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Global Automation Trends: RPA Development

The consulting company Economist Intelligence Unit, with the support of one of the leaders in the RPA market, UiPath, conducted a survey of 502 executives from eight countries to examine the state of automation in enterprises and the areas that these companies work on.



A few years ago, robotic process automation (RPA) was a new technology. In 2014, the RPA was just starting to outsource business processes, and already in 2016, some companies began to implement RPA in their home. Already today, in 2019, RPA has become a core technology and strategic priority for companies around the world. Research shows that RPA deployment and scaling are accelerating, though not everywhere.

Automation goes to a new level


During the survey, the vast majority of managers said they use automation: 90.8% of them report using it, and 50.6% report using it intensively. Automation is no longer a topic exclusively for articles from the category “Work of the Future” - it is a necessary tool for most enterprises.

Not all countries use automation to the same extent. For example, leaders in Canada and India reported moderate use, while in the United States, France, and Germany, there is a trend toward wider use. At the same time, companies all over the world receive a return on their investment in automation. 86% of executives from India, 81.7% from Germany and 79.5% from the USA report a high degree of satisfaction with the benefits of automating business processes in their organizations. These returns will lead to more and more companies using RPAs, and other companies scaling up existing automation processes.

Data shows that investments in RPAs are not slowing. Consulting company Forrester predicts that by 2023 the RPA market will reach $ 23 billion. And according to Gartner forecasts, by 2022, 85% of companies with annual revenues of more than $ 1 billion will implement some types of robotics.

Common problems and common potential


A study by the Economist Intelligence Unit shows an even distinction between regulatory, technological, and privacy issues across regions. Technology issues are generally the biggest hurdle in Asia, while in India they are related to regulatory and privacy issues. These obstacles are one of the most common and unpleasant for companies trying to scale RPA.

Creating robotic development centers and excellence will be a key factor for companies that want to overcome these challenges. Robotic development centers are business units that centralize management procedures, share best practices, and standardize the deployment of robots.

Development centers will be able to establish and standardize management and security procedures that facilitate the resolution of region-specific regulatory problems. Also, these centers will be able to manage the implementation of robots, ensuring the preservation of internal safety rules.

As the RPA scales, the work of employees will become less tiring, and people will have more time and opportunities for more valuable work. The study showed that 79% of managers surveyed consider automation to be the most effective when it complements human capabilities rather than replaces it. In addition to making life easier for employees, 88% of managers believe that automation will also accelerate the achievements of all of humanity.

The first automation leaders appear


The winners in the era of automation will not be the companies that deployed the RPA, but the companies that are developing the idea of ​​“automation first” (automation in the first place).

RPA technology has become a priority for countries around the world. When considering their strategic goals, 84% of executives in India and 73.2% in the United States prioritize the use of RPA.

The transition from immediate benefits to strategic long-term benefits will be a turning point for many companies. As soon as companies begin to use the full range of RPA capabilities, they will be able to get ahead of those companies that still consider it to be just one of many development tools.

Culprit Singh, managing director of automation testing at UiPath, predicts that companies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa will be able to accelerate the implementation of large-scale RPAs through training programs, open sales markets and the creation of innovative centers. Fortunately, this training is not geared to regions, and countries from all over the world can receive a similar development impulse through the training program UiPath Connect Enterprise and UiPath Academy .

When companies first start using RPAs, they tend to focus on improving productivity and lowering operating costs. The most obvious processes before automation are quite slow, expensive and require a significant amount of manual work. After automation, processes become faster and more accurate, and companies can redistribute employees to activities that are better suited to human creativity. After this redistribution begins, companies will be able to move from achieving instant to long-term benefits.

The report of the Economist Intelligence Unit shows that, on the whole, fewer and fewer managers will focus primarily on reducing errors and reducing operating costs over the next two years. Even the share of executives seeking to increase productivity has declined from 51.5% to 43%. Instead, executives predict that over the next two years, the most significant benefits of automation will be increased profits and competitive advantages. Trends indicate that needs based solely on productivity will focus on using RPAs to perform customer service, marketing, research, development and competitiveness tasks.

In search of a common future


More and more companies are using automation and more and more are benefiting from it. The first stage of automation is a global shift that all countries and companies are striving for. As more and more companies improve their approaches to automation, the benefits and benefits that they receive give them competitive advantages and leave behind slower and less efficient companies.

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Already in March, OTUS, together with the NFP school, launches a large online course called “Software Robot Developer (RPA) based on UiPath and PIX” .

You can find out the details and pass the entrance test on the course page .

The original article is available at UiPath.com

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