Belong accelerates intelligent automation during COVID-19 with Appian
Appian announced today that Belong, a leading provider of mobile and internet plans in Australia, is using the Appian Low-Code Platform to intelligently automate key customer service actions, manage fraud identification and rapidly respond to changing demands, including COVID-19.
"Just prior to the pandemic we were performing a restack of our technical platform, which enabled us to move all of our interactions online and scale a lot quicker than what we potentially could have without the Appian platform," explains Belong, product owner, Carly Donnellan. "It meant we were in a good position to shift from contact centres and agent interactions to a lot more online, digitally-led automations, which helped to reduce the time the workforce was spending doing manual tasks during COVID-19."
Describing itself as a company that helps organisations build apps and workflows rapidly, with a low-code platform, Belong used Appian to introduce tactical RPA bots during the pandemic to help automate customer interactions.
As a result of automating common customer service requests with Appian, Belong's 'Mobile Disconnection Bot' diverted 18,556 customer interactions from the contact centre, saving 2,164 manual hours, while the 'NBN Fallout Activations Bot' diverted 15,032 contacts and saved 1,753 hours.
"Appian has delivered speed and agility to Belong and its intelligent automation strategy," says Appian, regional vice president APAC, Luke Thomas. "Belong has benefited from being able to move its intelligent automation strategy away from total reliance on the IT engineers and developers - which creates bottlenecks - to a 'whole-of-business' low-code approach to automation. This approach delivers a high level of collaboration, control and flexibility to make changes very quickly."
Belong has also built automated processes (using Appian in conjunction with its own data platforms) to collect and analyse information for the detection of fraudulent activity across its network and products.
"One of the biggest business costs for Belong is managing fraudulent activity. Primarily fraudulent users who on-sale our products without authorisation. Using Appian with some of our data platforms, we built a truly lights-out automation process to help identify fraud and act on it sooner, saving the company time and money. The automation operates the whole process from end-to-end, including receiving and analysing data, managing the customer, and sending communications, ultimately saving the company a million dollars per year," added Donnellan.
Belong will soon introduce a centralised automation team, which will be supported by Appian, to get the most out of these initiatives and to scope out new opportunities for the company.
