Is Robotic Process Automation (RPA) For You?
Courtesy of the Canon Singapore CONES Team
What Is RPA?
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a relatively new technology that combines your software with Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities to handle high-volume, repeatable tasks that traditionally require humans to perform. These programmed bots will be able to record tasks performed by a human on their computer, and then perform those same tasks without human intervention.
Whether it’s human errors during data-entry or wasted time in tedious manual processes, these are common yet critical pain points that can have huge ramifications for your company. Many companies are choosing to automate their processes today and the question is...Should you follow suit?
Here’s where Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology comes in, it is a valuable and worthwhile investment for businesses of any size or scale. According to Gartner, the spending on RPA technology will reach $2.4 billion by 2022. With the shift in focus towards automation in the next few years, the implementation of streamlined automated processes can give your businesses the headstart that it needs and increase efficiencies in your work processes in the long run.
What Are The Benefits Of RPA?
With the technology to automate processes and integrate applications, one main advantage is the reduction of labour costs. Once work processes are automated, and certain tedious and repetitive tasks are eliminated, your employees can now pay attention to tasks that are more crucial to the company. Some of these tasks include customer queries, calculations of daily spending, and maintenance of invoices and business transactions too.
RPA has proven to greatly reduce the amount of human errors, which can be costly sometimes. The automation of manual and time constraining tasks improves the accuracy of work and your businesses can in turn, see greater cost efficiency, higher operational and business predictability in the process, and better control even over the most complicated tasks.
Over the last few years, companies such as Walmart and American Express have already implemented RPA technology and seen vast improvements to their overall productivity. In 2018, Walmart deployed about 500 bots to automate anything from answering employee questions to retrieving data from audit documents. And American Express Global Business Travel uses RPA to automate the process for cancelling an airline ticket and issuing refunds.
According to Deloitte, a large consumer and commercial bank used 85 software bots to run 13 processes that handled 1.5 million requests in a year. This adoption allowed the bank to add capacity that equalled 230 full-time employees – at just about 30 per cent the cost of recruiting more staff.
Essentially, RPA can be applied to almost any industry out there, and companies regardless of size can take advantage of this, be it an MNC, SME or a sole-proprietorship.
In the customer service sector, RPA can help by automating contact centre tasks, including verifying e-signatures, uploading scanned documents and verifying information for automatic approvals or rejections. For accounting firms, RPA can be used for general and operational tasks, transactional reporting and budget forecasting. And for supply chain management firms, RPA helps in processes involving procurement, automating order processing and payments, monitoring inventory levels and tracking shipments.
Who Can Benefit From RPA?
If your business operations include processes that require human employees to do a high volume of repetitive data work and involve a high level of manual data processing, RPA can definitely help lighten the workload on your employees and increase the efficiency of your business.
The shaking up of workflow processes at your company can be challenging. With Canon ONE Solution (CONES), a holistic one-stop shop for all your ICT and digital needs, the overhauling of age-old manual processes can be made simpler. From digitisation, to digitalisation and ultimately, digital transformation, our solutions such as UiPath, ESET Endpoint Protection and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) softwares can help you seamlessly integrate RPA software into your work processes, with the help of AI technology.
Connect with our professional consultants here, and let us help you kickstart your journey to using RPA now. Follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn for more updates on digital solutions for your businesses.