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conferences

MIL Participates in Virtual AGA Workshop

MIL was proud to sponsor and participate in the Association of Government Accountants’ (AGA) 2020 RPA Workshop. Unlike
years past, the 2020 RPA Workshop’s virtual platform reflected a recent paradigm shift brought about by the worldwide COVID-19
pandemic. The new threats and fears associated with large social gatherings and typified by any AGA conference or seminar, made
transitioning to a virtual platform a true public health imperative. With the physical safety and well-being of attendees in mind,
AGA had to rethink their entire conference construct, and by necessity develop a new way to deliver the information, education, and
interaction that are hallmarks of an AGA-sponsored industry event. The results of this reimagining, the AGA 2020 RPA Workshop, held
virtually on June 25, 2020, was by all measures a resounding success.
While webinars are hardly groundbreaking—they’re a tried and true approach to remote learning—what was new was AGA’s foray
into simulating and approximating the information-sharing/professional networking aspect of its events. For today’s socially distanced
setting, AGA’s answer to filling the gap for this event was found at its “Virtual Solutions Hall,” which provided remote attendees with the
opportunity to virtually “visit” AGA exhibitors to learn more about the companies represented and the professional services they have
to offer.
The 2020 RPA Workshop introduced attendees to Robotics Process Automation, an evolving technology that, according to AGA,
automates routine, rules-based processes to gain operational efficiencies, improve customer experience and increase compliance.
Workshop participants learned about where federal agencies and contractors have already successfully implemented RPA to
streamline data processing, and how the government’s CFO and CIO communities are ensuring that their technology deployments
are implemented quickly, effectively, and safely. Following these introductory remarks, attendees participated in discussions related to
effective RPA methods, techniques, and best practices for building an RPA system.
Many attendees visited us at AGA’s Virtual Solutions Hall and viewed our video presentation on RPA and discovered a little bit more
about MIL and how we’re using RPA technology to improve customer data flows. Our virtual exhibit focused on how MIL analysts
have used UiPath to streamline a time-intensive data reconciliation process, and how with the help of the MIL-developed RPA bot, a
previously tedious three-day process comprised of thousands of records and multiple reports was reduced to under a minute and with
no degradation in end-product quality.
While we enjoyed this year’s AGA conference and the challenge of producing an event that could inform and connect industry
participants virtually, we look forward to future in-person gatherings.

8 | The mil connection | fall 2020