Robotic process automation (RPA) is transforming the way organizations operate, streamlining once manual processes and reducing the burden on human employees. RPA technology communicates with business systems and applications to increase productivity by leveraging a scalable, digital workforce. The growth of RPA software has exploded across industries and functions—from healthcare, financial services, and insurance to human resources and call center automation.
A report by Deloitte indicates that because up to 50 percent of the tasks performed by employees are considered mundane, administrative, and labor intensive. RPA technology will replace up to 16 percent of repetitive duties by 2025—freeing up the workforce to focus on more strategic jobs. This shift indicates that RPA technology is here to stay.
Let’s have a look at the general trends visible and dive into the opportunities and challenges they pose to current and future users of RPA software.
Horizontal integration (along the RPA lifecycle) – Vendors started to include workflow automation capabilities which are core for the RPA tools. One example is the integration of process and tasks mining with the automation suite landscape to identify and perform feasibility of process automation and RPA adaption. Here, vendors also provide (partly automatable) templates for process identification, assessment, and documentation, which can also be used apart from RPA implementation and for broader process optimization initiatives.
Vertical integration (improving and augmenting RPA’s abilities) – The new releases progressively integrate capabilities such as optical character recognition (OCR, OMR), chatbots, machine learning (ML) modules, analytics, data visualization, and flexible scripting (e.g., JavaScript, Python) into the RPA workflows. This is achieved by either providing the modules themselves or by improving the integration of third-party modules. Some vendors also partner with workflow/business process modelling (BPM) vendors to put RPA at the core of many business-wide workflow solutions by providing “hands and eyes” to the background workflow automations.
Simplification (of usability and operationalization) – Next to a simplified development for business users with lean user interfaces and an increasing number of plug-and-play modules, vendors also reduce the operations complexity by providing managed cloud hosting with fixed service-level agreements (SLAs) and optimized license utilization, simplified or no installation, etc.
These trends shift the role of the software from pure RPA to fully integrated intelligent automation platforms, which consist of multiple, modular building blocks for process mining, efficiency, visualization, and automation. This approach enables the business to leverage automation to a far greater extent than ever before by putting these platforms at the core of the business processes. Consequently, complete end-to-end automation, unprecedented process transparency, and massive scalability by democratizing the usage of automation can be achieved.
Arising opportunities and challenges
Core RPA tasks and activities (repetitive, rule-based processes with high volumes and big time-saving potential) are already getting addressed today. Future automation will need to incorporate all aspects of the broad automation spectrum from background workflow automation to Machine Learning and human-machine handovers to automate the more complex processes which are still out there. To get a clearer picture of the effects and impact of these trends, let’s look at the two main directions emerging from them:
- Democratization of usage: “Self Service” – Automation for Everybody
The intelligent automation platforms aim for a broad usage by business users – they achieve that goal by handing them an array of pre-built modules, drag-and-drop functionality, and simplified User Interfaces for building quick automations. Furthermore, this user-centered, bottom-up automation approach is not limited to pure RPA – the modularization of algorithms, background-connectors, analytics, and human-machine interaction acts as a catalyst for a variety of possible use cases.
This user-driven, decentral “spot automation” approach enables business users to leverage automation in a very quick and lean way.
- Sophisticated “end-to-end” automation
The new, unified approach to automation makes department overarching, end-to-end use cases available for automation – this requires for a new set of highly specialized resources at the core of a business’ automation initiative. These resources could form a cross-functional center of excellence (CoE), consisting of agile teams which work on solutions to end-to-end process automation and improvement.
These competence teams drive innovation from within the automation CoE and act as enablers to the business. Apart from automating high-value end-to-end processes with different technologies from the intelligent automation platform’s software stack, they also train and consult business users in using the software according to their needs. They are also capable of providing new modules and packages to the business users.
End-to-end automation within an intelligent automation platform also bears great process insight+
and transparency. Consequently, this holistic automation approach produces new input and data for process mining tools, which can then be leveraged for continuous improvement initiatives and process optimization, completing the future automation circle.
Eventually, proactive communication, change management, a mutual alignment on the goals of automation, and new models of collaboration are needed in order to successfully manage the balancing act of unifying the automation initiatives within a company. But if introduced with foresight and care, the intelligent automation platform can become the “one-stop-enabler” in a company’s improvement cycle, integrating the workforce to constantly elaborate process improvement potential, execute insights-driven implementation, and efficiently orchestrate the human-machine co-work.
Please reach out so we can jointly discuss and define the next steps on your automation roadmap. Our team of expert consultants will help you in defining and executing the potential of these newly emerging automation trends to the fullest.
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