What Is RPA and its Role in Economic Recovery

COVID-19 had been a challenge to many businesses as it challenged organizations to adapt or die. Pre-COVID risk management plans did not account for the sweeping effects of such a pandemic, and soon enough both industry giants and SMEs suddenly found themselves looking for new and better ways to cope with the new normal.

Every business department is now looking for new solutions as the workforce becomes more remote, on-site crews diminish in number, and businesses now look to deliveries over on-site sales to fulfill orders.

Many companies suddenly realize that the technologies they thought were just expenses are now necessary investments in order to survive. Supply chains are now struggling to automate their processes, HR is investing in remote tech to keep workers productive and engaged, and retail is now shifting to online business to catch up with their sales as brick and mortar closes one by one. 

With companies now looking for ways to automate what was usually manually done, this is where RPA comes in handy.

What is RPA? 

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) are software applications that enable businesses to automate repetitive tasks across a wide variety of software and hardware. Workflows can be put into RPAs to be able to take the necessary steps to move processes forward. As a whole, RPAs reduce the need for personnel to accomplish simple, repetitive tasks and free them to focus on key tasks that need more thought and planning.

RPA may sound like your usual automation technology, but it operates differently on a number of levels:

1. Technology: While traditional automation relies on programming and API integration, RPAs mimic user action on the User Interface Level, which means that the bots can follow the steps usually taken by users without understanding the target systems.
2. Vendor / Software Restrictions: Deep tech knowledge is required for traditional automation, while RPA only works on the technology’s user interface, which makes it easier for people with average technical experience to manage.
3. Time to Market: Because RPAs are not as complicated as traditional automation, their deployment is much quicker.
4. Audience: SMBs with smaller resources can deploy RPAs much easier as they don’t need a tech team with deep technical expertise to make the technology work.

Because of these advantages over traditional automation, RPAs are very much well-suited for SMBs who want to get back on track, especially with the limited resources they have. Without the need to hire a specialized tech team, SMBs can automate their routine tasks and be able to compete in the current business environment while leveraging technology. This is a cost-effective way to cut on costs, increase efficiency,  and create a level playing field against bigger players to thrive in the new normal.

How RPAs transform business

Here are some of the ways RPAs have made businesses more resilient and adapt to the current situation and beyond, as elaborated by Business2Community:

1. Manufacturing: Because of the cheaper cost and the wide-ranging applications of RPAs, software-based RPAs have become more popular than robots in the industry. Companies like Forbes Marshall used RPAs to automate their taxation work, and track and trace workflows on the go through mobile apps, helping them free up their workforce for more important tasks that need attention.
2. Healthcare: The pandemic has proven to be a challenge for the healthcare industry as COVID-19 tested their ability to cope with rising demand and increased operations. RPA was able to help a hospital in Texas by streamlining monthly data load, and efficiently monitored daily activities to help their doctors make better decisions. The hospital also used RPA to enable valid payment accuracy on test claims.
3. Banking and Finance: Transactional processes are some of the biggest pains of the financial industry from managing invoice processes, onboarding new clients, to processing the general ledger. Institutions like DBS bank and Singapore bank OCBC were able to use RPA to reduce the time to process applicants and check for the eligibility of their clients from all their services.

Why invest in RPA?

RPA is a technology that is easy to implement and cheaper than traditional automation. It helps companies adapt to operations that have been shaped by the pandemic and beyond. More importantly, it frees up personnel to take care of key company decisions and operations that would otherwise be cumbersome and inefficient to the company. RPA actually makes a former slow-moving, moribund organization into a leaner and meaner team that can compete in the new normal.