As technology continues to advance, the financial services industry has been exploring innovative ways to streamline operations and improve efficiency. One such solution is Robotic Process Automation (RPA), which utilizes software robots to automate repetitive tasks and processes. While RPA offers numerous benefits, its implementation in financial services is not without its challenges. In this blog, we will delve into the top objections that have been raised against Robotic Process Automation (RPA) adoption in the financial service sector. By understanding these objections, we can gain insights into the concerns and barriers that organizations face and explore potential solutions to overcome them.
Business Objections to Robotic Process Automation in the Financial Services
Robotic process automation (RPA) is being used by many financial services companies to improve their efficiency and free up their employees to work on more important, high-IQ jobs.
What makes an RPA tool work well in the financial sector?
Gabriel Skelton, an automation consultant who specializes in financial services, says, “You need an effective maintenance plan for automation and bots to have a successful RPA program.”
RPA is one of the business tools that is growing the fastest on the market. Gartner says that the market for smart software automation grew by 63% around the world in 2018. Now it’s over 2 billion, and a new press release says it will keep growing well past 2024.
There is a difference in the RPA business between “renting” a bot and having it. When you own a bot outright, you can use your budget to develop and maintain it. This is still a new idea in the RPA business, though.
We’ll talk about how important it is for long-term RPA success to choose RPA tools that help your company grow.
1. They don’t know what RPA technology can do
In theory, RPA is pretty easy to understand. It uses bots or digital workers to automate a job that an employee would normally do by hand.
RPA is still a business technology that many people who might use it don’t fully understand. Implementing it properly doesn’t happen right away; it takes time, effort, resources, and collaboration from people at different levels of a company.
After a company automates its first process and sees that it works, it’s easier to see how it could affect the rest of its business.
RPA technology is just a set of tools that are used to solve problems in business. When your company has the right idea of how to use RPA, the question is less about why you would use it and more about where you can use it.
2. ROI Can Be Difficult to Gauge Leaders
can be quick to measure the ROI by headcount and FTE savings, but it’s not apples-to-apples. A plan for a large-scale RPA program rollout is excellent in theory, but only an estimate.
The first few automations are the easiest to build and will be low-hanging fruit, and the ROI will be clear and immediate. The processes will become more nuanced when you move past the first 5, 10, and 20 automations and won’t always translate into direct FTE savings.
Many firms understand the benefits of RPA in banking, but it can be harder to justify the cost of complex automations. They require more development hours to build and break down more often—many CIOs question whether it’s worth the investment.
It’s a challenge for an RPA technical architect to balance ROI and manage the budget. They have the most insight into maximizing ROI, but they’re not usually the decision-makers in their firm.
When you pay to rent a bot on top of development and maintenance, ROI gets buried with the budget. Firms view muddy ROI as a shortcoming of RPA, but the culprit is the licensing models of traditional RPA platforms, not the technology itself.
3. Not clear How to Make Use of a Bot
There are many ways to talk about how to use a bot in a company. When a company has an RPA program, both humans and bots know what their jobs are.
When a company is just starting out with RPA, the role of bots in the company is often a point of conflict. How will they feel about working with someone who does work on a computer? Will they get rid of their workers and replace them with robots? These are things that every business will have to think about.
Many businesses think that a bot can take the place of a full-time worker, but this is rarely the case. Errors happen a lot when people do a lot of the same boring jobs. By using a bot to handle these tasks, the employee can focus on doing things that add value to the company that isn’t just data entry.
Automations are usually more about regularity than saving FTEs. Large companies, for example, have tens of thousands of workers who need to use Microsoft Office. By using a bot to give software licenses, you can avoid mistakes like giving a junior employee permission meant for a senior employee.
A bot’s job is to serve human workers and help them do their jobs. The companies that do best with RPA use it to help people do their jobs better, not to replace them.
4. Costs of licenses stop scaling
A business with many automations is at a scaling barrier. They want to invest in their RPA program, but they don’t know what to do about licensing and return on investment (ROI).
A Center of Excellence (COE) will be in place for companies with 100 or more bots. When different departments or business lines want to build automation, they will have to work with the COE to get budget approval.
