What is RPA and Why is it Important for Your Business?

Are you looking for ways to save time and money through optimizing business processes? Are you hoping to improve efficiency but don’t know where to start? Process automation is here, and it's what you need!

Robotic process automation, also referred to as RPA, can help businesses save up to 90% of their workforce’s time, increasing operational efficiency and lowering expenses. In this article, we’ll share everything you need to know about RPA and how it can benefit your business.

Ready? Let’s get started!

What is RPA?

RPA, or robotic process automation, is software that enables businesses to build code sequences that can manage repetitive or mundane tasks that don’t require human oversight. This robotic code is built to function just like humans when it comes to navigating digital systems. They can understand complex digital processes, complete workflows, and perform a range of programmed actions 100x faster than a human.

How is RPA used?

RPA has a wide range of uses: It can help with accounting and invoicing, data management, hiring and onboarding, payroll, and much more.

Specifically, RPA is mainly used to automate business processes such as:

• Updating databases and application
• Transferring data from location to location
• Logging into applications
• Extracting content from PDFs and other documents
• Managing collaboration tools like email and instant messaging
• Scraping websites
• Standardizing processes and decision making with the help of machine learning
• Copying and pasting at scale

RPA is an exponentially growing industry being widely adopted by finance, accounting, operations and technology groups. According to statistics published by LinkedIn, it’s thought that 72% of all businesses will use RPA at some point in the next two years.

Why RPA is important for your business

Now that we've covered the basics of RPA, here are some ways in which it can benefit every business, no matter what industry or company size.

It makes processes more efficient

When it comes to tasks like data management, technology has far surpassed the speed and computing power of a human. Therefore, your employees are wasting valuable time completing tasks that could be automated.

Automation makes it easier for your employees to complete their work. With its help, associates can quickly and easily access the information they need. Everything becomes well organized making it easier for teams to collaborate and do their jobs effectively.

It saves money (and helps you earn more)

The bottom line in every business is profit, and using RPA can ensure that your organization is maximizing profits at all times. Not only can RPA help cut back human capital costs as you scale, but it can also help avoid the consequences of human error.

In addition to the money RPA can help you save, it can also free up a lot of your existing employees time, allowing them to focus on value-added tasks such as business development.

It improves your employee relationships

RPA isn’t just about saving money on human capital—it’s about utilizing your employees for tasks that leverage their advanced skills and knowledge.

For example, if you were an accountant who had studied finance for years, then had to spend most of your time at work doing something mundane like invoice data entry, you may feel overworked and undervalued.

Instead, you could use RPA to automate these processes and assign tasks to your employees that utilize their learned skills. This increases employee satisfaction and improves retention rate over time.

Thoughtful can save your business time and money

Obviously RPA is an extremely valuable tool, and the benefits can apply to almost any department in any industry. It can help you save time, improve your processes, and enhance your employees’ work experience.

If you’re new to the idea of automation, getting started and finding the right automation partners to work with may seem like an overwhelming task, but it doesn’t have to be.

At Thoughtful, we know just what to do.

Our expert team can help you automate all kinds of business processes using our automation success platform. As we like to say, “You have a process. We can automate that.”

If you’re ready to get started or simply want to learn more, be sure to get in touch with us today and request a demo via our website.