The Norwegian Tax Administration (NTA) supports 5.4 million Norway citizens, raising funds to provide for necessary health, education, transportation services and more. Behind this organization are 7,500 employees working hard to assist their fellow citizens. A key responsibility for the Tax Administration is to determine a tax rate for each citizen, a task that, until recently, had to be done manually. To free employees from this manual work, NTA engaged a team of Blue Prism digital workers.

Challenge

The mission of the NTA is to treat each taxpayer equally and to ensure each person receives the exact right tax rate based on their individual situation. One particularly vulnerable group among the population are those supported by the Norwegian Welfare State. Since these citizens don’t receive income from an employer, it’s critical the state determines the correct level of tax so as not to overburden them.

Armed with a list of these citizens, the tax allocation staff worked diligently to process each case. But the list was long and processing each case had to be done manually. The team had to access multiple screens to verify the taxpayer information was correct. Once adjustments were made, the staff could close the case, and it took 14 minutes to complete just one. Understandably, it was challenging for the staff to review hundreds of thousands of cases.

Solution

Blue Prism digital workers have been on the job at the NTA for four years. In that time, they have automated 70 processes, with the tax rate process being the most impactful. 

Digital workers have taken on the task of evaluating each individual taxpayer, confirming their information is correct and closing the case. At the start, they handled about 4,500 taxpayers but quickly scaled. The following year, they processed 14,000. Now, 15 digital workers are handling 140,000 cases. The time to review and finalize a tax rate has gone from 14 minutes to just two minutes. Additionally, each taxpayer is handled fairly by unbiased digital workers.

The staff at the NTA were resource constrained. But with their digital colleagues on the team, staff can now manage work that wasn’t getting done before. And since employees who leave the administration aren’t necessarily replaced to do the same task, digital workers can pick up the slack and help keep operations running smoothly. To date, they’ve already made a significant contribution to business, returning 55,300 hours to employees in 2021.