COEs are starting to say no to automations more and more. When they look at their bottom line, automation is no longer a good deal for them. Why do processes get turned down? Bot licensing lowers the return on investment (ROI) of future automations and makes it impossible to grow.
If you are a CTO with an RPA platform that requires a lot of licenses, there are ways to get around these growth problems. Some leaders keep their core automations going and make new ones on a platform that doesn’t cost anything to use, like OpenBots. Using multiple vendors in this way makes sure that the automations have a good ROI.
Large companies are also turning off automations and moving them to a platform that doesn’t require a license. When they make the change, the rewards start right away.
Imagine that your company pays between $10,000 and $15,000 per year to license each bot, and you turn off those costs for 5, 10, and then 50 bots with the flip of a switch. You’ll get back a lot of money that you can use to buy new automations, and your COE will be more likely to let you do so.
5. Already linked to an existing platform
Firms tend to put the whole business into groups. When they look at other RPA systems, they think they already have what they need. People think that every answer is the same.
Firms that use RPA in banking have already done the hard work of vetting the RPA platform they’re using. They know how much work is involved and how many moving parts there are, so they are less likely to consider other options. They’re happy with what they’ve got.
Using something new can be a sign that it could be a security risk, and banks have to do a lot of research to make sure they meet security and regulatory standards. Because of these things, they are hesitant to try something new, even if it could help their RPA program.
Still, companies that are happy with their tools aren’t automating as much as they thought they would. Why isn’t RPA being used more quickly?
What traditional RPA vendors offered is very different from what people who have used RPA have found. Because of this, companies often have a bad opinion of the benefits of Robotic Process Automation, and ROI isn’t as important as they had thought.
6. Don’t have the right help for development
Building automations doesn’t require you to be a hard-core coder. RPA platforms are on the low-code end of the spectrum. They let business workers who don’t have a lot of technical knowledge build automations.
This is fine for people who are just starting out, but as was already said, RPA is a business tool with many moving parts. Automations can be made to fit the needs of a company by people who know Python and C#, but most companies don’t have experienced RPA coders on staff.
Making an RPA program isn’t a hobby or a side job, but many companies treat it like it is. They don’t have the right team of developers to build the automations that will take their business to the next level.
When you try to do things on your own, you might run into trouble. Most of the time, it’s because you miss chances to get the most out of your automations. RPA developers are very skilled and have a lot of knowledge that regular developers won’t learn in a course or training at an academy.
Guided help makes sure that your automations are of higher quality and add value to your business. Volunteers may be ready to work on an RPA project for an organization, but these projects rarely work out compared to a professional program that is made to meet a niche need.
Robotic process automation: how to fix it Most common problems with financial services
Without answers to these problems, a list of objections would not be complete. Here are the top two things your company can do to get around these RPA problems.
Process Discovery helps you figure out how to automate things.
Firms have many people who have a stake in the talk about automation. Firms can build their automations quickly if they get paperwork upfront.
Which tasks in your business should you automate?
It starts with making a process design document (PDD) or process discovery document (PDD) to map out a process from beginning to end. The development team then gets that document and builds a bot based on its clear directions.
Taking the time to write down your processes from start to finish will help you make an automation schedule based on goals, return on investment, and complexity. A thorough process finding can help solve or completely avoid many possible problems.
Prove Out Value with an RPA
Implementation Partner When considering a new RPA platform, it’s best to start with a single automation build. It’s a minimal investment to prove the value and will set the pace moving forward. Even if your firm has an in-house development team, they may not have the experience or capacity to build effective automation. Using a partner to build your first few automation will ensure they’re done correctly and are ROI positive. Automating pieces of a complex workflow is a fantastic place to start.
How Financial Firms Get the Most From their RPA
This is a unique time for organizations that are implementing RPA in finance. Firms don’t have to remain tied to platforms that limit their ability to improve their organization. Many realize that it’s not the functionality of their RPA platform but the licensing model that makes the scalability of RPA a reality. If firms take the time to consider a zero-bot licensing model, they’ll see not only the financial impact but also the number of automation they can build that will provide ROI at scale. If your firm is starting with RPA or already is using it, OpenBots provides a friction-free approach to implementing automation.
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