Many may still be resisting the urge to adopt RPA in the belief that it’s a fad which will never last. However, automation is not a new concept and has already been around for decades in shared services and global business services. With an ever increasing demand for organisations in every industry to find ways to maximise efficiency, minimise costs and remain competitive, RPA is only going to develop and evolve even further – it’s here to stay.

One of the biggest misconceptions about RPA is that it will eliminate the need for human workers altogether… “Robots are going to steal our jobs!” .In reality, RPA is meant to complement human workers and make their jobs easier and more efficient. The adoption of RPA technology will actually create new and better opportunities for people to pursue, ultimately elevating the role of the human worker.

A single robot can complete multiple different tasks and is not restricted to specific functions. A robot could be carrying out Finance admin tasks overnight and then be ready to complete password resets first thing on a Monday morning. Once a process has been defined as a series of instructions that a software robot can execute, as many robots as required can be quickly deployed to perform that process. It’s a truly flexible solution.

RPA increases efficiency and dramatically reduces errors all within very short timeframes, resulting in organisational wide savings. It enables 24/7/365 execution of particular tasks and processes at a fraction of the human equivalent cost. A software robot can cost as little as one-third the price of an offshore full-time employee (FTE) and as little as one-fifth the price of an onshore FTE.

RPA is actually fairly quick and easy to implement without requiring a great deal of in-house technical know-how. Using the services of a professional RPA partner eliminates the need for internal ‘automation’ expertise. A professional RPA partner will work with you, hand in hand, to scope, implement and develop your robotic or ‘virtual’ workforce and provide on-going support and maintenance at every stage of the process.

Existing legacy systems do not need to change in order to deploy RPA – the robotic workforce follows the same mouse clicks and data entry processes as your existing human workforce. As long as the processes in question are manual, rules-based and with standard inputs, RPA is a viable solution, regardless of the systems or platforms within which these processes occur. Quite literally, no digital transformation is required!

RPA is often overlooked as an option by many as they believe it’s only suited to larger organisations with dedicated IT departments. In reality, RPA can be applied to almost any repetitive, manual task, workflow or business process – regardless of whether it’s IT related or not and can be of great benefit to smaller organisations, managing administrative functions that are often taken on as additional duties. The possibilities are endless.

While the basic automation concept is consistent, the tools themselves can vary significantly, as can the organisations that develop and market them. The important consideration is finding a solution (and partner) that fits best with your specific organisational needs. Some key things to consider include ease of use, time to deployment, cost of ownership, scalability, ROI and the ongoing support provided.

In order to fully appreciate the benefits of RPA, it’s important to also understand its limitations. . Whilst it’s true that some companies can automate the majority of their processes, there will always be some areas where human input is required. The role of the human, even in the most task based processes, will never be truly redundant.