Companies across all industries are embracing robotic process automation (RPA). In as little as two years, RPA leaders – those companies our research identified as ahead of the curve – will be using bots in virtually every function within their organizations. RPA is much more than a cost play. RPA leaders are seeing multiple benefits, from increasing speed to market to bolstering competitive position.
To provide executives with greater insights into successful RPA approaches, Protiviti and ESI ThoughtLab joined forces to conduct a global survey of the RPA practices of 450 companies across various regions, industries and revenue levels. The goal of our analysis was to compare the approaches of RPA leaders with those less advanced and to identify those RPA strategies that generated the highest returns.
Specifically, we found that RPA leaders:
- Use RPA for much more than cutting costs. They are already deploying RPA to improve quality, speed, and performance. In the future, they plan to ramp up their use of bots in many functions, from IT management and marketing, to research and development, and product development.
- Invest heavily. RPA leaders are spending five to ten times more on RPA than other companies. Failing to invest sufficiently in technology, people, and processes related to RPA can leave an organization outflanked by competitors in efficiency, customer satisfaction, and performance.
- Scale RPA across the enterprise. RPA leaders ensure IT infrastructures can support the use of the technology across the company and carefully monitor and maintain each application. They also ensure the RPA tools they use today will support the adoption of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) in the future.
- Tackle employee concerns. RPA leaders thoroughly understand employee concerns about job disruption. To allay these fears, RPA leaders communicate their plans to employees and provide them with training and career pathing that address the impact of automation on their jobs.
- Reap payoffs before everyone else. RPA leaders are far more likely to see improvements in revenue generation, profitability, productivity and cost reductions than other companies. They also expect much higher growth driven by RPA in the next two years.
For more information on Protiviti’s RPA solutions, click here.
