If you notice yourself or your team working on activities that require jumping from application to application, completing tasks that require little thinking, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software can help. RPA is a quick yet effective automation tool.
Put simply, RPA is the process by which a software bot uses a combination of automation, computer vision, and machine learning to automate repetitive, high-volume tasks that are rule-based and trigger-driven. Think copy-paste tasks and moving files from one location to another, for example.
RPA bots are capable of mimicking most human-computer interactions to carry out a ton of error-free tasks, at high volume and speed. That’s also how RPA promises to boost efficiency for organizations.
Robotic process automation as such is not a physical or mechanical robot, rather the “robot” in robotic process automation is software robots running on a physical or virtual machine.
According to Gartner, RPA is the fastest-growing segment of the global enterprise software market and estimates that 85% of large and very large organizations will deploy some form of RPA. In 2018, the global Robotic Process Automation (RPA) market size was 477 Million USD, and it is expected to reach 1930 Million USD by the end of 2025, with a CAGR of 21.3% between 2019 and 2025.
Which processes are a match for RPA?
There are some fundamental criteria worth noting with regards to processes that are a match for RPA, since they can help you and your team get a better handle on what RPA is and how it could be useful.
One of the main criterion: Any processes that require people to do a high volume of repetitive data work.
Provided below are four basic check-offs when determining possible RPA fits:
- The process must be rule-based.
- The process must be repeated at regular intervals, or have a pre-defined trigger.
- The process must have defined inputs and outputs.
- The task should have sufficient volume.
High volume, highly repetitive processes are easy targets for automation, as they take significant time that could be spent on work that requires more human thinking and empathy. Getting bogged down in these processes can ultimately throttle your organization’s ability to grow and scale.
High value processes are extremely important to your organization, such as “money” processes like sales quotes or those that create a better customer experience and reduce churn.
High stakes processes could land your company in trouble with mistakes or delays. Perhaps a copy-and-paste error results in a costly compliance violation, or a process backlog causes routine missing of deadlines.
How it Works?
As industrial robots transformed the factory floor, RPA bots transform back offices.
RPA bots replicate employee actions like opening files, inputting data and copy pasting fields in an automated way. They interact with different systems via integrations and screen scraping, allowing RPA tools to perform actions like a white-collar employee.
RPA Benefits
Overall benefits of RPA are:
Improved Business Results
Focusing employees on higher value added activities will result in improved business metrics. Depending on the focus on the business, these could impact top or bottom line. Some positions already serve as stepping stone for higher value added jobs.
For example, call center personnel cold calling customers with new offers make the ideal face-to-face sales people as well. Face-to-face sales is easier, with higher conversion rates and higher ticket goods sold. RPA and AI will reduce these stepping stones as those lower-value add positions are automated and humans focus on higher value added activities.
Reduced Wage Costs
RPA vendors estimate 25–60% cost savings due to RPA roll-out. Automation may make some positions redundant, however there are 3 possible solutions – employing personnel in other functions, upskilling personnel and letting go of personnel so they can find opportunities in other companies.
Reduced Risk
System upgrades tend to go over budget and deliver below expectations. RPA projects are low risk, non-invasive projects that get completed quickly without disturbing existing systems.
Reduction of data entry errors and other manual errors
One of the greatest benefits of automation is that machines do not get distracted. Once the RPA setup is complete, manual errors are eliminated.
Customers will no longer need to complain about errors that you introduce to their data. These errors are some of the hardest to fix as your customer rep may not be able to correctly identify the customer on the line due to data entry issues. As a result, customer may need to go to a face-to-face channel which takes significant time and effort especially for busy professionals.
Faster Service
Back office processes hold back the speed of your business. Employees manually entering forms into systems or copying data between systems hold back your service speed. Bots work at lightning speed without break.
Surge in Employee Satisfaction and Reduced Churn
No one wants to spend all day copying data from one system to another. Appreciation of work emerges as one of the strongest driver for employee satisfaction. RPA has the potential to increase employee empowerment.
If employees can build and maintain their own automations, it is a significant empowerment for them. They can focus on more interesting and challenging tasks, increasing their job satisfaction.
As a result of this efficiency increase, you will be managing a smaller, more effective and satisfied workforce. This will give you plenty of opportunities to reduce churn
Reduced Workload and Improved Focus
As business users are empowered to automate their processes, IT will get less small automation requests. Focus is especially critical for IT as IT has the challenging tasks of serving all departments. Having less automation related work allows IT to focus on more important technology problems.
