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There is a widespread misconception – Robotic Process Automation is a big boy’s play and not for SMBs. Let’s agree to disagree. Every business has repetitive and time-consuming processes irrespective of its size. If you say your business doesn’t have one, you may not be aware of the real impact of the repetitive activities on employees/productivity. Moreover, small businesses which operate with a minimal workforce would love a 24/7 digital worker who performs time-consuming, repetitive tasks in the blink of an eye.
Understanding RPA
Robotic Process Automation is a technology that introduces bots or automation programs into business processes to automate time-consuming, repetitive tasks. It is more like having a digital worker performing a particular job, over and over again, but with minimal errors and zero breaks.
An average employee spends 30% of his time every day searching for the right information to work according to an IDC survey.
Imagine yourself as a financial professional. One of your everyday tasks is to extract the information from all the day’s invoices, prepare a report, and email it to your superior. This task won’t be time-consuming if only a few invoices exist, but what will happen when the volume increases?
This is where Robotic Process Automation comes in. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning help perform the same task with absolute consistency and minimal errors, every day.
The Necessity
We have come a long way from sluggish business processes, and over time, the pace and the volume benchmark for every task have been raised to new heights. Human employees will need more time to adapt to the unique challenges and has limited potential and work-hour flexibility. On the other hand, RPA bots can automate mundane manual tasks effectively, irrespective of the volume and timeframe.
Also, most small businesses function with a non-flexible limited budget. Hiring an employee to carry out essential but repetitive tasks like invoice management, data extraction, and payroll will hurt their not-so-deep pockets. Implementing an RPA bot and automating repetitive tasks will cut down the wage expenses.
It also improves employee morale, as employees don’t have to worry about such repetitive tasks and can focus on more productive and or strategic tasks.
In case you can’t figure out if your small business needs RPA, get answers to these questions.
- 1. How repetitive is your process?
- 2. How many man-hours does it take to complete?
- 3. How much does it cost you in terms of workforce and maintenance?
- 4. What is the cost of automating the process?
The Impact
The widely considered apprehensions to adopting Robotic Process Automation, such as the monetary expenses to implement RPA, the need for technical ability to leverage it, and the fear of robots replacing human workers, are merely due to a misunderstanding of the technology. It’s quite the opposite.
For small businesses, RPA can offer significant benefits with better customer service, reduced expenses/overhead for payroll/onboarding processes. An RPA bot can take so much off the plates of an employee who has to spend too much time on these repetitive tasks.
For payroll processing, the bot can automate the entire process of attendance management to assigning paychecks. Over time, bonuses and deductions are all calculated, and the cost of every employee is calculated with zero human interference. Imagine the time and human effort saved here, which can be diverted into other vital operations to enhance performance and profitability.
According to a Deloitte survey, a company of 50 employees can save at least $20,000 a year by implementing RPA for their time and attendance management.
Also, work-intensive business processes such as onboarding can be relaxed with a bot in place. Once the candidate is finalized, the bot will take complete control over the onboarding process, from sending out the offer letter to blocking the calendar for the relevant training to the candidate.
Extensive workloads and limited time schedules make it difficult for humans to track and maintain business-critical insights on the work they perform. On the other hand, RPA can extract every single data you program it to store. Early in the business, these insights can be a game-changer for SMBs when making data-backed business decisions.
Another advantage of RPA is that even a non-IT professional with no extensive knowledge of codes can configure a bot. This kind of low-code capability proves very beneficial for SMBs who might not have a dedicated IT team.
Conclusion
Efficient workflows and a progressive system are the pillars of a small business. Adopting RPA is one simple progressive step that small businesses can take towards digital transformation. An organization that fails to understand and adopt such future technology will eventually fall behind.
RPA is the need of the hour, and one quick call with our process automation experts can transform your small business like never before.
Why wait? Get started!
