Intelligent Automation Transforms the Contract Management Process for a Pharma Giant

Client

A Belgian pharmaceutical major with over 7,500 employees and presence in over 40 countries. The client is dedicated to improving the lives of patients through cutting-edge research and development. Known for its commitment to scientific excellence and patient-centric approach, the client strives to address unmet medical needs with its diverse portfolio of medications.  

Challenge

The procurement process was the area of focus for the client. Being a global firm, there were thousands of contracts that needed to be processed and ingested into the procurement system. This requirement necessitated employees to focus on large documents in multiple languages, resulting in a considerable backlog of contracts. There was a need to enhance employee productivity and ensure optimal use of technology to streamline the contract management process.

Solution

Hexaware dove deep into the existing state of the contract management process, identifying critical challenges in extracting information from unstructured, multilingual contracts. Our process transformation and domain specialists devised a solution to address these issues by optimally combining human expertise with advanced technology.

We used Cognitive OCR (Optical Character Recognition) and RPA (Robotic Process Automation) with our consultants to put a new operating model in place. It significantly reduced the effort required to read through extensive contracts and extract necessary information.

We also completed a transformation assessment for this client and the project began with a standardization exercise. It involved standardizing the emails to ensure seamless BOT operations. Post that, the solution had three major steps:

• Reading incoming emails containing scanned contract documents.
• Capturing relevant fields from the contract copy.
• Logging into the procurement system, Ariba, to input captured information into the system.

Here’s how it worked:

Document extraction: A bot extracts scanned contract documents from incoming emails.

Information capture: The cognitive OCR processes these documents, capturing over 40 fields of data, 20 of which are mandatory. The captured information is displayed within the tool for user quality checks. The Machine Learning (ML)-based OCR solution defines multiple templates and layouts to effectively capture data from various structured and unstructured contract formats, minimizing human intervention over time.

Data entry: Another bot logs into Ariba and enters the captured data. This involves navigating multiple screens and retrieving information from various folders, ensuring a smooth handoff across the three steps.

As a result of this automation, the role of the employee dedicated to the process evolved from creating contracts in the system to engaging in higher-value activities such as negotiation and focusing on critical contract clauses.

Benefits

A scalable, flexible solution was delivered with the correct procedures in place for quality control and great employee experience. Through this intelligent automation intervention, the customer achieved:

• 66% reduction in the Average Handling Time (AHT) to process contracts
• 100% closures in a day
• 71% reduction in efforts to process contracts
• A clear backlog of contracts to improve the experience

Summary

Hexaware transformed the contract management process for a Belgian pharmaceutical giant using intelligent automation. By implementing cognitive OCR and RPA, we reduced the AHT by 66%, cleared contract backlogs, and optimized employee productivity. The automation enabled 100% contract closures in a day and cut processing efforts by 71%.