Whether you’re setting out on a hike to the Grand Teton or deciding which room to tackle first during a home remodel, a fundamental truth holds: you must have a solid grasp of where you are before you can make a plan for getting to where you want to be.
Establishing an RPA-enabled digital workforce to automate processes across your organization is no different.
In a recent Forbes Insights report, more than 300 senior executives around the world were asked to weigh in on the current state of process automation in their organizations, and the benefits and barriers they see to doing more. They provided insights on how their businesses are implementing robotic process automation (RPA), as well as the value they recognize in embracing the next-generation of RPA—Intelligent Automation.
When considering the state of digital operations and process automation in your organization, how many of these key survey takeaways resonate?
Business leaders are onboard.
The C-Suite is sold. Ninety percent of respondents agreed that “our leadership recognizes the importance of process automation to our future success.”
More than three-quarters of respondents said that 60 percent or more of process work could be automated; almost half said that 80 percent or more could be automated.
The majority recognize there’s more to do.
Companies still have a long way to go to optimize key processes before automating.
Although 60 percent of respondents wanted their processes to be automated or mostly automated, only 38 percent said they had achieved that benchmark.
Centers of Excellence are widely acknowledged as essential. Fifty-one percent reported they have a Center of Excellence for process automation. Forty-one percent acknowledged its importance as part of an enterprise-wide initiative and reported having a plan for creating one. Less than 8 percent had no COE plan.
The value of RPA is undeniable.
Even companies that are solely implementing RPA to automate processes are realizing significant benefits. Organizations are seeing the greatest improvements (25+ percent) in the areas of employee satisfaction, efficiency and customer retention.
Many, however, have questions about how to scale RPA (to hundreds, thousands or even hundreds of thousands of software robots) and efficiently manage the “bot teams” across the enterprise.
Intelligent Automation is the blueprint for success.
The truth is that the ability to maximize and extend the scope and degree to which processes can be optimized is redefining how organizations “work.” With Intelligent Automation, organizations can start, scale or expand their intelligent digital workforce on their terms and timelines.
RPA at scale requires the ability to apply RPA across the enterprise and on processes ranging from simple to complex. For the more complex processes that include unstructured data and managing work between RPA bots and employees, RPA alone is insufficient. An enterprise automation solution requires seamless interoperability of “smart automation” platform capabilities such as cognitive capture, intelligent OCR, process orchestration, analytics and RPA. Beyond automating rules-based tasks with RPA, Intelligent Automation enables true end-to-end automation of more complex processes.
The result? A digital workforce consisting of humans and bots collaborating to provide increased capacity to the organization, while empowering the employee and driving an improved customer experience.
For a deeper look at the research and statistics behind this report, download your free copy of Forbes Insights: Accelerate Business Value with Intelligent Automation.
You’ll discover:
- Opportunities for getting started or enhancing current-state “optimized” processes
- Tips for assessing the value and impact of scaling your digital workforce
- Best practices for maximizing the value of your intelligent workforce across the enterprise