Minimized Exposure to Sensitive Data
Thanks to RPA, human contact with sensitive data can be minimized, reducing probability of fraud and compliance issues.
Maintain an Audit Trail
RPA enables detailed audits in case if issues arise leading to quicker error fixes.
Use Cases of RPA
There are several ways to use RPA effectively and some of them are mentioned below:
Customer Service
Modern customers are accustomed to quick responses and effective solutions. It is possible to deliver the results that customers want, with the help of automation. Automated customer care systems can sort queries and offer initial responses to customers.
The automated system can segregate queries into different categories, such as tech department, service department, and more. Sorting ensures the queries reach the right customer care agent for a quick resolution. There is no need for the customer’s call to be transferred from one executive to another. Customer service has several rules-based processes that can be automated and streamlined. According to research, over 70% to 80% of rules-based processes can be automated, and it is a good idea to start with customer service.
Invoice Processing
The large volume of invoice processing has repetitive manual tasks which can result in delayed and incorrect payments. Timely payments can deliver quality goods/services from vendor. Invoice processing has many challenges such as invoices with formats; require consolidated data from various sources into the single financial database system etc.
RPA automatically processes invoices once received. The paper-based invoice format can automate using OCR. RPA can automate the data input, reconciliation error, and even it can process certain decision-making required for invoice processing, which minimizes the need for human intervention.
RPA can automate end-to-end process from receipt to payment.
Sales Orders
Data consistency across enterprise systems is a very tedious task. Sales representative need to spend his critical time in entering data to the CRM system as well as the ERP system. Finance analysts have to replicate the data and enter it in another system or module. This may result in duplication, produce errors and affect productivity. RPA can perform sales activities end-to-end by automating tasks such as sales order entry, invoicing, etc.
It will help to maintain a database by removing duplicate data, improve customer experience, and increase your sales employees’ satisfaction by removing all the time-consuming tasks like data entry and can concentrate on their main task – prospecting, and generating more business.
Payroll
Processing payroll every month is time consuming, repetitive task for HR team in every organization and this also requires large volume of data entry efforts. This may result in data inaccuracy that can cause delays in payment and employee dissatisfaction.
RPA can verify employee data consistency across multiple systems, validate timesheets, load earning and deductions. It can also automate paycheck creations, administer benefits, and reimbursements. RPA can perform automation for payroll related transactions from end-to-end to avoid inaccuracies and delays.
Price Comparison
Businesses often have to make purchases in bulk to manufacture products or provide services. The cost of these items can impact the company’s revenue or profits; companies always research online in order to make an informed decision. The research process can be time-consuming and complicated, which is why many companies have now begun using RPA.
The system doesn’t just compare prices from different vendors, but can also compare product attributes and quality. Businesses can buy the best resources at the best prices possible.
Storing Customer Information
RPA can help you store, sort and organize all kinds of customer information to ensure everything is easily accessible. The system will automatically categorize different data like contact information, purchase history, preferences, personal information like birthdays or anniversaries.
The system can display all the information to customer care executives, salespersons, and similar employees. There’s no need to manually enter this information or worry about its accuracy. RPA is more accurate than people and has a lower margin of error. Storing information is one of the most labor-intensive jobs and can cause a lot of stress. RPA adoption can reduce repetitive tasks by nearly 80%.
Recruitment
Robotic Process Automation can also help with recruitment, which can help streamline the process considerably. The system can source resumes from different platforms, access value, sort through spam or undesirable applications, and other such factors.
This can streamline the recruitment process by a considerable margin. It can reduce the stress of recruiters and allow them to access every applicant more thoroughly. Around 90% to 95% of vital recruitment processes like screening, assessing, measuring, onboard, and administration can be handled by RPA.
Extract Data from Different Formats
Data can appear in different formats ranging from editable text to handwritten notes. Data entry professionals struggle to read the information and enter it into the system. Optical character recognition technology is easily able to read the information from different format sources and enter it into the system.
The entire process can be automated with little compromise in the accuracy of the information. If your business needs to collect and store information from different sources, RPA is a great investment. Employees spend around 10% to 20% of their man hours on mundane computer tasks like this one. You can save all of that time and direct it towards something more productive.
Is RPA applicable to your Business?
As you can see, RPA can be implemented in several interesting ways. It requires some practice, but your employees can easily adapt to the changes and work productively. You don’t need to implement system-wide automation from the very beginning.
Start out small and automate one process at a time to see if it is the right choice for your company. Feel free to let us know if you feel there are any repetitive/mundane tasks that’s taking out your employees’ productive hours and we can assist you to establish a clear investment plan on RPA.
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