Automation technology

IRS Using UiPath’s Automation Tools to Enhance Finance, Procurement Functions

UiPath, a developer of automation software, said that the Department of Revenue Service’s Internal Revenue Service is using the company’s software robots.

The robotic process automation solutions are helping the IRS better manage its finance and procurement functions, UiPath said Tuesday.

Shanna Webbers, assistant deputy commissioner for operations and support and former chief procurement officer at the IRS, said that agency is committed to finding automation use cases in its finance and procurement practices.

She added that automation is helping make the agency’s employees feel more empowered by moving them away from repetitive or unsatisfying tasks.

According to UiPath, the IRS’ chief financial officer office will continue deploying bots for tasks such as consolidating data from multiple sources, extracting data from documents and working with data related to property and equipment vouchers.

IRS Chief Financial Officer Teresa Hunter said that automation will play a key part in the agency’s pursuit of agile finance.

UiPath said that the IRS’ decision to increase its use of automation was driven by the challenges it faced in 2020 when the agency’s procurement division was on a tight deadline to modify contract clauses in accordance with federal law.

Webber’s team is credited with using robotic process automation to complete work on nearly 1,500 contract modifications within 72 hours, a process that UiPath said would have taken a year without the technology.

Robotic process automation reduced the administrative burden on contracting officers, mitigated data errors, automatically sent out messages to vendors and uploaded documents to a contract database, UiPath said.