Case Study: BAE Systems achieves 7X faster payroll uploads and 50 automated processes with Automation Anywhere

Bae Systems Shared Services Team Soars to New Performance Heights With Automation

BAE Systems, a global aerospace and defense company with 85,000 employees, tasked its 350-person Shared Services team with centralizing HR and Finance for 34,000 UK employees and company-wide financial activity. Seeking to reduce repetitive manual work and improve efficiency, the team chose Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to standardize and scale back-office processes.

After piloting and defining high-volume, rule-based tasks to automate, BAE launched an RPA program focused on HR and Finance — starting small but designed to scale. Bots now handle payroll uploads (7x faster), run outside business hours and report daily, and overall the company has automated 50 processes (saving 2,600+ hours annually), improved first-time-right quality and consistency, and plans to reach 120 automations by 2021.

BAE Systems

Ian Jones

Head of Transformational Services, HR