The unavoidable reality in the business world is that it is in a constant state of evolution. The main engine of these changes can be found in the continuous quest to gain a competitive advantage. The company that is capable of providing the most efficient solutions to address the needs of its customers, is the one you will find capturing their market segment.
The search for efficiency has become a race to transfer activities to machines that can perform them quickly and with a minimum number of errors, freeing up people’s time so that they can focus on activities of a strategic nature; harnessing human creativity to improve business, instead of occupying them in repetitive and time-consuming activities. The new digital age brings with it a future in which machines begin to learn from human beings; and as they become better at their work, their demand in the day-to-day functioning of companies will be more prevalent. Although this technology is still in the development stage, it has shown very promising results in robotic process automation (RPA). The robots used in this case are not physical, but an evolution of software, allowing the automation of portions of processes that do not require human guidance.
RPA can be offered within the organization through three different service models:
- A Center of Excellence (COE): can be established within the organization. A department that provides service via RPA to internal clients. Within the COE they would be programmed and robots would be deployed, by integrating them into applications. Additionally, the COE provides service and support to internal customers.
- Licensing: in this case, the support infrastructure to RPA is part of the organization, but the implementation and programming are done through a third party. The business pays licenses to continue receiving the service. The administration of the RPA system continues to be executed internally.
- Service Management: in this case, the RPA is implemented and managed by a third party. The business alone acts as a service user, paying for the volume of transactions generated on the platform.
We live in the fourth industrial revolution, the digital era, “business 4.0” that has brought a new way of doing business, means of automation and sharing of data and where systems and humans collaborate to achieve a common result. Robotic process automation (RPA) will allow companies to:
- perform repetitive tasks that require precision, with an accuracy of 100%
- will allow the standardization and optimization of processes reducing delivery time by more than one third, with the additional benefit of improvement in quality.
Organizations will need to change current roles and implement new ones to adapt to the needs and services provided by new technologies such as RPA. It is necessary to be prepared for the new technologies, such as cognitive automation and artificial intelligence, which are just a few years away from being part of everyday business life. Companies must be open to change; innovation does not happen in closed environments and whoever does not innovate is left behind. The capacity adaptation of organizations plays a fundamental role in their competitiveness and stability. The greatest benefits will come for those organizations that can adapt their technological and human infrastructure with agility and be a real part of the future.
