Nine Business Challenges resolved by RPA
Business Challenges can exist for any organisation, this article examines 9 Business Challenges that can be resolved with the implementation of RPA.
The focus is on generic challenges which for any individual business can manifest as specific scenarios such as:
Order entry in Operations
Invoice processing in Accounts Payable
Employee / Contractor on-boarding in HR
Password resets in IT Service Desk
Email triage using CRM for case handling agents
Regular credit checks on customers and suppliers in Operations
The 9 business challenges are:
Reducing staff effort to perform business processes
Reduction in the errors during business processes
Time to process workload
Ability to handle workload peaks
Achieving Compliance
Increasing Productivity
Cover during staff absences
Recruitment of staff to perform business processes
Minimising staff who see sensitive data
In each case it is about taking the manual work out of activity of staff so that they can focus on other work.
Generic Business Challenges
There is no implied order of importance in the following list.
1. Reducing staff effort to perform business processes
RPA is able to simulate the actions a person would undertake to perform a business process on computer applications. By automating the routine activities, the amount of staff effort required is reduced.
2. Reduction in the errors during business processes
RPA by definition reduces human error as software robots undertake the activities a person would otherwise perform. RPA does not get distracted or lose concentration, it will attempt to perform each activity consistently. Any failure in processing can be logged and someone alerted to review the situation.
3. Time to process workload
RPA is able to process at the speed of the applications it is interacting with to perform the business process. This makes it faster than people processing on the same systems. As RPA can undertake activity without people being present the whole 168 hours each week are available for processing compared to the typical worker’s 40 hours. Subject to other constraints, this gives more flexibility on when the activity is performed.
4. Ability to handle workload peaks
RPA provides some flexibility to handle peaks in workload by enabling the priority of tasks to be set and adjusted, as well as 168 hours weekly processing capacity delivering the ability to complete work outside of typical office hours.
Once a task has been automated, providing the design does not contain any constraints, the same automation can be performed in parallel by many RPA software robots. The provision of extra robots will require licenses but that can be a quick process compared to the recruitment and training of staff.
5. Achieving Compliance
RPA delivers the consistency of processing that is core to the success of compliance activities. RPA can be used to ensure compliance tasks are completed within the usual business processes and it can also be used to perform on-going compliance checks where the “Needle in the haystack” challenge is the most difficult of scenarios for people to maintain the appropriate level of concentration during the task.
6. Increasing Productivity
RPA enables businesses to improve productivity by using software robots to complete regular routine tasks. This releases staff from performing the manual work so that can undertake other tasks. By getting more work done with the same staff, productivity is improved.
7. Cover during staff absences
There can be many scenarios why staff are absent (e.g. Sickness, Maternity, Paternity, Caring Responsibility, Jury Service, Armed Forces Reserve call up) but whatever the reason the work still needs to be completed. RPA provides a mechanism to get work done. By automating one task which is performed by multiple members of a team, it can enable the remaining work to be re-allocated across the team during the staff absence.
8. Recruitment of staff to perform business processes
Recruiting staff can be a challenge in terms of finding the appropriate staff. One aspect of the process is ensuring that the tasks required in the job are attractive enough to get job applicants. If the job contains a large amount of boring routine repetitive work, it is unlikely to be that attractive to candidates. Even if people do accept the job, it may prove difficult to retain them. RPA provides a way of reducing and / or removing the routine repetitive tasks from an employee’s job which can make the positions more attractive to both current staff and to potential recruits.
9. Minimising staff who see sensitive data
Some business processes require the handling of sensitive data (e.g. Celebrity details). The fewer staff that are exposed to the data the higher the level of privacy that can be delivered. Using RPA software robots to process data enhances privacy as tasks can be completed without people being aware of its value.
Challenge by Type of Work
The challenges are often expressed by types of work:
Data Entry
Reconciliation
Monitoring and Alerting
Assembly of information
The types of work will occur in business processes undertaken across an organisation.
The attributes of RPA make it suited to delivering benefits from the types of work shown.
Where do people fit in?
Implementing RPA can help with the business challenges but where do people fit in?
Although RPA can automate the routine repetitive tasks taking the work away from people, there is an important role for staff in each implementation.
RPA achieves the best results when the design of the implementation is to work with people so that the strengths of each can be leveraged.
With RPA automating the routine regular work, it frees people to concentrate their efforts in processing any exceptions, the unusual and the complex scenarios. These are generally the more interesting aspects of the work and suited to people’s skills.
There can be a spectrum of interaction between people and RPA software robots which are:
Fully Manual
Person delegates tasks to an RPA software robot
Person interacts with an RPA software robot
Person reviews / verifies / approves the work of an RPA software robot
Fully automated work completed by RPA software robot.
The implementation of automation with each business process can utilise any of the combinations to achieve the overall desired outcome
For more information on Robotic Process Automation (RPA) as well as Agentic Automation and the journey to implement automation please see our website: https://www.ether-solutions.co.uk/.
Manager’s Guide to Automation: https://www.ether-solutions.co.uk/managers-guide-to-automation-using-software-robots/
#businessbeyondautomation
Article Author
David Martin
Managing Director, Ether Solutions
