Plena Deploys Bots to Efficiently Perform Everyday Tasks

D“Deploy the bots!” sounds like the dramatic high point to a summer blockbuster, but here in the real world of big business operations the notion of hiring robots can be a lot more surprising than any Hollywood script.

Bots already are performing many essential tasks in the life of the average American, but all we see are the results — curated content on a web page, chat conversation made to mimic human mannerisms, or moment-to-moment health monitoring — usually without a blink of consideration for how the job got done.

How did the job get done?

Jason Cook, vice president of sales for Plena.io, said in many cases the bots they deploy, and others like them, can get the job completed 90% faster than a human worker.

“Bots don’t quit, they don’t get COVID, and they do their job,” Cook said. What Is A Bot?

Bots aren’t for every job, but they do really well with repetitive tasks that humans often refer to as “mind-numbing,” tasks that are critical to the vitality of a business but tend to be put off, or divided up among several team members in what can be a rather error-prone, inefficient process.

One bot, programmed to complete a task through a series of interrelating algorithms, doesn’t get bored, distracted, or burnt out — they work 24/7 if needed. And they’re particularly helpful in highly regulated areas, because of how they relentlessly stay on task within strictly defined parameters.

“It’s a very difficult time to hire a staff accountant,” Plena Account Executive Ted Gundersen said. “A lot of CFOs are jumping in to do some nitty-gritty stuff, like bank reconciliation, accounts payable… that’s what we alleviate.

“As a human, I need to go to the bank or bank website, pull in all the payments, open property

management software and match up every transaction in both places,” he said. “We need to match this $1.05 against that $1.05. It’s thousands of clicks, and then report back. That’s hours sitting at a desk clicking over and over.”

Bots can perform manual tasks on a computer in the same way a human would, but with much more accuracy and speed. And the bots can work with any system because they login with a username and password just like a full time employee.

“In theory, robotic process automation can abate any manual process,” Gundersen said. “We focus on finance at Plena, but we can do stuff in HR, sales, operations. It’s a digital worker, the employee you don’t see… Some people think of it as an excel macro, but on steroids.”

The company has about 50 human employees with a centralized management team in Utah, and tech developers all over the place.

CEO Dave Aditya worked at Adobe before starting Plena in 2017. Cofounder and Chief Revenue Officer Jackson Ostler was driving to dental school when Aditya called and asked him to join the venture. Last year alone the company raised $10 million in venture capital.

The Plena bots, Cook said, in one year cost less than an employee with $50,000 in salary and benefits.

Many large organizations worldwide are employing bots, and the real estate space industry is one of the main verticals Plena.io is focused on.

“It’s not a matter of if real estate organizations will adopt this type of product; it’s a matter of when. If it’s not in six months, it will be in two years,” Cook said.

Plena already is working with big names like Vineyards Management, Colliers International, D.R. Horton, Stellar senior living, Roots Management, and Rangewater. MHV