Blog 2
RPA - Technologies: Das moderne Outsourcing?
Florian Poniewaß I 27.05.2020
Outsourcing has played a fundamental role in saving costs over the last 20 years. Outsourcing is generally understood to be the outsourcing of corporate tasks and structures to external service providers. The most popular destinations include China, India, Malaysia and Indonesia. Massive workloads can be handled at a fraction of the cost of hiring in-house. However, there have been visible changes recently, as outsourcing is no longer as profitable as it was 10 years ago, for example. Other factors now come to the fore. Customers are becoming more sensitive, forcing companies to look beyond cheap labor and poor working conditions. In all industries, people want to benefit from a personal experience and feel looked after, while inquiries and services are to be processed quickly and efficiently. In addition, issues such as rising wage costs, repercussions from political unrest, wars, tax issues, customs duties and the disclosure of company know-how play a major role. There is an economic dependency that can be reduced with RPA technology.
Progress is never limited. This applies to technology, which has advanced considerably. The biggest driver in recent years has been the reduction of human effort, both physical and mental, and its replacement by the digital workforce. RPA (Robotic Process Automation) can be used to efficiently automate rule-based tasks that require little human judgment. The area of application is very large. The technology solves the most complicated problems with self-learning systems (AI, deep learning) just as efficiently as simple copy and paste processes.
RPA opens up new possibilities, transforms and redesigns processes and changes the way a service is delivered.
Impact on outsourcing
For years, outsourcing only worked to reduce costs in the middle and back office areas. Outsourcing only worked to a limited extent to increase efficiency or as a long-term strategy.
If there's one area of business that's being heavily impacted by RPA, it's definitely outsourcing. Robotic process automation can be viewed as a form of outsourcing. However, the outsourced task is no longer carried out by external service providers, but by the company's own software. Deloitte Consulting, in collaboration with KPMG and Everest Group, predicts that using RPA technology can save up to 70% in costs in this business area.
Benefits of RPA
1. Lower costs: Automating means increased productivity and efficiency. With RPA, for example, the processing time of a document capture can be reduced by 70%. At the same time, labor costs are falling. Overall, the costs can be reduced by around 50%.
2. Better customer experience: Non-monetary business areas also benefit from process automation because important resources are freed up. Customer needs can be addressed more precisely, which clearly leads to improved customer service and higher customer satisfaction.
3. Reduced error rate: Human errors, which arise from fatigue and carelessness, for example, are eliminated. This reduces the operational risk.
4. RPA corresponds with existing IT systems: The virtual workforce uses the existing systems in the same way as a human employee. The existing systems do not need to be modified or replaced.
5. Stronger compliance: requirements for data protection, accounting, etc. are met. Processes can be traced and logged, and a certain standard can be created.
2. Better customer experience: Non-monetary business areas also benefit from process automation because important resources are freed up. Customer needs can be addressed more precisely, which clearly leads to improved customer service and higher customer satisfaction.
3. Reduced error rate: Human errors, which arise from fatigue and carelessness, for example, are eliminated. This reduces the operational risk.
4. RPA corresponds with existing IT systems: The virtual workforce uses the existing systems in the same way as a human employee. The existing systems do not need to be modified or replaced.
5. Stronger compliance: requirements for data protection, accounting, etc. are met. Processes can be traced and logged, and a certain standard can be created.
Conclusion
RPA offers enormous potential and creates scalability of business models. In addition, workplaces are becoming more modern and fluid. The staff can devote themselves to more important tasks instead of taking on monotonous administrative tasks. RPA is certainly not a hype topic and must be the focus of future digitization projects.
Nevertheless, it will be shown that outsourcing will continue to be a part of entrepreneurial activities. Outsourcing remains cost effective and practical for tasks that require human skill and thinking. Processes which, due to a lack of know-how, cannot be processed by the company's own employees will probably continue to be outsourced to external companies in the future.
For all other tasks, RPA technology will certainly be the future.
