RPA programs head to the mainstream in financial services

Financial services companies exploring Robotics Process Automation (RPA) are finding it difficult to establish ROI because traditional measures often do not justify the deployment cost.  This is according to research conducted across 50 North American mid to large-scale financial services organisations by ActiveOps, a leading provider of digital operations management solutions.

RPA is autonomous software programmed to follow rule-based tasks just as a human would. The difference is that robotic decision making and outcomes are predictable, consistent, and 100 per cent accurate.

Julian Harper, CEO, North America, ActiveOps, stated: “There are mature RPA programs in complex operations where the business case for RPA spending is important and our survey confirms that even though roughly 45% of financial services organisations have large robotics programs, only about 20% of them feel they are confident in their ability to access significant performance metrics to measure their program’s success.”

Key findings include:

• 45% of financial services organisations questioned are running 10 or more robots in their operation.
• When asked how they measured the productivity of robotics, unsurprisingly perhaps, 90% of those who responded stated that it was based on FTE hours saved.
• 48% of the sample stated that they saw variances into robotics performance, while 10% saw none.
• A staggering 70% of the sample stated that is was not easy to get productivity data on their robots.

Mr Harper continued: “When setting a goal or destination, it is just as important to know where one is heading to and where one is at any given moment or else, which direction is the right direction? As these findings show, 90% of respondents currently measure their robots based on number of FTE hours saved (versus service quality improved, costs saved, any other ways). This is a good measurement but is it complete?”

“Our data also suggests that beyond the end business result of FTE hours saved, it is just as important to understand how that statistic has been achieved. What was the robot’s productivity at any given moment? How does is the utilisation rate of a single robot, or a team of robots? Without understanding how the robots work, how can we optimise and improve the results the robots achieve? As a result we have devised a four-stage business case and measurement guide for RPA.”

1. Measure the start time verses stop time of a back office process before and after an RPA roll-out and compare and contrast
2. Measure the length of time a human spends on a tax verses how quickly a robot does the same thing
3. Measure output accuracy before and after a deployment – it should be 100% post roll-out
4. Check and measure compliance before and after a deployment – it should be 100% after the roll-out

“RPA can offer quick wins to the entire organisation by improving customer, employee and supplier experiences of the IT systems in place. RPA if used and measured correctly, can allow business and IT to work together on professionalising activities that are possibly undermanaged today. Those businesses that use data driven by applied intelligence and human ingenuity will empower next-generation, real-time decision making, exceptional customer experience and game changing business outcomes,” concluded Mr Harper.