Robotic process automation (RPA) should be at the forefront of any organization’s transformation plans, irrespective of industry and size, if the aim is to leverage advancements in technology and automation to improve efficiency, reduce costs, and build organizational resilience. RPA systems’ ability to automate and enhance process quality, speed, and productivity make it a ubiquitous and necessary tool to stay ahead of the competition during these unprecedented times.  

Here are some use cases for RPA in various fields:  

1.  Customer Relationship Management  

CRM systems have become an integral part of modern enterprises staying connected and maintaining excellent customer relationships. RPA systems automate rule-based, repetitive tasks and ensure customer processes that demand quick, consistent, and accurate services. With advancements in technology and benefits associated with RPA in terms of cost-effectiveness and operational efficiency, organizations rapidly integrate and streamline their critical, customer-facing processes.  

2. Invoice Processing  

Invoice processing is one of the areas where high human intervention, high volume repetitive tasks, the high scope for errors, and high risk are involved. According to Automation Anywhere, 50% of companies spend $5- $25 for manual invoice processing. 

 Invoice processing goes through various levels of approvals, leading to it being time-intensive and cost-intensive. RPA systems automate monitoring for new invoices & capturing and evaluating invoices in any format. If any discrepancies are found, it notifies the concerned employee to address and fix the errors without delay. Any organization aiming to bring down costs, improve the cycle time of invoice processing, and the efficiency and accuracy of their invoice processing operations cannot go forward without realizing the potential of RPA systems.  

3. Inventory Management  

From inventory monitoring to stock update to stock reconciliation to order management, inventory management involves many human interventions, making it a perfect candidate for RPA. RPA systems have transformed the inventory management ecosystem by automating inventory monitoring, notifying users about product stock updates in near real-time, automatically reordering products beyond the defined threshold level. Enterprises that have realized the power of RPA have now successfully eliminated any possibility of manual errors and made their inventory management operations efficient, self-driven, and intelligent. RPA systems enhance the productivity of enterprises as they freed the employees from monotonous tasks and let them focus on other critical areas of the supply chain.  

4. Payroll Processing  

Due to the complexity of payroll processes, payroll administration has not been a leading candidate for RPA. However, thanks to the widespread adoption of digital transformation, HR functions are digitized, and documentation is now universal & standard. As a result, RPA systems can verify and validate employee data from various systems such as attendance (biometric systems), timesheets (project management tools), and calculate the remuneration details accurately and efficiently. As a result, RPA systems save time and effort and enable meaningful utilization of resources to generate real value.   

5. Recruitment and employee onboarding   

For enterprises looking to optimize their recruiting processes, such as candidate screening, interview scheduling, and candidate onboarding, RPA systems are the ultimate solution. RPA systems enable the hiring team to conduct high-level repetitive tasks such as candidate and resume screening quickly and efficiently. In addition, automating and streamlining onboarding processes helps the HR team to eliminate excessive HR workload and provides more time to establish a consultative relationship with candidates to deliver an excellent experience. RPA systems also reduced the paperwork involved, streamline coordination across departments, increase recruiting accuracy, and help reduce bias in the recruiting process.  

Conclusion  

RPA has been revolutionizing the business ecosystem for a while, and it is going to be the savior for business resilience in the turbulent times ahead. Enterprises that want to improve their efficiency and increase their productivity must capture the advancements in the RPA without fail.   

The results of RPA implementation are tangible: 

• In a study by IBM, more than 90% of C-level executives using intelligent automation say their organization performs above average in managing organizational change in response to emerging business trends.  
• Gartner expects that by 2024, organizations will lower operational costs by 30% by combining hyper automation technologies with redesigned operational processes. 
• EY found that RPA can provide cost savings ranging from 20%–60% of baseline FTE costs for financial services. 
• Deloitte’s Global RPA Survey found 85% of respondents report that RPA met or exceeded their expectations for non-financial benefits such as accuracy, timeliness, flexibility.  

Here is some additional reading on RPA that might be of interest:  

RPA in finance: Is it ‘bank’able?  

Use cases for robotic process automation in education  

If you are curious and want to know more about what RPA systems can do for your organization or if you would like a subject matter expert to connect with you to set up an exploratory discussion, drop a mail to sales@blackrockdxb.com. 

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The IT revolution that began in the latter half of the 20th century brought about great transformation to education and the learning process. The spread of the internet has made information available everywhere, anytime. This has changed the emphasis of education from knowledge transfer to knowledge creation and has shifted focus from group to individual education. 

Digital Transformation can contribute significantly to the future of the education sector in the same way the internet has contributed in the past with incredible new offerings like Automation, Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence paving the way for revolutionary change in mainstream education. Automation in particular, is becoming an important and meaningful part of our daily lives.

