Page 8 - The MIL Connection: Winter 2024

currently applying RPA technology to “eliminate a common process that required multiple
individuals to spend 15 minutes a day reviewing and responding to a financial systems report."
In fact, MIL-deployed bots began reconciling thousands of data points daily just four months
after start of the effort and now saves the agency more than two FTEs. Since the pilot program
commenced at DoS, MIL has delivered RPA “bots” to perform tasks such as invoice processing
and reconciliation saving our client more than 3,500 hours each month while simultaneously
increasing data quality by 50 percent.
CIO Kelly goes on to note that the Department’s RPA implementation “began with a strong
understanding of manual, repeated and sequential tasks. We then reverse-engineered those
tasks to build a pipeline of programmatic, scripted steps for automation.” “The applications
of RPA are near endless at State. We are continually finding new ways to use the technology.”
Also mentioned in the article is MIL’s current work for DoS exploring the application of AI
technology in conjunction with RPA. In that area, MIL has applied AI/ML technology to
RPA to automate the receipt and capture of paper and electronic invoices and translate many
different invoice formats and supporting documents into machine-readable data at one time.
This machine-readable data is then routed and interfaced with a financial management system
as part of a larger workflow. MIL’s solution also auto-classifies documents for downstream
processing and captures invoices from a variety of formats.
Deeper into the article, the discussion turns to the work the FAA is doing to incorporate “Bots
to the Cloud.” According to acting FAA CIO Melanie Boteler, FAA is “pursuing a cloud-native
approach that uses technologies such as containers to build and run apps in the cloud.” Ms.
Boteler also noted that, “The ability to employ infrastructure as code was transformative,
enabling us to replicate environments with both precision and speed.”
Although not referenced by name in the article as it focused on the government perspective
of these groundbreaking automation initiatives, MIL is nonetheless proud that the work of
our talented and creative RPA and AI specialists has drawn industry notice along with the
appreciation of our federal customers.
To read the entire FedTech article, visit the CDW site here.

Holiday cheer

FAA Friendsgiving

Employees from MIL and Ascent Consulting (an MIL teaming partner) shared a Thanksgiving potluck feast together on Friday,
November 17th. Attendees experienced camaraderie and fellowship while sampling a menu of chicken “4 ways” (Popeye’s,
Peruvian, Butter, and Jerk), ham, ribs, rice and beans, potato salad, grain salad, Sweet Potato Crunch, deviled eggs, rolls, and
assorted desserts including Kofi (Indian ice cream) and Amaretto cheesecake. A festive and fun time was enjoyed by everyone
attending.

8 | the MIL connection | winter 2024