Many people fear the elimination of jobs due to the adoption of Robotic Process Automation, since robots are able to perform tasks previously performed by humans.
However, we understand this technology is not able to replace all of our capabilities. We know that RPA guarantees productivity to the companies in which it is implemented, as it replaces humans in repetitive low-value-added tasks much more efficiently.
Nevertheless, it also has the advantage of maintaining the professionals’ focus on more strategic activities, which guarantee better results for companies.
What Is Robotic Process Automation? Robotic Process Automation (RPA) refers to a practice increasingly adopted in assembly lines, which consists of automating the work previously performed by humans through intelligent software.
This innovation applies to repetitive manual activities, which do not require intelligence, making procedures faster and more assertive and generating productivity for manufacturers. However, it is not only in the manufacturing context that robots help: RPA is also an automation technology that can be used in offices to perform tasks such as order, payment, and collection processing in a more agile way. Moreover, Robotic Process Automation can be useful for handling and checking data, conducting transactions, preparing receipts, and triggering emails. In this way, these activities can be repeated several times, at any time. There are two types of RPA, attended and unattended. The first refers to operations executed through RPA resources with human intervention. In these cases, users trigger bots that simplify their tasks, allowing them to focus their efforts on strategic issues. Unattended automation, in turn, does not require human intervention, as robots work at scheduled times and at a lower cost. This option is often used to enter data into systems, generate financial reports, and in back-office tasks. Robotic Process Automation differs from other automation capabilities due to its adaptability to different processes, flexibility, and ability to solve problems without disrupting operations. According to Gartner, companies will reduce operating costs by 30% using this technology by 2024. How Important Is Robotic Process Automation? RPA has the function of automating repetitive activities, replacing manual work previously performed by humans, whether in an operational or administrative sector. With this, professionals gain more autonomy and time to dedicate themselves to strategic issues important to the success of their businesses. This technology is important for: Scaling Businesses Robotic Process Automation is very useful for those who want to scale their business without hiring more professionals, since it allows the execution of tasks in an automated way. Enabling Continuous Work This feature also enables continuous work in a company, since robots are able to work 24/7. So, if you are going to run an activity that cannot be stopped or have an online business that needs to run on the weekends, RPA can help. Reducing Costs With RPA, one can eliminate errors in procedures, reduce costs with human tasks, and have their business running 100% of the time. Making Better Use of People’s Work As we have already mentioned, with robots taking care of repetitive operational tasks, employees have more time to devote to strategic business issues. Main Benefits of RPA Here’s how Robotic Process Automation benefits your business in practice: Increases Productivity Robotic Process Automation allows human professionals to perform more complex tasks that require great skills, while robots take care of repetitive activities. This is critical to productivity, since manual tasks require time and energy, even when they are easily developed. What’s more, in addition to allowing employees to engage in strategic tasks, robots operate efficiently, completing their work faster than humans. More Efficiently, It Is Possible to Generate Savings The efficiency provided by Robotic Process Automation makes it possible to reduce costs, as the processes are improved and accelerated. With this, one can avoid errors that may cost an organization dearly and reduce expenses by combining human strategy with the effectiveness of robots. Allows One to Avoid Human Failures and Achieve Goals Human failures often damage an organization’s workflow and can impact the achievement of its stated goals. However, with an automated process, it is possible to eliminate errors and achieve the desired performance within the given period. Allows One to Optimize Data Security Many people are concerned about the operational risk associated with using RPA tools in their business, due to the constant news about data leaks and breaches. However, with careful management and definition of RPA parameters, this risk is reduced. The use of this technology allows reducing the number of human resources needed to process personal data, allowing the company to comply with important governance practices. Benefits Workflows with Irregular Volume It is common for certain periods of the year to motivate greater movement in some companies due to seasonal demands. Without Robotic Process Automation, it becomes necessary to hire temporary employees or change the roles of current ones. Robots, on the other hand, can be easily adapted to cope with the increase in workload. Provides Relevant Data About Your Business RPA provides data about your business that makes it possible to identify where improvements should be made, taking into account human resources and software. Still, it is often necessary to use an advanced solution that goes beyond the capabilities of basic RPA software. Improves Customer Experience One of RPA‘s capabilities is to contribute to customer service through technologies with language powered by artificial intelligence (AI), reducing employee involvement in repetitive tasks. Thus, employees spend less time on administrative activities and can prioritize customer service, solving their problems in less time and increasing public satisfaction with their brand.
