Healthy overview of the survey findings conducted

Healthy scepticism about robotics is evident. According to Deloitte’s Peter Moller, “ either finance functions have looked atthis and thought, for whatever reason, have decided that it doesn’t work for usor they just don’t know enough about it, or it hasn’t been on the top of theiragenda, or they just haven’t looked at it.” Lately, there is a significant surge in interest of companies looking for ways to drivecost simplification across the entire organization. Although many of the shared servicesprofessionals are yet to explore what RPA can do for them, it is a hot topicamong them. A quick overviewof the survey findings conducted by the Capgemini Consulting and CapgeminiBusiness Services in 2016 shows how massive of potential that RPA offers.

Beloware snapshot of statements that participants (Over 150 executives fromcompanies of different sizes) responded on RPA:·        86%of participants said that RPA can significantly reduce costs·        86%of participants felt that RPA can help reduce risk and increase compliance·        86%believed that RPA improves process effectiveness and efficiency ·        89%of participants believed that RPA can improve the quality of work produced·        91%said that RPA can save companies time on repetitive tasks  RPA is being implemented asthe next iteration of transformational tools. Back-office process owners havelong deployed process automation components, such as ERP suites, low-levelautomation tools, and self-service portals. However, many of theseimplementations have business processes that are less than optimal andapplications that are not well integrated. This results in increased costs, redundant processes, data errors, and inconsistencies.  The pressure of loweringcosts in addition to other performance requirements, such as serviceexcellence, security, and compliance, make it difficult to close the gapbetween expected and actual benefits. RPA closes that gap in several ways.  Efficiency RPA saves time byautomating high-volume repetitive tasks. RPA can run 24/7 and only malfunctiondue to an instruction error from a human.

In thelong term, RPA reduces process time by 20%- 70%, increase accuracy by 99%, which gives cost reduction at higher satisfaction. Usingdigital channels enables RPA that drives accuracy, speed and a much bettercustomer satisfaction. RPAfurther empowers business advisors, knowledge workers and judgement-based rolestaffs by removing the mundane and allowing them to spend their time on Even the RPA implementationprocess is non-intrusive so large IT support structures are not necessary inorder to achieve a seamless transition into using this new software.

Prof. Mary Lacity and Prof. Leslie Willcocks (2016) talked about ‘ Swivel Chair’ problem in Shared Services. In their research, they found that RPA was best suited to replace humans for socalled “ swivel chair” processes. Shared services are common with such “ swivelchair” processes because they receive inputs from multiple business units, various suppliers, and multitudes of external customers.  Scalability In addition to efficiencygains, a process outsourced to robots is much easier to manage than oneperformed by people. RPA provides scalability and flexibility. The number ofrobots handling a given process can be increased or decreased relatively easilywithout recruiting, hiring, or training.

Lastly, robots can be quicklyreassigned when other more important processes arise, and they are alreadytrained to successfully complete all automated processes.  Cost Effectiveness The value ofrobotics process automation usually begins with the cost and productivitysavings from automating repetitive and rules-based processes Furthermore, the reusablecomponents of a software robot are likely to cost less than an onshore staffmember or even an offshore staff member. Deloitte Gina Schaefer mentioned “ Because robots arescalable, additional robotic workers can be applied to a task to address peaksin demand and work 24×7 – all at a ninth of the cost of a full-time, onshoreemployee.” Wageinflation, turnover, labor disputes, and other challenges are avoided byimplementing RPA. .  Simplicity RPAis a simpler product than an artificial intelligence drivensystem or enterprise software thatseeks to bring all data inside the platform.

This also makes it a relativelycheaper product than AI or enterprise software. This simplicity and relativecheapness can make RPA a more attractive solution for many companies, particularly if the company has legacy systems and applications.  Intoday’s digital world, helping businesses navigate toward financial confidencerequires a fundamental shift in how they apply key operational innovations andhow to continuously adapt in the changing-digital environment and address thechallenges that it presents. RPA is relatively easy to adopt, but to gainmaximum applicability human beings have to fit it with IT architecture andinfrastructure. If programmed, Robotic Process Automation operates as at leastthree full-time equivalent employees (FTEs) to high quality, without errors, multitasking and switching to other processes quickly.

It requires stronginternal capability to scale deployment and achieve continuous improvement.