Replacing humans with machines and algorithms — first in physical labor, and now in routine office work too — is an inevitable and positive process.
Although RPA can't really be called a new technology — the task of imitating user actions was already being solved 15 years ago on various software frameworks — only today is it becoming accessible not just to large companies, but to medium, small, and even micro businesses.
It's worth noting that ElectroNeek, our technology partner, was the first RPA vendor to take a step that made the technology accessible — eliminating license fees for each individual software robot. Yes, sooner or later someone had to do this. But what's especially gratifying is that it was our own compatriots who did it first, building a world-class company!
Below there's a line about the instant economic effect of implementing RPA. Today that's not an empty phrase. But until quite recently, it was fundamentally impossible.
And it's still impossible when working with vendors that require buying a license for every single robot.
In that case you have to budget several months for return on investment. And that's the optimistic scenario. In a realistic one, you need to budget several years.
Licenses are expensive. To speed up depreciation, you need to "load" the robot with some process around the clock — or with different processes in turn. But a situation where the robot is only busy 5% of the time is completely normal at the start of a company's robotization journey. Building robots takes time, employees initially resist any changes, and so on.
That's why the model ElectroNeek proposed is changing the RPA market.
You can deploy as many robots as you like. They aren't licensed, and the ElectroNeek Bot Runner execution environment is free.
You can run a robot once a month. Or once a year. Why not, if that's exactly the frequency the process requires.
You only pay for the robot's development — to an outside integrator, or to your own in-house developers and analysts.
So the RPA landscape is changing. And it's starting to resemble how the mobile phone market developed.
In the late '90s, someone talking on a cell phone was undoubtedly "cool" and wealthy. By the early 2000s, pretty much everyone had a mobile phone.
Now, in the early 2020s, we're seeing the same process in software robotization — a shift from a novelty to widespread use of "digital employees" and "digital assistants".
Very soon, every employee in every company's office will have bots helping them handle routine, tedious duties. After all, people are made for happiness — and what does happiness mean for an office worker? We believe it's more likely creative and/or analytical, productive work, professional growth, and a sense of career prospects — not copy-pasting from 1C or SAP into Excel. Employers, in turn, will make use of the tools of this new technological revolution — or, unfortunately, exit the market.
Why we're starting a corporate blog, opening it with this manifesto-style article.
We're an integrator, and we take an active part in the robotization process described above. We have plenty to tell you on the pages of this blog — about our experience automating business processes in accounting, sales, HR, and other areas. About solving a task with a robot in a week and very little money, instead of months of custom development on a well-known ERP system. And many other cases.
We'll also talk about how this differs from traditional automation — and from a human being. Surprisingly, many people still think of a robot not as an algorithm, but as an improved version of a clerk (one who's never late, never smokes a cigarette, and just works). As a result, they don't quite have an accurate picture of how robots actually solve tasks within their business processes.
We'll advise and consult.
And a couple more words on how we can be useful in the field of Robotic Process Automation.
For a client planning to implement RPA, we suggest starting with an analysis of business processes and identifying the best one for a pilot project. Every department has one. A well-chosen pilot robot is built quickly, costs little, and delivers an instant economic effect — along with a general feel for the technology. Further robotization of other processes and scaling up will go much more easily and smoothly after that.
For medium and large businesses that already have — or are planning to build — their own RPA Center of Excellence, with an in-house team of developers and business analysts, we're ready to offer consulting. As a certified partner, we'll sell vendor licenses for the Studio Pro and Orchestrator development environment, launch a pilot project, recruit and train a development team, provide support on complex projects, and, where needed, take on some of the work ourselves as an outsourcing partner.
We have something to offer any client — from freelancers to large corporations!
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02.09.2021 RPA
