RPA and Smart Automation
Case Studies

An International Fashion Company holds two yearly shows. After each fashion show, the items debuted are available for sale to the company’s employees. Fulfilling the employee orders involves handoff between 6 different groups: the Fashion Unit, the Finance Department, the individual employees, the Fashion Warehouse, Fashion Account Services, and the International team. Because of this, there is limited transparency throughout the process and a risk of orders being unfulfilled or containing errors. Accelirate’s RPA solution streamlined the process and enabled the Company to fulfill all employee orders.

1. Bot Prepares for Sale – Before the sale begins, the Bot downloads a catalogue containing all merchandise from the fashion show. The Bot excludes items from the show that will not be included in the sale, such as classic and cancelled items. The Bot uploads the sales offering data into a web form to be used by the employees placing orders.
2. Bot Downloads Data – After employees place their orders, the Bot downloads all order data from the web form and saves it to the local system.
3. Bot Reviews Orders – The Bot reviews each order and checks to make sure all selections are valid. If a selection is invalid (e.g., an employee orders an item in a size that is unavailable or in a quantity that exceeds the order limit), the Bot will send the employee a notification with the option to cancel a prior order.
4. Bot Places Orders – The Bot consolidates all order data from the web form and places it into a spreadsheet, then uploads the sheet to the company’s fashion ordering system to finalize the order.
5. Bot Tracks Orders – The Bot tracks orders and shipments through the inventory management system to provide advance notice of when shipments will arrive. This is advantageous as the order fulfillment process entails the International team gathering and shipping the items to the warehouse, which can take 2-3 months.
6. Bot Sends Invoice – An employee scans each package that arrives at the warehouse, which automatically triggers the Bot to print a packing slip, pull the shipment invoice from the internal system, and send the invoice to the Finance Team.
7. Bot Sends Payment Request – The Bot sends the employee an email notifying them their goods have arrived and prompting them to make their payment.
8. Bot Processes Payment – Once an employee makes their payment, the Bot verifies the amount and updates payment status in the internal system. If an employee does not pay within the time frame set by the Finance Team, the Bot sends the employee a follow-up. If an invoice is very delinquent and the employee has not paid after several follow-ups, the Bot notifies the Finance Team to escalate.
9. Bot Applies Cash – Once all orders are delivered, the Bot saves a PDF of the delivery truck log with payment receipts, then enters the cash in SAP
10. Bot Generates Report – After the sale concludes and all goods have been paid for and picked up, the Bot generates a report of each step performed and notates details including items ordered, shipment dates, and order totals. The Bot saves all reports to the company’s internal system for recordkeeping.

RPA implementation helped the client easily track employee orders every step of the way, ensuring orders did not get lost or cancelled without any record. Automating this process also simplified inventory verification and the purchase order and payment verification process, leading to major time savings for the Finance Department, Fashion Account Services, and Warehouse Team.