The benefits of RPA
In processing repetitive tasks rapidly and accurately, RPA technology can contribute much to organizations’ business process automation initiatives. We’ve summarized the most notable RPA benefits below.
1. Productivity
Arguably the most important and almost certainly the most frequently cited RPA benefit is the acceleration of business processes. Using software robots to plough through the many mundane administrative tasks common to every business 24/7 simply gets the job done a lot more quickly, efficiently and accurately – even when carrying out tasks across multiple legacy systems.
2. Employee satisfaction and deployment
Every human resource is vital to an organization’s success – you’ve probably heard a version of this in your company induction, handbook or from Human Resources themselves. RPA helps validate this in a very practical sense. Freed from many tedious tasks by RPA, employees’ time can be spent engaged in more fulfilling, more strategic work that not only stretches their skillsets, but delivers more tangible value to business performance.
Rather than signaling a cull in full-time equivalents, implementing RPA can be a catalyst for greater employee engagement and productive deployment. And while any business process automation can shake-up how labor is organized and structured, RPA is more often an opportunity than a threat to the individual – lifting them out of responsibilities for which they’re very often overqualified.
3. Costs down, ROI up
These productivity and efficiency gains enable organizations’ to achieve more with fewer resources. Software robots require no lunch breaks, have no home time and retain unswerving focus at all times. Automation of routine processes enables businesses to reduce labor costs, even in the face of business growth and allowing for RPA implementation and governance.
Additionally, by enabling the human employee contingent to focus on tasks requiring judgment and empathy, software robots also enhance productivity across more strategic business operations. This enables businesses to realize a faster return on their automation investments.
4. Accuracy – eradication of human error
A robot process isn’t prone to fatigue or clerical errors, the bots don’t get tired or distracted – they’re consistent and accurate (as long as the rules that govern them are accurately implemented and updated when circumstances change). Automated tasks and processes performed by software bots deliver vastly lower error rates compared with human operators. Removal of mistakes from high volume processes reduces the time and money required for rework and rectification of process errors. More accurate, efficient business operations can also have a positive impact on customer experience.
5. Process compliance
Even the most mundane tasks must be carried out within the regulatory frameworks governing each industry. Properly configured, an RPA tool can help ensure compliance by design within every process it touches. Each automated step is governed by regulations, corporate rules and any other legal mandates. This minimizes risk exposure while also avoiding costs associated with compliance breaches. Additionally, every process run by RPA, even where it involves multiple functions and systems, can be audited more easily via a single RPA hub.
6. Process security
Implementing RPA can build a number of layers of cybersecurity into an organization’s processes. Firstly, RPA automation can reduce the number of human touchpoints with sensitive data (particularly customer data) – thereby eradicating the possibility of inadvertent data breaches. Secondly, detailed activity logging enables a clear audit trail for bot data interactions.
RPA tools including threshold alerts can be used to flag unusual access and even trigger logouts in order to protect against misuse. Finally, every RPA task is carefully prescribed, including built-in safeguards that automatically prevent bot actions that could introduce risk or compromise security.
7. Customer service
By providing faster, more fluid back-office or centralized processes, RPA helps ensure faster response times and fewer errors in customer interactions. Also, by freeing up human customer service agents from repetitive administrative duties, RPA enables them to focus on providing thoughtful, personalized customer support. In this way a key RPA benefit is the delivery of enhanced customer service.
8. Business scalability
RPA systems are inherently scalable, helping the businesses that deploy them to be similarly scalable. With carefully implemented RPA, companies can adapt to changing workloads seamlessly – a software robot can handle significant swings in demands upon its time without missing a beat.Whether this means handling a surge in demand or scaling down during quieter periods, organizations can adjust the number of bots deployed to match their operational needs. This scalability provides businesses with the flexibility to manage resources efficiently, ensuring optimal performance and cost-effectiveness.
9. Easy systems integration
Once configured, RPA software can simplify system integration, helping completely non-technical business users to combine, analyze, understand and activate data from across multiple platforms within an organization’s network.
So, it’s evident the benefits of RPA could generate significant competitive advantages for any organization. But for them to be realized, a process of careful due diligence must first be carried out.