Aplus is a major subsidiary of the SBI Shinsei Bank Group in the consumer finance field deploying credit cards, shopping credit and payment businesses. To continue being the company its customers expect it to be, in addition to being thoroughly customer-centric as a member of the SBI Group, Aplus strives to co-create value inside and outside the Group.
They base this on the basic strategies for achieving the SBI Shinsei Bank Group’s mid-term vision, and its commitment to further growth.

Purpose of implementation: To promptly respond to diverse customer needs in the rapidly-changing field of finance.

Aplus implemented front-end system booting and improvements to their accounting to handle market needs. Fragmentation has appeared between some systems and the operational load has also increased due to the complexity of business processes resulting from the growing number of individual systems compensating for it.
Deviations have also arisen in the load conditions of operations at each site. Although Aplus aims for flexibility in job transfers between sites, the company is increasing efficiency through changes in clerical procedures, the use of Excel macros and so on, all while promoting the standardization of each business line.

Solution: A Center of Excellence (CoE) structure to achieve effective RPA promotion.

To resolve these issues, Aplus conducted an investigation, comparing multiple RPA products. They aligned pricing and operations, including a proposal to replace the conventional client-type RPA solution they were accustomed to using, with the cloud version of the same product. As a result of promoting selections that emphasize operational management, and particularly security, they decided to adopt SS&C Blue Prism.

With the support of an experienced partner, Aplus successfully implemented RPA from SS&C Blue Prism. 
By automating most of their daily recurring tasks, the employees were engaged with more value-added work and the business had time to expand and grow. In the future, it’s anticipated that the automation of the business will progress further through RPA, and that the role of human resources will shift to higher value-added work.

Future outlook: Expectations of SS&C Blue Prism to organically automate processes with robots and accelerate digital transformation (DX)

As Aplus’s operated business areas expand, they foresee increasing complexity in operations due to compliance with internal regulations and business procedures – from the perspective of internal control as well as the growing number of risk and security management items. To deal with such challenges, the Operation Planning Department is not stopping at RPA but is implementing a variety of IT technologies and promoting the DX of operations. They’re also working to train and secure personnel with the knowledge and skills to achieve this goal.