RPA: Hedging a Good Economy

For years, the conversations we’ve had with prospects about the promise of RPA often boiled down to the usual list of benefits:

• Increased productivity in transactional content processing flow
• Cost reductions
• Improved accuracy
• Tighter security

However, as the US economy kicks into overdrive and unemployment hovers around 3.7 percent, for the first time in a long time, we’re operating in an environment where there are more jobs than qualified people to fill those jobs. As a result, the conversation around RPA solutions is changing a bit. Sure, we’re still talking about the benefits described above, but we’re also hearing comments such as:

• “Freeing up our people to focus less on the mundane and more on the organization’s vital functions is no longer a mere desire. Rather, it’s rapidly becoming a necessity if we want to keep those people. RPA will be a big part of accomplishing this strategic necessity.”
• “It’s becoming more difficult to find new people to perform these functions at a cost point that makes sense. We believe RPA will help contain those costs.”
• “Tightening job markets are sure to create employee churn. That churn will cause business continuity disruptions. By forcing us to refactor, document, and institutionalize our processes, RPA will serve as a hedge against such risks.”

When considering an RPA solution, it’s easy to get caught up in the “better, faster, cheaper” factor. And that’s understandable considering that’s been central to the conversation since the beginning. However, good economic times have a way of refocusing an organization’s attention away from bottom-line efficiencies and more on workforce satisfaction, employee retention, and business continuity issues.

So, as improving bottom lines turns organizations’ fancies towards these other pursuits, it’s important for them to remember that RPA can be used as a hedge against good economic times—times in which an employee’s eye wanders and finding suitable replacements is increasingly difficult.

Read about how RPA powers the KnowledgeLake platform here.