Four Industries Perfect for RPA

We may be a little biased, but we generally think that robotic process automation (RPA) can make a huge difference in any computer-dependent organization.  There will come a day when RPA handles all of the monotonous work that no one wants to do, but in the meantime, we know that the choice to pursue RPA has to be a strategic one.

An earlier post discussed the characteristics of business processes perfect for RPA, but to give it a little context, here are four industries that show the most potential for RPA to change the way they do business.

Utilities: Utility companies – gas, electric, water, etc. – deal with monetary transactions every day, so an obvious opportunity for RPA would be in billing as well as in meter-reading exceptions, debt recovery, and customer service. By automating a number of troubleshooting robots, a utility company can lower the number of failed meter-readings that need human attention. And of course, plenty of other industries could benefit from streamlined debt recovery and customer service as well.

Legal: The legal system is practically built on paper, and although making a switch to RPA requires more legwork than the average for-profit business, RPA could truly revolutionize the legal system. A software robot can scan through the massive stack of documents needed for a single legal case in seconds, and the analytics RPA provides could even unearth missed information. Admittedly, this would require a full digitization of all paper documents to be really successful. An enormous undertaking, to be sure, but one with significant gains through RPA.

Insurance: The insurance business combines the aspects of high volume of transactions and lots of paperwork – perfect for RPA! However, the flow of transactions or claims may not be as steady as it is for a utility company. One top insurance company was drawn to RPA for its ability to be easily scaled up or down on a daily or hourly basis. You may need fewer robots working in the afternoon than in the morning, and RPA can be altered to fit your needs.

Banking: While there’s already a fair share of automation going on in banks, remember that the key factor of RPA is its ability to work with and across legacy systems. Banking institutions can be weighed down by lots and lots of independent databases, which then require lots of database administrators to support them all. RPA can dramatically cut costs by eliminating the need for so many database administrators. Banks have also used tiered systems of RPA to solve failed transactions without human involvement.

The future is bright for RPA and the working world. Does your organization need to get on board?