ValueEdge: Value Stream Management
Align corporate investments with business strategy
Continuous quality from requirements to delivery
Scale enterprise SCCM with security and compliance
Resilient AI-powered functional test automation
Enterprise-level requirements management
Deliver continuous application performance testing
Plan, track, orchestrate, and release applications
Govern quality and implement auditable processes
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Modernize mainframe applications for the Cloud
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Access host data and automate processes with RPA
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Discover, manage, and map configurations & assets
Accelerate provisioning with governance in place
Automate and orchestrate processes end to end
Manage IT & software assets for better compliance
Automate server provisioning, patching, and compliance
Automate screen-based human actions with robots
All Micro Focus learning in one place
Build the skills to succeed
Streamline software delivery for faster value
ValueEdge: Value Stream Management
Align corporate investments with business strategy
Continuous quality from requirements to delivery
Scale enterprise SCCM with security and compliance
Resilient AI-powered functional test automation
Enterprise-level requirements management
Deliver continuous application performance testing
Plan, track, orchestrate, and release applications
Govern quality and implement auditable processes
Automate deployments for continuous delivery
Access all products in application delivery management
Modernize Core Business Systems to Drive Business Transformation
Build business applications using new tools & platforms
The leading solution for COBOL application modernization
Modernize mainframe applications for the Cloud
Modernize host application access
Discover the future of CORBA
Modern mainframe application delivery for IBM Z
Secure, zero-footprint access to host applications
Access host data and automate processes with RPA
Multi-factor Authentication for IBM z/OS endpoints
Access all products in Application Modernization & Connectivity
Security at the core to everything you do; Operations, Applications, Identity and Data
Build secure software fast
Augment human intelligence
Discover, analyze, and protect sensitive data
Drive IT ecosystem with identity-centric expertise
Deliver simplified, secure access to users
Scale to billions of identities with IGA platform
Gain control of privileged user activities
Track changes and activities in managed services
Get fast, accurate detection of threats
Access all products in CyberRes
Trusted, proven legal, compliance and privacy solutions
Analytics for text, audio, video, and image data
Reduce risk, cost, and maintenance, and T2M
AI and machine learning for data analysis
Enterprise backup/disaster recovery
Unified traditional and mobile device management
Meet regulatory & privacy retention requirements
Email, IM, and chat-based collaboration
Mobile workforce communication & collaboration
Secure critical file storage and print services
Access all products in Information Management and Governance
Simplify Your IT Transformation
Manage IT & non-IT services with automation and AI
Discover, monitor, and remediate with AIOps
Monitor and optimize complex networks
Discover, manage, and map configurations & assets
Accelerate provisioning with governance in place
Automate and orchestrate processes end to end
Manage IT & software assets for better compliance
Automate server provisioning, patching, and compliance
Automate screen-based human actions with robots
Access all products in IT Operations Management
Give your team the power to make your business perform to its fullest
Automate repetitive, everyday finance processes so analysts can focus on more challenging projects that require human brainpower.
Micro Focus helps organizations run and transform their business. Driven by customer-centric innovation, the company provides the critical tools needed to build, operate, secure, and analyze the enterprise. By design, these tools bridge the gap between existing and emerging technologies – enabling faster innovation, with less risk, in the race to digital transformation.
Digital transformation is imperative to the survival of all organizations, including Micro Focus. Tapping into its own software portfolio, Micro Focus used RPA to take on digital transformation and build a more efficient enterprise – one robot at a time.
With the rising popularity of finance and accounting RPA use cases, it wasn’t long before Micro Focus Finance showed an interest. The seven team members are split across two continents and support all the company’s general ledger activities. They realized that robots could perform many of their everyday tasks – logging in and out of applications, downloading and manipulating csv files, copying and pasting data, uploading and validating data, and compiling and emailing reports.
According to Gowrishankar Ramakrishna Rao, Financial Analyst for Micro Focus, “We wondered if there was a way to increase our productivity and save time, especially during hectic month-end close periods, when every minute counts, and during weekends and holidays.”
The team collaborated with Micro Focus IT to identify business processes that were right for RPA. Strategic Development IT Project Manager Sridhar Srinivasan said, “We guide business teams to identify RPA opportunities and implement the automation. They should be the ones to decide what to automate. There has to be business value and ROI payback.”
Micro Focus IT and Finance started with use cases that would make a difference. First up – the updating and validation of central bank rates. The finance team is responsible for updating exchange rates using numbers published by central banks around the world. The six-step manual process, which must be performed nearly every day, involved accessing multiple applications, searching for the day’s rates for select currencies, downloading and formatting data, and checking that the correct rates were applied.
Now, Micro Focus RPA updates and validates central bank rates in a matter of minutes. Using its Java and web skills, the robot works side-by-side with API operations to move between applications, gather and parse the data, and then upload and validate it – just like a human would. Scheduled to run every weekday and Saturday evenings, Micro Focus RPA completes the process 85 percent faster than its human counterpart.
The team also decided to automate the month end revaluation process for open foreign currency balances. In this case, a robot performs the tedious task of running revaluation reports – quickly and accurately navigating the financial application, selecting the previous month’s posting period, selecting the right accounting book, and checking status and error values for all entries, row by row. Once the robot completes the screen work, an API component of RPA compiles and emails a report.
Before RPA, when an error occurred, the analyst would have to manually log into the finance application, check the status, and extract an Excel file to figure out what went wrong. Now, with RPA at the helm, any exceptions are automatically highlighted and handled immediately.
“It’s amazing how you only need to train the robot once,” said Rao. “Then it performs tasks like an expert and complies with accounting standards.” The training process is easy. Subject matter experts simply record their screen actions, exactly as the robot should perform them. Next, the recording is inserted into the RPA automation flow and parameterized. Then it’s ready to run, even if input variables change. Robots mimic humans – but they are faster, more accurate, highly secure, and work at night.
All robot actions can be tracked in detailed logs, in real time. “Before automation, we spent hours answering queries and keeping meticulous trail documentation in case we had to show evidence of how we managed errors,” said Rao.
Gowrishankar Ramakrishna Rao – FINANCIAL ANALYST
Micro Focus
Now that robots have taken on the robotic work, Micro Focus’ financial analysts can take on more challenging projects that require critical thinking. There is no human dependency, and RPA runs during holidays and on weekends as needed. “RPA allows me to focus on the more important aspects of my job and develop my career,” said Rao. “RPA is powerful.”
Micro Focus IT will continue to help business teams understand the power of RPA. “It’s intuitive for every subject matter expert to record their screen actions for robots to mimic,” said Srinivasan.
Sridhar Srinivasan – STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT IT PROJECT MANAGER
Micro Focus