What Businesses Can Benefit From Robotic Process Automation?
Robotic Process Automation can be advantageous for several types of business, such as:
Financial Services
The banking industry is among the first to join automation. Today, renowned banks use Robotic Process Automation to automate important tasks to combat money laundering, process user queries, open accounts, and conduct KYC research. RPA is also useful in the banking sector to generate reports and perform reconciliations.
Health Services
The quality of health services and the satisfaction of those who require them are directly related to the accuracy of internal processes. For this reason, large hospitals have adhered to automation to eliminate errors in the management of information and prescriptions, payment flows, and insurance claims processing.
Retail
Retail is also an area that has automation capabilities to ensure a better experience for the public and facilitate the work of employees. In this context, RPA capabilities include: consumer relationship management, feedback processing, fraud detection, warehouse and order management, etc.
Insurance Industry
The insurance industry also has repetitive demands that can be fulfilled by RPA. In fact, this segment already automates several activities, such as policy management, underwriting, regulatory compliance, and claims processing.
At What Point Do You Choose this Solution?
One of RPA‘s major objectives is to reduce the need for human labor, allowing employees to focus their efforts on less operational and more strategic activities.
Thus, companies increasingly need to adhere to this technology to achieve better results, regardless of their industry.
In this sense, to assess the need to invest in RPA for your business, we recommend that you answer the following questions:
Do I want to scale my business without hiring more employees?
Do I need to reduce costs?
Does my company need to operate full-time?
Would I take better advantage of my employees’ potential if they had more time to prioritize strategic activities?
If your answer was yes to two or more of these questions, it is the ideal time to invest in RPA solutions to expand your company’s results.
How Does It Work?
RPA works through codes and algorithms programmed to perform certain functions via an accurate, 100% automated, error-free process, ensuring that operations are performed independently and optimally.
Generally, this technology does not require human intervention and relies on the robot itself to enter data.
Moreover, Robotic Process Automation is not an intrusive application: it easily adapts to different systems and provides scalability.
Essential Steps for the Implementation of RPA
The implementation of RPA follows some steps that we describe below:
Definition of the Company’s Needs
First, it is necessary to assess the areas of your company that could be favored with the implementation of Robotic Process Automation. For this, you can consider those repetitive tasks with low-added-value or operations that do not achieve great productivity with human execution.
Choice of a Vendor
Next, you need to choose a trusted vendor that offers RPA solutions appropriate to your business. For this, consider issues such as technical details, capabilities, and costs.
Implementation of a Pilot
After choosing the ideal vendor, you must train your employees to use Robotic Process Automation and run the software.
It is also very important to document the application activities to analyze the records later.
In this way, you can detect problems or changes to be made, find errors, and solve them.
Implementation Monitoring
After detecting possible failures and verifying what can be improved, it is time to implement the definitive RPA solution.
With this, you will finally make the necessary changes in your company, ensuring better performance for the business.
Future Outlook for RPA
The future outlook for RPA raises some questions and opinions. Taking into account the current phase that Robotic Process Automation is in, it is possible to predict its development with the following characteristics:
Robotic Process Automation Combined with Artificial Intelligence
This combination already generates interest and the trend is for this to continue, as artificial intelligence makes it possible to automate operations based on analyzes that include non-digital and unstructured data.
Widespread Adherence to Automation
Many people fear the impacts of automation on jobs, but this is not an obstacle to the acceptance of Robotic Process Automation, which will continue to gain space as more organizations start to understand its benefits.
Link Between Digital and Human Labor
RPA will continue to allow us to take advantage of robot productivity and the human ability to create strategies, generating the best results for organizations.
In short: RPA‘s future outlook is associated with the use of technologies such as business process management, optical character recognition (OCR), and artificial intelligence.
