Automate Work Faster and More Easily With Robotic

Automate Work Faster and More Easily With Robotic Process Automation Embrace the symbiotic relationship between the human and digital workforce. Info-Tech Research Group, Inc. is a global leader in providing IT research and advice. Info-Tech’s products and services combine actionable insight and relevant advice with ready-to-use tools and templates that cover the full spectrum of IT concerns. © 1997 -2018 Info-Tech Research Group Inc. Info-Tech Research Group 1

ANALYST PERSPECTIVE IT must play the role of a realist in the face of trending technologies. History teaches us to be careful when adopting new trending technologies. It pays to wait until the second or third wave of interest, until the technology sufficiently matures for enterprise use. If that wisdom holds true for robotic process automation, now is the time for adoption, as it has existed since the 1990 s (albeit in simpler forms). However, artificial intelligence began in 1956, but it’s far from clear whether it is ready for adoption beyond “simple” applications such as chatbots and supervised machine learning. Regardless, marketing hype for said technologies drives your stakeholders to your door with high hopes, aspirations, and possibly unrealistic expectations. It behooves us IT professionals to reconcile them with reality. This is a difficult and delicate task, and we’re here to help. W. David Lee, Ph. D, PMP, Consulting Analyst, Applications Practice Info-Tech Research Group 2

Our understanding of the problem This Research is Is Designed For: This Research Will Help You: CIOs and CTOs Chief Innovation Officers Business Relationship Managers Business Analysts Discover robotic process automation (RPA), and how it differentiates from other automation technologies. Understand the benefits and risks of complementing RPA with artificial intelligence (AI). Identify and analyze your business processes to determine best fit for automation with RPA. Communicate RPA’s potential quantitative and qualitative benefits to stakeholders. This Research Will Also Assist: This Research Will Help You: Them: CEOs, COOs, CFOs Line of Business (LOB) Owners Business Process Managers Process Improvement Analysts Discover RPA, and how it enables business units to automate routine, repetitive work faster. Understand the benefits and risks of complementing RPA with AI. Estimate the economic impact of RPA on business units. Info-Tech Research Group 3

Executive summary Situation • Your organization has many rules-based business processes that rely on • manual, routine, and repetitive data collection and processing work, and your stakeholders are interested in automating them. You are investigating whether RPA is a suitable technological enabler for automating the processes. Complication • Being a trending technology, especially with its association with AI, there • is much hype and misunderstanding about RPA. Estimating the potential impact of RPA on business is difficult because relevant industry statistics often conflict with each other, and you aren’t sure how it applies to your business. 1. RPA is “lightweight” IT. RPA reduces the cost of entry, maintenance, and teardown associated with automation, as well as the technological requirement of resources that maintain it. 2. RPA is about more than just saving cost and time. Free up human resources for creative, higher-value work, while making your process deliver outcomes more consistently and improving customer/employee experiences. Resolution • • Discover RPA, and how it differentiates from other automation technologies. Understand the benefits and risks of complementing RPA with AI. Identify and analyze your business processes best suited for automation with RPA. Communicate RPA’s potential quantitative and qualitative benefits to your business’ stakeholders. Info-Tech Research Group 4

Businesses rely heavily on routine, repetitive work manually done by their best human resources Much of the routine work is done manually, causing mistakes, delays, variability in outcomes, and frustration. According to Service. Now and Lawless Research’s 2015 report: 2 days every week are spent by 9 out of 10 managers performing routine administrative tasks. = US$575 billion is spent on administrative tasks in the United States, equivalent to 3. 3% of GDP. 80% . . of managers say that these routine work processes cause significant delays. … of companies rely on manual tools to drive these processes: email, phone calls, and visits. 85% 90% … of managers agreed that their productivity depends on how efficiently these services are delivered. 80% The successful and efficient delivery of these tasks is critical to business. However, manually carrying out such tasks cannot deliver the desired outcome. … of managers were worried about making mistakes with manual tools. Info-Tech Research Group 5

Traditional solutions for delegating away routine, repetitive work delivered a mixed bag of results and challenges Business Process Management (BPM) streamlines the underlying processes to maximize value and efficiency of the overall process. Software solutions automate workflows to improve process outcomes and efficiency. Development and maintenance of software solutions can be complex and resource intensive, often requiring large investments. Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) reduces cost and effort by contracting out the process to another party. Offshore vendors offer dramatic cost savings and expanded service availability by taking advantage of lower labor costs and different time zones. BPO poses management challenges and security/privacy risks. Loss of process control causes unforeseen costs to emerge. Human factors that negatively affect process outcomes are not addressed: bored, frustrated people continue to make mistakes. While either solution can deliver positive business outcomes if implemented and managed judiciously, technology that can automate routine, repetitive work in a lightweight, easy-to-maintain way can address the challenges posed by both BPM and BPO. Info-Tech Research Group 6

Automate routine, repetitive work with RPA Will robots and AI take human jobs? Partially – the ones humans don’t want to do, and are not suitable for anyway. Software “bots” work with applications as if they were human users to perform routine, repetitive work in your place. Enlist the “digital workforce” for your organization. Reclaim human capacity for use in human activities. 70% of workers feel as though they have too much work on their plates and not enough time to do it. – Reynolds, 2016 Keep automation solutions lightweight and in-house. Most RPA solutions offer low-code/ no-code ways of prescribing and maintaining robotic activity, so that your business stakeholders can develop and maintain automated solutions – with IT providing governance and guidance. Reduce operating time and costs. Effective use of RPA reduces average handling times by up to 40% and lowers processing costs by up to 80%. – Thompson, 2017 RPA is a promising new development in business automation that offers a potential return on investment (ROI) of 30 -200% – in the first year. – Lhuer, 2016 Info-Tech Research Group 7

