As we enter the dawn of a new decade, organizations must prepare for the challenges that lie ahead. The next decade will have a significant impact on our lives – to remain competitive, enterprises need to transform their business and operational models and automation strategy is key.
The scope of change that automation will bring about in the coming years is comparable to the impact cloud computing or digital transformation continues to have today. A good automation strategy enables businesses to use their resources more efficiently, reduce human errors, complete repetitive tasks, streamline business processes, improve delivery models, and contain costs.
Two popular automation strategies are Digital Process Automation and Robotic Process Automation – both distinct yet compatible strategies in the automation ecosystem.
Let us take a look at these two strategies in detail.
What is Robotic Process Automation?
Robotic Process Automation is an emerging field within Business Process Automation. It uses artificial intelligence to automate low level, repetitive, rule-based tasks. RPA initiatives often use software bots that act as synthetic IT application users, executing repeatable, structured, high-volume clerical tasks.
Often using existing IT systems, RPA can often extend the lifecycles of enterprise legacy systems by improving the speed and accuracy of the systems in use.
However, RPA are not ideal for streamlining operations that include workflows, especially when they include tasks that involve complex decision-making or sophisticated multi-step business rules. They are also not recommended for business processes that need human intervention. In these cases, Digital Process Automation would work better.
Advantages of RPA
- Reduced cost: The speed and efficiency of legacy systems can be improved by automating tasks.
- Lower human errors: It is possible to eliminate human errors in iterative tasks through automation.
- Increase Employee Productivity: Employees are freed from their mundane tasks, allowing them to focus on higher-value tasks and innovation.
What is Digital Process Automation?
Unlike RPA, which was task-focused, DPA is a process-focused strategy. DPA uses a broader, more holistic approach to automation.
Its focus is not to automate the end-to-end tasks of an organization’s business process but to enhance the organization’s business process strategy by integrating complementary tools that would enable organizations to transform it.
DPA revamps the company processes and provides a better experience for its customers, employees, and even vendors. DPA strategies include Workflow Automation, Decision Management, Case Management, and AI & Predictive Analytics. These tools automate old techniques and processes, freeing up time for result-oriented and experience-oriented activities.
Advantages of DPA
- DPA Improves User Satisfaction: Transforming business processes improves the user experience for all stakeholders (employees, customers, and even external vendors)
- Better Decision Making: A comprehensive DPA strategy can enhance decision outcomes under a variety of circumstances
- Predictive Decision making: Predictive models can be used not only to highlight potential situations, but they can also recommend ‘next best actions’.
The case for using both RPA and DPA at your organization
A successful automation strategy should include both DPA and RPA techniques. The productivity gains of RPA techniques complement the process transformation of DPA techniques, and together, they compound the productivity gains of each of them deployed individually.
Time-consuming and repetitive work can be performed by bots, saving your employee’s valuable time. For example, say an employee has routine interactions with multiple customers to furnish the same information repeatedly. This interaction can be automated using a bot, improving the experience of both the customer and the employee. Employees can now focus on high-value work and innovation rather than waste time on mundane tasks, improving organizational competitiveness.
In Conclusion
It is not enough to install a set of tools that tick the “Decision management” or “AI/ predictive Analytics” box – these tools in themselves run the risk of turning into independent silos. Rather, they should be components of an integrated system of automated tools. This needs specialized suppliers – experts, who can integrate these separate technologies into a comprehensive solution that is tailored for the specific needs of your business.
blackrock helps enterprises across the globe transform their business processes. We develop holistic business process transformation and automation strategies with a specialized focus in domains such as healthcare, retail, transportation & logistics, and Fintech.
If you would like to take advantage of the transformative power of automation and are looking for a reliable IT partner, drop a mail to sales@blackrockdxb.com