29.06.2021 | Pirkanmaan Jätehuolto, a pioneer company in the circular economy, wants only the best for the environment and their customers. Well-functioning waste management is ensured by the company's customer service, which handles all waste management issues of 17 municipalities and their properties. To balance the workload of their customer service, the company has hired a software robot, Robot Ruttunen, to handle internal routine customer service processes and to free up the time of its human colleagues for more valuable customer service work. Efima is responsible for the delivery and development of the software robot.
ANNOUNCEMENT 29.6.2021
Pirkanmaan Jätehuolto ensures that sorting and recycling waste in 17 municipalities is smooth, waste transports are rolled out and waste treatment is of the highest quality. An important role is played by the company's customer service, which is responsible for handling all waste management issues for all properties and more than 451,000 inhabitants.
To ensure high-quality customer service, Pirkanmaan Jätehuolto has hired a software robot to perform internal routine customer service tasks. Efima was selected as the company’s partner in robotic process automation at the beginning of 2021, and during the spring of 2021, the first automated workflows have been successfully brought into production.
“In our business, we always aim for the environment to win and our customers to be satisfied. High-quality customer service is at the center of all this”, Virpi Oksala, Customer Relationship Manager at Pirkanmaan Jätehuolto, describes. A large proportion of the customer service's time has previously been spent on manual work and handling claims reported by the garbage truck drivers. Now the manual work is transferred to the software robot.
"The decision to hand off some of the routine tasks to a robot and free up our customer service’s time to serve both our customers and our partners was easy to make for everyone", Katja Rekonius, Customer Service Manager at Pirkanmaan Jätehuolto, explains the background of the software robotics project. “In addition, the nature of our customer service is characterized by an unforeseen variation between busy and less busy periods. For example, weather conditions directly affect the number of processing requests our customer service receives. With the help of robotic process automation, service requests are processed even in the midst of unexpected periods of urgency”, Rekonius adds.
The software robot, named Robot Ruttunen, has already taken over four internal customer service volume processes. During its first few months, Ruttunen has become a routinized user of the most important customer service tools, customer management system Vingo and task management system TCS. Where routinized manual work might have felt mundane and dull for the company’s customer service, Ruttunen is happy to handle them. See how quickly Ruttunen handles routinized tasks using TCS and Vingo from the video down below! (Video available only in Finnish)
According to Efima's CIO and Director of Robotic Process Automation, Markus Turunen, the collaboration has taught both Efima and environmental management operators: “The partnership with Pirkanmaan Jätehuolto has strengthened Efima's ability to streamline and robotize customer service processes. At the same time, we have recognized that other companies in the waste management industry also struggle with similar customer service resourcing challenges, and to raise awareness, Efima has organized software robotics workshops targeted at the industry. We want to be involved in taking this important industry forward, and we have been given credit for doing so. Pirkanmaan Jätehuolto and Ruttunen have been great examples of how the industry can be developed.”
In the future, the software robot’s work tasks will be extended to other internal, routine customer service processes, and customer service’s time will be freed up even more for valuable customer service work and also for new types of tasks. “We have identified important customer service tasks that we have not had time to do before. The recruitment of Ruttunen has given us and extra pair of hands and allows us to serve our customers even better and more comprehensively in the future. Internal development shows on the outside as well”, Rekonius smiles.
Oksala and Rekonius have both been satisfied with the partnership with Efima and the joint development work. “Our degree of recycling is already top notch – 99 percent of the waste we collect is further utilized. Now we are putting an effort to increase our degree of automation as well. The well-functioning cooperation with Efima has given our project a promising start”, they conclude.
Additional information
Efima Oy, CIO & Business Lead (RPA & AI) Markus Turunen
markus.turunen@efima.com, tel: +358407701205
Pirkanmaan Jätehuolto in brief
Pirkanmaan Jätehuolto is a pioneer in the circular economy. Pirkanmaan Jätehuolto, founded in 1994, handles the statutory waste management services of 17 municipalities, mainly on behalf of residents, housing companies and municipalities. Today, 99% of the waste they collect is recovered — either as a material or energy. The company aims to make the environment win, to make the residents satisfied and to have the lowest prices in the country.
www.pjhoy.fi/en/
Efima in brief
Digital company Efima supports and enhances large and mid-sized organizations' business with enterprise resource planning and financial management SaaS solutions, robotic process automation and artificial intelligence solutions, outsourcing services and consulting. We strive to provide the best service within our industry and to be an exceptional workplace for our experts. In 2021, Efima has more than 250 employees. Its revenue during the previous fiscal year was more than 22 million euros and the company has offices in two locations: Helsinki and Tampere.
www.efima.com/en/
