Who uses RPA?

The question “Who uses RPA?” is generally part of researching RPA.

RPA could be used by anybody. As RPA provides generic capabilities they can be deployed in any business area for the benefit of any individual.

Historically RPA has been implemented where there are large teams of people working on large volumes of tasks. These scenarios have provided the scale for cost benefit equations to be favourable when the costs of RPA implementation have been high. More recently, RPA has evolved to be much more cost effective, more resilient, more robust and easier to implement.

As the costs for creation of software robots to implement RPA solutions have reduced the range of people using the technology has broadened.

Daniel Dines the CEO of UiPath the major RPA software vendor has stated “A software robot for every desk”, which although seems a little ambitious it could prove to be the case.

Every computer user from a CEO or a CFO, to an accounts payable clerk or call center agent, perform a number of the same tasks each day. Potentially any of these could be automated with software robots. They might be small tasks, but if they save 15 minutes a day, every day, they could add significant value. Software robots can be viewed as “Personal Assistants” that help get regular tasks completed at one end of the spectrum through to the background use of software robots to perform tasks potentially 24 hours a day to deliver higher productivity without people being involved.

Who uses RPA can be answered in terms of which industries use RPA:

Banking, Financial Services, Insurance
Charities, Housing Associations
Events, Marketing
Government Departments, Local Authorities, Public bodies
Healthcare, Pharmaceutical
Logistics, Supply Chain, Transport, Distribution
Legal, Accountants, Professional Services
Manufacturing, Engineering
Publishing, Media, Broadcasting
Retail, e-Commerce
Telecoms, Utilities, Energy

The list shows that RPA can be used in any sector, although historically it has been used most in the Banking, Financial Services and Insurance sector, now that the technology is proven it is rapidly spreading across all other sectors.

Who uses RPA can also be answer in terms of which departments use RPA, typical RPA usage is:

Finance – Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Reconciliation, Credit Checking
HR – Employee data reconciliation, Employee data alignment across systems
Logistics – Interaction with supplier portals, customer portals, Shipment tracking
Operations – Triage on customer service emails, reduce call center staff typing
IT – Password Resets, Provision of access for temporary staff, Closing accounts when staff leave
Sales – Know Your Customer checks, Competitor Web site checks

The lists show that RPA can be used across Front Office interactions with customers and across Back Office operations.

Who uses RPA could be answered as anybody and everybody who works on computers as a core part of their daily activities.