Defining automation

Automation is defined as the process of completing repeating and mundane tasks using technology, resulting in faster and more accurate outcomes. The work is carried out using minimal human intervention, which means that it is a combined effort between machines and humans. Robotic Process Automation in Education helps stakeholders to minimize manual effort, creating more efficiency. 

How does Automation impact the education sector?

Any industry sector has multiple layers and related functions. A traditional education sector framework consists of a mix of school/college administrators, teachers/ trainers, students, parents, and other school staff. These stakeholders combined are responsible for both academic and non-academic administrative activities of an institution.

Administrative tasks in the education sector are mostly paper-based and are repetitive and time-consuming. Automating some of these tasks can improve the working efficiency and motivation levels of employees. Softwares in Automating can be used to assist all functions of the institution such as administrators, trainers, students, and parents.

Some of the channels that can be automated in the education scenario are,

1. Administration

Administrative level officials are responsible for all non-academic activities, such as student registration, shortlisting of candidates, enrolment process, and finally the certificate generation process. Robotic Process Automation in Education can drastically bring down the workload for the administrative staff by minimizing the various manual processes mentioned earlier. For example, once the students have applied for a stream of study, a staff member needs to manually check and process the application forms and shortlist the candidate. If pre-defined rules can be configured, such as checking eligibility criteria, shortlisting of candidates becomes a faster task, freeing up resources as well as the time spent on the task.

Similarly, generating pass certificates for candidates is another time-consuming task that is labor-intensive.  Automation can deliver efficient results to quicken the pace for all the above. In this case, once the logic and rules are defined for selecting eligible candidates and calculating the score, numerous certificates can be generated within a short span of time with little or no human intervention, increasing productivity and efficiency levels for the staff.

2. Teachers/Trainers

Teachers and trainers play a major role in the education system. Training students is the primary responsibility of a teacher/ trainer. As a part of the training, they are also responsible for Class scheduling, Attendance Management, Assignment grading, etc.

Let us take the example of attendance management. Physically capturing student attendance, notifying parents on the absence of their wards, calculating attendance percentage of individual students, and segregating students based on performance are tedious tasks that take up a lot of time and effort. Today, most educational institutions rely on technology to fulfill their attendance requirements.

Students can be provided with active RFID cards to capture attendance automatically instead of the traditional attendance marking system. This automates the attendance process once they enter into the institution premises. Alerts can be configured such that teachers and parents are intimated automatically if their wards are absent/late on several days. Rules can be assigned for the generation of routine reports. This process mechanizes the attendance management process, gradually allowing teachers and other academic staff to spend less time on routine tasks and more time with students.

3. Parents

Parents are another beneficiary of automation in the education sector. Enhancement of security for children is an example. Parents can be relaxed about child security if the institution uses the latest technology to boost student safety. This includes SMS alerts on the absence of child/leave taken and so on. Parents can also be mailed information about the children’s performance in the institution. 

4. Students

Students are the key beneficiaries of the disruptive tendencies in the new education system. Students can take advantage of technology through the learning methods opted for. Learning methods have changed a lot since the emergence of technology – new tech like Machine Learning in Education & Artificial Intelligence in Education are going to completely disrupt the way education is perceived and experienced today.

E-Learning has transformed the way in which learning used to be imparted. Unlike the traditional blackboard/whiteboard way of face-to-face teaching, e-learning makes learning possible through geographical distances.

The main challenge in e-learning is that it is difficult for the trainer to identify whether the session is interesting or boring to the individual student. To identify the actual response of the students while giving online lectures, cognitive learning technologies can be used. Cognitive psychology refers to the study of the mind and how humans think. Cognitive integrated applications capture expressions and emotions from the student’s face. Applications run numerous patterns built into it and provide instructions to the trainer. It can give an insight into which learning method works best for the targeted students. Thus, online learning sessions become more personalized, thereby increasing the effectiveness of learning for the student.

blackrock recently partnered with a leading EduTech service provider in the Middle East to take over a platform that provides fully personalized tutoring services. The client offers mobile and web-enabled platforms that provide comprehensive learning management systems,  the flagship one being an on-demand tutoring platform that instantly connects students to specialized tutors in real-time – the first concept of its kind in the region.

With the successful execution of this project, and utilizing our ongoing engagement, the application has now expanded to a comprehensive learning system that is now used in over 25 countries by over 500,000 students. It has proved to be one of the most successful examples of online learning that the current COVID-19 situation has forced on the world.

You can read the complete success story here. 

Interested in knowing more about how blackrock can help you with EduTech? Write to us now: sales@blackrockdxb.com

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