copying and pasting rate, service, and other information from a similar plan into the new ones, a process that could take up to four weeks. Similarly, setting up new pay classes was a time-consuming task, taking up to 45 minutes per job.

Institution for Savings (IFS), a $2 Billion financial institution with seven full-service locations throughout Massachusetts, was grappling with multiple, time-consuming manual processes in various areas of the bank. The bank was seeking a new way to reduce the time and cost associated with these processes. In 2009, IFS migrated their existing core to a new core system. Although the conversion was successful, inconsistencies and formatting errors in some of their customer data still remained and required more time to correct. Additionally, a pending implementation of a Bank Secrecy Act compliance solution created a conflict between that solution and the existing risk fields already present in their core. This necessitated more manual work to remove the risk fields in up to 20,000 customer information files (CIFs). In 2014, the state of Massachusetts changed the withholding rate on some investment accounts, including IRAs. ISF representatives would need days to manually change the withholding rate on each of over 200 IRA accounts. The resulting delays and occasional keying error would mean less time spent with customers and more time with data.

Care1st Health Plan Arizona, a Phoenix-based healthcare provider, faced a significant challenge when they expanded their services from Maricopa County to Pima County. This expansion increased their enrollment from approximately 50,000 to over 70,000 individuals almost overnight. The organization had to quickly update or add line-of-business records, provider panels, and other records to ensure continuity of coverage and reimburse providers. Additionally, as a newly-named Third Party Administrator (TPA) for Arizona’s insurance cooperative offered through the new National Health Insurance Marketplace, the organization was preparing to handle potentially thousands of new enrollees and provider records over the coming months. The organization traditionally used up to 15 different macros per day to perform large data entry and maintenance tasks, but these were unreliable and required constant monitoring. The small provider data management team was often pulled away from their daily work to manually enter smaller jobs of fewer than 200 records.

First Mid-Illinois Bank & Trust, a $1.5 Billion Bank with 37 locations throughout Illinois, was facing a significant challenge in managing multiple, daily data-related tasks that were time-consuming and negatively impacting productivity. Employees were spending a significant amount of their time on tasks such as product code changes, adjustments to overdraft limits, fee assessments, responsibility code updates, and other manual processes. This left them with less time to serve customers or work on high-value projects. One specific task involved updating accounts that had qualified for the bank’s overdraft protection service, which required two employees to work for two days each month to change the status on an average of 500 accounts. Additionally, the bank began assessing a $1 monthly dormancy fee to inactive DDAs and savings accounts in late-2012. However, their core system was unable to retroactively apply that fee to accounts that were already dormant, leading to the need for manual application of fees, which was a time-consuming process.

Auswide Bank, based in Queensland, Australia, is committed to providing the best banking experience to its over 85,000 customers. This commitment led to the initiation of the 'Road to Right' project, an initiative aimed at ensuring the bank does the right thing for its customers the first time, every time. A crucial part of this initiative was to fully understand the bank's processes and identify areas for improvement. However, the bank faced challenges in mapping its processes and optimizing its customer-facing processes, including loan originations and personal banking processes. The bank needed an easy-to-use tool for process management and a no-code tool to improve business processes through automation and digital forms.

Agilyx, a global IT services company, faced the challenge of integrating compliance systems into their day-to-day operations. With offices in multiple countries, the complexity of their operations was high. They needed a way to document and communicate processes across their worldwide operations. Additionally, as an IT company, information security was critical, making ISO27001 accreditation a significant goal. The ongoing management of their information security management system was a complex task. Furthermore, Agilyx aimed to embed corporate social responsibility into their processes, specifically improving their environmental practice and management system to achieve Enviro-Mark Diamond Level status.

BNBuilders, a general contractor specializing in commercial construction projects, faced a significant challenge during the COVID-19 pandemic. With over 500 full-time employees and approximately 250 additional unionized employees working across California and Washington, the company needed to ensure the safety of its workforce amidst the pandemic. The West Coast of the United States, where BNBuilders operates, was hit hardest by the virus, leading to stay-home orders for all non-essential workers. However, construction was considered an essential business, and BNBuilders' clients still expected projects to be delivered on time. The company's crisis response team determined that a daily check-in form was needed for anyone visiting its offices and job sites. This form, based on CDC recommendations, would allow BNBuilders’ crisis and safety teams to monitor the risk of possible virus exposure and enable contact tracing.

Bidvest SACD, a leader in supply chain management, was grappling with paper-based processes that made it challenging to track inventory and resolve process-related issues. The company's capital was largely tied up in inventory that wasn't accurately monitored, and managing expenditures was difficult due to non-standardized processes. Financial analysis was a time-consuming process, with information scattered between systems or stored on paper. The company was also hindered by operational inefficiencies due to their reliance on paper-based processes, limiting the information needed for effective decision-making and making timely decisions difficult. Additionally, without K2 Five, development cycles were long, making it challenging to support the needs of the business.

