How easy has it been it to integrate RPA/digital employees with existing systems and business processes?
The value of intelligent automation in powering a post-COVID-19 economic recovery
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Organisations around the world are now figuring out what the ‘new normal’ is and what operational and resourcing changes need to be made to remain viable during this recovery period.
Digital transformation has been moved up the agenda, and as a result RPA and intelligent automation technologies are also front of mind for more organisations than ever before.
12
Nearly 12% of respondents have seen a “significant” return on investment (ROI) from their automation programmes to date
%
Positioning automation as a driver for change
To what extent have you implemented the following automation delivery routes?
From plan to reality
Introduction | Driver for change | Lessons from COVID | Transformation plans | Integration | Plan to reality | Conclusions | About Blue Prism
Here we explore the value of intelligent automation in the current economic climate and beyond. How can organisations get the most from introducing this technology now, while mapping the road ahead to generating new opportunities and additional value?
2020 Market Survey
To find out, Computing spoke to 150 senior IT leaders in medium (500 to 2,000 employees) to large (10,000+) organisations across nearly every sector of the economy. The aim was to establish how their automation programmes are progressing, and how well these are being integrated with the wider enterprise.
One hundred percent of the survey base have either been involved in intelligent automation implementation or decision-making in their organisations. Of those, 75 percent already have live automation processes of some kind running today. Many of these are planning further initiatives or are in the early stages of implementing them.
Lessons from the COVID-19 crisis
How has the Covid-19 pandemic changed your interest in/approach to automation?
But what about those organisations that have yet to implement automation?
The upside of automation in a crisis is solidly centred around its ability to support fluctuations in workload and customer demand, to plug resource gaps and to create a strong operational foundation for building growth up as the recovery period begins.
Responses from IT leaders suggest that implementing intelligent automation or RPA is easier than integrating it with internal systems and processes.
That said, the above figures reveal that over half of IT leaders encountered at least some problems during implementation.
How easy was it to manage the implementation of the overall program?
Conclusions
The survey reveals several important findings. First, while a minority of IT leaders are clearly nervous about intelligent automation, the statistics speak for themselves among those that have taken the plunge: for example, 63 percent report time savings for their human workers, while 36 percent acknowledge a measurable ROI.
Those who are still considering intelligent automation as a solution can draw confidence and learn from the experiences of others, given the widespread uncertainty about the future, and the expected long-term reliance on remote workforces.
Overall, the survey demonstrates that the main obstacles to progress in intelligent automation and RPA are a mix of financial worries, practical technology issues – in terms of integration and complexity management – and cultural and staffing challenges.
This is why implementation needs to be driven by strategic need in support of clear business goals, and not as a quick fix to take costs out of the organisation – though reduced costs and a measurable ROI may indeed result.
Carrying this strategic need successfully through the implementation stage and beyond requires a good understanding of the objectives and the technology – both amongst those deploying the strategy and those using it day-to-day. This understanding and buy-in is also vital to maintaining a healthy and positive company culture and helping employees to develop their value in the organisation.
The right technology partner has a key role to play here – by sharing their technology and strategy expertise with the organisation and ensuring they understand the ethos and business objectives of the initiative. Without a good alignment between vendor and customer at this stage, the deployment will face serious obstacles in its early stages and long-term ROI may well be elusive.
Second, the global health crisis has placed organisations in a position where they can use their experiences with automation during the pandemic and recovery period to serve as a roadmap for driving future benefits and deeper value from the technology. Many businesses have been able to use it to maintain business continuity and customer satisfaction, and can continue to build on this.
Economists are predicting that in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic the global economy will take years to fully recover.
24
Have received an “acceptable” financial return
%
13
Report no ROI to date at all, suggesting that it may be too early in their program to draw firm conclusions about success or failure
%
Blue Prism is the global leader in intelligent automation for the enterprise, transforming the way work is done. At Blue Prism, we have users in over 150 countries in more than 1,800 businesses, including Fortune 500 and public sector organizations, that are creating value with new ways of working, unlocking efficiencies, and returning millions of hours of work back into their businesses. Our Digital Workforce is smart, secure, scalable and accessible to all; freeing up humans to re-imagine work.
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Intelligent automation at the core of transformation plans
To business leaders new to automation, implementing such a technology can appear daunting, and media scare stories about robots replacing human jobs contribute to this. However, the scale of an implementation project varies widely depending on the software and vendor selected, and the real purpose of a digital workforce is to work alongside employees, augmenting the mass of repetitive tasks that are essential but do little to further strategic aims or develop and utilise employees’ skills and talents.
By delegating these repetitive and time-consuming workflows to digital workers, employees can be left to do what humans do best: work creatively and collaboratively, focusing on supporting the core business goals.
So, what benefits does this have for organisations in a recovering economy?
Does your organisation currently have any live automated processes in operation?
Forty-nine percent of respondents are currently implementing or deploying automation from the cloud, demonstrating the growing number of organisations that are prioritising business agility and speed of growth. Twenty-seven percent are rolling out automation solutions on the business premises, with a further 19 percent having already deployed by that method.
Most of the remaining organisations are actively planning to implement automation technology, either on the cloud on on-prem, leaving a small minority with no interest in doing so at all.
