By Vineet Chaturvedi, Co-Founder, Edureka
Robotic Process automation (or RPA) is one of the hottest technologies in the market today and is known for its efficiency and the competitive advantage it provides. According to the prediction of Mckinsey & Company, it has the potential to showcase an economic impact of $6.7 trillion by 2025. Automation is expected to spur job growth and introduce entirely new job categories that will be a force generator towards economic growth. RPA tools imitate and integrate human actions within the digital ecosystem and reduces the manual burden at work to assign higher value work to humans while promoting business growth.
Here are 5 compelling reasons why RPA upskilling should be any IT professional’s immediate goal –
1. No “Rip and Replace” needed
One of the biggest advantages of using a virtual workforce or an RPA bot is that it does not require you to replace your existing systems, which means intelligent software can be deployed to program routine, mundane tasks. It is based on experience and practical work and with the help of robotic process automation, manual work is reduced, and humans can get on to more core strengths like strategy, emotional intelligence, judgement and customer interactions. To do such work, some additional software and some virtual machines will be required to organize fully independent digital workers but there won’t be any need to “rip and replace” any existing infrastructures but will only leverage them. So, if a workflow isn’t functioning properly, one can make changes instantly and see how effectively the impact will be on the result. In short, we can say that RPA, has an effective impact on every type of industry.
2. Delivers security
Surviving security data breach may seem difficult as bots by nature need to access business data.
However, RPA ensures that setting of accessibility is done by an employee. That means only the right people will have the access to the data that pertains directly to their workflow. Anything else that they’re not supposed to see will remain encrypted and safe from prying eyes.
3. Measuring ROI is easy
Maintaining software bots requires minimal IT resources. RPA systems will be managed by the software provider and they will responsible for maintenance, updates, etc. Often large-scale applications or IT initiatives are positioned as cost savers. While RPA can bring in with some immediate fixed cost, it has a far clearer part to demonstrate its returns. As our data sources and analytic capabilities have grown, so has the time required to build various reports increased. The Robotic Process Automation system is the ideal solution to solve these types of problems. The system stores the information and it can also remember and transform this information very easily, that means this makes you auditable and tax ready. Initially a human is required to train the bot after which can then be used for higher value tasks.
4. Saves time and money
An ultimate goal for any business is to maintain a happy balance between revenue and time to get everything done and ensure a profitable business. Repetitive tasks that needs constant attention of employees, can now be completed easily with robotic process automation. This process not only saves time but also money. The employees who were assigned to these tasks, can now shift focus to higher value tasks that only humans can do. According to McKinsey research 49% of the task that the person completes can now be done by the automated technology. In fact, a study by Forrester (in Australia & New Zealand) found that although RPA is still most commonly used in the back end, companies now use RPA in customer-facing functions like customer support (55%) and sales and marketing (49%) to equip employees to better serve customers.
5. Popularity and high Salary
It’s a myth that RPA and automation will lead to loss of jobs. By automating lower value work, RPA, in fact, frees up the workforce for skilled work and let’s not forget the jobs it creates for skilled engineers who can train the RPA programs. According to indeed.com, the average salary of an RPA developer ranges around 110,000 US dollars per year. Not only at an individual level, but many hyper-growth companies like Dell or Accenture, IBM, Cognizant, Capgemini use RPA to enhance growth. So, career growth is guaranteed for RPA-skilled professionals.
As the world moves towards using new variants of emerging technologies, automation platforms will compliment and improve the way business tasks are done. Automation tools like UiPath, Automation Anywhere used for RPA can finish tasks quickly, accurately and tirelessly as compared to human beings. Not only do you not need to replace the existing system, which means that both the employee and the automation tools can sit alongside existing infrastructures and bring about effective growth in the company, you can in fact, leverage the technology for scaling up easily and efficiently. In such a scenario, upskilling in RPA courses will equip professionals with the right set of skills in RPA to become a part of the RPA revolution.