Most every deployment we do here at Lydonia with RPA Technology has historically helped customers with Finance, HR, and IT workflows. This is typical. Most of the software bots have been deployed to help facilitate existing workflows to go faster while eliminating mistakes associated with tired, fatigued human workers that are in their 8th hour of work and trying to stay sharp. These workers are processing repetitive, mundane tasks on their keyboard. Fun stuff.
However, as of late (since this new world in which we live began 8-12 weeks ago) we are getting questions like: “have you replaced people’s jobs with bots”? Now while nobody wants to take the bait and answer that “no win question”, I’ve hit it straight on. It’s important to let customers know that while nobody wants to start replacing humans with bots- this is the new reality. You can replace bad jobs that people hate to do (like reconciliation, order processing & invoice processing) with bots. Most workers don’t stay in these jobs long anyway so it’s a fait accompli with today’s digital workforce. I think honesty is the best policy when talking about reconditioning our workforce to run as efficiently as possible. Especially as the US gears up to reopen in the coming weeks.
The harsh reality is this: as we watch the economy tumble and jobs get eliminated around us organizations have no choice but to tighten bootstraps. The importance of a digital workforce just became very germane to every CFO. The play just changed from gaining a slight competitive advantage to staying alive and keeping the doors open.
Last month we had a client ask us “not what the bots can do, but what they cannot”. The reality is that the “Automation First Era” is here to stay. These software bots are becoming more intelligent with the advent of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Algorithms.
We had a startup software company call us last week and asked us if we could help them on-board 100 full time workers using RPA within 60 days. We started with a two-hour workshop and quickly learned that we could help them on-board 68 FTEs and 8 bots instead of 100 workers. Not having to hire 32 humans in replacing them with 8 software bots will save them $1.7M in the first year.
This is the new reality. The Digital Workforce is not only here to stay but is growing at a rate nobody ever expected. This global pandemic is igniting this fire and it is not going to slow down anytime soon.
I hope everyone stays safe and if we can help you navigate RPA with UiPath and our other adjacent offerings, please do not hesitate to contact Lydonia Technologies.