How Is RPA Really Changing Your Business?

How is automation such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA) changing your business? I’ve written here in the past about some of the automated solutions IBA Group has delivered to clients and how the use of automation can streamline various business processes, but what is the wider effect on a business when some processes can be automated?

In the short term some clear effects can be immediately observed:

1. Faster time to market; products and services can be delivered faster when a part of the value chain has been automated, allowing quicker delivery and an improved time to market for new ideas.
2. Productivity boost; more can be achieved with fewer resources, so the same team can boost what they were delivering before automation.
3. FTE requirements; if a significant part of your business processes can be automated then logically the number of team members required to process this information can be reduced.

But these are just the immediate effects, based on improving processes so everything works faster and more reliably. There are some additional changes that may not be immediately obvious, or even planned during the RPA transition, but will soon become important to any organisation that uses RPA.

• Business re-engineering and transformation
• Process streamlining
• Improved governance framework and process controls – such as change management

The focus here is on the time after your RPA solution has been installed and is operational. Now that a significant section of your business processes are automated, how can you leverage on this achievement?

First is the ability to transform the business. Many industries are experiencing a wave of rapid change at present. Change really is the only constant for almost every traditional business model. Look at banks becoming apps, or news publishers searching for a revenue stream. Many traditional industries are finding that they need to change in order to survive in a very different business environment. If a significant part of your business can be automated then this facilitates innovation in the rest of your processes.

Streamlining the processes you have yet to automate is another significant advantage. Once you can see just how much of your business can be automated, there is a strong temptation to increase the processes your business manages using RPA. It’s important to create a period of stability once RPA is initially rolled out, but after that expansion should be encouraged.

Automating many of your systems allows governance checks to be applied automatically by the system and all processes and actions to be recorded. This can help with compliance and governance by removing the opportunity for manual errors and ensuring that a comprehensive audit trail exists for all automated actions.

Tools like RPA are often talked about as a way to streamline a business, or reduce cost. It’s rare to hear the opportunities for a complete transformation mentioned, but this is where automation is heading – one day it’s going to redefine what your business does and how all your services are delivered.