Automation continues to gain traction across industry and vertical. According to the Deloitte Global RPA Survey, the benefits of Robot Process Automation (RPA) are significant with payback at less than 12 months alongside improved compliance (92%), improved quality and accuracy (90%) and cost reduction (59%). Automation is increasingly being adopted, or considered for adoption, by most industries and disciplines thanks to these tangible business benefits. According to Mandla Mbonambi, CEO of Africonology, it is time to put frameworks in place that make way for automation and Digital Transformation and to ensure that every aspect is tested for relevance and deliverable.<\/p>\n
\u201cAutomation is improving lives in a myriad of ways,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt ensures that activities within a process are performed consistently to deliver high-quality results and ensure a high standard of product delivery, and it reduces the number of tasks required to do manually. This frees up time for employees to add genuine value to the business and improves engagement and motivation. It also minimises errors as manual processes are prone to mistakes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thanks to its consistency, automation can also inform improved reporting standards either using metrics or dashboards, and workflows and key business integration points can be reported more easily. Thanks to these improvements in operational efficiencies, automation has the knock-on advantage of helping the organisation define and streamline business processes. This reduces turnaround times and supports the realignment of process steps to optimise the flow of information throughout production.<\/p>\n
\u201cAutomation\u2019s ability to do more with less and at greater speed has, of course, the advantage of reducing costs,\u201d added Mbonambi.<\/p>\n
\u201cSetting up automation can be expensive, but its return on investment is significant and remarkably quick. This is not to say that automation is perfect \u2013 there is the risk of job losses \u2013 but there are ways of minimising the risks to allow for optimal implementation. Two of the most important are skills development and consistent software testing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The organisation should invest in upskilling and preparing its workforce. The modern worker needs to adopt a culture of learning \u2013 one of the most in-demand skills today is the ability to learn and evolve constantly within a role as it will ensure that the employee remains competitive in terms of both skills and industry relevance. There is no industry that will remain unaffected, no job that won\u2019t experience the impact of automation, and this is not necessarily a terrible thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe crux of RPA is to get a piece of software to take over the humdrum, everyday interactions of some applications,\u201d explained Mbonambi.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis minimises the need for a human to click buttons, cut and paste values, and type data into fields. RPA can be used to automate administrative workflows and processes, enabling the organisation to achieve faster execution of activities, reduce error and give employees opportunities they previously would not have had.\u201d<\/p>\n
RPA can empower employees and it opens the doors for them to develop fresh skill sets that can adapt to the evolving nature of both their roles and automation capabilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe automation of processes is a key step in Digital Transformation, but it is equally critical that it be implemented intelligently and with all risks and obstacles outlined from the outset,\u201d said Mbonambi.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is why testing is a critical part of any automation investment and implementation. We have implemented the Test Automation Framework that enables us to address quality issues during the project lifecycle. It provides improved objectivity with regards to software quality and ensuring that it serves the purpose for which it was intended.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Automation continues to gain traction across industry and vertical. According to the Deloitte Global RPA Survey, the benefits of Robot Process Automation (RPA) are significant with payback at less than 12 months alongside improved compliance (92%), improved quality and accuracy (90%) and cost reduction (59%). Automation is increasingly being adopted, or considered for adoption, by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":24977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4525,7383,136,6,183,13,262],"tags":[5099,826,8786,5098,8787,7531],"class_list":["post-24976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cats","category-digital-transformation","category-industry-expert","category-insights","category-software","category-top-stories","category-used","tag-africonology","tag-automation","tag-deloitte-global-rpa-survey","tag-mandla-mbonambi","tag-robot-process-automation","tag-rpa"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24976"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24980,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24976\/revisions\/24980"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}