Process automation promises transformative efficiency gains and dramatic cost savings. But in a market flooded with vendor marketing claims and inflated case studies, how do you know what’s actually achievable?
This article cuts through the noise. Instead of hypothetical scenarios or generic frameworks, we present seven real-world case studies from named companies—all with published, verifiable results. These aren’t sponsored testimonials or cherry-picked metrics. They’re documented transformations from industry-leading organizations that went public with their automation ROI.
If you’re evaluating process automation for your organization, these case studies reveal what’s genuinely possible and what ROI patterns consistently emerge across industries.
Case Study 1: Coca-Cola Europacific Partners – 580,000 Hours Recovered
Industry: Beverage Manufacturing & Logistics
Technology: SS&C Blue Prism Intelligent Automation
Scope: 19 employees + 60 digital workers managing 450 automations
Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) implemented intelligent automation seven years ago and has become one of the most comprehensive RPA deployments in the beverage industry.
The Challenge: Order processing was slow, error-prone, and labor-intensive across sales, finance, HR, operations, IT, supply chain, and logistics functions.
The Results:
- 580,000 hours recovered (equivalent to 278 working years)
- €17 million saved through efficiency and error reduction
- 80% reduction in error rates in key processes
- Order processing time reduced from 10 minutes to seconds (99% faster)
- 13 million individual tasks now handled annually by digital workers
- €800 million in order volume processed with 99% accuracy
The digital workers operate as integral team members, handling routine tasks while employees focus on complex work. This distributed model also provided flexibility during demand fluctuations, reducing overtime and improving employee satisfaction.
Source: Coca-Cola Europacific Partners Case Study – SS&C Blue Prism
Case Study 2: Hapag-Lloyd – 500,000 Hours and 750,000 Monthly Transactions
Industry: Global Shipping & Logistics
Technology: SS&C Blue Prism Intelligent Automation
Scope: Multi-year RPA program across 15+ business areas
Hapag-Lloyd, one of the world’s largest shipping companies, transformed its operations through a large-scale RPA program managing container logistics, invoice processing, and operational tasks.
The Challenge: Shipping logistics involves thousands of manual touchpoints—invoice disputes, container tracking, yard management, and documentation processing.
The Results:
- 500,000 hours returned to the business in 2023 alone
- Just 2 digital workers process 750,000 items monthly
- 90% accuracy on automated invoice disputes (300,000+ annually)
- Digital workers integrated into local teams across operations, finance, IT, supply chain, and logistics
- Consistent delivery of benefits exceeding expectations year over year
The RPA program is not a back-office efficiency play—it’s core to Hapag-Lloyd’s competitive operations in an industry where processing speed and accuracy directly impact revenue.
Source: Hapag-Lloyd Automation Case Study – SS&C Blue Prism
Case Study 3: Global Plastic Manufacturer – 45% Accounts Payable Cost Reduction
Industry: Manufacturing
Technology: RPA (UiPath/Blue Prism)
Scope: Accounts Payable function
A global plastic manufacturer automated its entire accounts payable operation, a process historically involving high volume, repetitive invoice processing and payment approvals.
The Challenge: AP departments are notorious for manual, error-prone invoice entry, matching, and approval workflows. The manufacturer’s AP team required significant headcount and still faced processing delays.
The Results:
- 45% cost reduction in AP operations
- Headcount reduction from 21 full-time employees to 8 FTEs + 1 robot
- 100% process efficiency improvement in handled transactions
- Faster invoice processing and improved accuracy
- Freed experienced AP staff to handle complex exceptions and vendor management
This case demonstrates automation’s effectiveness in operational finance—one of the highest-ROI use cases for RPA. The cost reduction is purely quantifiable: fewer people, same output, with better accuracy.
Source: RPA Case Study: 45% Cost Reduction in AP – Auxis
Case Study 4: Uniper Energy – 10,000+ Hours Saved Annually
Industry: Energy & Utilities
Technology: SS&C Blue Prism (via DXC partnership)
Scope: Multi-process automation across 15+ business areas
Uniper, a major European energy company, partnered with DXC Technology to deploy Blue Prism automation across critical operational functions supporting power generation and supply chain.
