[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/01\/19\/rpa-benefits\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/01\/19\/rpa-benefits\/","headline":"How robotic process automation became an unsung hero amid uncertainty","name":"How robotic process automation became an unsung hero amid uncertainty","description":"Robotic process automation is changing business for the better. Discover RPA benefits like cost-saving, increased productivity, and better CX.","datePublished":"2021-01-19","dateModified":"2025-02-05","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/abadesi-osunsade\/#Person","name":"Abadesi Osunsade","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/abadesi-osunsade\/","identifier":492,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/787c132c230ebcc4638cb29423005140c76fc7675f606f5d6d9909191c375833?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/787c132c230ebcc4638cb29423005140c76fc7675f606f5d6d9909191c375833?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Future of Commerce","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","width":172,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/FCEE107_RPA_HB.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/FCEE107_RPA_HB.jpg","height":375,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/01\/19\/rpa-benefits\/","about":[{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/commerce\/","name":"Commerce","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Commerce","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q26643"]},"COVID-19 and Business",{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/commerce\/intelligent-enterprise\/","name":"Intelligent Enterprise","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Intelligent_enterprise","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q6044119"]}],"wordCount":1307,"keywords":["Intelligent Enterprise","Robotic Process Automation | RPA"],"articleBody":"More companies are looking to the power of robotic process automation (RPA) to help them overcome some of the greatest challenges of our day. Yet, many companies remain on the fence, looking from the outside in at a successful community of early adopters that have already discovered many RPA benefits.It\u2019s hard to blame them. The past year has put unprecedented stress on business, and it\u2019s hard to make the case for new technology \u2013 let alone a large-scale digital transformation \u2013 during such intense disruption. But experts say now is the perfect time for businesses to act on those automation goals that may seem long-term.\u201cFor people considering automation or who have just started their automation journey, business resilience has become the lifeline in the quicksand, and the imperative to digitally transform the organization is more important than ever before,\u201dsaid Shail Khiyara, Intelligent Automation Executive and Thought Leader. \u201cThe question isn\u2019t, \u2018Should you transform?\u2019 or when to do it. The question is how and how quickly you should do it.\u201dSo, I sat down with Shail Khiyara and Daniel Laverick, head of SAP & IT solutions at Zuellig Pharma, to learn how companies can get started in 2021. In a recent interview, we discussed the value and future of RPA, as well as lessons learned from an intelligent enterprise innovating with intelligent automation.You can watch our conversation in the first episode of this new\u00a0LinkedIn Live series \u201cCXO Corner”.RPA benefits: How robotic process automation became the unsung hero of 2020Robotic process automation helps basic tasks within an organization become automated via both software and hardware systems. RPA software mimics human behavior and automates basic, repetitive, high-volume rules-based tasks. Businesses most often use it to create quicker processes by automating certain steps, which can also improve accuracy and even reduce costs by empowering people to focus on more value-added work.RPA can learn workflows with numerous steps, for example:Sending receipt messagesFiling formsUpdating spreadsheetsAccepting formsRPA can automate and streamline process for lines of business like:FinanceSourcing & ProcurementSalesSupply ChainProductionProfessional ServicesData ManagementRPA benefits:\u00a0RPA reduces operational costsImproved analytics via accurate dataIncreased productivity, thanks to employees being freed from manual tasksBetter customer service and CXHighly scaleable and flexible      Have no fear, robotic process automation is here                RPA technology is empowering non-techies to develop software and helping businesses speed their automation efforts.      Getting business on board for changeToday, businesses are extending the power of RPA benefits with the introduction of additional next-generation technologies.\u201cIntelligent automation is the combination of RPA and AI technologies to empower end-to-end businesses, driving business process automation and accelerating digital transformation,\u201d said Khiyara.Daniel Laverick is a technology leader at Zuellig Pharma, one of the largest healthcare services groups in Asia. He oversaw Zuellig Pharma\u2019s recent digital transformation, and continues to champion the benefits of intelligent automation across the company.