Why Robotic Process Automation Is the Way Ahead for Business

Why Robotic Process Automation Is the Way Ahead for Businesses

Forrester predicts that Robotic Process Automation market will reach a whopping $1.7 billion in 2019 and $ 2.9 billion by the end of 2021! (Sources: Predictions 2019: Automation,” Forrester, November 6, 2018, and The RPA Market Will Reach $2.9 Billion By 2021,” Forrester; February 13, 2017)

Robotic Process Automation is the convergence of process automation with artificial intelligence. This combination has opened doors to countless possibilities offering numerous benefits in a variety of areas.

Why RPA is being adopted by most industries these days!

Resolves Difficulty in Integration

Business processes function on receiving inputs from a variety of different tools. As the number of tools continues to increase each year, so do the need for integration. While each tool comes with its API, not all companies provide open access to their APIs. This makes integration and data migration a complex task resulting in higher switching costs.

RPA solves this problem for businesses using bots to automate the reasoning of the business logic in the processes.

Another reason that makes integration difficult is that companies use outdated systems that cannot be integrated with modern tools. RPA solves this problem by utilizing software robots to bridge the gaps between systems.

Facilitates better automation

Automating processes that involved different devices used to be a challenging task, especially in cases where users of desktops could only access the images from applications.

RPA facilitates better automation by functioning as a digital spine connecting several apps. This has helped democratize automation.

RPA automates most manual processes

About a decade ago, most Fortune 500 companies outsourced numerous tasks to developing countries because of lower labor rates. However, this trend has reduced over the years because of various reasons, one of them was the number of errors produced in completing tasks.

RPA automates most manual processes reducing errors and providing cost benefits to the organization.

RPA has its extensive application throughout the industry because It helps organizations streamline and automate their processes, yielding many benefits.

Here are some of the major benefits that RPA provides:

• Increases throughput and reduces costs.
• Reduces time taken for completion of processes.
• Permits flexibility enabling adding and changing processes.
• Routine jobs can be offloaded to bots giving the employees time to focus on other business-critical tasks.
• Enables minimizing errors in manual error-prone processes.
• Enables easy and quick expansion of the virtual workforce.
• Standardized processes help improve consistency.
• Better compliance and audibility.
• Human errors are minimized from processes leading to better customer experience.

It is due to these benefits, more and more organizations across diverse sectors are investing in RPA.

A survey by Deloitte reveals, of the respondents already implementing RPA now, 78% plan to invest more in the next 3 years.

Industrial sectors that are implementing RPA for their benefit

RPA in Finance

Several activities in the finance sector are repetitive and require high accuracy. The financial closing and reporting processes include tasks that involve diverse systems, departments, and individuals. These processes warrant posting data from sources such as Microsoft Excel to sub-ledgers which is a tedious task. RPA can automate this task enhancing the efficiency.

Automating financial reporting with bots saves time and effort.

RPA can also automate the process of adding a new account or supplier, as well as help in vetting new customers.

RPA in Healthcare

RPA can perform several functions in the healthcare sector enhancing the quality of services provided.

It can facilitate streamlining back-office processes eliminating paperwork and reducing the time required to process files.

It can improve the quality of patient care, as RPA can help perform various repetitive routine tasks, allowing humans to perform higher-functioning roles. This enhances the overall quality of healthcare provided.

RPA can help in making population healthcare feasible, scalable, and sustainable.

RPA can reduce costs in the healthcare sector drastically.

RPA in Retail

The retail industry has numerous tasks and processes that are repetitive and time-consuming. These tasks include data entry and migration, sales spreadsheet updates and issuance, inventory management, and many more. All these tasks take a lot of time and efforts of the retailer, this takes away the crucial time that they can use to focus on customers.

We are living in an era where the market is customer-centric, and the retailers need to focus on providing their customers' personalized experience. RPA can automate most of the retail processes giving the retailer enough time to focus on customers and the growth of his business.

RPA in Energy

RPA is transforming the energy sector in several ways. Bots are automating processes such as billing, payments, move in and move out tasks, etc.

RPA empowers analytics platforms with data streams integration. RPA has the potential to enhance customer experience and achieve better business outcomes. RPA enables cost-effective scaling.

RPA in Manufacturing

Automation is not new to the manufacturing sector. Several manufacturing operations have been automated for decades. Automation has enhanced the quality of products, increased speed, and reduced manufacturing errors.

Robotics has further streamlined assembly lines and enhanced efficiency of production departments.

However, backend processes need better management systems. RPA plays a vital role in improving the agility in operations across the entire value chain.

RPA bots can automate processes such as procurement, inventory management, payment processing, etc. They can also play a role in strategizing cost reduction and innovation in business.

Although not exhaustive, that was a list of some of the major sectors that are implementing RPA for their benefit.

Implementation of RPA is done using robotic process automation tools.

RPA tools should fulfill the following criteria:

• The bot should be able to interact with other systems using screen scraping/ API integration.
• The bot should be capable of decision-making and determining actions to be taken based on multiple inputs it receives from different systems.
• The bot should have the ability to program through an interface.

Different RPA tools are available in the market. However, they should be selected according to the needs of your organization.

In Conclusion

Robotic Process Automation is the technology that will take you to the future. According to Deloitte, if the current popular trends of RPA continue, RPA will achieve near-universal adoption in the next 5 years!

You surely do not want to be left behind!

Let the experts at V2Soft help you implement RPA in your organization!