An online round table hosted by UiPath outlined how leading South African organisations are benefiting from robotic process automation (RPA) to become more efficient and profitable.
Michael Law, UiPath sales manager, says large local enterprises have moved beyond the perception that RPA involves industrial robots, and are now keen to explore the benefits of RPA across their organisations.
“The organisations we deal with – for example JSE-listed companies and major corporates – now understand the role of software bots in supporting humans and improving efficiencies. There isn’t a sector that won’t benefit from RPA, but we are seeing particularly strong adoption in sectors such as insurance and contact centres. Organisations across the board are achieving quick wins from RPA in their HR and finance departments, where mundane and repetitive work consumes the valuable time of senior resources,” he says.
Law says while the returns on investment being achieved depends on a number of factors, organisations around the world are reporting savings of millions of man hours and hundreds of millions of dollars in costs by deploying RPA strategically. With greater efficiencies and responsiveness, organisations improve employee and customer experience, and grow their revenues. The UiPath round table will elaborate on key case studies and the benefits achieved both internationally and locally.
There isn’t a sector that won’t benefit from RPA, but we are seeing particularly strong adoption in sectors such as insurance and contact centres.
Michael Law, UiPath.
Ati Ngubevana, group executive at Vodacom and RPA champion who set up the first Vodacom Centre of Excellence for RPA, is among the local corporate leaders to have embraced RPA. She participated in the UiPath round table and elaborated on the telco’s learnings and successes using RPA.
Law notes that there are still hurdles in the way of more mainstream RPA adoption in South Africa, however.
“The skills shortage in South Africa is proving to be a key challenge, with senior resources leaving to work overseas. There are also concerns that RPA will take jobs. Progress cannot be avoided, but UiPath believes concerns around skills and job losses should be addressed by training and upskilling good people. Our UiPath Academy helps companies accelerate RPA adoption by upskilling their staff, with free training, as well as certification courses.”
The UiPath round table, entitled ‘The age of automation: Reinventing work within the fully automated enterprise’ took place this week. The event outlined a holistic, end-to-end approach to enterprise automation and how organisations can integrate RPA, AI, machine learning and process analytics to elevate employee value, improve processes across the enterprise, and ultimately enhance customer experience and revenues.
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