3. Introduction
• Robotics Process Automation(RPA) allows organizations to automate task just like a
human being was doing them across application and systems.
• RPA can be used to automate workflows or back office process which are labor
intensive.
• The main goal of Robotics Process Automation process is to replace repetitive and
boring clerical task performed by humans, with a virtual workforce.
4. Benefits and Challenges
• Improved Efficiency and customer experience – RPA is designed to alleviate human
workers of repetitive daily tasks, running this process much quicker and subsequently
more efficiently. Through its automation capabilities, RPA allows organizations to deliver
higher quality services to their customers in a timely manner.
• Greater Productivity – Knowledge workers will be freed up to apply their skills and
experience to more important projects.
• Elimination of human error and increased compliance – RPA technology eliminates
occasional human workers mistakes, resulting in greater accuracy. RPA removes data
gaps between disparate sources and logs all actions completed by the the software
robots throughout automation. This allows employees to proactively recognize and
manage any compliance issues and consistently run internal reviews.
5. Benefits and Challenges
• Cost Savings - While implementing robotic process automation does require an upfront
investment, the overall increase in efficiency and productivity as well as reduction in
human errors more than justify the expense.
• Employee resistance and onboarding - Any changes that accompany implementation of
a new technology can be stressful for employees as they might experience shifts in their
responsibilities.
• Redundancy – Another common concern of those resistant to RPA is the fear that
robots will replace human workers, when its main purpose is to actually support
humans in the workplace.
6. Return on Investment - Costs
• Costs
• One-time costs associated
• IT infrastructure
• Initial integration with existing systems
• User training
• Creation and management of procedures and frameworks
• Maintenance costs
• Software licenses
• Software maintenance and upgrades
• Development and testing
• User support and ongoing training
• Infrastructure updates
7. Return on Investment - What to measure
• Velocity — Measure the start time versus stop time of a back-office process before and
after an RPA deployment and compare. Expected improvements between 20 and 110
percent in process speed.
• How much time does it take to go from an input to an output in a back-office
process? How much time does the overall back-office process take?
• Productivity — Measure the length of time human workers spent on a task versus how
quickly robots complete that same task. Average of 70 percent reduction in manual
work expected.
• How much time do human employees interact with technology to make a process
happen? How much of that time have the robots shaved off that process?
• Quality — Measure output accuracy before and after RPA deployment — it should be
100 percent after.
• Compliance — Measure compliance before and after RPA deployment — it should be
100 percent after
8. Examples
• Considering the following Invoice Processing Business process. Only the barcode
scanning activity cannot be automated via RPA.
9. Examples
• Video - How does RPA work?
• Video - Processing invoices in SAP using UiPath
10. Summary
• According to Accenture Research 2016:
“The benefits of RPA are undeniable. Companies implementing RPA can
significantly lower costs, create service excellence, enable greater agility and
build scalable capacity into their operations. Through our experience in the
implementation of this technology, our clients across the board have seen an
80% reduction in processing costs; average handling times reduced by 40%
with a 24/7 resilient operation – free of any human error; and an increased
scalability through a 24-hour virtual workforce.
From a workforce perspective, RPA supports higher staff satisfaction by
taking over monotonous tasks. allowing individuals to focus on higher value
work. In fact, we have seen a 43% increase in FTEs able to re-direct
their focus from non-value add activities to customer outcomes. In general,
when implemented at scale, RPA can deliver a return on investment in
approximately three to six months” (Source: Accenture Research 2016).
11. Sources
• “The Benefits (and Limitations) of RPA Implementation”
• "5 Components of Return on Investment (ROI) for Robotic Process
Automation (RPA) implementation"
• "Four ways to measure the ROI of an RPA deployment“
• "Maximizing the ROI of RPA"