The work we're talking about
Every company has at least one, that site someone logs into every morning, types in the credentials, opens the right case, attaches the PDF, copies over two numbers taken from the business software and then saves the receipt in a folder, nobody calls it work, but it takes up real hours, and those are hours you pay for
The portal stays as it is, all that changes is who does the clicking
Which portals can be automated
Customer portals, supplier login areas, online banking, courier sites, public portals and business software that runs inside the browser, if a person works on it with a mouse and a keyboard, the system can usually follow the same path
Not all of them though, some sites have rules or barriers that make automation pointless or not allowed, and when that's the case we tell you before starting, instead of selling you a job that breaks later
Examples of what can be done
These are typical examples, they're here to show you the kind of thing that gets taken out of the way, they aren't jobs already delivered
- Log into the customer portal every morning, download the new orders and record them in the business software
- Upload invoices or delivery notes (DDT) to a supplier's login area, with the right attachment for each case
- Fill in a long form taking the data from an Excel file or a PDF, instead of copying it over by hand
- Download receipts, confirmations and payment slips, rename them by your rules and file them where they belong
- Check the status of a case and alert the right person when it changes
- Compare what the portal says with what the business software says, and flag the differences
The logins stay yours
Credentials are a sensitive point, so we talk about them first, the system can run on a computer inside your company, with your logins, without the passwords ever leaving it
Where there's a second factor, an SMS or a signature, that step stays with a person, the system prepares everything else and stops to wait, we don't get around the protections a site puts in place
What happens when the site changes
Portals change, they move a button, they redo a screen, it happens, fixing the steps when it does is covered by the monthly fee under the plan you chose, and it's one of the reasons this service runs on a subscription instead of on a project basis
When something doesn't add up
If the portal is slow, if an upload gets stuck or if a piece of data doesn't match, the process stops and flags it, instead of guessing
For every operation it stays written what was done, when, on which case and with what outcome, so you can always run a check