Automating journal entries in less than 30 days

Stanley Black & Decker is number one in tools and storage and a global pioneer in engineered fastening. Innovation permeates their culture and keeps its iconic brands on top. Like many at Stanley, the robotic process automation (RPA) group is devoted to performance. They focus on automating repetitive tasks to boost employee productivity. When the group proposed to streamline financial operations, the ERP team in the Stanley Engineered Fastening division quickly volunteered to help. “Because with JD Edwards, you have a technology that enables you to turn around proofs of concept quickly,” said Director of Global ERP Architecture, Riesa Case. She was confident JDE could support an RPA solution, but where should they begin?

The RPA project team faced thousands of entries generated from corporate Stanley Black & Decker. Traditionally, these were sent via spreadsheet to each of its divisions then uploaded into JD Edwards Enterprise One General Ledger. Each month, the process was the same. It was ripe for an RPA solution.

Stanley was already using Automation Anywhere in other capacities. But when Riesa Case learned its MetaBot could do JSON calls she had an idea. Working with ERP Suites consultants, she built an orchestration to take data directly from the MetaBot into JDE GL entry and simultaneously post it.

ERP Suites consultants delivered the final GL orchestration in under 30 days with zero issues. The Automation Anywhere RPA solution enabled 700 journal entries per minute and freed up more than 40 hours of employee time per month. Success brought visibility to Riesa Case and her small global ERP team throughout Stanley and the JDE community. Yet her team remains lean because additional resources aren’t needed. They continue to generate POCs with orchestrations, including voice picking and RFID. “ERP Suites has delivered all of this technology. We’re always looking for new opportunities, and [Stanley] is very excited and enthusiastic to get involved with [ERP Suites].”