With many millions of dollars and countless hours saved, it’s easy to see why RPA has become the tool of choice when it comes to automating repetitive, mundane work. A recent study by HFS Research suggests that most RPA and automation initiatives are driven by cost-related goals and metrics. Given how successful it’s been in improving efficiency and reducing costs, this makes sense, but there’s a big shift happening. The evolution is gaining momentum and urgency.
HFS states that the market has recently realized that the potential for RPA value increases exponentially when combined with other automation tools. Today, nearly 65% of automation initiatives in business services incorporate multiple automation technologies, indicating a shift toward more integrated and intelligent solutions.
As the automation ecosystem expands – so too does cost and the complexity. So for RPA, and automation in general to deliver at scale without costs ballooning out of control, it needs help. This is where a technology-agnostic Orchestration platform, like C TWO comes in. It’s impossible to run efficient and robust operations without a centralized control system that also reduces total cost of ownership. C TWO’s event-driven orchestration platform prioritizes work in real-time, automates monitoring, and doubles bot capacity.
1. First up, optimize your bots!
Sounds obvious, but at the heart of any successful automation program are bots working at their best. This doesn’t mean they simply complete a task; it means they’re doing the right work, and they’re doing it at full capacity. Idle bots waste time and money. Intelligent Orchestration continuously monitors bot performance and workload distribution, adjusting tasks dynamically and ensuring that no bots sit idle and are maximizing their capacity.
This gives COE teams the confidence to know that critical processes are handled first, and all deadlines are met – making delays a thing of the past. It also leads to a reduction in unnecessary expenses, as you can scale your bots when needed, rather than paying for bots that aren’t always working as a ‘just in case’ measure.
Maximizing your bot capacity, i.e. doing more work without increasing your license costs, is just the first of many ways orchestration helps you save money.
2. Stop wasting time on manual monitoring
What happens today when a bot fails or a virtual machine crashes? You and your support team must step in, find the issue, resolve it and restart the process or machine. That’s not scalable, but it is expensive.
C TWO automatically resolves 90% of L0 and L1 support issues. And when an exception that requires human intervention arises, C TWO’s escalation routines ensure that all necessary owners, including business owners, IT, and operations, have immediate insight into the issue so response and remediation are coordinated, swift, and effective.
Minimizing downtime and operational failures saves costly delays, while automatically resolving support issues and pro-actively managing exceptions saves countless hours of a team’s time.
3. Try new tools and scale quickly
Without orchestration, updating bots and processes can be painful and risky, while integrating or migrating to new technology can feel like an impossible cost-prohibitive ask. An orchestration platform allows you make changes to processes and try out new tools, such as Microsoft Power Automate, safe in the knowledge that processes continue without interruption and deadlines are met – without excessive costs or the risk of outages.
4. Avoid costly mistakes
While it may not seem as important as the day-to-day operations, maintaining compliance with industry regulations is critical, especially in sectors like finance, healthcare, and insurance. Non-compliance can lead to hefty fines and reputational damage, both of which are incredibly costly. An orchestration platform simplifies compliance by storing detailed logs and audit trails for all bot activities – ensuring you’re operating within regulatory frameworks, and you have the necessary documentation available to prove compliance:
- Detailed logs and audit trails: Track all bot activities and transactions for compliance purposes.
- Automate reporting: Simplify audits and ensure you’re always prepared for regulatory checks.
- Reduce the risk of non-compliance: Avoid potential penalties and legal fees.
5. Empower people
One often-overlooked benefit of using an RPA orchestration platform is the positive impact on employees. By eliminating manual scheduling, constant monitoring, out of hours work and the general worry that something isn’t working, the benefits to employees are huge – and leads to multiple cost and time benefits:
- Increased productivity: Employees focus on more value-added activities, such as innovation and problem-solving.
- Reduced costs: Orchestration ensures bots can run 24/7, minimizing the need for employees to work overtime.
- Lower turnover: avoid employee burnout, improve morale and improve retention.
