Case study · Higher education — finance operations · Singapore · Singapore Management University
The work before automation
The challenge
Two emails arrived daily from the TMS system: one with a password, one with a protected .zip. Staff retrieved the password, unzipped the file, converted every SAPTMS_ZT file to Excel, filled blank cells from previous rows, matched the Journal Entry Interface Report with VLOOKUPs to retrieve document types and numbers, compiled everything into a master file, and deleted the attachment — about 60 minutes, every working day.
Before
What the team had to do
Retrieve the password from Email A to unzip the file in Email B
Convert all SAPTMS_ZT files to .xlsx format
For the first 7 columns, paste data from the previous row if empty
Match the Journal Entry Interface Report to retrieve document type and number (VLOOKUP)
Compile the processed data into the master file and delete the .zip attachment
With the robot
What now happens automatically
Picks up the .zip and password file from a trigger folder
Unzips, converts and cleans every SAPTMS_ZT file automatically
Matches the Journal Entry Interface Report with a LINQ query
Compiles the master file, deletes the attachment and emails the process owner the processed data
Built around the existing process
Systems involved
- Microsoft Outlook
- Microsoft Excel
- TMS
- SAP
Verified results
59 min saved / day
Daily processing time returned
Measured: Before/after timings recorded by the SMU Office of Finance (Systems & Transformation) in the public process overview, January 2024.
60 min → 8 sec
Data processing per run
Measured: Run times measured by the SMU Office of Finance before and after RPA implementation.
98.11% faster
End-to-end speed-up
Measured: Documented in the SMU public process overview, January 2024.
Process documentation
