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7 COMPELLING QUESTIONS ON THE BUSINESS OF ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION

  • Writer: amalabdreamz
    amalabdreamz
  • Nov 21, 2018
  • 5 min read

1. Suggests that mistakes are often the result of human error. How can we say with confidence that there are no quality problems in the RPA when humans program them?

The way the software works is that it will follow the rules exactly as you indicate. This does not necessarily mean that there will be no error. In the early days of RPA, one of the first customers involved was a telecommunications company, which programmed a robot to send iPhones to customers who had requested them. In the test phase, they loop to perform some tests.

When it was launched, they forgot to delete the loop, so they sent the 3 or 4 iPhones. This is an example where there may be problems and it may fail on the scale, so you should be very careful when performing the tests. But there is no risk that you simply forget a step in a stage.


2. In what areas of opportunity have many customers gone to look for low fruits and where do you see the following important points to consider?

RPA is not a specific solution of the process, so it is not the answer to "how to answer invoices", for example. What is great is to automate the gaps in processes and systems, where there are people who are covering them at this time. Where we look for opportunities are processes where there is a large number of people who perform work based on rules (the service delivery centers are a good opportunity) and where the input data is structured.

Therefore, call centers are less suitable for large-scale RPAs and are better for more agent-assisted solutions where you have robots on the agent's desktop. If you want to have a greater impact on the automation of a process, look at where people handle data on a large scale. Human resources are a very good area because, in general, they do not have enough investment. Examples include incorporation, employee verification and payroll financing.



3. When you think of automation from the perspective of a contact center, what are some of the challenges and difficulties you should avoid?

The biggest challenge is around the systems themselves. It is important to understand how systems work with automation products. There are many automation tools, each with particular strengths, and some more suitable for the contact center market. Observe how you interact with the application, especially with the quality of the integration.


If you have to go with a more flexible integration, where you have to look at the elements on the screen and trust screen scraping technologies, then you may have more problems when you implement it in a large workforce, where the computers and all the configurations can be a little different.


The other part is making sure you understand the processes. We always trust that our clients are experts in processes, because they know how processes should be executed. When asked if it should be redesigned or automated, they are not mutually exclusive. We strongly recommend that, if you have the time and the business case, first optimize the process and then automate it. But you must also have a degree of pragmatism. If you have a process that is good enough and can generate large savings immediately, it may be worthwhile to implement the automation and refine it over time.


4. How will RPA affect the offshore BPO market?

All major BPO providers have made bold statements about what RPA will do for their businesses. For example, some claim that they will automate 50% of the FTEs that carry out the processes today. These are companies that have set goals and business plans to increase their revenues and are trying to move up the value chain.

This is where we see a real gap in the market, which we are addressing when we start offering services around Robotic BPO (R-BPO). If you have a process that is suitable for automation, we can provide it as a service and handle the exceptions.



5. What strategy would you recommend companies to use for RPA?

 Is there a situation in which you build it internally and use your own technologies and equipment to configure it? Or if you go to a specialist and ask him to do so, to avoid overhead costs and long-term internal costs.


We are very open with our clients and support them with whatever strategy they choose to do. So if you want to form a team, we will support you. We do training and we can help clients build their own Center of Excellence, but it is not suitable for everyone. If you have the ability to lead and dedicate a team to develop the skills within your organization, build your own Center of Excellence. What we are doing more and more for our clients now is to provide a Center of Excellence of dedicated people for your company. And we will take care of the staff, the training and we will provide our intellectual property.


The reason we moved to this space is due to the great wear and tear of people who have received training in RPA. As soon as they have that seal or certification on their CV, they will know what their potential is in the market. We have been able to retain all but 4 of our consultants so far. We invest a lot of people, but I think the main reason is that we can provide a professional progression. There is always another opportunity for them in another function, which is difficult to provide if you have a team of 2-3 people in your business.


6. What is the cost of creating and implementing RPA solutions?

It does not have a price in a business case model, so there is no general practical price range to give. However, for businesses, we see a common range for a single bot license that is often between $ 2,000 and $ 15,000 per year.

But this is only for licenses, either at home or with a third party: the license is only a small part of the total cost of ownership.


That bot can do the job of anything depending on how you implement it. If you only work during normal business hours, you can get a 1: 1 ratio in terms of 1 bot per 1 FTE per job value. Or, if you run it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, you can get 20 FTE from that job. When we look at the business cases for our clients, we generally see a return on investment of 500% to 800% over a period of 3 to 5 years.



7. How can we moderate the impact on employment levels where RPA can and will be implemented?

What really motivates me is to see that most of our clients are adopting RPA to support growth. It's about how they handle more, with the same amount of resources. That has been the main focus, so until now we have not seen any client that offers fewer jobs. This could change as we move forward, as we see that more customers are adopting the technology.


 I am sure that analysts have also seen different results, looking at it from a global scale. There are two schools of thought. One is that we will always create more jobs and that we will always be creating new services and products in the market. The other is that it will have a negative effect on employment. That depends on your perspective.


 
 
 

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