As technology advances, oftentimes so do the terms that may or may not apply to your business. One of the newest buzz phrases under the digital transformation umbrella is robotic process automation.
What is robotic process automation?
Robotic process automation (RPA) is an emerging form of software that mimics human activity. The purpose is to free humans from repetitive, uninteresting work to alleviate their minds for more challenging, knowledge work.
Robotic process automation streamlines operations while reducing back-office expenses because many times personnel roles can be eliminated.
While RPA isn’t for every business, large organizations like Walmart and American Express have already adopted the technology.
“We’ve taken RPA and trained it on how employees do those tasks,” says David Thompson, CIO of American Express Global Business Travel, said to CIO Magazine. “The list of things we could automate is getting longer and longer.”
The first step toward robotic process automation
If you’re considering putting robotic process automation into your long-term IT roadmap, make a research allotment in your timetable. It’s always important to consider the business impact. The real purpose of adopting time-saving tech tools is to save on your bottom line. There has to be an ROI saving built into the project. Think how long until you need to see results. And how you’ll measure the results. Knowing your key performance indicators is one of the first major steps.