\u201cThe first thing to understand is that it\u2019s a journey,\u201d Laverick said.At Zuellig Pharma, quick wins from pilot projects helped get stakeholders on board.From there, the company figured out precisely how it could measure the success of its automation implementations and validate its business case. A rapid rise in adoption soon followed. After beginning with just a few RPA deployments, the number of automated instances soon snowballed across the enterprise.This content is hosted by a third party ( player.simplecast.com ).To view the content, either update your cookie preferences or view it in a new browser window.Cookie PreferencesNew WindowKhiyara echoed the importance of quantifying outcomes and sharing them with stakeholders, and he said that Laverick was spot-on in his method for helping intelligent automation attain cultural adoption at his business.\u201cHow do you identify automation value? Not necessarily just the number of bots that are being applied to the organization, but how do you derive actual value from an end-to-end process that you\u2019re automating? I think that becomes very critical in the early stages of the automation lifecycle \u2013 to be able to show the organization what this technology can do,\u201d Khiyara said.The benefits of intelligent automation not only helped see Zuellig Pharma through to the other side of the pandemic, but also helped the company continue to work toward its goals of making healthcare more accessible.For instance, the company used RPA to continue business-critical activities while the workforce quickly shifted to working from home.Keeping humans at the heart of automationZuellig Pharma is a traditional company that’s also an intelligent enterprise, meaning it values the worth and unique perspective of its workforce. Laverick stressed that merely adopting technology is not enough to survive as a competitive business.\u201cTo be a forward-thinking company in this era, we need to become more human \u2013 not less,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not whether machines are going to replace humans or do humans\u2019 roles. It\u2019s, \u2018How do we adapt and create a business model where humans and machines complement each other?\u2019We can program machines to do RPA, intelligent automation \u2013 whatever we tell them to do. But they’ll never have those unique human skills: creativity, innovation, integrity, and imagination. It\u2019s how we bridge those two gaps.\u201dKhiyara uses a whole-body analogy to describe RPA benefits. He says integrating intelligent automation is like adding the mind and all its capabilities to the arms and legs, which are responsible for performing the everyday functions of a business. The arms and legs can get to work when they have the mind to do so, but the ideal model leaves room for human intervention and insight.\u201cIf you look at how automation has been described over the last half decade, you\u2019ll find this phrase: \u2018Take the robot out of the human.\u2019 I find that to be very surgical. I think it\u2019s all about putting the human back inside,\u201d Khiyara said.Harnessing competitive differentiatorsThe pandemic has altered the competitive dynamics of today\u2019s markets.The unique challenges and disruption posed by COVID-19 has shifted the rat race of focusing on cheaper and faster. Today, competitive companies are focusing on value, and know that value is defined by the customer and their own experience \u2013 not by the product vendor alone.The focus on resilience has also moved to the front and center at many organizations. Automation technologies like RPA can help provide a new level of resilience, significantly improving CX, for example, by using conversational AI to create chatbots capable of better customer service.Companies that don\u2019t begin to explore automation are going to miss out on a competitive advantage, said Khiyara.\u201cAt the end of the day, everything you\u2019re doing \u2013 around automation and digital transformation or building products or providing services \u2013 you\u2019re doing for the customer. RPA gives you a tremendous opportunity to really get closer to your customers, get insights into their data, and \u2018wow\u2019 their customer experience,\u201d he said.Khiyara noted two trends to look out for in the modern market:The convergence of automation technologies:\u00a0Automation was created to improve ROI by connecting disparate applications that did not work together. But today, automation technologies are themselves sprawling, and many companies are looking toward solutions that stitch these technologies together on a platform for automation.Changes in the nature of work after the pandemic:\u00a0In the future, it\u2019s likely that work itself will become a conversation. \u201cWhy should we have a meeting, and take the time to summarize that meeting, and then delegate work?\u201d Khiyara posited. Work today is being done outside the conversation, and he envisions a future where bots are always listening to our conversations so they can act based on our cues.To hear the full conversation, visit us on\u00a0LinkedIn.  Learn more about how RPA streamlines business operations HERE."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2021","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"01","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/\/01\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"19","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/\/01\/\/19\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"How robotic process automation became an unsung hero amid uncertainty","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/01\/19\/rpa-benefits\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]