Based out of TREC STEP Incubation Centre, NIT Campus, Trichy, SurfaceInsight Technologies has been pioneering Intelligent Process Discovery, Process Automation, and BOT Development through best in class innovative solutions that derive its credibility from one of the best institutions in India. Pagutharivu Muthusamy, Director at SurfaceInsight gives an elucidated account of how the firm has delivered excellent business advantages to its clients.

In conversation with Pagutharivu Muthusamy, Director, SurfaceInsight Technologies

RPA is increasingly being adopted by enterprises - large and small. In fact, more than 5000 enterprises are already leveraging RPA for business transformation. Being a RPA solution provider, how is SurfaceInsight Technologies positioned in this market?
There are several RPA products that focus on automating business processes. However, there are very few products that focus on process discovery which is a critical phase before actual automation. The success of an RPA program depends on how well the existing AS-IS processes are documented and understanding the right process candidates for automation. In most cases process discovery is underestimated and RPA programs run into cost and schedule overruns.

Most of the process discovery techniques are manual, time consuming and error prone. SurfaceInsight delivers a powerful solution, SurfaceAI – a non intrusive desktop based automated process discovery product that can capture keystroke level details and generate process documentation and

process maps in real-time. SurfaceAI can save up to 60 percent effort on process discoveryactivities.

With AI/ML enabling RPA, it has evolved from merely automating processes and tasks to becoming key in driving enterprise transformation. What kind of services does SurfaceIn- sight Technologies provide to customers in this shift in the preference of technology?
In most organizations, business processes are defined as Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) which is outdated or in Visio flow charts that provide limited information. The existing documentation provides a siloed view of how the business operation is structured. Using SurfaceInsight’s SurfaceAI process discovery product, organizations can create a business process blue print (process taxonomy) which can provide a bottom-up and top-down view of how the business operations are structured and its association with other processes. This unique seven level taxonomy map can serve as a central repository to identify synergies and redundancy across the operations landscape. Organizations can then use SurfaceAI to record process flows at real-time and maps them to the taxonomy. The recording at an activity level provides keystroke level details that can be used as an input for Robotic Process Automation. The process and automation insight delivered by SurfaceAI’s AI/ML engine provides an intuitive real-time view of process complexities and bottlenecks that can be used to by RPA teams.

organization that can be customised for each customer with 7 levels of hierarchies (Organization, Division, Department, Functional/ Process Group, Function/process, Sub Process and Activity). It also includes Process flow and swimlane view at activity, sub process and process level, standard Operating Procedure and Process Analytics. Automation Insights details the users about AS-IS process flow with keystroke level snapshots, screen level metadata with technology details, and video recording of real-time process for creating To-Be process maps.

Tell us about one implementation provided by SurfaceInsight Technologies in an industry that has earned significant recognition for the company?
Promoted in 1986, by the Central and State Governments of India, such as the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, Government of Tamil Nadu, Trec Step is one of the first Science and Technology Entrepreneurs Parks in the country. This organization was facing a challenge to extract data for 100K members across 42 different NGO sectors in India and to analyze the same data (500+ data elements) to shortlist the funding requirements for European Union development fund. We deployed SurfaceAI to capture AS-IS process for each sector using our computer vision engine. We also allocated Digital workforce to extract 2.3 million data elements. As a result, the firm secured 100 percent process discovery accuracy, more than 40 percent reduction of SME effort during PD, and cost savings of 80 percent sue to automation.

SurfaceInsight was awarded for being among the Top 10 IT Startups in Chennai from 850+ applicants by Chennai NEXT Startup Challenge conducted by TREC STEP & CI-TIC. Recognition at this level definitely makes us believe that we are right track in terms of value provision and making a difference to various businesses that we engage with.

What further innovation do you plan to include in your RPA solution offerings? What are your future innovation goals?
Our vision is to create a technology agnostic process discovery product that can be used by end users with no programming skills. SurfaceAI is a non intrusive desktop product that can be used by with the basic knowledge of MS Office.