Robotic Process Automation solutions are poised for tremendous growth in the year ahead, as it plays an increasing role in the changing face of the world’s workforce. The real value for businesses comes in how RPA improves infrastructure, allowing for better interactions with the customer, Technologent’s Kevin Buckley, Business Automation Executive, explains.
(Irvine, CA) April 13, 2021—Robotic Process Automation, RPA, continues to change the face of modern businesses as it provides companies with a competitive advantage through its ability to automate repetitive tasks. Doing this allows employees to focus on the things that are more important for a business’s ROI, such as providing better customer service, among other duties. Organizations that do not embrace RPA will miss out on a valuable way to grow profits. “The challenge is everyone thinks RPA will replace their job, so I like to ask, ‘If you didn’t have to fill out that form 20 times a day, what would you rather be doing with your time to actually make a difference and help the company be better?’ RPA gives you the freedom to do that while providing greater efficiency and differentiating the customer experience,” says Kevin Buckley, Business Automation Executive at Technologent, a global IT Solutions firm.
In the last 20 years, despite an influx of new software technologies, productivity growth has stalled. This has left workers with more repetitive and mundane tasks such as data entry.(1) These are the tasks that are ideal for RPA. The best candidates for RPA are those activities with a known workflow, for instance, any highly repeatable tasks or ones that are data-based, like entering information from forms. These types of tasks can be mapped and identified to allow a software robot to be built that will interface with the different applications to enter the data. Unlike AI, RPA still involves human interaction. The robot does a certain amount of work, but then it has to go to someone to approve the work. AI, however, does not require any human interaction. It is able to make those “intelligent” decisions and move the project to completion on its own.
As a result, RPA doesn’t seek to eliminate jobs, but rather its goal is to better utilize employees who do routine jobs by removing repetitive tasks from their day-to-day workload to free up their time to focus on other areas. For example, the automation of medical appointments can be more effective and faster with robotics, allowing that employee to be better used in other aspects that will increase functionality and efficiency for the office. Companies can have a great strategy but if their culture resists, they will encounter decreased efficiency and a higher ratio of employee turnover. “It’s important for companies to make sure their people are on board, by getting them excited about skipping the mind-numbing work they hate,” Buckley says. “When employees can’t get to real work—that is what makes good people leave.”
Implementing RPA into your business’s operations starts with educating employees about what is going on and why. Too many businesses think it is simply about buying a license, installing the RPA and starting. Once the company culture is on board, it’s important that the automation practice is based on the actual challenges a company faces and is scaled to the organization’s needs. Finally, a quality provider will ensure that a company understands how to manage their RPA initiatives moving forward so that it can help their business grow while providing regular feedback.
Technologent’s differentiator is that it integrates all of an organization’s systems, from security to risk to governance as well as a service desk. We understand the future audit and governance challenges that can arise in different verticals and we guide our customers through that process to assure it is addressed as part of the implementation. Other RPA Solutions Integrators don’t build that level of integration into their proposals. If an issue arises, the business is stuck, with no partner to help them address any new concerns that may develop as their needs change.
Incorporating RPA into a company provides ROI in less than 12 months, with RPA delivering an average of 20% full-time equivalent (FTE) capacity in the process.(2) “Technologent helps companies know how to scale an automation practice, how to manage that and grow it, while showing them their savings,” Buckley says. “If you get just 2% of an FTE’s time, it pays for the license itself, while freeing the employee’s time to focus on more high-value-customer facing or strategic initiatives.”
About Technologent:
Technologent is a Global Provider of Edge-to-Edge(TM) Information Technology Solutions and Services for Fortune 1000 companies. They help companies outpace the new digital economy by creating IT environments that are fast, flexible, efficient, transparent and secure. Without these characteristics, companies will miss the opportunity to optimally scale. Technologent mobilizes the power of technology to turn vision into reality, enabling a focus on driving innovation, increasing productivity and outperforming the market. Visit www.technologent.com.
