Tag: business automation
Smoothening RPA Adoption For Your Business
Robotic Process Automation (RPA), is the new superhero in town!!!
With bots that can replicate exact human tasks, Robotic Process Automation is promising an increasingly effective, organized and productive workflow for businesses. How exactly RPA is providing businesses with these incredible benefits and how companies can avail them, are some points highlighted in this post.
What is Robotic Process Automation?
According to Wikipedia, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is an emerging form of business process automation technology based on the notion of metaphorical software robots (bots) or artificial intelligence (AI) workers.
In other words, RPA is a generic tool that uses specialized computer programs or software bots, to automate high volume clerical tasks that otherwise require excessive inputs.
RPA is currently the most popular AI application or otherwise speaking, the new superhero in town, as it is easily enabling businesses to shift from legacy systems to complete automation.
How is RPA Promising A Better Business Future?
Industries like Banking, Insurance, Telecommunication, and Utilities are turning to be the biggest adopters of RPA. Such industries with high volume tasks and complex workflows often encounter innumerable human errors that cause lower production, depreciated revenue, and even risk to life.
Automating such recurring, time-consuming, and complex tasks, RPA is leading companies to a streamlined, time-effective, and efficient business eco-system.
Tackling The Barriers To RPA Adoption
Although RPA promises a brighter future for businesses, yet many companies are reluctant to adopt the technology. Considering RPA as a sophisticated, costly, and complex digital transformation, many companies are hesitant and mostly ignorant of this technology.
To enable easy understanding and adoption of RPA, we have briefed everything you need to know about RPA, in our latest whitepaper.
- Learn the growing opportunities of RPA
- Easily implement RPA to existing business workflow
- Transform your workspace with RPA
Read through our whitepaper to know more about how Robotic Process Automation can simplify your business operations!
To avail the right guidance on RPA adoption and learn how RPA can fit into your unique business processes, get in touch with our technology custom software development experts today!
How to Determine If Your Business Process Qualifies for Automation
A large number of businesses are adopting Robotic Process Automation (RPA) today to drive their critical enterprise operations quickly and affordably. While RPA offers a wide array of automation capabilities, you need to first identify which of your business processes are ideal to be automated so that your business enhances operational efficiencies to deliver positive outcomes. For instance, some companies achieve better outcomes when implementing rule-based automation when compared to non-standardized, variable types. Forrester recently reported that RPA Market will reach USD 2.9 billion by 2021, which makes it one of the most sought-after enterprise technologies. The picture is clear: it is crucial for companies to know the different ways to determine which of their business processes need automation.
This post attempts to walk you through the major questions and answers which can help you decide the candidature of a process for Robotic Process Automation:
Criteria to determine if a process is fit for RPA automation
Deciding whether a business process requires RPA implementation or not depends on two criteria:
- Process Fitness
- Automation Complexity
Process Fitness
To determine if a process is reasonable enough to offer tangible results by implementing RPA, it is first critical to understand the process type being considered. RPA can automate only clear and well-defined processes. For this, it is first required to know which category the workforce’s tasks belong to:
Repetitive/ Automatable processes
Automatable processes relieve the human workforce from performing repetitive tasks such as clerical and data entry works or data manipulation tasks. Automating such redundant tasks allows human workers to focus on core, value-adding functions.
We can differentiate four types of processes:
- Manual and Non-Repetitive Processes: The steps are performed by humans and are performed every time the process is executed.
- Manual and Repetitive Processes: The steps are performed by the user. A few of these steps are the same every time they are executed.
- Semi-Automated and Repetitive Processes: A few of the steps in these processes are already automated, using Macros, Outlook rules, and so on.
- Automated Processes: These processes are those that have already been automated by technologies other than Robotic Process Automation.
While the above four are somewhat repetitive/ automatable, there is another category: Manual Or Non-Repetitive processes that are not great candidates for RPA. This is because these processes need to stay manual or are non-repetitive due to the high exception rate or factors that cannot be integrated into business logic.
Rule-Based Processes
For a process to be automated, it should be rules-based. Human-made rules are applied based on which the system executes the process. Rules can be related to storing, sorting, and manipulating data. The rules-based system is a logical program that uses a predefined logic to interpret data or make decisions. These processes are always easy to use and understand. The rules-based processes have an exception rate which is either low or can be included in the business logic as well.
