Robotic process automation(RPA) process to get the repetitive tasks done through bots and reduce manual efforts.
In definitive words, we can say ** "Impersonating human activities in a sequential fashion to achieve a designated result without any manual intervention is known as Robotic Process Automation."**
Why is RPA becoming an essential part of every business?
There are many benefits of robotic process automation, depending on the industries. I have listed a few common benefits across all the business domains and industries.
A Desideratum
Any business's success depends on how deep they understand the customers, or rather, I should say targeted customers. And this is one of the fundamental challenges for companies.
Intelligent automation through RPA can be implemented to understand user behavior, helping companies in decision making for their targeted customers and growth.
Cost Effective
RPA is the most sought after solution in this technology-driven era to reduce the investment being done on manual tasks and get the best of the employees by allowing them to innovate rather than doing monotonous work. Multiple studies say that rolling out RPA, and thoughtful implementation can save approx 30-35% of companies' costs being spent on non-productive and repetitive tasks.
Undefeatable Accuracy
A report by ICO (Information Commissioner's office) says that 90% of a data breach between 2017 and 2018 happened due to human error. Human minds have certain limitations. We can't always be attentive 100%. And the moment we lose attention, we become vulnerable to make mistakes. But Robots, once defined/built, can have unlimited attention and can work endlessly without any distractions. And that gives the ability to make no mistakes.
Raising the Bar On Productivity
Humans have their limitations, capacity to work. But robots, on the other hand, have no measure of capacity. If developed smartly, they can work for every millisecond. And this gives unlimited possibilities for any company to run their businesses without worrying about productivity.
Use cases in different industries/domains
RPA in Business Process Outsourcing
Business process outsourcing(BPO) always strives for heftiness in productivity with minimal cost. With the efficient use of RPA, the BPO's can eventually reduce a lot of operating expenses and make more effective utilization of their workforce. As robots can work 24/7, productivity can be increased tremendously. Apart from repetitive work automation, the industry also has a lot of back-office work, which is purely rule-based, and the same can be achieved with better security and audits. Report generation, data analysis are the other tasks that can also be done through RPA. Some more examples can be
- Data entry and validation
- Data extraction
- Creating mass emails
- Updating CRMs
- Updating scorecards
- Automated exchange of information
RPA in Banking
Most innovations, along with technological advancement, have been seen in the banking sector. As per the reports, the BFSI domain holds the largest share in the year 2019 to apply RPA.
RPA has a surfeit of applications in banking covering from customer service to compliance nearly everything. The following are a few examples.
- Customer Service
- KYC process
- Mortgage processing
- Reporting
- General ledger
- Fraud detection
- Compliances
RPA in Medical Industry
The medical industry across the globe has always been a sector that is continuously striving for improvement. Providing the best health care services for a broad range of population is a real challenge in both operational and organizational. There are numerous use-cases in the medical industry where patients and hospitals can leverage the benefits. Such as :
- Scheduling the appointments
- Managing the supply process like claims and billing
- Regulatory compliances optimization
RPA in Insurance
Insurance is an industry which deals with vast amounts of data and processes. With the help, RPA insurance providers are now capable of merging front-end and back-end operations resulting in reducing cost and manual intervention. Leslie Willcocks professor at LSE, said that * "In an insurer we studied, there was a particular process where it used to take two days to handle 500 premium advice notes. It now takes 30 minutes"* This much processing was made by implementing RPA. Apart from the front-end or back-end automation, there can be many other use-cases, for example
- Valuation and structuring of claims
- Regulatory compliances
- Policy cancellation
- New policy issuance
Conclusion
There are many more benefits of robotic process automation, depending on the industries. A survey by Deloitte says that RPA continues to meet and exceed expectations across multiple dimensions, including : 92% on Improved Compliance 90% Improved quality and accuracy 86% improvement in productivity and 59% cost reduction.
They say that with the current pace, RPA will have achieved near-universal adoption within the next five years.
