Robotics is a hot topic on the innovation agenda of all Banks and Insurance companies, set to irrevocably change the workforce landscape over the next few years. But what is RPA, RDA, and Robotics? And why is the Management of Financial industries so keen to integrate this technology into their companies?
What is it?
Similar to developments in the industry world, robots have now entered the financial sector. The Institute for Robotic Process Automation (IRPAAI) defines Robotics Process Automation (RPA) and Robotics Desktop Automation (RDA) as the application of technologies that allow computer software, aka a “robot” to configure computer software. A “robot” can also capture and interface with existing applications for processing a transaction, manipulating data, triggering responses and communicating with other digital systems. These machines mimic the actions of a human user. However, in this case they are installed on a computer and interact with different systems, applications and data in the same manner a human would.
Why do others use it?
The main objective of most companies embarking on a Robotics journey is the creation of a virtual workforce. This will result in a quick and short return on investment through savings of costs and time. Indeed, bots can run 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and have no loss of productivity due to sick days.
What are RPA’s benefits?
The structural outcomes and benefits of deploying RPA are proven with successful implementations in various markets. They are efficient with faster process completion times, facilitating volume growth and reduced cost.
Even though these benefits are often the primary reason to implement a robotics workforce, the benefits also expand outside of cost and time savings. For example, it enables an increase of accuracy and quality by eliminating human error. Many other benefits could also be a trigger to leverage RPA or further explore the capability offered. Such as the reduction in operational risk as bots are built on well-defined sets of decision making and calculations. Or searching for reliability and consistency as processes can be scheduled to run automatically at a fixed and defined time and are performed identically. This enables a reduction of unwanted deviations and waste. Furthermore, improving the audit trail with full transparency on process execution, including run times, output logs and volumes processed is key in highly controlled and regulated environments. Finally, many clients are driven by the need to be more scalable and opt for intelligent automations, enabling easily adjustment of volumes and frequency to accommodate peaks and troughs.
Is RPA difficult to implement?
Implementing RPA or RDA has limited IT impact with low set up and maintenance complexity as Robots sit alongside existing infrastructure and interact with any kind of application by using the existing user interface. Automations can be developed in days and are active in weeks with no technical coding. Whatever the reason to start on your Robotics journey, it will enable you to optimise your workforce by freeing up your staff to focus on more value-add activities and strategic initiatives.
Are you still reading? Good. That means we’ve further triggered your interest in RPA, RDA and Robotics. Keep an eye out for our 3MM ’cause more blogs on RPA will follow.
Over the last years we’ve been helping Banks and Insurers achieve the benefits of automations and more, specifically the benefits a robotic taskforce can generate. If you’d like more information on this subject or discover what else we’ve been up to drop us a message. Our Digital & Innovation, Operational Excellence, Delivery Excellence and Regulatory & Compliance teams are always up for a good chat.