Realize benefits of automation that extend beyond cost/time savings Comprehensive insight into process Bot activity can be more closely logged and monitored to enable a more comprehensive analysis of business processes. Improve process compliance Bots will precisely execute prescribed rules, so mistakes and errors are reduced. Better employee experience Better predict process outcome Use the human resource capacity freed up from repetitive work to get more interesting things done. Reduce the contribution of human factors in the execution of rules-based processes. Reduce costs Cost to automate processes and maintain them are usually lower than those of human resources. Greater scalability Solutions to expand or reduce the process capacity to meet variable or seasonal demand are technological rather than HR-based. Increase speed Automation can reduce the cycle time and increase the availability of a business process. Increase process agility Changes in business processes can go live more quickly by eliminating the time to train workers and the need to reinforce the training. Info-Tech Research Group 8

RPA is an important trend for CIOs in 2018 Info-Tech’s CIO Trend Report 2018 named robotics as an important technology that enables CIOs to become a driving force behind business growth. Robotics encompass both mechatronic robots that automate physical tasks and software bots that automate business processes, which RPA accomplishes. 53% of the Global 2000 [operations leaders] are planning significant RPA investments to slash costs in 2018. – Fersht, 2018 Identify and seize relevant technology at the height of its promise. Download Info-Tech’s CIO Trend Report 2018. Info-Tech Research Group 9

RPA is the leading focus of significant investment amongst trending technologies, but reports of success are mixed The promise of automating business processes in a lightweight way has boosted RPA’s place in the mindshare of businesses that look to drive down operating costs, and align middle- or back-office operations to improve customer experiences and business process efficiency. Across all industries, significant investment is being made in RPA to realize the benefits of automation. RPA Cloud Internet of Things Analytics AI/ML/Cognitive Blockchain VR/AR Drones Driverless Vehicles 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% Significant investment/focus Some investment/focus Limited/modest investment/focus No investment/focus 90% 100% Source: Reed, 2018 However, there are mixed, and often conflicting, reports on their ability to realize expected benefits and get value for their investment. This indicates that implementing RPA may be tricky, and that businesses may have trouble setting realistic goals and expectations. 96% of customers I’ve spoken to are getting real value from RPA. We have seen as many as 30 to 50% of initial RPA projects fail. – Karamouzis (qtd. in Fersht, 2018) – Lamberton, 2016 Info-Tech Research Group 10

Practical, tactical focus on Info-Tech’s research helps you communicate with your stakeholders more effectively Get started on your RPA journey the right way with Info-Tech’s methodology. Discover RPA, and how it differentiates from other automation solutions. Amid marketing hype and preconceived notions about robotics and AI, making sense of RPA can be a challenge in and of itself. Identify your business processes best suited for automation with RPA, and create a realistic estimate of impact. Follow our methodology to identify your existing business processes best suited for RPA, and calculate the savings in work effort and cost using our Process Evaluation Tool for Robotic Process Automation. This enables you to identify the right business stakeholder to engage, with a tailored, measurable, and more realistic statement of benefit for proposing to take on this initiative. The economic outcomes [of RPA] often aren’t as rosy as originally projected. While it may be possible to automate 30% of tasks for the majority of occupations, that doesn’t neatly translate into a 30% cost reduction. Sample outputs of Info-Tech’s Process Evaluation Tool for Robotic Process Automation – Sohoni and Edlich, 2017 Info-Tech Research Group 11

Internet service provider cuts reporting time from 1. 5 days to 6 minutes CASE STUDY Industry Source Telecommunications Thoughtonomy Service Level Reporting An internet service provider in the UK was struggling to deliver service level reporting to its clients. The reporting process was resource-intensive, and involved employees having to access multiple systems, manipulate data, select key information, and then format it into relevant documents. The time taken to deliver customer service reports was at an unsustainable level of 1. 5 days. Solution Benefits 100% From 1. 5 days to 6 minutes By automating reporting with virtual workers, reports are now produced within a mere 6 minutes. In addition to automating reporting, the company constructed a web portal so that their customers can access up-to-date reports on-demand. This internet company can now provide real-time reporting easily, and has freed up valuable resources within the company to face strategic business issues. Execution accuracy Improved service quality 6 min Report production 300% Productivity increase Info-Tech Research Group 12

Use these icons to help direct you as you navigate this research Use these icons to help guide you through each step of the blueprint and direct you to content related to the recommended activities. This icon denotes a slide where a supporting Info-Tech tool or template will help you perform the activity or step associated with the slide. Refer to the supporting tool or template to get the best results and proceed to the next step of the project. This icon denotes a slide with an associated activity. The activity can be performed either as part of your project or with the support of Info-Tech team members, who will come onsite to facilitate a workshop for your organization. Info-Tech Research Group 13

Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs DIY Toolkit “Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful. ” Guided Implementation Workshop Consulting “Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track. ” “We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place. ” “Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project. ” Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options Info-Tech Research Group 14

Automate Work Faster and More Easily With Robotic Process Automation – project overview 1. Discover Robotic Process Automation 1. 1 Discover Robotic Process Automation 2. Identify Processes Best Suited for Robotic Process Automation 2. 1 Identify Processes Best Suited for Robotic Process Automation Best-Practice Toolkit Discuss the member’s current knowledge of RPA and their motivation for discovery. Discuss the member’s existing ideas on the processes suitable for automation with RPA. Review and explain the blueprint as needed. Brainstorm to identify the candidate processes, and analyze them quantitatively and qualitatively to prioritize them. Examine the stakeholder communication deck. Guided Implementations Info-Tech Research Group 15