A leading consumer electronics company in Taiwan, with over 20 years in business, was seeking a dynamic and efficient workflow solution to manage diverse processes ranging from consumer sales to ISO documentation and employee onboarding. The company, known for its innovative products such as early smartphones, dual-camera technologies, and virtual reality (VR) systems, needed a workflow solution that could match its agility and innovation. The company was already using SharePoint for document management but found the workflow solution provided by SharePoint Designer to be slow and not user-friendly for non-technical employees. This resulted in a reliance on technical staff to create business workflows, which slowed down business managers who wanted to respond to new business needs rather than learning complex software tools.

ConnectWise, an award-winning software suite provider, faced significant challenges when they decided to integrate their four separate business units - ConnectWise Automate, ConnectWise Sell, ConnectWise Control, and ConnectWise Manage. These units had been operating independently, each with its own set of processes and tools. The integration resulted in a cluttered system with duplications, outdated documents, and process variations, which slowed down operations. The challenge was to streamline these processes and ensure effective communication across all units. The company also needed a solution that could integrate with their existing SharePoint system and be easy for their predominantly young workforce to use and understand.

CAE Australia, a global leader in providing comprehensive training solutions, faced a significant challenge when it outgrew its existing business process management (BPM) infrastructure. The company, which employs 8,000 people at over 160 sites and trains more than 120,000 aviation crew members annually, was struggling with a lack of clarity around roles and responsibilities. This lack of clarity was hindering the company's ability to embed continuous improvement into the fabric of their organization. Remi Guillemette, CAE Australia’s business processes and continuous improvement manager, recognized the need for a shift in the company's culture towards one that prioritized continuous improvement and process ownership. The challenge was to find a way to shift the focus from compliance to performance, without compromising on compliance, and to motivate employees to take ownership of their processes.

On March 13, 2020, Denver’s Emergency Operations Center (EOC) faced an unprecedented challenge. The EOC, which is accustomed to responding to emergencies such as blizzards, floods, and power outages, had to quickly adapt to the new reality of the COVID-19 pandemic. The city officials sent workers home, including those on the EOC, as part of the government’s stay-at-home response to the pandemic. The challenge was to keep the EOC’s shift of 100 members working to ensure public safety when every tool and process they relied on was physically in a 1,000 sq. ft. facility to which they would no longer have access. The EOC had to quickly move its operations online to ensure productivity while EOC members worked from home during COVID-19 social distancing measures.

Community Colleges NZ, a charitable training establishment in New Zealand, was facing challenges with their paper-based quality management system (QMS). The system was time-consuming and often led to inconsistencies across different sites. The organization was also subject to inspections by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) that measured their educational performance and their ability to assess and improve themselves. After an inspection in 2012 rated them as ‘confident’ and a category 2 provider, the organization realized the need for a better way of recording improvement processes.

EG A/S, a leading software company in Scandinavia, was struggling with a manual process for onboarding and offboarding employees. This process involved a flurry of emails between line managers, human resources, and IT to authorize employee accounts, assign resources, and more. Offboarding required the return or reassignment of these assets in a secure way that protected the company and its network. The process was time-consuming and threatened to become more so as EG’s workforce continued to grow. Worse, there was no way to track the status of the myriad requests and resource allocations, leaving EG managers in the dark.

Equilibrium Financial Planning, a UK-based wealth management company, was facing challenges in maintaining consistent customer service due to the diverse approaches used by its multiple advisors. As the company's client base grew to over 1,200 managed accounts, the need for structured processes became evident to maintain the highest standard of customer service. With a team of seven advisors and a support staff of 90, each with unique ways of working, the firm lacked a documented approach to processes that ensured a consistent customer experience. The company faced a challenge in maintaining consistency in their approach to managing accounts, particularly when onboarding new clients. Simple mistakes could cost leads and negatively affect the reputation of the organization. In some cases, mistakes could even lead to regulatory violations and fines.

Extraco Banks, a community bank with over $1.5 billion in assets and 120,000 customers across 15 branch locations, was facing a challenge with its remote deposit capture (RDC) approval process. The process was manually reviewed and approved by the bank’s call center staff twice a day, which was time-consuming and inefficient. The bank wanted to automate this process to free up its staff and expedite the process for its customers. One of the bank’s most manual processes was approving RDC requests. Extraco’s call center team of just 15 was responsible for reviewing RDC requests in addition to fielding customer calls and questions. The manual process meant customers had to wait hours, sometimes days, to know if they were approved for remote deposit capture. The slow drawn-out approvals resulted in calls into the bank’s call center, with remote deposit capture requests ranking as one of the most common complaints.

