By Boomi
Problem: Your department routinely receives data in PDFs, but your organization needs that information in the database. What’s your solution?The hands-on approach involves workers transcribing each field manually, which is time-consuming and error-prone.
The intelligent alternative is using what’s known as robotic process automation (RPA). This process management solution uses bot technology to automate routine tasks, such as transcribing data across platforms.
Let’s look at the benefits of process automation and what’s involved in implementing an RPA solution.
Benefits of RPA
1. Improved efficiency and productivity
Eliminating the busy work of manually transcribing information from one data source to another allows your workforce to use their time more efficiently and productively. In a survey conducted by Forrester, 86% of respondents credited RPA with increased efficiency.
2. Accuracy
Data transformation powered by RPA ensures data accuracy when shared across formats and platforms. That same Forrester survey found 57% of respondents said RPA reduced manual data errors.
3. Process standardization
As an organization grows, processes adapt to meet new demands and technologies. Sometimes those adaptations are a patchwork of reactionary fixes rather than proactive solutions. RPA is a data transformation solution that’s scalable and standardized, so as your organization grows, your data and processes remain consistent.
Common RPA Solutions
Most departments in your organization will have optimal processes for RPA solutions. Here is a look at some of the more common solutions.
1. Human Resources
The human part of human resources requires carrying out the job with consideration and empathy. But that doesn’t mean your HR staff should get bogged down in administrative tasks.
RPA is an excellent solution for freeing your teams from repetitive tasks. Use RPA for:
- An automated onboarding process
- Creation of personalized offer letters
- Configuring systems for new hires
- Data scraping from resumes and employment forms
- Expense request validation and processing
2. Finance
A Gartner report found that over a year, RPA can save over 25,000 hours of avoidable work for financial divisions. Based on an accounting team of 40 staff, this figure equates to a cost savings of $878,000.
Improvements within accounting through RPA implementation include:
- Processing purchase orders
- Creating invoices
- Reconciling accounts receivable
3. Sales and Marketing
Accurate customer insights are one of the most valuable assets in sales and marketing. This data can be unified and shared across your organization through RPA solutions.
RPA can also be used to qualify leads and create robust customer profiles.
4. Customer Service
RPA eliminates many routine tasks in customer service roles. That frees up your customer service team to spend more time one-on-one helping customers and offering a complete customer experience.
Steps For Successful RPA Implementation
1. Assess your organizational needs
Before taking any other action, understand your organization’s current processes. Assessments take time, but they offer insights that allow you to make a sound and effective implementation plan when conducted thoroughly.
This process assessment should involve the impacted departments and their staff. Things may happen in your organization because “that’s how it’s always been done.” As your company grows, reevaluating the “why” behind processes is as important as documenting “how” to ensure your workforce isn’t dragged down by inefficiencies.
2. Conduct a feasibility study
Once you have identified the processes optimal for automation, it’s time to sit down with your development team to determine the feasibility of automating them.
Involve direct stakeholders in these conversations since the people conducting the manual processes will have the most insight into any nuances that must be addressed. This is even more important when strict regulations govern your organization.
3. Develop automated process plans
During this step, you’ll work with stakeholders and developers to create a workflow that enables optimized automation.
At this stage, you may also find that implementing RPA could impact other secondary processes. Readjust how those processes are carried out as needed.
4. Test and refine
Testing the processes before going live allows you to detect faults in the coding or process implementation. A series of tests and refinements will ultimately result in an error-free and reliable RPA.
5. Deploy your RPA solution
Deploying your RPA solution will involve some personnel training. Training the most eager members of the team first will help the rest of the workforce sign on to the new process – especially once they see how much easier their jobs will be without being bogged down by repetitive tasks.
RPA Is Moving Businesses Forward
The business world is turning to RPA to reduce overhead, increase productivity, and ensure the integrity of data transformation. Gartner reports that RPA investment is on track to reach $3.3 billion in 2023, an increase of 17.5% from 2021, and predicts that this growth will continue in the double digits.
Read our technical brief, “Achieve Holistic Process Automation With Boomi and RPA” to see how Boomi can help you.