How Babybots created multiple bots that significantly reduced processing time from 4 months to 4 hours

The Problem and Why Robocorp

Babybots LLC is an automation service provider (based in Houston, Texas), that develops, deploys, and maintains automated bots across companies of all sizes. Their goal is to reduce human time spent on tasks that are repetitive and rule based, allowing their clients to focus on the bigger picture of growing their business.

Their journey initially started from automating small tasks that made a big difference for a self-run ecommerce store. Immediately seeing the value it brought in day-to-day operations, the decision was made to bring this technology to others. After experiencing a number of small successes in automating tasks for other ecommerce players, the immediate problems regarding lack of infrastructure to manage and monitor the automations was noted as a limiting factor for scaling.

That is when Babybots partnered with Robocorp. Our Cloud and Control Room provides them with the infrastructure they need to manage and scale as the business grows. Not only does our product enable them to optimize their bots for scale, they can also access real-time insights into how much human time is actually being saved – all in a single pane of glass!

This project has proven that Robocorp was built for any type of automation. Our initial scope of this job was thought to be smaller than it turned out to be. The beauty is that Robocorp’s infrastructure didn’t break or stall any step of the way, and we are able to continuously offer these product updates monthly because of it.

Cory Shreffler, Automation Analyst, Babybots

One of Babybots’ first clients—a commercial appliance repair company—was looking to revamp their supply chain through automating the import of products to their store on a monthly basis. This included everything from the initial upload of 130k+ products to a consistent feed of updated pricing/quantity each month. This wasn’t a type of RPA request Babybots had encountered. This is a fresh case for RPA, as they hadn’t found another way to meet this need efficiently.

The Solution

Babybots’ approach was to assess the feasibility of what they were looking for, identify any bottlenecks prior to kickoff, and construct the bots in a manner that they can rely on monthly for consistent inventory feeds.

They built five bots that handle the pulling, formatting, and aggregation of 130K+ products, utilizing Robocorp for infrastructure, with a mix of Python and RPA Framework for programming. Each product had roughly six to ten data points, ranging from the price/inventory level to user manuals and store location. Babybots was able to cut down the runtime substantially, e.g., some of the bots could pull over 60k+ products within an hour.

Rather than spending the time and retaining the technical staff to operate the bot on a regular basis, the client elected to opt into Babybots’ Robot as a Service model (RaaS). With this model, Babybots not only manages the bots on the client’s behalf but runs them as well. On the first of every month, the client will receive a new sheet containing the most up-to-date inventory/pricing for their store. All the client needs to do is upload the details to their webstore.

One of the main challenges Babybots faced was lowering the scrape time. The initial buildout took days to run. But, through careful optimization of the process they gathered all desired results in just a matter of hours.

The Robocorp team was very helpful with quick responses throughout the process. While they also set up a dedicated Slack channel for direct support, their community Slack channel also provided lots of helpful information to resolve and troubleshoot issues

Cory Shreffler, Automation Analyst, Babybots

From signing the Statement of Work to implementation, the project lasted 5 weeks. As this was one of Babybots’ first projects utilizing the Robocorp platform, they had questions on where to start and how to ensure everything was set up correctly. The Robocorp team was very helpful throughout the process, including the Robocorp Slack community.

I reached out to Peter Steube, Head of Partner Alliances at Robocorp to understand the best way to set up our implementation and suggest options for our unique use case. He was not only receptive, but went out of his way to assist in building a few models that could be beneficial to both the client & myself.

Cory Shreffler, Automation Analyst, Babybots

The Results

Now, thanks to the automation, Babybots’ client has more product availability in one centralized location than all their competitors. They have also minimized the chance of making any customer unhappy, as now they can accurately view what’s in stock and what isn’t – No more overselling! This also enables them to be more dynamic with their pricing to accommodate for market value changes.

It would not have been possible to achieve these benefits without automation. Babybot’s client estimates that just the initial product data load would have taken one person at least 4 months to complete if they were inputting manually, and then it would be a full-time job to keep up with the monthly updates.

It takes the robot roughly 4-6 hours to complete the entirety of this job. So, the time savings are real but the actual benefits are the new revenue opportunities and business models the client can explore as a result of the automation.