How a global semiconductor equipment maker built a digital workforce for finance
One pilot bot in two weeks. Twenty automations later, a finance operation running across two countries.
Cybiant designed, built, runs and teaches an enterprise UiPath automation program for one of the world’s leading semiconductor equipment manufacturers. It started with a single pilot bot, live in two weeks. Today it spans more than 20 automations, a managed service out of Kuala Lumpur, and a rollout to the group’s operations in China.
2 wks
from kickoff to first bot demonstrated
20+
automations deployed to production
5
in-house RPA developers trained
01 · THE CLIENT
Precision equipment, growing fast
The client is one of the largest semiconductor equipment manufacturers in the world, with more than 2,000 employees across facilities on several continents. Its machines are used by chipmakers to produce the advanced assemblies that connect semiconductor devices to the wider electronics around them.
As the business expanded in products, revenue and operations, its Asia Pacific finance team, headquartered in Shah Alam, Malaysia, carried more volume every quarter without a matching rise in headcount.
02 · THE CHALLENGE
Finance talent stuck on copy and paste
Finance has almost no margin for error, and stakeholders expect figures to be available immediately. Yet most of the team’s hours went into moving numbers from one place to another.
Time zone deadlines
Key financial information had to be refreshed at fixed hours so facilities in different countries could start their day with current data.
Currency conversion
Every update needed converting at each country’s exchange rate, by hand, with no room for a misplaced decimal.
Swivel chair data entry
Data migrated manually across multiple platforms and shared drives, creating delay and room for error at every hand-off.
Rising invoice volume
Roughly 2,000+ supplier invoices a month were read, checked and keyed into ERP by the accounts payable team.
03 · OUR APPROACH
Design. Build. Run. Teach.
One partner across the full automation lifecycle, guided by the Service Automation Framework that Cybiant authored. No hand-offs between a consultancy, an integrator and a support vendor. The same people who identified the opportunities built the bots, now keep them running, and trained the client’s own team to extend them. That continuity is why the program kept its momentum after the pilot, instead of stalling once the first project was delivered.
Design
Discovery Workshop
A Cybiant consultant brought finance and IT together to learn what RPA can and cannot do, score candidate processes and draft the first automation roadmap.
Output: ranked process shortlist and roadmap
Build
Pilot, then scale
The pilot automated the time-zone finance updates and cross-platform data migration in two weeks, proving the business case. A project manager and two RPA consultants then delivered 20+ bots, with invoice processing as the flagship.
Output: 20+ production automations
Run
Pilot, then scale
The pilot automated the time-zone finance updates and cross-platform data migration in two weeks, proving the business case. A project manager and two RPA consultants then delivered 20+ bots, with invoice processing as the flagship.
Output: stable bots, predictable cost
Teach
Internal capability
Three IT team members were trained as in-house RPA developers through RPA fundamentals, programming basics and hands-on work on the client’s own automations.
Output: a self-sufficient internal team
04 · FLAGSHIP AUTOMATION
Invoice processing, end to end
Bots handle the volume. People handle the judgement calls, with the context already attached.
STEP 1 – Receive
- Shared AP email inbox
- Bot checks the accounts payable mailbox on a fixed schedule
- Downloads PDF invoice attachments
- Filters out non-invoice mail and duplicates
STEP 2 – Extract
- Read the document
- Supplier, invoice number and date
- PO reference, currency and totals
- Tax amounts and line items
- Assigns the invoice to the right entity
STEP 3 – Validate
- Business rules check
- Duplicate check against invoices already booked
- Match to purchase order and goods receipt
- Supplier, currency and tax verified
- Amounts within agreed tolerance
STEP 4 – Post
- Book into SAP
- Creates the invoice entry, no human touch
- Attaches the original PDF
- Records the document reference
- Moves the email to a processed folder
STEP 5 – Report
- Finance stays in control
- Daily summary of processed invoices
- Open exceptions listed with their status
- Full audit trail per invoice
- Volumes feed the monthly service report
Exception Path: When an invoice does not pass validation
Not every invoice is clean. A price or quantity may not match the purchase order, the PO number may be missing, the supplier may not exist in SAP yet, or a scan may simply be unreadable. In those cases the bot does not guess. It parks the invoice, records exactly why it stopped, and keeps working through the rest of the queue.
