We are not talking about physical robots here of course. Robotic Process Automation or RPA for short is helping many businesses of all size get more done. RPA allows you to connect the dots within your processes, completing the annoying and time consuming manual tasks.
What do we mean by joining the dots, let’s take a process like Annual Leave. At present people make a request via your intranet and it’s sent for approval, and once approved on to Payroll. What do they do with this request, most likely they lodge it into the HR system or accounting software waiting for you to take the time off. This manual step of keying it into the accounting software let say take 5 minutes per request. This could end up being a well over 100 hours of work for any organisation of 200 people or more. RPA completely automates this process. Employee completes a form, manager approves and the robot keys it into the HR / Accounting system.
You have now removed the manual and low-value steps in to process. According to Gartner, Digital Transformation Efforts are driving RPA adoption across the business and “The ability to integrate legacy systems is the key driver for RPA projects”. Not all your systems are going to allow for easy integration and this is where RPA comes in. Think of RPA as a tool to make the on-screen clicks for you, while you are off doing more important work.
RPA isn’t here to replace people, that is a common fear. By leveraging RPA, you can focus on being able to spend your time focusing on more important tasks. Employees have a fear that this is going to replace their jobs, we don’t see that happening. We believe roles will change, and rather than people doing data entry, they will end up controlling systems that do this and working more strategically on initiatives within their organisation.
Get in touch with Propelle to have one of our expert consultants talk you through RPA for your organisation.
