It seems that a multitude of people are writing blogs about how their company has a solution to help you implement a remote work program. Remote work has undoubtedly been one of the top buzzwords for businesses over the past three months. Another buzzword that we hear with increasing frequency is densification. Not only is the maximum capacity of your favorite restaurant or cruise ship likely to be reduced for the foreseeable future, but densification analysis is being discussed throughout corporate boardrooms. That is because businesses cannot afford another disruption of this magnitude and scale. No longer will all employees be clustered in dense capacity within any given location. Companies are beginning to look at incorporating resilient architectures into their personnel workflows in the same way they created redundant computer networks. While some employees will return to their assigned office at some point later this year, many will not, thanks to the advanced technologies of today. So here is a possible solution, Robotic Process Automation (RPA).
RPA is the New Buzzword
You may not be as familiar with the concept of RPA as the concept of remote work, but the interest in RPA was growing long before COVID-19. According to Gartner, the RPA software market grew by 63 percent in 2018, making it the fastest-growing segment of the global enterprise software market. AT that time, Gartner expected for RPA software revenue to reach $1.3 billion in 2019. According to Forrester, that figure will rise to $2.9 billion by 2021.
All of these stats and figures, however, were made before the remote work movement that the recent pandemic environment fast-tracked overnight. As a result, the interest in RPA is surging at an accelerated pace as well. That’s because RPA enhances the feasibility of remote work. RPA technology makes it easier and more effective for even highly essential employees to operate from remote workspaces.
What is Remote Process Automation?
We have written about RPA in past blogs. RPA is a technology that allows you to configure computer software, or software bot, to perform mundane digital tasks traditionally performed by humans that are required to execute a given business process. RPA tools can emulate and mimic the way that humans interact with software. For instance, no one enjoys the task of logging into an application and moving files and folders or performing endless copy/paste rituals on the computer. If you watched the software interaction taking place on the monitor itself, you would conclude a human was conducting the session. The automation of tedious manual tasks as well as rule-based business processes not only enhances the involved processes but also enriches the work experience of human workers, enabling them to dedicate their time and talents on more value-added projects. RPA can also interpret events and data to trigger responses as well as communicate with other systems.
How RPA Enhances the Remote Work Experience
While many of your employees might be working from home, there usually has to be someone in the back office attending to business processes that must be performed onsite. Also, many remote workers are required to come back to the office at some point to perform some trivial tasks that cannot be performed from the safety and convenience of home. With software bots attending to such matters back at the home office, employees can remain undaunted at their remote site. RPA tools can integrate with your collaboration software to streamline meetings and keep team members informed and up to date. Software bots can check the calendar updates of teammates and issue emails summarizing daily meetings. Take an example of a new employee who is unfamiliar with the company’s CRM software or other complex application. Rather than acquiring assistance from another employee for help, an RPA enabled bot can perform all of the necessary mouse clicks and keystrokes to navigate to where they need to be within the application.
Other Benefits
As stated earlier, the value of robotic process automation was recognized long before the recent remote work paradigm. That’s because RPA brings a lot of value regardless of whether employees work in or out of the office. Productivity is the most significant advantage of RPA. RPA enabled bots never have to sleep or take breaks so that work can be performed on a 24/7 basis without simple interruptions. Tasks are performed with perfection and precision every time. Just think about how often a user types in the wrong password by accident. All of those little errors add up over time, and time is money. RPA results in greater reliability and reduced risk for your given processes as well. Plus, employee turnover is a thing of the past when you have bots working for you.
Xcelacore Can Help
The dawning of remote work is here, making companies even more reliant on technology. At Xcelacore, we believe that technology is the doorway to endless possibilities. We invite you to speak with our technology subject matter experts to show you how RPA and other technologies can augment and solidify your remote work strategy.