Robotic processes – automated software programs that process systematic and rule-driven operations – will increasingly form part of the manner in which services are provided and business processes executed, says information technology multinational Wipro Technologies global business process services quality and process excellence head Rajesh Sehgal.

Robotic process automation is used to automate and accelerate highly structured and routine work processes, making these more efficient and less costly. This enables organisations to provide services for more clients at lower costs and use human resources more efficiently, as the need for employees having to do this work is often reduced or eliminated.

However, robotic process automation should not be regarded as a way of reducing jobs, but rather as a natural part of business maturity, especially to deal with skills and service-level issues for large-scale operations, says Wipro Technologies Africa country head Gavin Holme.

Not only do people tend to make more mistakes in highly structured processes than machines do, but they also do not usually enjoy mundane, repetitive jobs; people perform much better in unstructured work and design, and robotic process automation can improve customer engagement and service levels, he explains.

Further, skilled employees and experts can design processes and update process flows, allowing for these processes – extending to partly automated or fully manual processes – to be honed over time.

“Almost all discussions with clients on digital transformation over the past two to three years involved robotics process automation, and most companies are considering robotic process automation,” notes Sehgal.

For operations that are highly rules-driven, structured and involve high volumes of work, intelligent algorithms can curate the entire process from end-to-end.

Significantly, robotic process automation does not require a company to change its information technology infrastructure or systems, and can be applied in-house or to outsourced systems.

Often, robotic processes can be deployed as a virtual “desktop”, where it mimics all the processes that a person would typically have performed, but at a much higher speed and accuracy. People will interrogate and resolve any processes that require human intervention, for example, if there is a discrepancy that is not within the rules and the robotic process cannot complete the function, says Sehgal.

Robotic processes, therefore, assist companies in using their skilled professionals more effectively. Best practices can be captured for perpetual use in robotic process flows. Robotic processes can reduce the impact of changes in demand on resources and skills losses.

“Transforming the use of skills within companies, specifically using skills to add more value to business processes, is a key part of the benefits derived from robotic process automation,” notes Holme.

Robotic process automation is one of the first steps towards cognitive analytics and cognitive process automation. This involves the robotic processes learning from transactions, and provides the robot with decision-making capability, highlights Sehgal.