ccording to Gartner, by the end of 2021, global revenue from Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is expected to reach almost $2 billion, a 25% increase from last year. Just about everyone in the IT industry knows the benefits of RPA, such as filling customer forms or automating data entry tasks. Companies in every industry — insurance, healthcare, logistics, finance, etc. — are implementing RPA to improve efficiency. It’s expected that RPA will have “near-universal adoption” within the next 5 years, according to surveys by Deloitte.
What is Robotic Process Automation?
We’re not talking about Hollywood robots. Instead, the “Robotic” in RPA refers to software robots running on a machine. These bots are instructed to mimic human and computer interactions to quickly carry out a high volume of error-free tasks. In plain English, RPA is all about automating time-consuming, mundane computer tasks — think manual data entry, copying and pasting, or moving files from one place to another.
Vishnu KC, a senior software analyst lead at ClaySys Technologies explained it best, “Robotic process automation is nothing but instructing a machine to execute mundane, repetitive manual tasks. If there is a logical step to performing a task, a bot will be able to replicate it.”
In addition, “RPA software can now handle the return, which includes a series of repetitive steps: sending a message confirming receipt of the return, updating the inventory system, making the payment adjustment to the customer, ensuring that the internal billing system is updated, and so on,” said Antony Edwards, COO at Eggplant.
Now, let’s go over some of the specific benefits of RPA.
1. Integrations
RPA enables you to integrate systems that normally wouldn’t talk to one another and share data and insights between them. For example, a patient will have to check into a hospital through system A, the doctor looks up the patient’s info in system B, the insurance claim is placed in system C, the insurance decision comes from system D, and so on.
Robotic Process Automation enables these separate systems to talk to one another and work together. In contrast to a traditional integration, RPA allows companies to keep their existing IT systems. That means users don’t need to learn an entirely new system, meaning businesses don’t have to spend time and money on a full system integration and extensive training.
2. Upgrade your company’s data analytics
RPA bots can process massive amounts of data at quick speeds and generate reports accurately. When paired with advanced data processing and deep learning tools, RPA allows companies to stay ahead of their competition in performance, operating expenses, and customer loyalty down the line. That’s because RPA works with analytics tools to help organizations in the following ways:
- Fully automated data entry, rather than manual data entry.
- Fully automated system migration between applications.
- Automated data monitoring to improve data consistency.
- Automated retrieval of new data streams.
The data produced from Robotic Process Automation can then be used to generate reports quickly and accurately to optimize processes.
3. Increase employee efficiency
Remove the need for mundane human data entry and other small tasks by implementing RPA. This will save not only time but reduce the human error associated with manual data entry. When employees aren’t wasting their time with mundane tasks, they can focus on the more important aspects of their work that makes money for the organization. For example, RPA could enable an employee to generate a monthly report in 20 minutes compared to four hours.
4. Improve Customer service
Bots do not take breaks and free up time for employees to communicate with customers more in-depth. By handling easy requests automatically, your customer service team can spend more time with the customers that need more help, giving the customer a better experience.
Your skilled and proficient workers can then use their abilities to solve varied customers problems to improve customer satisfaction. Furthermore, with generated reports based on the problems the bots solved, you can better understand the requirements of your customers.
5. Enhance IT infrastructure
An RPA solution is responsive and agile, relieving the burden of several processes IT departments typically have to deal with. A lot of network technology requires constant measurement and monitoring. But with RPA, bots can run updates and manage network performance to save IT team’s time.
Plus, these bots work around the clock to ensure operations are always running smoothly. Software robots can run automated diagnostics to select and remedy issues by means of algorithms. Even more, bots can handle time-consuming IT tasks such as account creations and email creations by automatically collecting user profile info.
IT Leaders, Consider the Benefits of RPA
In summary, RPA helps improve the scalability of your business by integrating your different systems, enhancing data analytics, increasing employee efficiency, improving customer service, and automating IT processes. The benefits of RPA are being seen across a wide range of sectors in 2021. While insurance, finance, and banking services have been seeing the positive results of implementing RPA for some time, new industries such as hospitality, manufacturing, and retail are also starting to see the benefits of RPA. That’s because robotic automation has such a broad range of applications.
Even outdated platforms, processes, and applications can be improved with RPA without having to spend massive amounts of time and money on an entirely new infrastructure. Overall, for insights into primary business goals, it’s paramount that businesses adopt RPA solutions if they want to nurture a healthy and competitive work environment.
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