Robotic Process Automation – Why should you go for it?

Robotic Process Automation – Why should you go for it?

Robotics has become an indispensable part of the digital strategy of organizations today.

The services industry has seen tremendous transformation with the advent of technology. Robotics has played a significant role in this transformation. Exponential efficiencies, significant ROI, no capex, easy deployment, capacity creation and inherent flexibility makes it an extremely attractive proposition.

There is a growing list of case studies of successful implementations. Still based on different research studies the adoption of robotics is still less than 1% of the services landscape. As an example - Nasscom predicts cost reduction of 13-20% on offshore operations and 60-67% on onshore operations in Finance and accounting services. The huge potential robotics bring in is vastly untapped. Let’s understand the basic question on where is it applicable?

Where does Robot play a role?

Let’s look at this simple matrix to find our answers.

In a nutshell - a process that is straightforward without much complexity and has significant volumes is a good candidate for automation. Some other factors that additionally help in process readiness/suitability for automation are:

  • Processes that can be defined and standardized (inputs and output standardization is key)
  • Processes that do not frequently change
  • Processes that do not require judgment based decisions
  • Processes with very less exceptions that require special handling
  • Processes that do not have too much back and forth (between multiple departments/functions)

This provides clarity on how easy the initial assessment is. Once you start looking through it is easy to determine the candidates for automation.

The next important question is for us to be convinced on the advantage automation brings in for us to pursue our robotics journey further.

So, where does the robot fare better than the humans?

Robots bring in a non-intrusive way of working that is non-emotional and delivers what it is designed to perform. The Robots are not affected at all on factors like peak workloads, absenteeism, attrition, holidays, overtime pay, inflationary rate increases, stress, employee engagement costs etc. In addition they reduce risk and improve compliance working in a controlled environment.

Let’s review the table below to evaluate hard benefits that the bots bring in. 

ROI of deploying bots is so significant for anyone to say ‘NO’. We have now addressed the business case of deploying robots.

The next questions are:

1.    What are the challenges in implementation I am going to face?

2.    How do I address these challenges?

The answer to these questions enables you to be better prepared in your robotics implementation journey.

Some of the major challenges faced are:

1.    Sometimes it’s a mindset issue – Robots are inevitable. The sooner we realize they are part of our digital ecosystem, the better we adapt.

If Uber introducing the driverless car is not enough, the first Roborace on the same street circuit at the Formula E Buenos Aires ePrix recently concluded with bots driving the racing cars reaching top speeds of 190kmph.

2.    Frequent changes to processes – One of the most flimsy reason given is that the processes are too complex and robots cannot adapt to frequent changes. Teaching a robot of the change is much easier than teaching a person – what I mean is to change the codes to adapt to any changes is fairly easy. A new breed of robots with cognitive and artificial intelligence are capable to adapting to certain changes even without training.

Solution: Standardize the process. Create a detailed list of processes in the end to end value chain and evaluate where frequent changes are not required – automate those.

3.    IT go-ahead and commitment – Although this is non-intrusive technology, there is sufficient debate of integrating robots in the mainstream. The kind of information pulled out and fed-into systems create unnecessary anxiety on the CTO’s. Such implementations are very closely monitored and have seen resistance particularly from this team.

Solution: Provisioning adequate time and effort from the IT support team will ensure your robotics implementation timelines are not impacted.

4.    Lack of Right skillsets – There are three parts to the robotics implementation –

a.    SME’s or domain experts evaluate the process and draw the steps that can be automated.

b.   Business evaluates the ROI based on volume, complexity, human displacement, efficiency etc. and agrees to deploy robots

c.    Developers will code these steps and deploy the robots

Any deviation on the respective stakeholders not making these changes/decisions– SME’s/Business/Developers in their respective areas can be fatal.

Solution: Ensuring the age old philosophy – ‘right men for the right job’ will enable you    to get through this challenge. Do not compromise on any category – get specialists

5.    Process complexity – I have heard the statements like, - my process is too complex and require decision making. Don’t scare your internal stakeholders, employees and customers stating the entire process will be automated if it indeed has complexities.

Solution – Break down the process into sub-processes – identify the mundane steps that requires gathering information to make the decision. The decision tree to a certain extent can also be hard-coded. You may end up automating 50% or 70% of the process and get the difficult decision making through agents.

Robots have made their way in - significant ROI, 4X+ advantage, easy to deploy makes them extremely attractive. Laggards are slow to adopt whereas the leaders are already reaping the benefits. Sooner than later robots will be embraced by all.

So, are you ready to start your robotics journey today?

About the author: Sreyans takes keen interest on reading and writing on innovation. He has been closely involved in developing transformation solutions on customer experience journeys.

Further reading recommended:

Seizing the Robotics Process Automation (RPA) Market Opportunity – September 2015 – Nasscom and Everest Group

Employees: An endangered species? The rise of robots, artificial intelligence, and the changing workforce landscape – February 2016 - KPMG

© Reproduction of the contents is permitted only for educational purposes. Reproduction in full or part for any commercial purposes without the written consent of the author is strictly prohibited.

Stephan Bon

Design, define and execute transformation towards a Digital Company, based on a solid business model

7y

Nice article! Why no Capex? There has to be done some work in setting up the bots-configuration.

Aaron Butler

Deep Tech Leadership | Data Science & ML Engineering | Data Strategy | Cloud Data Transformation

7y

Working on an RPA project in its infancy at a large company I can vouch that a solid understanding of IT and business is imperative. The software is easy to build and temptations to take non-scaleable solutions can arise. Having team players who are open to learning should be central to governance of such dynamic process change as technology has many faces that either lead to more opportunities or limitations.

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Sriram Mamidipaka

DevOps | AWS | Docker | Linux | Ansible | Elastic Search | Kibana | Postman API | Manual testing

7y

good article... nice to see this

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SRIRAM SUBHRAMANYAM

Banking Consultant and Head Independent Assurance, Retail Banking Software products at Tata Consutancy Services

7y

We have to explore the role of Robotics in jobs which is risky and monotonous like sewage cleaning and scarce and costly like agricultural labour for ploughing, sowing, transplanting and harvesting

SRIRAM SUBHRAMANYAM

Banking Consultant and Head Independent Assurance, Retail Banking Software products at Tata Consutancy Services

7y

A very nice article

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