Thanks to ease of implementation and a relatively rapid ROI, business units are increasingly leveraging robotic process automation (RPA) to turbocharge the productivity of their front-line business users.
Growth in the RPA software and services market remains strong, with many predicting the global RPA market will reach nearly $7 billion by 2025 – a compound annual growth rate of over 25%. Actual growth is anyone’s guess with the emergence of improved AI and no code solutions, but it’s safe to say the market is here to stay for the foreseeable future and therefore a safe investment for your business unit.
Robotic process automation defined
With robotic process automation (RPA), companies can leverage bots to automate a series of keystrokes within or between applications to improve worker productivity. The bots typically replace or augment repetitive human tasks, and if planned, scripted, and managed properly, can bridge applications, reduce input errors, improve customer service, and save significant time and money.
If you haven’t been exposed to RPA in action as of yet, Wikipedia provides a reasonable description of what it looks like in practice:
“RPA tools have strong technical similarities to graphical user interface testing tools. These tools also automate interactions with the GUI and often do so by repeating a set of demonstration actions performed by a user. RPA tools differ from such systems, including features that allow data to be handled in and between multiple applications, for instance, receiving email containing an invoice, extracting the data, and then typing that into a bookkeeping system.”
Reduced Dependency on IT
If you are a business manager somewhere in knowledge management but not IT, you might love the ability to run your own RPA program with occasional assistance from your company’s IT department. Freed from a spec and develop coding project that can take months or years to build, test, and implement, you can be up and running with considerable efficiency gains much more quickly.
And since RPA is handled at the GUI level, most systems, old and new, including systems that have been in service for decades, might be eligible. In other words, a modern enterprise application can work alongside CA Plex/2E or COBOL/RPG green screen apps in the process chain to get the work done.
There are many benefits to RPA:
- Can bypass entrenched IT job queue.
- ROI is fast.
- Scales based on need/demand.
- Relatively low investment needed.
- Business managers can test and implement based on real-world pain points quickly.
- Improved data management compliance.
- Improve the quality of frontline jobs.
- Improved analytical data.
RPA Best Practices
When adopting RPA, crafting a comprehensive company-wide strategy, complete with buy-in from all interested parties, along with careful maintenance and monitoring, ensures your best chances for success:
- Manage adoption corporate-wide.
- Work with IT early for buy-in.
- Pick the right tasks to automate. They should be predictable, mature, efficient, repetitive, based on definable rules, and have enough volume to justify the effort.
Ensure compatibility with relevant corporate systems. - Test early.
- Plan for ongoing management/technical debt.
- Define ROI and commit to ongoing measurement.
Final Thoughts
Robotic Process Automation is revolutionizing how businesses operate, offering an opportunity to enhance efficiency, reduce costs and improve customer satisfaction. Companies of all sizes can leverage RPA, and with proper planning, budgeting, and implementation, those gains can power your bottom line quickly.
And as an early adopter, you’ll have a serious competitive edge to brag about.
CM First Group Can Help
Our deep experience with legacy enterprise systems puts us in a unique position to help companies reinvent their modernization efforts with RPA. We have the knowledge and real-world experience needed to implement emerging RPA technology effectively and help you target and achieve the highest ROI possible.
This article has been adapted from our white paper “Robotic Process Automation.” Get the full white paper here.
Please feel free to contact us for more information or to schedule a demo. You can also call us at 888-866-6179 or email us at info@cmfirstgroup.com.
