Automation as a catalyst

When managers announce in an all-hands meeting that the company will be converting its ERP system over the next few months, very few employees are likely to cheer. Structuring data, revising processes, setting up new processes and finally learning how to use new software - all while doing the day-to-day tasks of the job. This can be a challenge for management and employees alike.

UiPath is an agile, fast-growing tech company. We develop AI-supported software for process automation. Our teams are used to analyzing, questioning and optimizing processes, but even in our company with around 4000 employees worldwide, some teams had respect for this challenge.

AI-supported automation

It was going to be a global project, but not across the entire company for the time being: With the help of our software robots, we wanted to set up SAP S4/Hana in the finance department first. Nonetheless, it was a hard piece of work. The step to switch to an SAP system was necessary because we rely on a stable ERP to be able to carry out our projects worldwide and scale the business.

At UiPath, we have been using our own automations for a long time - all employees are encouraged to send ideas for potential automations to the Center of Excellence - the team that programs and manages the automations - or to develop their own simple automations within our Citizen Developer program. We quickly came to the conclusion that this migration should be carried out with the support of AI-supported process automation.

However, as we are not SAP experts, we brought Deloitte on board for this project. The team took on the management of this huge project, supported us with their SAP expertise and ensured that all regulatory requirements for the audits were met.

Phase 0: Gaining an overview

Before we started the migration, teams from IT, Finance and Deloitte got together to start the discovery process: What product gaps did we notice in the current ERP? Which workflows will be affected by the migration and how will they change? How can processes be optimized? And how should the new user interfaces be designed?

For example, we used task mining to take a closer look at the existing workflows in the finance department. This tool analyzes every step that employees perform in their day-to-day business and identifies patterns that are suitable for automation. We discovered that tasks such as checking and approving invoices can be greatly simplified through automation.

The centerpiece: Design and Build

During the analysis, we decided to implement only SAP's Clean Core in order to use a stable, scalable system with less maintenance, which we could implement faster and supplement with our own process automations. Since UiPath and SAP are partners, there has long been a programming interface between the UiPath platform and SAP, so automations can be easily integrated. Once we had specified our requirements for the new ERP and analyzed the existing processes, the "design and build" phase involved setting up the SAP and programming our automations.

Agile approach

We chose an agile approach when setting up SAP: we are a dynamic company, so we wanted to be able to fail quickly so that we could make adjustments quickly without stalling progress. We also use the "automation first" approach within UiPath - our employees are trained to use, identify and build automation themselves. Therefore, there was only a small hurdle in showing our colleagues the new automations and training them in their use.

Our constant goal is to make work easier for employees. Software automation should relieve them of manual, repetitive work and bundle and analyze large amounts of data so that people have more time to take care of higher-level tasks while their robot colleagues carry out error-free preparatory work.

Software robots do not make mistakes. Basically, we are talking about algorithms that, once set up correctly, execute the same processes over and over again - for example: searching the mail inbox if it contains invoice documents, evaluating them, opening SAP and entering the document there. The principle of "human in the loop" is important: as soon as the software robot notices an anomaly and the program cannot continue, it sends a notification to the respective user.

Testing: four times faster

The testing phase revealed the true value of our automation solutions. Our test suite application tests processes automatically - and continuously. While traditional testing processes require manual checks and frequent interventions, we were able to largely automate testing with the help of our software robots. The robots carried out end-to-end tests of the new SAP processes. Faulty processes were identified immediately and our team was able to make proactive adjustments. As "humans in the loop", the employees were able to ensure that all processes were set up correctly and would function smoothly once the new SAP was rolled out.

Shortened testing phase

In many companies, software testing is a manual and therefore very tedious task. Due to a lack of time and resources, software is often not rolled out fully tested. This results in interruptions to operations because processes do not run or run incorrectly. While a normal test phase in SAP migration takes around four to six months, we were able to complete the testing in just one and a half months thanks to automation. This gave the project a significant boost in speed.

Employees on board?

Despite the careful planning and automation, the project was not without its challenges. One hurdle was the normal and understandable resistance to change on the part of some employees. Getting used to new software and new processes requires effort, especially for people who are very comfortable with routines and reluctant to deviate from them. Getting employees on board is just as important with SAP migration as with any other major process, as is the technical implementation. Fortunately, our employees are very tech-savvy. Nevertheless, there is of course training for employees in the finance team so that they can work with the new SAP as quickly and without frustration as possible.

The go-live

Our first go-live was in August 2024, when the first 36 legal entities were transferred to SAP S/4 Hana. It took us less than a year from the start of the project to the first go-live - thanks to our automations. During the migration, we developed new features, automations and best practices, which we will later summarize in an Automation Playbook together with Deloitte. This can serve other companies as a basis for a similar project in the future.

From 50 to 90

Thanks to the many automated processes, employees can now work much more efficiently: Before the changeover, half of all tasks in the Treasury department were carried out manually; after the change, up to 90 percent of the work is automated.
The situation is similar in accounting, where 60 percent of tasks were previously performed manually and the rate has fallen to 20 percent since the use of SAP and process automation. The teams can now concentrate more on strategic tasks, such as analyzing financial data or managing complex cash flows.

Clean Core

Over the next few months, five more units will be migrated to SAP and the automations will be further expanded. The migration to SAP S/4 Hana was undoubtedly one of the biggest IT challenges that UiPath has mastered to date. The clean-core approach in combination with our own automation solutions enabled us to implement the project in record time and at the same time lay the foundation for a long-term stable and scalable ERP.

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