The world is a highly competitive and complex landscape for businesses across all industries. They constantly face challenges in order to succeed and, during tough times, it’s often survival of the fittest. RPA can be the key to survival.
What is RPA?
Before delving into the benefits of RPA for a company, it is essential to understand what it is. By definition, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a virtual workforce of software robots that can perform business tasks on company applications. These virtual workers, or software bots, become a vital part of that company’s workforce. They are supervised just as any team in the company is.
They can also interact with employees as they interact with each other. However, unlike a human, they fulfill business processes in far less time, with more accuracy, and at a fraction of the cost. The impact on business outcomes and ROI are momentous.
Who Should use RPA?
The Institute for Robotic Process Automation (IRPA) says that almost any business with numerous different and intricate systems that need to blend is a suitable RPA candidate. Today RPA is used in nearly every industry – insurance, finance, legal, healthcare, manufacturing, utilities, banking, and others. The virtual workforces automate high-volume, laborious, and business-critical procedures.
How can I Benefit From RPA?
RPA has proven itself as an incredible solution for significantly improving productivity, accuracy, efficiency, and agility.
- Productivity & Efficiency
Robots don’t need lunch or coffee breaks! They operate 24/7/365 at digital speeds. Business owners can offload manual, high-volume tasks to the bots so that they can focus on their customers or on tasks that require creative thinking.
- Accuracy & Compliance
Robots eliminate human error as they complete processes, in the same way, every time. This proficiency ensures compliance and, therefore, better customer satisfaction and retention.
- RPA Scalability
RPA procedures can be quickly and easily scaled up. Users can change, expand, or add automation processes as required without sustaining any downtime. - Cost Savings
RPA saves outlays by reducing precious time spent by workers on repetitive, mundane tasks, and by reducing staff and training costs. It is estimated that RPI saves 3-10 times the value of its implementation. According to French multinational consulting corporation, Capgemini, RPA tools are up to 65% less costly than offshore-based full-time employees!
What Types of RPA are There?
Every organization is unique and has different requirements and expectations of how they can benefit from an RPA installation. Here are the main types of RPA solutions.
Unattended Automation
In this system, software bots perform business procedures in a back-office server or on a virtual machine. The robots are activated automatically, need no human involvement, and work uninterrupted 24/7. Usually, the processes performed are high-volume, repetitive tasks based on logic where data needs to be entered or transferred between systems. They can complete procedures on applications if they aren’t running and immediately react to changes in processes.
Attended Automation
These robots are fitted on an employee’s desktop, assisting them in accomplishing business processes more accurately and efficiently. Attended automation is often installed in a front office setting where robots guide users through complex processes or complete parts of a process. By having robots automate stages of a process, workers can increase their productivity, accuracy, and focus on business-critical tasks and human interaction.
Hybrid Automation
For businesses that require automation processes between robots and humans, a hybrid system is a perfect match. This system combines attended and unattended automation into a comprehensive solution that enables collaboration between the virtual and human workforce.
Workers can initiate procedures and then pass specific tasks to the robots with complete visibility of the task’s status. Robots can return assignments to humans if a certain kind of input is required. The result is a complete solution that boosts process efficacy.
Final Thoughts
Workers typically spend a large part of their working day on routine and repetitive tasks. Their human strengths, such as reasoning and emotional intelligence, are not being maximized. Also, mundane tasks performed by humans that could be better accomplished by a bot saves companies time and money and helps them achieve goals to reach their full potential. RPA is far more than a survival tactic; it is the way of the future.
