When should a company invest in robotic process automation?

Robotic process automation (RPA) is an increasingly popular tool for making business more efficient. RPA has become an inseparable part of everyday work in every field of industry.

When is the right moment to invest in RPA? What are its benefits? When does investing in RPA pay off? We will answer these questions next.

What can RPA be used for?

RPA is used for automating simple and repetitive tasks, such as producing routine reports, handling invoices and monitoring. The guiding principle is that tasks suitable for a robot should not require complex thinking or decision-making, but rules that have been identified and taught to the robot in advance. The most common business areas for RPA are financial management and human resources, customer management, production, sales as well as marketing, information management and logistics.

It can be argued, that almost every company has tasks that can (and should) be performed by a robot. RPA allows employees to reduce time performing routine, uninteresting manual tasks that are prone to human error.

RPA is suitable for all companies, but not all tasks as of yet. Tasks requiring creativity and knowhow to manage exceptional situations should still be left to humans, who can account for matters outside the task at hand and the rules regarding it.

RPA benefits both work and workers

The benefits of RPA are largely the same, regardless of industry. When manual and repetitive tasks are transferred to a robot, following benefits take place arise the company:

• Process completion time decreases
• Processes can be more efficiently standardized than before
• Employees can spend time on other tasks
• Fewer mistakes are made
• Processes become more transparent and can be measured in real time

Finally, RPA has a positive effect on the quality of work, employee well-being and motivation as well as customer satisfaction.

When is the right moment to invest in RPA?

It´s always a good time to consider investing in RPA. RPA is a low threshold investment and the business case calculations are trivial and straight forward. At least a part of repetitive, everyday work should be outsourced to a robot. The investment is light in terms of money and work amount, because employees save up time for more significant and interesting tasks.

Contrary to popular belief RPA is inexpensive. Robotic process automation deployment typically costs EUR 10,000–15,000, after which license expenses cost under EUR 5000 per year, on average. A successful robotic process automation deployment usually takes 1–2 months, and the ROI is approximately 3–12 months.

In an RPA acquisition, choosing a capable partner is important. In addition, internal resources from three experts are usually required.