We have observed for decades that business process outsourcing has always been a routine for every organizations’ effective performance. However, with a paradigm shift in business routine and tenure, RPA (Robotic Process Automation) took over the outsourcing functions. RPA revolutionized the business system by helping companies serve automated functions to the customers. Earlier companies outsourced to get manual support, but now automated solutions have made services simpler.
Every business customer looks for some basic requirements to demand of the partner, like:
a) On time service delivery.
b) Availability to hear customer concerns 24X7.
c) Automated functions for efficiency in handling services.
d) Cost reduction.
e) Accuracy etc.
All these are easy with RPA at work, and Chetan Dube, Founder, IPsoft Inc. highlights this best. He says:
“The last decade was about replacing labor with cheaper labor. The coming decade will be about replacing cheaper labor with autonomics.”
Moving on, business process outsourcing is all about manual tasks where companies outsource their services to an external partner to save the in-house resources from performing monotonous functions. Outsourcing helps a company save business cost and time to attain proficiency.
All outsourcing functions are automated today with RPA, where a bot performs all the repetitive tasks, which were time taking earlier and reduced the efficiency of the manual workforce.
Automated bots help business process outsourcing firms in automating their repetitive functions to save the in-house expertise to work on other development projects.
On the contrary, there are several tasks and strategies that bots cannot look after alone and require human intelligence. This is where the significance of both automated and manual functions is known.
Lets’ check out all that RPA serves to the business process outsourcing industry. We take you across the pros and cons that are essential to note:
The possible threat from automated services:
We have often heard that RPA will soon make outsourcing processes obsolete. However, automated services never wished to eat up manual processes.
It is just a step to simplify repetitive functions, which are non-productive and time taking. Nevertheless, by replacing outsourcing with automated solutions, companies may face some potential threats to check out:
• Automated functions are not as good at performing some operations as human intelligence. Some functions need to be digitized properly. Technologies like OCR etc. can help the bot perform precise functions, and thus the requirement to be up-to-date with the new technology is necessary. Many times the indulgence of a human is utmost essential.
• Since bots get instructions as per a transaction, they may perform error across multiple applications as they run as per a pre-defined training. However, the chance of repetitive error is minimal with human agents at work as they can crosscheck every next time.
• Human expertise is always superior to RPA and the fact that automated services are dependent on human agents for input, the threat to automated services increases.
These threats highlight the weaknesses of RPA, which can have a negative impact on the outsourcing firms.
Moving on, lets’ check out the advantages of RPA for BPOs:
• Business control: With automated services, there is completely no chance for an external party to gain knowledge of your business goals and services. This displays the importance of RPA for BPOs as it makes the business functions secure and gives total control to the owner.
• Cost reduction: After automating the business functions, many expenses are lowered further reducing the capital expenditure. Since an automated bot performs the tasks, manual expenses over employees and use of other tools are marginal.
• Better communication: Automated services help to enhance communication system for business process outsourcing firms. Since, business operations get a digitalized touch, reaching out to the partner with automated tools for communication becomes easier.
• Precision: Humans are prone to errors and can anytime make mistakes hazardous for business health. However, RPA reduces the chance of error in business functions. Only if there is a mistake in any entry or transaction, the issue may occur again.
• Obedience: RPA follows a prearranged set of rules that helps the business get assurance over compliance. Depending on the business requirements, tasks can work as per an operating procedure.
The downfall of outsourcing!
There have been rumours that RPA will soon be the reason for outsourcing demise, however, the near future has no relevance with the same. The truth is, no doubt, RPA is serving as an excellent service optimizing measure, but outsourcing will continue to be the best cost-effective option for businesses especially for their voice-based jobs.
The myth that RPA and cloud services will lead to the downfall of outsourcing opportunities is mythical. It is a well-known fact that many functions demand human interference and bots cannot perform them all alone. This is the reason it is wrong to say that outsourcing will soon collapse with RPA in use.
Nowadays, most business process outsourcing firms are realizing the importance of RPA and depriving of the myth that it may end their requirement to the business. This is the reason companies are integrating automated services into use for better customer satisfaction.
The bottom line on RPA:
When we talk about outsourcing and that automation is slowly becoming its soul, we need to know that RPA is itself a type of outsourcing, which will soon be the basic need and is nowhere going away anytime soon.
Both RPA and outsourcing work for the same reason and that is freeing the in-house staff from repetitive functions to save them for other intelligent tasks for business development.
RPA works to reallocate in-house staff to work for strategic, business-building activities and on the same time boost efficiency, productivity, lower cost, look after time to market, etc.
Companies today are demanding automated service for their BPO partners as fast delivery and enhanced output to customers is every companies’ determination. These factors display that some way or the other, business process outsourcing will become best friends with RPA as working juxtaposing to each other will bring them success.
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