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Home > Why Robotic Process Automation Matters

RPA Is Essential for Small and Midsized Enterprises to Gain a Competitive Advantage

Small and midsized enterprises have big goals and big challenges—just like their large-enterprise cohorts. Every organization has repetitive, time-consuming and error-prone processes that can impede its productivity and focus on strategic priorities. On top of this, SMEs may face budget constraints and a more limited workforce. For these organizations, automation is a critical and efficient force multiplier for staying competitive in today’s market.

Some SMEs may wonder if they are too small to take advantage of automation solutions such as robotic process automation. But RPA can be deployed and leveraged by nearly any organization, regardless of size, budget or technical expertise. Just as the internet helped smaller organizations market and sell globally, RPA can help SMEs become smarter and more opportunistic, control costs and improve operational efficiency—which is invaluable in organizations where workers must take on multiple roles due to resource constraints.

The concept of RPA is simple and well known: a software robot (or bot) replicates routine human-computer interaction to automate tedious, repetitive tasks. RPA bridges the gap between manual interaction and full automation, and is particularly appealing when IT budgets and resources are limited or when automation or integration of back-end applications would be difficult without significant change to existing systems.

SMEs are taking advantage of many of the same RPA use cases that larger organizations deploy. Some key RPA use cases that provide tangible value to SMEs include:

  • Sales and marketing
    • Customer relationship management
    • Lead management
    • Marketing program automation
    • Customer experience management
  • Finance and accounting
    • Purchase order management
    • Invoice generation
    • Payroll automation
    • Quarterly and annual reporting
    • Budget management
    • Journal entry
    • Account reconciliation
    • Bank statement reconciliations
  • Human resources
    • Benefits administration
    • HR virtual assistants
    • Job candidate sourcing
    • Vacation and other time-off requests
  • Information technology
    • IT service management and help desk
    • Security administration
    • Infrastructure monitoring and management
    • New user onboarding
    • User account decommissioning
    • Service-level agreement administration
    • Platform integration

IBM and Its Partner Ecosystem Can Help You Get Started
With hundreds of RPA vendors around the world, it can be tough to know where to start. Fortunately, a wealth of resources are available, such as free RPA software trials and third-party review sites that evaluate different technologies based on validated user feedback. It’s also wise to evaluate the fine print—consider pricing, for instance. Standard pricing per bot may result in underutilization of new RPA capabilities as they are getting built, whereas consumption-based pricing allows organizations to use only what is needed, when it is needed, thus delivering more economic value to the customer.

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Ready to consider an investment in RPA? Working with a business partner can be a beneficial way for SMEs to meet their objectives. The right business partner will bring extensive expertise in automation technology and ensure the organization has the foundational requirements for a successful RPA program. Business partners offer SMEs depth of experience, including implementation, consulting services, a clear structure and technology roadmap, RPA business analyst or developer skills and maintenance support to augment in-house teams. SMEs should carefully evaluate and choose a business partner with a history of successful implementations from a top RPA vendor, expertise in process design and an eye on the latest product updates and innovations in this rapidly changing market.

IBM’s Robotic Process Automation offering helps organizations automate more business and IT processes at scale with the ease and speed of traditional RPA. IBM and its extensive ecosystem of business partners provide cost-effective, powerful and scalable solutions across the full spectrum of automation needs. One of the greatest benefits of working with IBM and a certified business partner is the ability to leverage knowledge gained from successful deployments across a vast range of industries, organization sizes, geographies and use cases.

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