Dairy Nutraceuticals (DNL), a New Zealand-based manufacturer and distributor of fortified powders, was facing increased compliance requirements related to food safety. These requirements focused on induction, training, and retraining of staff. The food manufacturing industry is heavily regulated, with regular stringent audits and increasing customer expectations for quality and safety. DNL needed to manage all their compliance documentation effectively. Moreover, the industry's growing focus on training and operator competence meant that DNL had to provide evidence that their staff members were not only trained but also competent in operating critical parts of the process. They also had to manage health and safety risks, financial risks, and production risks. The challenge was further compounded by the need to deliver training in different formats and capture records of training or competency.

The Australian service division of a global car manufacturer was struggling with maintaining consistent customer service standards across its dealership network. The traditional method of storing business processes in lengthy manuals was proving ineffective, as these were rarely used and often forgotten. This resulted in varying customer service procedures across the dealerships. The manufacturer was also unable to ensure that customers consistently received service excellence, and dealers found it difficult to access or share knowledge about best practices. The lack of a robust process management tool was hindering the manufacturer's commitment to quality and ongoing process improvement.

Goodwill of Central and Coastal Virginia (GCCVA), a non-profit organization providing job-training, employment placement services, and other community-based programs, was facing challenges with its IT infrastructure. The organization was heavily reliant on SharePoint 2010, using many InfoPath forms and SharePoint Designer workflows. However, these tools presented significant limitations, especially when interacting with other line-of-business systems. GCCVA had built custom applications on top of SharePoint, using native SharePoint rules, controls, and webparts. These applications required using a CodePlex list adapter to pull data out of SharePoint into a custom SQL database. This process was complicated and often caused many problems. Furthermore, InfoPath was slow and difficult to use, especially for non-developers. The organization was planning to migrate from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2019, which presented an opportunity to improve their IT infrastructure.

Greenline, a commercial shade sail manufacturer and installer, was aiming to achieve the gold standard of triple ISO accreditation. This was crucial for the Australian company as a significant portion of their work comes from government contracts, including schools and hospitals. The triple ISO certifications (environmental, quality assurance, and occupational health and safety) would serve as a symbol of trust, demonstrating their serious approach to risk. However, to gain certification, Greenline needed to prove that their manufacturing and safety processes were up to the mark. While their processes met the standard, their existing process management system was inadequate and unable to pass the stringent external audit.

La Trobe University's Infrastructure and Operations Division was faced with the daunting task of achieving three ISO certifications simultaneously. These certifications, while adding significant value to the organization, are notoriously difficult to achieve due to the extensive requirements around establishing and documenting processes. The team was working towards three standard certifications at once, which added a layer of complexity as they needed to consider quality, safety, and environmental sustainability while developing their processes. The process involved working with numerous subject matter experts to update and document processes. The challenge was further compounded by the fact that many of the people involved were unfamiliar with process mapping or ISO requirements.

Kiama Municipal Council, located on the South Coast of Australia, provides a wide range of services, from traditional government services to holiday parks and aged care facilities. However, the council faced a significant challenge as very few of their service-related processes were mapped, leading to numerous inefficiencies. The council needed to gain clarity about their operations and identify areas for improvement. The primary tasks were to understand what they do, how they do it, and then apply a lean methodology to identify opportunities for improvement. The challenge was to find a Business Process Management (BPM) tool that could be used and understood by all levels of the organization.

iNova Pharmaceuticals, a major pharmaceutical firm active across Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and Africa, was seeking to expand its brands and geographic reach. However, the company faced challenges in handling business processes that required workflows across multiple departments and country locations. The existing processes were decentralized and ad hoc, based on email threads and a variety of SharePoint folders. This led to significant time wastage on manually intensive processes, such as chasing down people for approvals and documentation. The technology team was tasked with supporting a growing business with the same resources, which was proving to be a daunting task. The company needed a more effective and efficient way to manage these processes to support its growth strategy.

Lands’ End, a renowned international retailer, was facing a significant challenge in managing custom orders for logoed apparel. The process was manual, time-consuming, and prone to errors, leading to delays in delivering orders to customers and increased costs. The company had to handle individual custom orders as quickly and reliably as it handled standard orders to keep corporate customers satisfied. The custom order process involved communicating instructions for special orders within the company and to international suppliers and customers via email and phone. This resulted in a six-to-eight-week process to deliver customers’ orders. If the order wasn't right, the process had to start over, leading to 100% rework, 100% more cost, and a 100% delay.

Liverpool City Council, one of the fastest-growing areas in Australia, was preparing for significant new developments associated with the new Western Sydney International Airport. The council needed to improve its internal processes to better support this growth. The council provides a portfolio of services to residents and businesses in the area, with over 800 staff managing everything from waste and recycling facilities to parks, libraries, and childcare centres. As the area has grown, so too has the support delivered by the council, leading to a rise in the number of internal processes followed by staff across all departments and locations. Many of these processes had not been fully documented and important details only existed in the heads of staff, leading to a risk of knowledge loss if certain people left.