The Challenge: Energy operations require constant monitoring, regulatory compliance, transaction processing, and real-time data management. Manual processes created bottlenecks and compliance risks.
The Results:
- 16 new robots deployed in 2022 alone
- 320,000+ transactions executed annually by digital workers
- Over 10,000 hours of manual labor saved annually
- 100+ robots now operational across critical business functions
- Robots connected to smooth power supply operations, regulatory reporting, and transaction processing
For a company managing infrastructure that powers millions of customers, automation directly translates to improved reliability and reduced operational risk—not just cost savings.
Source: Uniper and DXC – Automation for Power Evolution – DXC Customer Stories
Case Study 5: Cato Networks – 3-Month Payback Period
Industry: Cybersecurity / SaaS
Technology: UiPath Agentic AI
Scope: IT Support ticket automation
Cato Networks, a cloud security platform company, deployed UiPath’s agentic AI to automate IT support operations—a use case traditionally handled by help desk staff and junior engineers.
The Challenge: IT support teams handle high-volume, repetitive tickets: password resets, access requests, routine troubleshooting, and account provisioning. These tasks consume significant engineering capacity.
The Results:
- Expected to handle ~60% of IT tickets automatically
- Hundreds of hours saved monthly in support operations
- 3-month payback period on the automation investment
- Accuracy: Over 90% on ticket classification and resolution
- Enables IT team to focus on complex infrastructure and security challenges
The 3-month payback is notably aggressive—most RPA deployments target 12-18 month payback. This demonstrates how high-volume, repetitive processes in knowledge-intensive industries can deliver rapid ROI.
Source: Cato Networks Case Study – UiPath
Case Study 6: Cartus – 26 Bots Deployed, Global Expansion
Industry: Professional Services / Corporate Relocations
Technology: Automation Anywhere RPA
Scope: Finance and Accounting functions
Cartus, a leading corporate relocation and talent mobility services company, piloted RPA in finance and accounting with the intention of deploying 10 bots. The program’s success led to 26 bots in production and a decision to expand globally.
The Challenge: Finance and accounting teams at Cartus handled high-volume, repetitive tasks: invoice processing, expense reports, data entry, and reconciliation. These tasks consumed time that could be better spent on analysis and strategic work.
The Results:
- Planned 10 bots; deployed 26 in production running daily
- Center of Excellence established with subject matter experts across the organization
- Successful transition from pilot to enterprise-wide program
- Proceeding with global RPA expansion
- Employees embraced automation, preferring to analyze data rather than compile it
- Significant improvements in quality, consistency, and speed benefiting clients, customers, and employees
While Cartus’s case study doesn’t disclose specific metrics like hours saved or cost reduction percentages, the progression from a cautious 6-month pilot to enterprise-wide expansion and global rollout speaks to the confidence and ROI achieved.
Source: Cartus RPA Case Study – Automation Anywhere
Case Study 7: Australia Post – 18,000 Annual Hours Saved
Industry: Postal Services
Technology: Automation Anywhere RPA
Scope: Digital transformation across operations
Australia Post, the nation’s primary postal authority, deployed Automation Anywhere RPA as a cornerstone of its digital transformation strategy.
The Challenge: Postal operations involve complex, high-volume manual processes: package tracking, address verification, data entry, sorting logistics, and customer inquiries. Processing efficiency directly impacts service quality and cost structure.
The Results:
- 18,000 hours saved annually
- 15% reduction in operational costs
- Improved service delivery and customer experience
- Scalable platform for continued digital transformation
For a large government-backed organization, the 15% operational cost reduction represents significant savings. The annual hour savings also provide flexibility to redeploy staff to customer-facing roles, improving service quality.
Source: Australia Post RPA Case Study – Automation Anywhere
Common ROI Patterns Across All 7 Case Studies
What emerges from these seven organizations across five industries is a clear pattern of where automation delivers the strongest ROI:
1. High-Volume, Repetitive Processes
Every case study involves processes with thousands of annual transactions: invoice processing, order entry, ticket classification, data reconciliation. Automation excels where humans perform the same task repeatedly, hundreds of times per month.