This is because this solution continues to grow, but should not be used in isolation, since its sizing capacity is limited.
Can Process Automation Impact Jobs?
We think RPA will not take jobs, but generate an evolution in the training of professionals.
After all, we humans do not exploit our full potential when we dedicate ourselves to repetitive tasks and, with robots performing them, we can prioritize the execution of activities that require more creativity and ingenuity.
With the widespread use of this technology, professionals may learn new skills to perform their tasks, relying on a capacity that machines did not have.
RPA and Artificial Intelligence: Are They the Same Concept?
These two concepts have similarities, but are not synonymous and this should be made clear in an article like this, which aims to clarify what RPA is about.
An RPA tool makes it possible to automate more operational and repetitive activities that do not require the interpretation of contexts. That is, the robot is trained to perform such tasks.
This means that if it runs other capabilities, it will not be able to recognize the change and will need to be retrained.
We also add AI and RPA are solutions that can complement each other, bringing together the ability to make artificial intelligence decisions with the productivity of Robotic Process Automation.
What are BPM and RPA? Understand the Difference Between Them
Business Process Management (BPM) is a form of management that allows mapping, analyzing, transforming, and measuring the processes of a company and constantly promoting improvements.
This is possible through integrated management that evaluates problems such as communication noise, over-spending, and production delay.
This information is made available in the BPM system, which can be accessed by the entire team to optimize processes.
Unlike BPM, RPA is not a discipline but a system that allows one to automate day-to-day business functions through robotics.
Operating on the bureaucratic tasks performed by trained robots, this mechanism saves employees time, who can prioritize activities that require creativity and cognitive ability.
Also, bots perform these tasks very efficiently, ensuring productivity and eliminating human failures.
In short, BPM includes structural and long-term transformations within a company, while RPA software deals with specific activities.
Moreover, the implementation of BPM usually takes longer, as it requires a culture change and seeks a broader transformation.
About senhasegura
We are part of the MT4 Tecnologia group, founded in 2001 to work in the area of information security, and provide services to organizations from more than 50 countries, offering excellence and widely recognized services.
We believe in the importance of digital sovereignty and our priority is to guarantee this right to the companies that hire us.
To do so, we work to prevent information theft and leaks through the traceability of devices, databases, network administrators, and servers.
In addition, we seek compliance with auditing requirements and the most demanding standards, including PCI DSS, Sarbanes-Oxley, ISO 27001, and HIPAA.
We are also committed to:
Perform automatic audits on the use of privileges;
Ensure more productivity to organizations, preventing their operations from being interrupted by expiration;
Provide advanced PAM capabilities;
Automatically audit privileged changes in order to identify abuses;
Reduce risks quickly; and
Ensure customer satisfaction through successful deployments.
Conclusion
By reading this article, you saw that:
Robotic Process Automation allows you to automate activities previously performed by humans through intelligent software;
This technology can be used both in assembly lines and in offices;
There are two types of Robotic Process Automation, the attended one, with human intervention, and the unattended one, without this intervention;
This solution is different from other automation features due to its adaptability, flexibility, and ability to solve problems;
RPA contributes to scaling a business, enabling continuous work, reducing costs, and better leveraging people’s intelligence;
Its benefits include: increased productivity, generation of savings, the possibility of avoiding human failures, and the optimization of data security;
This technology also benefits workflows with irregular volume, provides relevant business data, and improves the customer experience;
It is advantageous for financial services, health services, retail, the insurance industry, among other areas;
It is a useful solution for those who want to scale a business without hiring more employees, entrepreneurs who want to reduce costs, companies that operate full-time, and organizations that need to focus the effort of employees on more strategic and less operational services;
Robotic Process Automation works through codes and algorithms programmed to perform certain functions;
It must follow four implementation steps: the definition of the company’s needs, the choice of vendor, the implementation of a pilot, and the monitoring of the implementation process;
In the future, there should be widespread adoption of RPA, which will be associated with artificial intelligence;
RPA did not come to take jobs, but to make professional qualifications evolve;
Business Process Management (BPM) is a management method, unlike RPA.
コメント