Standard Input Processes
Standard input processes are those that need to be either electronic/ easily readable or are readable using a particular technology that can be associated with RPA. An example of a standard input process is the OCR. The Optical Character Recognition or OCR algorithms have processes whereby printed or handwritten documents are scanned and analyzed automatically and the text data is converted into editable formats for efficient processing. Using OCR is a much more reliable way to automate tasks such as invoice processing.
Stable Processes
Stable processes are processes that have remained the same over some time and no changes are expected in the coming months. These processes are good candidates for automation, provided they meet with other critical criteria as well. The output of these processes is fairly predictable.
Related Reading: Robotic Process Automation: Choosing The Right Solution For Your Business
Automation Complexity
It’s also crucial to analyze the complexity of a process to see if it’s fit for automation. The complexity of deciding to automate a process depends on several factors such as the number of applications or systems, the number of times human intervention is required, or even the number of steps required to execute the given task.
Following are some of the factors you need to look at:
- Number Of Screens: RPA in this scenario works by programming the robot to perform functions at the screen level. That is, when the screen changes, the logic is taught. The number of screens is directly proportional to the elements to be captured and configured. For instance, the higher the number of screens, the larger is the number of elements to be captured and configured before process automation.
- Types Of Applications: There are different types of applications. Some can be easily automated such as the Microsoft Office Suite or Java. Some other processes require complex automation effort, such as Mainframe applications.
- Business Logic Scenarios: The complexity in automating a process increases with the increase in the number of decision points within the business logic.
- Types And Number Of Inputs: Standard Inputs are desirable. For instance, an invoice that is a standard input and needs to be configured for each supplier will be impacted by automation. On the other hand, non-standard inputs will have varying complexity grades. Among these, free text is the most complex one.
Using the above-mentioned four factors, the processes can be split into four major categories:
-
No RPA Processes
These are processes in which change happens frequently. The system environment is volatile and multiple non-digital or manual actions are needed.
-
Semi-Automation Processes
Semi-automated processes are fragmented down into multiple steps that are automated. These steps include the ones that need to be manual such as the validations of physical security tokens.
-
High-Cost RPA Processes
These processes are digital and can be automated. High-cost RPA processes either make use of some complex technologies such as Optical Character Recognition or OCR or require advanced skills in programming.
-
Zero-Touch Automation Processes
These processes are digital and involve a highly static system and process environment. This makes it easy to be broken into instructions and define simple triggers.
The Stages In RPA Implementation
RPA offers a multitude of ways in which the degree of automation can be increased. There are commonly 6 stages involved in RPA implementation:
- RPA Preparation: Here, the processes are defined, assessed, prioritized, and then the plan is implemented.
- Designing The Solution: Here, each process to be automated is documented ( as “as is” and ”to be”). The architecture is now created and reviewed. This is followed by the preparation of test scenarios and environments. With this, the solution design is now created and documented for each process.
- Building the RPA: In RPA building, the processes are automated, the workflows are tested, and validated. This is followed by the preparation of the UAT.
- Testing the RPA: The UAT is now performed, followed by the debugging of the workflows. The process is now ready to be signed off.
- Stabilizing the RPA: In this phase, initially, the Go-Live is prepared. The process is then moved to production, monitored, and measured. The lessons learned are now documented.
- Constant Improvement Phase: This phase involves the assessment of process automation performance. This is followed by tracking the benefits and managing the changes.
Download our latest white paper: How RPA Simplifies Business Operations
Utilizing RPA Effectively
Every company planning to use/ already using RPA applies automation to fulfill different operational goals. While businesses at the beginning of their RPA journey want to uncomplicate and rapidly execute their workflows, the veterans in RPA might wish to expand the scope of their existing automation solution and improve their regulatory compliance. Each one wants to leverage technology differently.
Whatever your goal is, Fingent top custom software development company helps businesses in leveraging RPA to deliver high business value, drive significant cost benefits, and enable technology to have a positive impact on your operational activities. Get in touch with us to know how we can realize your automation goals.
5 Tips To Select The Ideal Chatbot For Your Business
Chatbots have opened up a whole new realm of communication between humans and machines. They enhance a company’s customer service and improve operational efficiency, driving better engagement, reduced churn rates, and overall sales growth. They have become immensely popular and their popularity only continues to increase. It is clear that the use of chatbots is imperative for your business success.
In this blog, we will take a look at the types of chatbots available and how to wisely select the chatbot that suits your business.
The Wide Array of Bots
Studies predict that by 2021, more than half of the enterprises will increase their investments in chatbots, creation than traditional mobile app development. Customers would prefer to get real-time answers from bots on a company website.
