COVID-19 has made the world realize that we must no longer focus solely on building-related disasters, for two main reasons. First, the consequences of a health lockdown are unfortunately even more damaging. Second, we realized that with remote work, offices could become “optional.”.
This remote work, facilitated by digitalization and collaborative tools, has allowed companies to partially maintain their activities. However, it does not solve everything, especially if some personnel are ill or in quarantine, inevitably leading to a drop or a sudden halt in activity, or even if certain tasks and tools require a physical presence.
How can we replace processes that cannot be performed remotely? How can a company continue to operate if it suddenly loses 20% or more of its workforce? And above all, how can we enable those who are still able to work to be as effective as possible, in order to best support the business?
After implementing digital processes, it's crucial to support their automation to foster organizational resilience in businesses. This will make them less impacted during crises and more efficient during normal times. Just as business continuity programs emerged in the past, process automation programs should be integrated into every company's strategy.
RPA, the tool businesses need in all circumstances
Automation not only allows for better preparation for the next crisis but also for recovering some of the profitability lost during the COVID-19 crisis. Tools that ensure the automation of certain processes, such as automatic document filling or generation, and data collection or encoding, are in most cases very easily achievable.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) imitates a manual task or process step-by-step, as if a human were performing it, much faster and without the risk of error. For more complex needs, application development allows for the automation of a large portion of the most time-consuming tasks.
Implementing automation in a company, regardless of its size, requires at a minimum taking a step back and gaining perspective on its current organization. First and foremost, it is necessary to determine which processes are the best candidates for automation, meaning which ones yield the best return on investment and contribute to resilience in times of crisis. It is often easy to identify the numerous double-entry tasks that are still too prevalent in companies, while conversely, certain daily tasks performed mechanically are forgotten as ideal automation candidates. Therefore, the importance of stepping back to understand the functioning of internal company processes becomes fully apparent, and bringing in an external company allows for a more neutral and experienced opinion on its potential.
RPA, with or without a health lockdown, allows for not only time savings, since robots operate day and night, but also for money and well-being savings, as employees normally assigned to tedious tasks can now work on others with higher added value. Finally, RPA ensures business continuity in the event of a new health crisis, regardless of its severity, with limited human resources.
Written by Julien Gras
