How robotic process automation became an unsung hero amid uncertainty
Robotic process automation is changing business for the better. Discover RPA benefits like cost-saving, increased productivity, and better CX.
Why are execs, employees, and the c-suite so excited about RPA? Aren’t these robots supposed to start stealing our jobs? No. They’re not. In fact, they’re making work easier. Some of the business benefits of robotic process automation (RPA) include:
- Improved profitability
- Cost reduction
- Increased productivity
- Ease of use/learning
- Streamlining of business operations
- Improved analytics
- Employee empowerment
RPA: Chart your path through 2021
When people think about robotic process automation, they often imagine literal robots that look and act like humans. The power of automation fascinates and excites many business leaders and employees alike, but some remain apprehensive of this new and mystifying technology.
To take advantage of all the business benefits of robotic process automation, technology experts say that leaders must first abandon their preconceptions about automation – including their fear that humanoid robots will soon render the workforce obsolete.
In previous episodes of “CXO Corner,” our new video series, I’ve engaged with such experts to explore my own bias toward automation while learning the basics and truth about RPA. This week, I spoke to Stephanie Atkinson, founder, CEO, and principal consultant at Compass Intelligence and Adrian Kostrz, innovation manager at itelligence, to find out what business leaders need to do to maximize efficiency with RPA.
Focus on facts from experts
“Now more than ever, businesses are really rethinking their strategies and looking at their humans versus machines versus software and applications and technologies that they’re using,” Atkinson said.
She pointed toward the COVID-19 pandemic as an incentive for many businesses to finally get started with RPA. The benefits of automation, including cost savings, productivity improvements, reduced human error, and greater opportunities for value-added work, provide ample reason to get started with RPA, even amid global disruption and changing workforce trends.
The pandemic is an opportunity – not an excuse.
“Some of the more specific benefits include things like optimizing repetitive processes, improving workflow, and optimizing workflow, which essentially, in turn, improves customer services and customer experience. In addition to that, you’re saving worker time. We’re looking at processes that are repetitive that we need to shift to RPA,” she said.
Find an unhappy employee and automate their work
Any business that regularly works with silos or across disconnected systems and processes has a perfect RPA use case, according to Kostrz.
“Any data flowing through the channels that are not connected – the question is, who is building the connection?” He posited. “It’s people doing that. They’re filling out forms and sheets, all the time, without creating any business benefit. Shifting data from left to right. We don’t want humans doing robot work. This is how most of the journey starts: find a human doing robot work and unhappy with this – then you have your first use case.”
The key to unlocking the benefits of RPA lies in first finding the value in these small wins. At itelligence, Adrian encourages customers to start small. As those initial engagements begin to go well, customers naturally want to launch more RPA instances.
“The good thing about RPA is that the customers can see the results immediately. We don’t need to run workshops or never-ending projects for a year or even longer to see results,” Kostrz said.
Shape the right leadership mindset
If your business is anything like itelligence or Compass Intelligence, you need to embrace RPA for yourself before you can hope to successfully sell automation to your customers. This change in thinking is usually the most successful when it comes from the top down.
“From a leadership perspective, leaders have to really think through that and maybe throw out their old way of doing things and really rethink and put together a sound strategy that embraces automation in their business, because businesses are not going to transform without that, and even more so today because of the impact of the coronavirus,” Atkinson said.
“We’re thinking about our human management – which employees go back to work, and which ones can work from home? Rethinking our strategy about workplace safety, workforce optimization, definitely lends itself to RPA applications,” she said. “RPA will be vital in that process as companies really start thinking about ways they can really simplify and adopt technologies to help improve processes and workflow.”
Each industry will have its own approach on how businesses return their workforces to the office. Atkinson and Kostrz both ask that businesses keep RPA in mind as they develop those strategies.
Watch the full conversation here.
