Although still a relatively young technology, RPA has managed to break the mould in terms of how companies approach their business processes, by offering them solutions that deliver speed, accuracy, simplicity and efficiency. Moreover, RPA has also dramatically changed the role and purpose of BPOs in the market, triggering an ever increasing need for change and evolution. With the emergence of even more disruptive technologies, such as cognitive and AI tools, the buzz around automation is getting bigger and bigger.

1. What’s beyond RPA?
More RPA.
“As RPA becomes the standard way of organizations to do
these tasks that have currently been done by people,
moving information through and between systems, the
desire to learn about it is going to increase.”
Guy Kirkwood, UiPath
What's beyond RPA? More RPA.
A recent conversation between
UiPath’s Guy Kirkwood,
Genfour’s Andrew Rayner,
Symphony’s David Poole, and
moderated by Horses for
Sources’ Phil Fersht on the
future of RPA brought to the
attention a variety of topics,
such as: RPAs impact on the
BPO market, the essential
aspects to successfully
implement RPA that
organizations need to keep in
mind, the evolution of RPA with
the advent of cognitive and AI
tools.
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2. The end of BPOs as we know them
What's beyond RPA? More RPA.
Despite being a relatively new
technology, automation has
already started to
fundamentally change the way
BPOs work. And the guests of
the Behind RPA webinar agree.
But first, let’s get to the
numbers:
▪ Horses for Sources
estimates that $44.8 billion
will be spent on BPO
automation in 2021, as
opposed to the $2.3 billion
spent in 2016,
▪ in BPO & Shared Services
the automation spent will
reach $65 billion by 2021;
▪ also, two thirds of the ITO
and BPO organizations are
not pleased with the
current conditions in the
market.
Automation cannot be stopped
and traditional BPOs will not
be able to escape
implementing robotic
solutions. David Poole
considers that, while BPO
organizations will struggle with
shifting towards automation,
RPA will nonetheless make
outsourcing obsolete.
Indeed, smart BPOs have
already made the move
towards automation. For
example, Capgemini and
Cognizant have, in fact,
become robotic BPOs,
providing automation as a
service.
In exchange, Andrew Rayner
offered a more reserved
approach, considering that
there will still be certain
functions and services that will
never be automated,
particularly those that involve
handling complex
unstructured data, difficult
problem solving typically not
based on clear rules, analytical
decision making, devising
policies and more.
The BPO industry can
most definitely take
advantage of the
strategic advantages
offered by RPA:
employees will get new
skills, will be more
empowered and
productive.
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3. What's beyond RPA? More RPA.
RPA, cognitive tools and AI solutions: a match
for success
Not long ago, cognitive and AI
capabilities were seen as part
of an „evolution continuum”,
that started with RPA and
finished with Artificial
Intelligence. Currently, there is
a great buzz around cognitive
and AI solutions, even though
RPA is still an adolescent
technology.
Not surprisingly, all the
webinar’s guests agreed that
there is still plenty of room for
growth and maturing before
taking on any new technology.
The reality is that both
customer organizations and
RPA implementation
consultants need to go back to
the basics, as RPA is only now
starting to mature.
Organizations wanting to
adhere to RPA need a
deeper understanding of
the automation
environment, with stable
governance models in
place and a well-defined
Center of Excellence.
The Center of Excellence in
particular is an essential
component of any RPA
deployment within an
enterprise, and can best be
described as a robotic
operating team. It is comprised
of members–sponsors,
champions, change managers,
business analysts–that fulfill
well-defined roles with the clear
purpose of implementing and
managing automation as
efficiently, safely and quickly as
possible. And many businesses
are yet to understand the
importance of the RPA Center
of Excellence.
Furthermore, a recent concept
arose: that of free RPA. While it
may be a strategy designed for
the purpose of selling some
vendors’ cognitive and AI
solutions, free RPA is likely to
be difficult to implement and
indemnify. It is also risky,
because it is an organization’s
sole responsibility to deploy it
at enterprise level.
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4. What's beyond RPA? More RPA.
An alternative to this path is
that proposed by UiPath, and
consists of “baking the
cognitive and AI tools” into an
RPA platform and providing all
these as a whole package. In
this case, what’s important is
the integration of open source
APIs from large companies,
such as Microsoft, IBM Watson
or Google that allows partners
to build their own APIs on top.
Cognitive tools and AI do not
represent the evolution of RPA
as once thought, but they can
converge and create a single
solution. The general opinion is
that different solutions, be
them RPA, decision making
tools, AI tools, will be
combined to meet customers’
needs. As Andrew Rayner
mentioned, what will matter is
how all these tools will be put
together, giving the example of
UiPath in terms of making an
easier integration of different
expert technologies. Finally, it
comes down to identifying the
right tool or mixture of tools
for the right purpose.
Best practices remain key for the future of RPA
RPA has risen and is here to
stay. It will continue to be
implemented in an ever larger
number of organizations, and
has already created a new
breed of automation-powered
BPOs. These companies
identify the correct tools for
their customers’ needs, set up
Centers of Excellence, handle
the IT functions, manage
robots, make the design and
carry out services, provide
skilled resources and more.
They are important actors in
the automation industry and
act as brokers between the
solutions’ vendors and the end
client. As Guy Kirkwood
stressed,
“RPA is easy to understand
and pilot. It is not easy to
implement at enterprise
level.”
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5. What's beyond RPA? More RPA.
This is why robotic BPOs or
consultants such as Capgemini,
Genfour or Symphony are
important partners of both
RPA vendors and the end
customers.
UiPath launched its RPA
Academy with this very
strategic purpose: to
empower, democratize,
and build a community
of developers working
for a common goal.
And that goal is to make RPA
easier and efficient to
implement in shorter time
frames. Once enrolled, they
will have access to the UiPath
Studio Community, the
platform’s free version, to use
in training, and the UiPath
Forum, where they can
exchange ideas, add questions
and answers, report and solve
bugs, as well as share their
experience with automating
different apps and UI
Frameworks. And we already
see the fruits of this labor,
since, for example, Deloitte is
already set out to train
approximately 5000 of its
employees.
RPA is undeniably changing the
way in which businesses
operate, and is quite likely to
disrupt the entire BPO market.
Adapting, looking for new
solutions, learning the
processes and the rules of
implementation, finding the
right sponsors, setting up
Centers of Excellence are tasks
that organizations will have to
look into. Automation will not
wait for companies to catch up;
it is here, and is constantly
evolving.
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