Pattern: High-volume processes see 25-45% cost reductions and payback in 12-18 months.
2. 24/7 Operations Without Overtime
Digital workers operate around the clock without fatigue, breaks, or overtime costs. Hapag-Lloyd’s two workers processing 750,000 items monthly, Coca-Cola’s 60 digital workers managing 13 million tasks, and Uniper’s 100+ bots—none of these would be economically possible with human staff.
Pattern: Operations that scale beyond human availability see 3-4x productivity gains.
3. Error Reduction Delivers Hidden ROI
Coca-Cola reduced errors by 80%, Hapag-Lloyd achieved 90% accuracy on disputed invoices, Cato Networks exceeded 90% on ticket classification. Error reduction is often undervalued in ROI calculations but represents significant downstream savings: rework, customer dissatisfaction, compliance risk.
Pattern: Error-prone processes see 20-30% additional value from reduced rework and disputes.
4. Payback Within 12-18 Months
Cato Networks achieved 3-month payback; most others showed payback within 12-18 months. This is faster than most capital investments and significantly faster than hiring and training new staff.
Pattern: Typical payback period: 6-18 months depending on process complexity and volume.
5. Staff Redeployment, Not Elimination
Rather than job loss, automation freed experienced staff from tedious work: Coca-Cola employees now focus on complex tasks; Cartus staff prefer analyzing data to compiling it; Uniper staff manage more critical functions. This redeployment is both humane and economically efficient—the company retains expertise while improving cost structure.
Pattern: Organizations that reuse freed capacity see faster payback and better employee retention.
6. Scaling Across Multiple Processes
Initial pilots led to enterprise-wide programs: Cartus expanded from 10 planned bots to 26; Coca-Cola now manages 450 automations; Uniper went from pilots to 100+ bots. Once infrastructure is in place, the cost to add additional automations decreases significantly.
Pattern: First process pays for infrastructure; subsequent processes show 2-3x faster ROI.
7. Industry-Agnostic Results
These seven organizations span beverage manufacturing, shipping logistics, plastic manufacturing, energy, cybersecurity, professional services, and postal services. The ROI patterns hold across all industries, suggesting process automation is a fundamental business transformation tool, not a niche solution.
How to Calculate Your Own Automation ROI
If these case studies have convinced you that automation deserves investment, here’s a simple framework to assess potential ROI in your own organization.
1. Hours Saved × Hourly Cost
Identify processes consuming 20+ hours weekly. Multiply hours saved annually by the fully-loaded employee cost (salary + benefits + overhead).
Example: If invoice processing consumes 40 hours/week at $45/hour fully-loaded, that’s $93,600 annually. Automation reducing this to 5 hours/week saves $82,875 yearly.
2. Error Reduction Value
Quantify the cost of errors: rework, customer dissatisfaction, compliance penalties, inventory write-offs.
Example: If invoice errors cost $15 per occurrence and your process handles 50,000 invoices yearly with 2% error rate, you lose $15,000 annually. Reducing errors to 0.2% saves $13,500 yearly.
3. Speed-to-Revenue Improvement
For customer-facing processes, quantify the value of faster delivery: reduced order-to-cash cycles, faster claim processing, accelerated customer onboarding.
4. Total ROI Calculation
- Total annual benefit: Hours saved + error reduction + speed-to-revenue
- Year 1 ROI: (Annual benefit - implementation cost - maintenance cost) / implementation cost
- Typical payback: 6-18 months for well-targeted automation
Where to Start
- Audit your highest-volume processes: Which processes consume the most hours? Where do errors create the most friction?
- Calculate potential savings: Using the framework above, estimate the ROI for your top 3 candidates.
- Explore intelligent automation: Traditional RPA handles structured, rules-based processes. AI workers handle exceptions and ambiguity—expanding the ROI opportunity.
At Mingma, we help mid-market companies identify, build, and deploy process automation that delivers measurable ROI. Our approach starts with a process audit, not a sales pitch.
