RPA: the support of automation to the Business Process Management

In an era of continuous change, organizational processes are constantly changing in both small and large companies. The intent of the transformations is, in most cases, to improve business efficiency. How? With an action on Business Process Management that will generate an acceleration of operational dynamics.

What is Business Process Management?

BPM is the management of business processes that form the skeleton of a procedural flow based on technologies, decisions, models. In the company, it is the Project Manager who defines organizational models, shares them with employees, and coordinates their actions. The ultimate goal of good business process management is always to improve efficiency by optimizing the work of resources. At this stage, technology and software support is needed to streamline routes and automate repetitive tasks. In the end, the company will gain a substantial competitive advantage.

Robotic Process Automation: What is it and what is it not?

Process Management with Robotic Process Automation

Robotic Process Automation works on optimizing costs and resources. How? Through automated software that performs all repetitive and routine tasks. Today, the difference between organizations that use RPA in their processes and traditional ones is already evident in the company organization chart and the management of resources.

Here’s how your business structure changes when you automate processes

In fact, people perform most repetitive activities in traditional organizations even if they are standardized steps that take time and reduce performance. An example? An employee working on a clinic’s help desk is likely to receive generic informational calls and others that are more specific and need a doctor’s opinion. One way to streamline this process is to put a chatbot on the site that routes the patient before getting to the direct phone call with the operator. So, If the question is generic, it will get to the Help Desk and be resolved automatically. Otherwise, the bot will send the request to the medical specialist.

So does the RPA replace the resources? No, it modifies their work. The person will not be engaged in repetitive tasks but will use their wits for strategic or control functions. However, you have to remember that automation is not flexible, and if there are unexpected changes, it won’t know how to adapt without human intervention. For this reason, there is a support group for acceptability in organizations with automated processes: resources that control possible errors. The risk is not related to the system but to manual changes that may not comply with the rules defined during the initial setup. In the most virtuous cases, software with artificial intelligence will perform this step.

What is the investment in RPA?

There are no sophisticated technologies or significant investments to make to automate your organization’s processes. The necessary architecture often translates to bots: programs that automatically perform a defined set of tasks. In deterministic RPA, you insert rules that, when they occur, generate an automatic response.

Here are some other cases. The sorting of emails that have as their subject “technical failure” to the relevant department. Or answering frequently asked questions on a site. Think about how much time customer service resources could save if they only had to handle the most complex requests. Yes, because automation is perfect for simple tasks, those with a small number of variables. That’s why most companies will be able to implement RPA in their processes.

In an interesting McKinsey interview, Leslie Willcocks, professor of technology in the Department of Management at the London School of Economics, stated that the return on investment in RPA varies between 30% and 200% in the first year.

Benefits of Robotic Process Automation in Business Process Management

Choosing to automate repeat business processes means making the entire organization efficient. The impact is evident on the single activity and expands across departments improving collaboration, coordination, and business objectives.

So, what are the benefits for the company?

1. Automation is a gateway to Digital Transformation. After digitizing processes, the interaction between applications will be more accessible, and the change will involve the entire company.
2. Streamlining processes. All repetitive and straightforward actions will be handled by software, and as a result, the process will be more agile.
3. Reduced work stress. A resource that repeats the same sequence of actions every day will, over time, be more prone to distractions. It will also have less energy to devote to activities that require cognitive effort. Automation reduces workload and the risk of human error.
4. Faster upgrades. The modification of an automated process does not directly involve the affected resources but acts on the algorithm. Therefore, no training meetings are needed, and the change is immediately active.
5. Improved customer satisfaction. When customer service departments have implemented automation, customers can, for example, receive instant responses. Meeting customer needs in a short period will also increase the company’s brand awareness over time.

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