Prisma: Accelerating the pace of payments

Prisma is the leading payment technology company in Argentina, with over 30 years in the market. The company connects financial institutions, stores and consumers across the entire value chain.

In 2019, after the Advent investment fund acquired 51% of Prisma, the digital transformation process was accelerated with the implementation of an agile culture, a work and organizational philosophy based on collaboration, and iterative processes oriented to providing quality solutions to serve changing customer needs. Therefore, when the pandemic outbreak hit, the company was able to quickly and effectively adjust. Its understanding of the new needs of its merchant clients also allowed it to develop products tailored to the current context.

As part of Prisma’s overall digital transformation, it saw the opportunity to invest in Automated Intelligence to increase productivity and reduce costs. Until now, the company had been performing many non-automated back-office tasks, providing an opportunity to apply Automated Intelligence, starting with RPA (robotic process automation). By automating repetitive tasks, it allowed employees to focus on more value-adding functions.

Working with Prisma, our team first focused on learning more about the organization’s existing needs and operating processes.

Our goal was to replace as many repetitive tasks as possible with bots in critical areas such as issuance, billing and acquisitions. We identified more than 50 back-office processes as candidates for automation and machine learning, and we created a complete roadmap with a business case illustrating the potential economic impact.

We built a center of excellence and defined an Automated Intelligence operating model that allowed us to coordinate a quick transformation.

Once the identified processes were approved, we worked along with our partner Blue Prism – a leading RPA provider– to seamlessly synchronize the implementation. The initial focus for machine learning was to read and standardize non-structured data, in conjunction with RPA, and to share it comprehensively between the different systems.

The team focused on continuous innovation, improving existing processes while exploring new trends and solutions. Rather than implementing technologies in a biased way, Prisma is embedding innovation into its DNA and pursuing the long-term benefits of technology integration.

In just six months, through Automated Intelligence, Prisma’s efficiency increased dramatically. Manual tasks that used to take hours, now take a few minutes to complete. We have already automated 60% of identified processes and target completion of the remaining 40% by mid-2021.

Automation also reduced costs by taking over repetitive tasks, allowing employees to focus on improving their skills and moving to new, more strategic areas. Automation enables people to do their jobs better, and helps organizations like Prisma cultivate and develop internal talent.

Now, as a more efficient organization, Prisma will accelerate the search for new ways to better serve customers, with a focus on continuous improvement.