Technology is forever evolving, making our lives easier and easier by the day. One of the new implementations is robotic process automation. It has made our lives easier in certain areas but does have its flaws.
Table of contents
In this article we are going over:
- What robotic process automation is.
- The top 5 benefits of robotic process automation.
- The top 5 challenges of robotic process automation.
- How it can be implemented into marketing.
What is robotic process automation?
Robotic process automation (RPA) refers to technology used to automate repetitive, rule-based tasks. These robots have been programmed to handle a set number of tasks, such as data entry, data manipulation, data extraction and more. With the implementation of robotic process automation comes several benefits.
The top 5 benefits of robotic process automation
There are many positives to implementing robotic process automation but below you will find the top five benefits.
Increased productivity
Robotic process automation could do all the boring and tedious things in an organisation. This gives employees the opportunity to work on more important and complex tasks. This would make the entire process more efficient as energy is focused on key areas, it also makes us feel better about ourselves as human beings.
Reduced errors
Given that a lot of robotic process automation is programmed to perform certain tasks, they are less likely to make mistakes. Robots do not get tired, which is a factor that can influence an employee’s productivity and efficiency as alluded to above.
Enhanced analytics
As these bots complete tasks, valuable data and metrics are collected, allowing us to develop insights into overall performance. We can then improve performance by making calculated business decisions based on this data.
Improved compliance
Robots follow predefined rules, allowing them to easily meet regulatory and compliance requirements. Even if a step-by-step demonstration of the process is required, robots can be programmed to meet that requirement. In terms of regulatory compliance, they are more reliable than humans.
Cost
The absence of robotic process automation proves to be more costly long term than having it implemented. Money isn’t the only cost this section is referring to, saving time over the long run would be beneficial too. One reason is because you’re not paying someone for the tasks that a bot can complete faster and more efficiently.
The top 5 challenges of robotic process automation?
We have gone over why it is a great idea to implement RPA into your business. But let’s have a look at why a business would not implement it.
Process selection
Finding which process would be best suited to adopt RPA can be quite challenging. Robotic process automation doesn’t just fit in anywhere, some processes may require complex decision making or deal with inconsistent data. A more advanced form of RPA, such as AI (artificial intelligence) or ML (machine learning), may be required to perform those tasks.
Infrastructure compatibility
Robot process automation would need to be integrated into an existing system. Incompatibility with the existing system, database, or application can be quite the challenge and may require you to restructure the entire workflow to integrate seamlessly into the existing system.
Security and privacy
A common and understandable concern in the technology industry will always be security and privacy. RPA holds sensitive information and has access to certain systems, this means poor security isn’t an option. Transparency about the type of data you will collect from your customers is also critical.
Employee resistance
Not everyone would like to see robotic process automation be implemented, particularly those who believe that it is a threat to their job. Attempting to keep your employees happy while trying to adopt RPA could be very difficult.
Cost
Despite the potentially high initial investment, using RPA has a positive long-term cost impact. The costs of licencing, infrastructure development, and maintenance all contribute to this. These costs, however, may be impractical for small businesses with limited resources.
How can robotic process automation be implemented into marketing?
Marketing has many opportunities for the adoption of robotic process automation, listed below are a couple of them.
Data entries and management
It’s a brilliant idea to automate the time-consuming process of manually entering, extracting, and managing data. Human intervention is no longer required for the task of collecting customer information from forms and storing it in a database for future reference. This method reduces the possibility of human error while also saving marketing teams a significant amount of time.
Email marketing
Depending on the size of your email list, sending personalised emails can be quite tedious. Fortunately, bots can be programmed to send personalised emails, schedule follow up emails, update campaign metrics, and even perform A/B testing to optimise emails.
Chatbots
Robotic process automation can be integrated with chatbots and assist with customer support. The bots can be programmed to handle customer inquiries, guide customers through processes, or delegate the query to a human when necessary.
Social media management
The importance of being discovered on the internet makes social media very important. Automating some of the processes here would be very beneficial to your business. Social media posts can be scheduled and published using RPA. Mentions and engagements can be monitored, queries and comments can receive a timeous response, and data can be collected for insights on the social media performance.
Final thoughts
Marketing can benefit from robotic process automation in ways other than those already mentioned. However, it is critical to understand the difficulties associated with integrating RPA. RPA capabilities will become more sophisticated as artificial intelligence and machine learning continue to advance, ultimately simplifying our jobs.