The potential benefits of automation have simply become too great to ignore:
But the survey has found that users are benefiting most in other ways: such as giving working hours back to employees, enabling them to focus on value-adding tasks and customer experience:
There are other benefits too, one of which may not have been on organisations’ radar at the start of the project. Nearly 28 percent of respondents who have implemented intelligent automation say that it has helped them to adapt operations quickly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In total, only one percent of IT leaders who are in the ‘yes to automation’ camp have no plans at all to automate operations during the crisis.
Given that 56 percent of those surveyed have either accelerated or expanded their existing plans, or introduced new initiatives, due to COVID-19, it’s clear that the pandemic has woken many organisations to the flexibility and continuity offered by intelligent automation. This is particularly true of cloud-based deployments, which won’t be affected by the near-universal shift to home-working. When measuring the potential benefits of automation in its early days, it’s vital to consider the implications in difficult times, as well as when it’s business as usual.
How has your automation technology helped your organisation during Covid-19?
Asked whether they believe that intelligent automation has the potential to help their organisations deal with the challenges created by the pandemic, 63 percent of IT leaders said “yes”.
Given that nearly two-thirds of this group see the upside so clearly in this situation, it follows that intelligent automation implemented under any circumstance can be hugely beneficial. Strategic, productivity, workflow, and efficiency gains are results that can also be achieved in times of greater operational and economic certainty.
Aside from time paybacks, ROI, and dealing with a global crisis, other cited benefits from intelligent automation include improved employee satisfaction and engagement, greater process consistency, better customer experiences, and – where Cloud and SaaS solutions are employed – reduced reliance on internal IT teams.
41
%
22 percent of organisations say that intelligent automation has given significant amounts of time back to their workers
22
%
With 41 percent saying that it has returned at least some time
Integration at the cutting edge
Any technology that transforms business processes and outcomes needs to be well integrated – both into existing technical infrastructure and systems and embedded into workflows and culture. So how easy did the UK’s IT leaders find integrating intelligent automation or digital employees with their existing systems and processes?
These findings highlight the importance of preparing for integration before any automation goes live into the business. An intelligent automation strategy should cater for cultural immersion as well as how the technology will be used to power growth and innovation.
This was one of the issues that influenced vendor selection, found the survey.
What were the main reasons for choosing your automation vendor?
Would you change that choice today?
What were the main implementation challenges your organisation faced during your automation project?
So, the question arises as to why some organisations – one-quarter of those surveyed from the figures set out above – currently have no process automation at all.
Why doesn’t your organisation have any process automation plans currently?
This is not to say that it has been plain sailing for the three-quarters of IT leaders who are already pursuing some form of automation programme. Asked what concerns colleagues had about the technology when it was first discussed, the lack of relevant skills dominated (cited by 42 percent of respondents), along with the ability to manage it (42 percent), and the impact on human jobs (38 percent).
Cost was another factor, found the survey: the resource cost to support automation was cited as an early concern by 31 percent, its ability to generate ROI by 31 percent, and the purchase and maintenance costs by 22 percent. In total, just 11 percent said that there had been no reservations expressed.
However, when capable automation technology, company ethos, workforce sentiment, and business objectives all line up, the positive business outcomes are clear to see. Employees are freed up to do what humans do best, work collaboratively and creatively and focus on driving the core business forwards. This includes working through unforeseen challenges, such as COVID-19, along the way.
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63
%
Yes
No
75
%
25
%
2%
No plan and no interest
19%
27%
17%
No plans but interested
35%
Currently implementing
12%
31%
Currently planning
27%
14%
On-premises / Other
Cloud / SaaS
14%
Fully deployed
43% Continuing with current automation plans/status quo
17% Accelerating plans to introduce it
1%
16% Planning to introduce automation post-Covid
22% Expanding existing automation program
1%
47%
Maintaining business continuity in key departments
38%
Assisting with new processes to cope with new demands
4%
Other
39%
Maintaining or improving the level of customer experience
22%
Saved on operating costs
14%
It hasn’t helped at all
30%
Supported resourcing challenges
70% No
5%
26% Don't know
41%
Ease of integration
33%
Cloud deployment
20%
Service level guarantees
35%
Total Cost of Ownership (including supporting infrastructure)
27%
Ease of use for automation development
22%
Cost of software
28%
AI Capabilities
21% Fairly easy, but there was a learning curve
18% Very easy and intuitive
15% Complicated
8%
38% A mixed bag of easy wins and problems
2%
Other
17%
Recommendation
30% Fairly easy
13% Very easy
2%
51% Not very easy
51% A mixed bag
35%
Lack of skills / need for training
29%
Technology infrastructure
28%
Cultural changes
24%
Workforce changes
20%
Increased complexity
19%
Cost of implementation
14%
Operating costs
14%
Loss of control/oversight of processes
13%
Company perception of AI
13%
Regulatory reporting problems
10%
Uncertain payback/ROI
9%
Lack of transparency
4%
Reduced governance
36%
Too expensive
36%
Lack of understanding/interest in the technology
29%
No buy-in from key people
21%
Lack of trust in the technology
14%
Too time-consuming to set-up
14%
Outsourcing is a preferred resourcing solution
7%
Not part of the digital transformation strategy
7%
Other
Download the original report for more analysis and insight.
Complicated
Yes
Not very easy
Implementing RPA as a temporary measure
No interest in automation