Laying the Foundation for Enterprise-wide Robotic Process Automation (RPA) at Scale
Companies that can divert high-capacity human capital away from low-value rote work can lay the foundation for establishing a competitive advantage in their sector.
Many organizations have focused their early RPA efforts on transversal operations -- such as finance and human resource management -- where processes were unlikely to change because they were relatively insulated from market dynamics.
Finance and accounting are typically the first -- and probably still the largest -- functional areas where this technology has been used.
In today’s competitive and constantly changing environment, companies that can divert high-capacity human capital away from low-value rote work can lay the foundation for establishing a competitive advantage in their sector. That is the promise of RPA, according to Tom Torlone, global vice president of professional services at UiPath, and Jim Maholic, senior director of value engineering at UiPath, in a recent podcast interview with BizTechReports.
“When you think about the processes that companies follow to achieve their desired outcomes, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of very repetitive rules-based tasks that people follow. Most of those are executed in an un-automated environment that consumes time, money, and human resources,” says Torlone.
Rapid Evolution of RPA’s Role in the Enterprise
Many organizations have focused their early RPA efforts on transversal operations -- such as finance and human resource management -- where processes were unlikely to change because they were relatively insulated from market dynamics. The rules for generating a profit-and-loss report, for instance, are unlikely to change due to a significant shift in the competitive landscape.
“So it's certainly no surprise that finance and accounting are typically the first -- and probably still the largest -- functional areas where this technology has been used,” says Torlone.
More recently, however, we have seen the technology quickly evolve as executives begin to understand the value that can be secured from RPA in other parts of the organization.
“We are now seeing RPA move into areas of operation that touch the customer base, such as call centers, sales enablement processes, and marketing campaigns. Forward-looking companies are moving from simply streamlining back-office operations to areas of activity that contribute to revenue growth,” says Torlone.
Assessing the ROI of RPA
Calculating RPA returns on investments have, for the most part, been a fairly straightforward proposition for organizations that start experimenting with this technology.
“The easiest metric to track, when it comes to RPA, is time saved. Processes that require significant navigation and data transfers between enterprise applications -- such as SAP and Workday -- can often take 10-15 minutes if they are executed using manual human-intensive processes. With RPA, those steps take far less time-- two or three minutes or even less,” says Maholic.
If different people run these processes many times a day across many departments, the time savings harvested with RPA begin to add up quickly.
“We've seen customers use automation to compress their day sales outstanding, collecting their cash from customers sooner. We've also seen companies use RPA to optimize their supply chain and reduce their days-in-inventory by automating an array of different routine functions. All of these deliver very significant financial impacts within short periods of time,” he explains.
Less tangible -- but more impactful -- outcomes stem from how human talent is reallocated to perform new tasks that lead to competitive differentiation or enhanced customer satisfaction.
“When I advise organizations on the capabilities of RPA and its potential, I ask them to think about how they can tightly connect the use of this technology to the achievement of specific business objectives,” explains Torlone.
This is especially relevant today as organizations across industry sectors launch ambitious business transformation initiatives in response to disruptive forces (such as the pandemic) and players that alter the competitive landscape.
For more information on BizTechReport podcast interviews, please contact Melissa Fisher at MFisher@BizTechReports.com.