The finance team then receives the invoice with everything they need already attached: the original PDF, the data the bot extracted and the reason it was flagged. They resolve it with the supplier or approve a correction, and the bot picks the invoice back up and posts it. People spend their time on the decisions that genuinely need them, and nothing falls through the cracks.
05 · THE MATURITY JOURNEY
From start-up to impactful RPA program
Measured on Cybiant’s RPA Maturity Model, which scores 10 capability areas across four levels.
Why maturity matters more than bot count
Many RPA programs stall after the first handful of bots. The automations work, but nobody owns them, changes break them, and the business stops trusting them. The maturity model exists to prevent that. It looks at ten capability areas, four on the technology side and six on program management, and asks whether each one is strong enough to support the next wave of growth.
What moved the client to Level 3
Many RPA programs stall after the first handful of bots. The automations work, but nobody owns them, changes break them, and the business stops trusting them. The maturity model exists to prevent that. It looks at ten capability areas, four on the technology side and six on program management, and asks whether each one is strong enough to support the next wave of growth.
What Level 4 will ask for
The next step is a true Centre of Excellence: a dedicated team, a steady pipeline of ideas from several business units, and automation that goes beyond fixed rules. This is where agentic automation comes in, with AI agents that can read unstructured documents, make contextual decisions on exceptions and hand off to people only when it matters. The multi-country foundation now in place is what makes that step realistic.
06 · SCALING ACROSS BORDERS
Taking the playbook from Malaysia to China
With invoice automation proven in Malaysia, the group asked Cybiant to extend it to its operations in China. Rather than start over, the team reuses the workflows, governance and support model already running in productiThis is where a structured approach pays off twice. Because every bot in Malaysia was built and documented to the same standard, the China team is not reverse engineering someone else’s work. They start from a known design, a known set of test cases and a support process that has been operating since 2023.
The harder work is in the details that change between countries: how suppliers issue invoices, which fields are mandatory, which currencies and tax rules apply, who signs off and in what language. Those differences are handled as configuration where possible, so that one core automation can serve both entities instead of two separate code bases drifting apart over time.
For the group, the result is a single way of processing invoices across Asia, one set of service levels, and a model it can repeat for the next entity without starting from zero.
- Reuse: Proven bot designs, documentation and SAF templates cut build time for the new entity.
- Localise: Adapted for local invoice formats, language, currency and approval rules.
- Run as one: Both countries supported through one managed service, one governance model and one set of service levels.
07 · THE OUTCOME
Measurable results for finance
The business case agreed during the pilot set clear expectations: fewer hours on manual processing, fewer errors, and finance data available when the business needs it. Those targets have been tracked since the first bots went live, and reported monthly through the managed service.
20+
automations running across finance and other functions
2
countries on one automation platform and service model
5
internal developers building the next wave of bots
Accuracy the business can rely on
Bots do not mistype a figure or apply yesterday’s exchange rate. Finance updates now arrive on time for every facility, in every time zone, converted correctly. Invoices are checked against purchase orders the same way every time, and anything that does not match is flagged instead of slipping through.
A different job for the finance team
The hours that used to go into copying and pasting now go into work that needs a person: resolving supplier queries, analysing spend and supporting business decisions. The team handles growth in volume without adding headcount at the same rate, and spends less time on the tasks nobody enjoyed.
Momentum beyond finance
Success in finance created demand elsewhere. With a proven platform, a managed service and its own developers, the client is now automating processes in other departments and work functions, and treating automation as an ongoing capability rather than a one-off project.
08 · WHY CYBIANT
The team that wrote the standard
Cybiant authored the Service Automation Framework, the global standard for service automation, and uses it on every engagement it delivers. Cybiant is a globally recognized consulting firm that accelerates organizations’ digital transformation by delivering intelligent, agentic automation solutions. As the #1 UiPath Implementation Partner, we specialize in deploying not just traditional RPA—but the next generation of Agentic Automation, where AI-driven agents make contextual decisions, learn over time, and seamlessly collaborate with human teams.
By combining UiPath’s cutting-edge capabilities with Cybiant’s structured implementation approach, we create automation solutions that:
- Minimize manual effort,
- Eliminate processing errors,
- Establish scalable, future-ready workflows.
Our seasoned consultants guide clients through every automation stage. From intelligent discovery and proof-of-concept to full-scale deployment, ongoing managed services, and upskilling through training.