Since the 90s, in the US alone, there have been three major recessions. The latest, which lasted from the end of 2007 to mid-2009 due to the housing bubble fiasco, even triggered a global financial crisis. For a future-ready enterprise, being recession-proof is not merely a countermeasure for economic turmoil. It is a long-term approach to successfully overcome unpredictable downturns that may be caused by internal or external conditions.

Recently, according to a survey conducted by the National Association for Business Economics – “Three out of four economists predict a US recession by 2021”. As the threat of future recessions lurks, it may spell disaster for business leaders to second-guess technology investments. In fact, what better time than now to invest in low-risk and high-value AI-powered solutions such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA).

“Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship”
– Benjamin Franklin

What RPA can do for you:

  • Ensure privacy by safeguarding data
  • Use data-driven insights to build customer engagement
  • Strategically cross-sell and upsell opportunities
  • Create marketing plans based on real-time feedback
  • Improved resourced planning and workforce productivity

RPA can be a value creator, not a job killer

RPA continues to snowball across industries, but its detractors are promoting doom and gloom about its supposed role as the ultimate job killer. While it may be true that RPA leads to elimination of repetitive and mundane jobs, many of the fears are based on misinterpretations about the role of automation in the larger marketplace.

The problem is not that software robots may be replacing human workers. The real issue is how you can nurture workforce productivity in the time of scalability. Freeing up their schedules means that they have more time and energy to focus on higher-value work such as undertaking customer-facing tasks or enabling continuous process improvement.

The key is to enable your staff to scale up along with technology. It not only helps you to eliminate process redundancies but also gives you the ability to upskill/reskill your workforce to have more fulfilling and rewarding careers.

Robotic Process Automation solutions, in that sense, can level the playing field. A larger chunk of the workforce will be under pressure to continuously hone their skills so that they are not left behind with jobs that software robots can easily manage.

Ironically, Aristotle – who documented one of the first-ever references to automation in 320 BC- had expressly mentioned that it could someday lead to equality in human labor.

Automate repetitive and costly tasks

When human workers are burdened with managing routine and exacting tasks, mistakes tend to occur. They may lose focus and trigger a series of events that lead to costly errors, as well as exposing your enterprises to reputational risks. RPA bots can handle the administrative workload, no matter how complex your processes are.

They can drive invaluable operational efficiency in data-intensive industries like Healthcare, Banking, and Insurance. Eliminating human error and accelerating the speed of workflows are important to the overall sustainability of these industries.

Data-driven insights to maximize new growth potential

If the overall health of your data is poor, you are already two steps behind in the race to gaining market share. Your CRM’s data quality unlocks the potential of teams across your enterprise. From HR and finance to sales and marketing. At their core, RPA technologies simply enable you to do more with data. RPA can quickly and seamlessly connect data silos that reside across multiple systems. It boosts data accuracy by automating how inputs are mapped to outcomes. You can assign access also controls for your business users to extract, modify, or remove data, which ensures a smooth flow of information to every team in your enterprise.

Another key advantage of RPA-led data insights is that you can bridge regulatory gaps that prevent non-compliance risks. They also leave behind digital audit trails that are crucial to measure your progress or evaluate past performance to build future growth strategies.

Customer is still king during the recession

When the going gets tough, your customers may get going too. But, as a future-proofed enterprise, customer satisfaction remains your topmost priority. RPA frees up your employees from focusing on customer-centric tasks and arms you with the firepower to deliver great customer experiences.

With RPA, you get access to cross-channel data that offer a 360-degree view of your customers. It then gives you actionable insights to send personalized messages to the right customer at the right time. In turn, your customers grow more trusting and confident in your enterprise’s brand commitment to service excellence.

Whenever a recession hits, your enterprises may follow a mandated approach to mitigate risks and wait out the economic storm. While they may vary, as per industries or organizations, a few things can be taken for granted. You must look for opportunities to reduce costs, optimize workforce performance, increase sales conversions, and sustain customer delight.

By introducing RPA into your technology ecosystem, you can recession-proof the moving parts of your enterprise to scale operational efficiency while creating healthier revenue flow.

We, Aspire Systems are the global partners of Automation Anywhere, provide RPA consulting services & RPA implementation to F500 companies and help them accelerate the adoption of Robotic Process Automation solutions. For a personalized RPA Proof of Concept (POC), please email us at [email protected].

Automated business process discovery

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