Chatbots can do just about anything. They can help you deliver a surprise gift to someone you love. They can also help you break up with your lover and much more!
Broadly, chatbots can be classified as follows:
- Action Chatbot: In order to follow through with a specific action, this type of chatbot requests relevant data from the customer.
- Social Messaging Chatbot: It utilizes social messaging platforms and allows customers to interact with the chatbot directly on social media.
- Scripted Chatbots: It uses a predefined questionnaire to interact with the customer.
- Natural Language Processing (NLP) Chatbots: Being an application of AI, NLP enables chatbots to understand the written or spoken language and come up with the best response.
- Contextual Chatbots: It is the most brilliant of all chatbot types. Since it is based on artificial intelligence and machine learning, it can self-improve over time.
Tips To Choose A Perfect Chatbot For Your Business
As a communication agent, chatbots play a vital role in automating mundane tasks in an “always-on” work environment. Chatbots can handle day to day queries until an emotive or complex issue arises, which might require the intervention of a trained human agent to address it.
Related Reading: Capitalizing on AI Chatbots Will Redefine Your Business: Here’s How
Here are a few pointers to select the perfect chatbot for your business needs:
1. Think about your target audience
Like every business that has a target customer, the chatbot too must have a target audience. It is important to remember that the chatbot should serve as the bridge between you and your customers. The bot should be able to understand the preferences of your customers and cater to their convenience.
2. Define objectives
Identifying and narrowing the specific tasks or areas you want to automate would yield maximum benefits. There are a few points that could help your business define those objectives. Carefully consider factors such as the platform where the chatbot would be used, the queries it would answer, the queries it would direct to a human customer care executive, and how it would manage the hand-over process smoothly.
3. Define your value proposition
The value proposition involves ensuring that the most vital factor of your business, is given prime consideration. It determines whether your customers will come to you or go to your competitors. A higher value proposition might require AI or ML capabilities; so gauge and determine your value proposition to select the right chatbot that fits your budget and your business needs.
4. What is your response speed?
According to the 2018 State of Chatbots Report, customers want quick and easy answers. Customers might get frustrated if the answers are delayed. The appropriate selection of chatbots can help you avoid such kind of delays effectively. When dealing with a complex issue, ensure that your chatbot is capable of collating information quickly without delay. If there is a need to hand over the query to a human customer care agent, it should be done seamlessly and fast.
5. Evaluate features and functionalities
Evaluation aids your business in identifying the essential features and functionalities required from a chatbot to run your business successfully. To begin with, you could create a set of standards that would analyze all solutions. Decide on which features are required, such as NLP, integrations, contextual awareness, analytics, and so on. Proper documentation is required while evaluating the features. Such a candid evaluation helps a business choose the right chatbot that could be fine-tuned later or could self-learn.
Download our case study: Using chatbots to create an enhanced and engaging learning experience
Make Your Business Chatbot Ready
In the 24/7 era where customers want instant services, chatbots help businesses to keep pace with such expectations. By evaluating your own objectives and keeping in mind your customers’ expectations, your business can maximize the benefits of chatbot technology. However, choosing the right chatbot that fits your organizational needs and implementing it without any flaws require a good deal of expertise.
Our team at Fingent has been doing amazing things with Chatbots for our clients. Recently, we provided a matured chatbot assistant technology to a client, which provides comprehensive user intent identification and processing as well as satisfactory response according to the user query. Chat with us to identify the best chatbot solution for your business, and learn how we can implement it for you quickly.
The one thing everyone, from the CEO to the office janitor have in common is 24 hours in a day. It is how one utilizes the time that makes all the difference. A janitor, a driver, a clerk, or many other employees have their fixed role assigned to them, and a significant chunk of their job responsibilities are routine in nature. A CEO ideally spend time applying his talents, insights, and discretion at the higher facets of the job, establishing paradigms, exploring new business models, engaging stakeholders, monitoring the entire gamut of company operations, dabbling with innovation to do new things and do things better, and more.
Unfortunately, the reality is most CEOs restrained by routine and mundane tasks for significant chunks of time, leaving them with too little time to the things that really matter. The CEO has invested time and effort in acquiring knowledge, expertise, and experience, and the company is best served by ensuring the CEO utilizes these skills to the most.
Today, technology has improved to the extent automation has taken over many aspects of lives, which would have taken considerable manual effort and time not too long ago. The most common manifestations of automation in enterprises have been in data collection, big data analytics, robotics in manufacturing and assembly plants, and more. The latest technological developments such as Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, and more infuse cognitive capabilities to automation, expanding the scope of automation in a big way than before. According to HBR, about half of all activities employees now do in enterprises can potentially be automated, with the existing technology.
