In this article, we will explain what Robotic Process Automation means and its importance in an ever-evolving industry landscape.

Let’s begin by understanding what RPA means. Robotic Process Automation or RPA is a computer coded software that helps businesses automate back-office and front end operations that are repetitive, manual and time-consuming, thus freeing the worker to focus on tasks that require creativity, judgement and decision-making. Robotic Process Automation is not a new phenomenon. The manufacturing industry was one of the earliest to jump into the automation world, automating tasks and improving the efficiency and productivity of workers.

With analyst firms predicting that about half of the work could be automated, industries such as healthcare, retail, education, banking and insurance do not want to be left behind. It’s predicted that automation technologies such as RPA could have a financial impact of around $6.7 trillion by 2025. With such staggering growth, businesses are no more on the fence about implementing RPA. They are steadily adopting RPA and are undergoing a paradigm shift in the way they think and do business.

Here are 4 points why RPA is important for your business:

Helps enterprises in their digital transformation journey: With RPA, enterprises can take their digital capabilities to the next level, reaching new heights that they never imagined before. RPA is a key factor in DX or digital transformation, going beyond automating tedious, repetitive tasks and bringing about standardization across the enterprise. With RPA, enterprises are looking to kick-start their digital journey more than ever, focusing on customer-centric experiences and increasing their digital footprint in business operations. It’s no doubt a precursor to your enterprise’s digital transformation strategy. With more and more businesses investing in process automation and cognitive technology projects, enterprises have an edge over their competitors, driving productivity, digitizing processes, and building innovative solutions that bring about enterprise-wide transformation.

Helps enterprises gear up for a data-driven market: With enterprises transitioning to a data-driven market, Big Data is an area that cannot be ignored. High-volume of data is a challenge for many businesses. Exchange of data in a seamless manner, streamlining processes and utilizing data the right way can be beneficial to enhancing the overall customer experience. Data combined with automation capabilities is a disruptive technology that can rapidly digitize processes and deliver significant value to the business and its customers. From data collection and processing to data analysis, RPA can manage and monitor the huge volume of unstructured data that is out there, leveraging it to help employees make better-informed decisions. Transforming to a data-driven enterprise will help enterprises do away with legacy systems, traditional RPA methods, and process large amounts of data in a snap.

Helps you unlock the power of intelligence: Have you as a business adopted AI/ML capabilities? Have you gone beyond RPA? Initially, enterprises that implement RPA, begin by automating rule-based tasks, and gradually move onto tasks that require a combination of NLP and predictive models, focusing on intelligence and judgment for decision-making. It’s reported that many enterprises are looking to adopt AI/ML capabilities in their business processes. It’s no wonder then that humans and intelligent machines are working more closely than ever before, leading to a quantum shift in the way businesses operate.

Introduces digital workforce in your enterprise: With RPA comes the introduction of digital or virtual workers — wherein the digital workers or bots foster collaboration and work along with the human worker, thus freeing the human to focus on more strategic tasks. The digital workers emulate human actions and perform repetitive, time-consuming processes such as internal reporting, e-invoicing and employee onboarding among many others. Developing and managing a digital workforce requires a clear automation blueprint and change of employee mindset. The combination of artificial intelligence and automation has heralded the era of a new digital workforce, eliminating humans from repetitive tasks and engaging them to do more creative work.

Conclusion

It’s estimated that the global Robotic Process Automation market is expected to reach USD 3.11 billion by 2025. As RPA makes greater inroads into our lives, early adopters and innovators are making the shift from traditional RPA to Intelligent Automation. RPA is more than just automating mundane, dreary tasks; it’s also about gathering data, analyzing reports, and delivering significant value enterprise-wide. As part of your company’s long-term digital strategy, it’s imperative that you begin by implementing RPA to automate rule-based processes and gradually move to scale RPA across the enterprise.