[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/05\/26\/rpa-finance\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/05\/26\/rpa-finance\/","headline":"RPA in finance: A story of gains and losses","name":"RPA in finance: A story of gains and losses","description":"RPA finance use cases illustrate the power of automation to help companies gain competitive edge. Here, we examine the benefits of automation in finance.","datePublished":"2021-05-26","dateModified":"2022-03-22","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\/05\/Robotic_1200x375.jpg","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/Robotic_1200x375.jpg","height":375,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/05\/26\/rpa-finance\/","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"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/commerce\/commerce-general\/","name":"Commerce","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Commerce","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q26643"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/commerce\/finance\/","name":"Finance","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Finance","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q43015"]},{"@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":732,"keywords":["Finance Technology","Robotic Process Automation | RPA"],"articleBody":"The conversation around automation often focuses on loss \u2013 the loss of people\u2019s tasks, people\u2019s jobs, and ultimately people\u2019s purpose. But there are so many ways automation can help people make gains.With automation technologies such as robotic process automation (RPA), employees worldwide gain new purpose even as their companies gain greater efficiency. Nowhere is the potential of these gains more exciting than in RPA finance use cases:Do more with the same number of employeesExpand the customer base and add new servicesReduce operational costsBetter regulatory complianceFree employees to focus on higher value workRPA finance use cases and benefits\u00a0To find out more the impact of automation in the finance industry, I spoke with two RPA experts: Danilo McGarry, head of automation at Alter Domus, and Sathya Narasimhan, senior director of new ventures and technologies in product management at SAP SE. They provided insight into RPA finance use cases in the latest episode of our LinkedIn Live series, \u201cCXO Corner.\u201dAutomation can help companies get their attrition rates down, reduce error rates, and lower operational risks. These are the kinds of \u201closses\u201d that McGarry and Narasimhan commonly see among automation adopters.      The robots are here to stay: Learn the benefits of RPA                The business benefits of robotic process automation include digitization, cost reduction, increased productivity. RPA is also simple to use.      Banks, for instance, can do more with the same number of employees. At the same time, they\u2019re taking on additional customers and offering new services and saving money.Banks are even using automation to maintain regulatory compliance, something that McGarry said regulators are increasingly excited about. Regulatory compliance is an especially heavy burden for financial-services firms, and the penalties for errors can be huge. The ability to so leverage automation to streamline compliance is a massive benefit.Not only are banks performing these tasks more efficiently and with greater accuracy, but they\u2019re also freeing their employees to focus on more meaningful, value-added work.Gaining competitive edge through automationRPA finance use cases highlight the power of automation to help companies get ahead.\u201cYou\u2019re never going to be able to compete with a company that has massively deployed the digital workforce because they are better at high-volume, high-frequency, low-complexity tasks,\u201d McGarry said, taking a high-level look at the market today. \u201cIf half of their work is getting done by robots, and all of my work is getting done by humans, we know who is going to win that race.\u201dHe pointed toward the manufacturing revolution of a few decades ago that saw companies successfully integrate humans and robots. Automation has continued to propel manufacturers forward with lights-out operations that can run without extensive human oversight or intervention and \u201cwith the lights off.\u201dNarasimhan said that finance is on the cusp of becoming a lights-out operation itself in the next three to five years. While RPA is not the only technology that will contribute to revolution, it very well could provide the crucial missing piece by helping to automate the mundane tasks that hold people back from their true workplace potential.RPA in finance: The big picture\u00a0McGarry and Narasimhan both agreed that the only things that RPA bots won\u2019t excel at in the next five years are strategy, executive decisions, and other tasks that really require human power and expertise. But what RPA can do is help human workers perform these tasks better themselves, again, by taking away tedium.      Stay human: Avoiding RPA pitfalls that derail automation benefits                Beware of RPA pitfalls that can undercut the benefits of robotic process automation, including leaving out the human element.      \u201cThere will always be a space for us and things to do. Should we be really doing these boring repetitive tasks? That\u2019s more of a bigger life question people should ask themselves in order to embrace this technology and really use it to their advantage,\u201d McGarry said.\u201cJust be comfortable with the fact that there is something out there that\u2019s better than you at doing really high-volume repetitive work and that leaves you the space to go and do something more creative, something more interesting for your company or in your career so that you can look back and think, \u2018Wow, I didn\u2019t waste 30, 40 years of my life doing really boring things.\u2019\u201d  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":"05","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/\/05\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"26","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/\/05\/\/26\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"RPA in finance: A story of gains and losses","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2021\/05\/26\/rpa-finance\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]