While automation has eliminated many low-end jobs, it has generated high-end jobs to compensate for it. For instance, Amazon’s drones eliminate the job of delivery agents, but generate new jobs in app development, big data analytics, AI and AR solutions, and more. As companies deploy automation, the focus shifts to the redeployment of the workforce, rather than massive unemployment, dispelling the fears in some quarters.
Likewise, there is big potential for change in the job profile of the CEO, who, in a sense is the embodiment of all functions taking place in the enterprise. About 25% of CEO’s time is currently spent on activities that machines could do.
The following are some of the CEO functions that machines could easily take over, even with the available technology.
Eliminating Administrative Tasks
Categorizing emails, approving bill payments, sending emails, and several other routine administrative tasks are an inevitable facet of life for any executive, and the CEO is not immune from it. If anything, the stakes are even higher with a CEO, considering the value of such tasks. An automated system, where an algorithm or a pre-set formula processes such tasks can eliminate or significantly reduce such burden, and improve accuracy as well.
Analyzing Reports and Data
Automation has made a lot of data entry jobs redundant. Typing data into a spreadsheet is no longer required when automated systems capture data from source automatically. However, someone still has to go through the reports generated from such data. A sizable chunk of the CEO’s time is spent going through various reports from all departments of the enterprise, and do the needful. For instance, a CEO looks at the reports on market trends and custom preferences and makes a decision on whether to increase production on a particular product line. The CEO looks at the financial reports and makes investment decisions. The CEO looks at marketing and sales report and devise new strategies, or makes changes to the marketing budget.
Developing algorithm based systems automate the task and give the CEO information in a drill-down capsule model, saving considerable time. An algorithm does the job just as well, and more accurately, leaving the CEO to either approve or veto the automated decision based on any additional insight he or she may have.
Scheduling Meetings
A sizable chunk of the CEO’s time is consumed in meetings. Scheduling meetings are the headache of the CEO’s secretary, but an automated system that schedules meetings proactively and syncs the schedule makes the life of the CEO more organized as well. In fact, an automated reporting system, integrated with video conferencing ability could eliminate the need for many meetings altogether, or enable meetings at-will, again saving a considerable chunk of CEO’s time, and prevent work getting blocked up, waiting for the meeting to happen.
Informing Decisions
Very often, the CEO is the sounding board of the enterprise, interacting with the top external stakeholders, such as board members, major shareholders and investors, government authorities, and even major customers. Developing an open enterprise system, where such stakeholders get revenant messages automatically or can access the required information at will, can take a load off the CEOs work. Establish rapport with people that matter is an important arsenal up the CEOs sleeve, and the ability to establish and improve such rapport increase when the CEO is armed with a powerful tool that can provide information to such stakeholders seamlessly.
People Management
The CEO, as the leader of the enterprise, invariably has people management tasks high on the list of priorities. While there may be no substitute for face-to-face interactions, automation can ease the process considerably. Having automated systems in place for appraisals, a robust HRIS system that updates all HR information in real-time, and more makes a big difference, eliminating the routine that comes with the process, and allowing the CEO to focus his or her energy on the core task of motivating the employee.
Direct Tasks
While the CEO can delegate most of the task, many CEOs have tasks too important to delegate, or not possible to delegate. Such tasks include writing sales concepts, defining new product features, undertaking high profile marketing, and more. Having automated systems in place offering comprehensive, real-time information benefits the CEO greatly, just as it benefits any other employee.
Better Work Quality
At a personal level, automation is much more than a time saver for the CEO. By eliminating mundane yet inevitable chores, it removes dullness and enriches the quality of work. This has a positive effect on motivation, and work enrichment. Needing to do lesser routine tasks could also mean a better work-life balance. This last facet is very underestimated in today’s highly stressful world, where burnout rates are very high.
HBR estimates automation to raise productivity globally by 0.8%–1.4% every year. The stakes are even higher with CEO productivity. Automation can free the CEO from the trappings of the routine, allowing them to focus their energies on the “higher” things that really matter.
It requires highly intuitive systems that capture the required information and execute what is required. Automation of key tasks should also be accompanied by an efficient reporting and tracking system. The best way to execute such systems is by toe-up with a partner who is good on the technical front, whose has the cutting edge tools to deliver highly intuitive mobility solutions, and who is on top of the latest developments. The investment in such tools is well worth the potential value on offer.