How Industry Leaders Use RPA for Their Benefit
In the ‘automation first’ era, thoughts about the use of automation for improving efficiency are expected to become quasi-automatic.
That is, before engaging in dull, time consuming manual work, employees would consider automating these tasks in order to bring them to completion in a much faster, more secure, and more accurate way.
But how can industry leaders use RPA to make their companies increasingly successful and thus ensure that they remain competitive?
The FORWARD III conference in Las Vegas last year was the right place to get an answer to this question.
The most effective way to show digitisation novices how they can use RPA for their benefit is to bring into discussion its quick wins, which are the outcome of automating routine, dull tasks, the so-called low hanging fruit processes.
Reference to short-term financial gains, such as a return on investment of up to 200% in the first year of use, can make a convincing case for the utility of implementing RPA, and foster an enthusiastic perspective of the digital transformation. As an illustration, Figure 1 shows the benefits obtained by a CiGen Australian client in the FMCG sector, after 1 week of implementation time.
Often, these early successes come from pilot programs, which are quick, inexpensive, and have a measurable impact on business operations. They demonstrate the potential to be automated of your selected key applications or business rules. As such, pilots are very helpful in raising C-suite leaders’ confidence in the value of software robots.
How industry leaders benefit from the use of RPA
According to Deloitte's third annual RPA Survey, automation exceeded implementers’ expectations across many dimensions, such as improved compliance (92%) and accuracy (90%), higher productivity (86%), or cost reduction (59%).
These beyond-expectations benefits perfectly justify why industry leaders use RPA, and also why its adoption is on the rise, forecasted to reach the market value of 12$ billion by 2023. In what follows, we will share some efficient best practices for how you can also use RPA for your benefit, paving the way towards your company’s competitive advantage over market rivals.
1. Widen your perspective of RPA beyond financial benefits
Doubtlessly, these gains are easiest to observe. However, the most successful executives are those who also consider the positive influence of software robots on productivity, employees’ job satisfaction, and overall performance.
This is because benefits on these dimensions support the expansion of automation across various sectors of your business, e.g., marketing, research, IT, product development, HR.
2. Examine the feasibility of the RPA project extensively
This is a natural consequence of the previous point. By including a variety of dimensions in the justification of your RPA business case, you emphasize its potential to be successful. Moreover, a broad business case, which includes superior accuracy, increased speed to market, reduced risk, employee engagement and satisfaction, etc., is likely to foster support for your project from stakeholders and staff as well.