You might have heard the term RPA (Robotic Process Automation) quite often in the past 4 or 5 years. It seems that it has become another buzzword, regularly thrown out during business meetings or conference talks. It can be tiring to get your head around yet another must-have technology, especially when there are many more pressing issues in your company to be resolved immediately using the resources you already have.
However, RPA should not be taken lightly or postponed, especially while amid a crisis like COVID. It can benefit your business in the long run and increase your company’s sustainability. But in order to achieve this, it has to be done right.
OK, so what is Robotic Process Automation?
Let us turn back the clock to 1997 when IBM’s “Deep Blue” computer defeated the world chess champion, Garry Kasparov. The progress made in AI and computing became an immediate global sensation. This event, along with the rapid development of information technology and the continuous doubling in computational power, was a clear sign of a revolution that would dramatically transform the job market, overall economy, and business operations in the years to come.
At the core of this transformation is RPA, a software technology that emulates human interaction with digital systems and software. It is easy to build, implement and manage. Most importantly, it gets you on a path towards efficiency. By efficiency, I mean improved speed, accuracy, and productivity. Of course, the rule is, the more efficient your business processes are, the faster the ROI.
It is easy to view RPA as a threat to low-level workers, who tend to do routine and repetitive tasks. However, the reality is a bit more complicated than that, as the definition of “routine” and “repetitive” changes each year. Nowadays, most jobs that are affected by RPA can be more accurately described as “predictive”. This comes down to the extraordinary amount of data available about nearly every aspect of your operations. Many jobs and tasks are hidden within the data, waiting for a machine to learn from them to outperform their human predecessors.
When implementing automation software (aka a robot), you can configure it in many ways. For example, to manipulate only chosen data, trigger automatic responses, communicate with other digital systems, process interactions, or it could be as simple as a response to an email. The range of scenarios RPA can be used for is limitless, and therefore the technology must be applied very carefully within the overall structure to reach its true potential. It is also worth saying that such solutions are not cheap. So here comes the main question.
How to choose the correct processes to automate?
Now that you know all the benefits RPA can offer, you are ready to get started. But to identify which processes in your overall structure to automate (to make your business more profitable) can be the most challenging part. Not all processes should be automated using a robot. For some of them, human interaction is necessary. For example, customer service can be automated to an extent, but you won’t get five-star reviews if a chatbot answers all of the inquiries. Empathy will certainly not be replaced by a robot, ever.
Understanding and discovering processes suitable for automation can be an overwhelming task, especially if you are not using them daily. Therefore, it is necessary to set-up interviews with employees and gather as much information about their daily tasks as possible. Only by choosing the right processes can you reach the desired ROI.
The processes you are looking for are usually:
- Tedious and routinely performed tasks which involve lots of clicking on a keyboard and mouse.
- Involves more than one employee who has to collaborate manually to finish the task.
- Recurring processes with a disproportionate amount of steps.
- Encompasses digital data, which can be tracked down, processed, and analyzed.
Don’t hesitate to talk to your department representatives and employees responsible for individual processes. They can provide valuable information and whether there is a possibility to improve processes with RPA solutions. These kinds of sessions will give you an overall idea of all possibilities.
The questions you might want to ask are:
- Are there any processes you find boring because they are repetitive?
- Do you have processes that could be improved by real-time reports?
- Are there any processes that employees hesitate to do, and if so, why?
- Is there an issue that you urgently need to solve?
The above steps should help you to avoid complications that commonly occur when implementing process automation. It could be, for example, finding out that target processes are much more complex than thought. The successful deployment of an automation system, should therefore always be preceded by a thorough analysis and, above all, a strategic plan, thanks to which you will be able to identify not only obstacles but also the goals you want to achieve. Even though this might sound a bit complicated, there is no need to be afraid. When you go through all the above steps carefully, you will achieve what you need.
About TIMEPRESS
As a custom software development company, we work on all kinds of solutions applicable across the whole operational spectrum of your business from sales, marketing, back office, e-shops to accounting. Our solutions shape the everyday reality of thousands of workers to make their life easier. For example, our biggest achievement thus far comes from creating a contract automation tool that helps lawyers around the world to quickly and easily create, negotiate, and sign legal documents. Our job is to figure out what is the most effective way to help you and come up with a solution. After all, the reason for choosing a customized software solution is that you want the system to do only what it needs to do.
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