International competition is intensifying, and many companies are under pressure to shorten their innovation cycles while at the same time further personalizing their customer approaches. To remain successful in the market, you need innovative and intelligent solutions for comprehensive process optimization. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) allows humans to interact with software to perform large numbers of repeatable tasks, log in to applications, enter data, calculate and complete tasks, and copy data between applications. RPA tools can also be connected to AI modules with features such as Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Natural Language Understanding (NLU), and decision-making engines, what is called Intelligent Process Automation (IPA).
Listed below you can find the advantages of implementing RPA:
- Lower costs: The main argument for using RPA is the reduction of process costs. This does not mean that the employees previously involved in the process execution will later be released and no longer incur costs for them. Rather, RPA projects often aim to free these people from repetitive, time-consuming processes so that more capacity is available for other value-added activities.
- Increased speed & productivity: Software robots are potentially very fast, and sometimes execution speed needs to be reduced to match the speed and latency of the application these robots are working on. Higher speed can result in shorter response times and an increase in the volume of tasks to be performed. Furthermore, one robot is equivalent to up to three full-time employees working an average of eight hours a day, while a robot can work up to 24 hours without a break.
- Higher quality of services & greater accuracy: Because robots can work 24/7, the work capacity increases. Employees can therefore concentrate on direct customer contact and customer satisfaction, meaning better quality of services at higher speed. Software robots, unlike employees, never deviate from the defined steps to be taken during the execution of a task and therefore this also leads to higher compliance. With fewer human errors and greater compliance, the quality of work is far better. While it’s difficult to trace back to the point at which human error occurred, spotting errors in RPA is much easier. This is because every step in the automation process is recorded, making it quicker and easier to locate errors. Reducing or eliminating errors also means higher data accuracy, leading to better quality analyses and therefore better decision-making.
- Time savings: The virtual workers not only complete large volumes of work in less time with precision, but they also help to save time in other ways. When there is a change, it is much easier and faster for the virtual workforce to adapt. It’s usually more difficult for people to learn and train in something new – they must break the old habit of performing repetitive tasks in a certain way.
- Increased Employee Satisfaction: Since repetitive, possibly tedious tasks are now taken over by the virtual workforce, employees are not only relieved of this work, but can also produce higher quality work that utilizes human skills and strengths such as emotional intelligence, logical thinking or requires customer support. This way, RPA doesn’t take away any work. It frees employees from tedious, mindless work and gives them the opportunity to engage in more attractive activities.