People are naturally hesitant to change because we trust what is familiar. However, when competitors achieve financial success through technological change, companies take notice. A recent article by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) provides an interesting perspective on the positive returns that can be achieved by deploying Robotic Process Automation (RPA) bots to handle manual processes.

Share the Organizational Wealth

One of the interesting facets of RPA is its application versatility throughout an organization and various industries. Furthermore, early adopters of the technology often discover positive returns within 18 months of RPA bot deployment. As technology becomes more integrated into business life, more departments across an organization can further benefit from the removal of manual work.

Among the companies featured in in WSJ’s research, the following departments showed strong returns from RPA implementation:

1. Finance & Accounting
2. Customer Service
3. Compliance
4. IT
5. Human Resources

Boost Financial Performance

As listed above, the office of finance stands to benefit from implementing RPA bots to handle repetitive manual tasks. Moreover, when F&A teams choose to cling to outdated methods, everything is slower than it could be. Necessary documentation is easily misplaced, workflow encounters bottlenecks, errors multiply until the end of a reporting period and the quality of work decreases—all leading to lower revenue.

In contrast, by introducing automation as a form of digital innovation revenue and profits are bound to increase. According to RPA insider Jon Theuerkauf, chief customer officer at Blue Prism Group, “The digital workforce of software robots is helping humans reduce mistakes in data entry and in many cases it is making processes more efficient.”

Lead the Way with RPA

Once implemented, RPA can become a doorway to cascading improvement within an organization. While easily deployed and effective, bots are just the first round of a massive technology-based assistance wave. At EY, the company has moved beyond bots to training AI engines, according to its chief innovation officer, Jeff Wong.

“It’s the transition from RPA to thinking more broadly about everything from automation to AI,” Wong says, “For us, the mentality has really switched.” For the office of finance, the mental shift from acting as number crunchers to truly driving profit growth is supported by technology updates such as RPA and AI.

With an automated solution in place, F&A teams can add value to the greater organization as more nimble resources assisting in financial growth.

To learn more, click on the banner below to discover how RPA can increase your company’s financial output and industry performance.

To read the Wall Street Journal article in full, please click here.

Written by: Chelsea Downey