Months before the pandemic ignited a global business crisis, industry analysts ranked among the leading ingredients of digital transformation.
predicted that by 2021, the contribution of “digital coworkers” would increase by 35 percent. RPA also made top 10 strategic technology trends in 2020 as an important part of hyperautomation.
Now, with all eyes on recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic, RPA is even more important for its ability to automate processes and augment people. Nowhere is this more apparent than in procurement, which is increasingly charged with bolstering business resiliency in an unpredictable world.
Tumultuous Times Demand Intelligent Procurement
Unlike most humans, RPA not only relishes, but excels at repetitive tasks. The more tedious and mundane they are, the better. For example, RPA can make short work of procurement processes like quickly finding out which of your suppliers are at risk during a pandemic.
鈥淪uppose your supply chain is disrupted for the ventilator you鈥檙e making because it involves a supplier in a country you can no longer do business with,鈥� said Eric Kavanagh, CEO of Bloor Group. 鈥淒oing these calculations manually to find an alternative supplier would take days or weeks. Using RPA, you could dynamically run through the list of other suppliers to see if they have a part in stock immediately.鈥�
Kavanagh鈥檚 conversation was part of a breakout session during the virtual event. The talk was hosted by Jo Peterson, vice president of Cloud and Security Services at Clarify 360, and also included Jason Brown, vice president of Solution Management, Technology, and Ecosystems for and .
Not Yesterday鈥檚 Automation
Injecting RPA capabilities into an employee鈥檚 daily procurement processes can dramatically speed up rote tasks, many of which have far greater urgency these days.
鈥淢aybe some of your suppliers are at risk, and they鈥檙e small and could take advantage of the government support programs in the United States,鈥� Brown said. 鈥淵ou need to find out if they鈥檙e financially strapped or in difficult straits. Using RPA, you could quickly look at your smaller size suppliers, see if they鈥檝e acquired one of those loans indicating they may be at risk, apply that data into your supply chain, and find another supplier to reduce your risk.鈥�
Pandemic or not, RPA can be tremendously useful in tackling time-consuming procurement processes. These could be common tasks such as updating supplier certification information from a third-party site or changing cost center data on a large batch of purchase orders. Accomplishing these activities in minutes instead of hours frees up employees to make more strategic contributions while delivering massive productivity gains to the company.
鈥淎s long as it鈥檚 something with the same repeatable steps for a process, any of those [procurement] steps can be automated,鈥� Brown explained. 鈥淩PA can also be taught to do simple bidding practices.鈥�
AI Boosts Intelligent Procurement
Brown was particularly excited about the business results from combining artificial intelligence (AI) with RPA, something he described as an ongoing learning process for both people and machines.
鈥淎dding AI into an automated process is a natural extension鈥because] you can start providing recommendations to shorten processes,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he algorithm starts learning based on how you鈥檝e selected items. It makes decisions for you, then asks if it got it right. You can also look at the data afterwards and change the strategy, if needed, over time.鈥�
People Will Never Go Away
Besides higher data quality and lower error rates, RPA鈥檚 big benefit is in improved employee morale. As automation eliminates tedious and repetitive activities, employees are happier because they are able to use their uniquely human traits such as creativity and ingenuity.
鈥淲hile we might use AI or RPA to load the data or handle tedious processes associated with [breakthroughs] we need human intelligence to map the journey, aligning technology to the business process,鈥� Kavanagh said. 鈥淧eople are going to have more fun, and they鈥檙e going to be more empowered because of technology like RPA.鈥�
RPA Drives Supply Chain Agility
Both experts predicted an uptick in RPA across procurement as companies weather supply and demand fluctuations through a long recovery period. Kavanagh saw RPA helping companies reengineer supply chains for more dynamic and globally friendly sourcing strategies. Brown expected a significant increase in the number of 51风流Ariba customers incorporating RPA into daily procurement activities.
鈥淧rocurement teams will analyze where they are spending a lot of time on the inefficient processes or the things that are just tactical in nature, try and replace those with an RPA, and then apply those people to more strategic items,鈥� Brown said.
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