RPA in IT: The 80/20 Work Breakdown

Everyone has mundane tasks in their work. We don’t even need to have data on this – we all just agree that at least a small part of our job is monotonous. Some of these tasks can be automated, and some cannot (for now). One area ready for change at the hands of robotic process automation is the IT department. With RPA, they might be able focus on more interesting problems than “Have you tried turning it off and on again?”

IT departments are in a unique position. A good IT department keeps the business running, but most of their day is spent fixing the same computer errors and the same software issues. This is a version of the 80/20 rule: 80% of IT time and resources are spent on activities that “keep the lights on” and only 20% of time and resources goes to innovation. Some of the most brilliant minds at your organization are stuck doing routine tasks that could be automated. People who go into IT as a profession are natural creative problem solvers and innovators. What if you could free part of their time to focus on innovation?

Maybe you’ve outsourced some of those routine IT tasks, and with good reason. Outsourcing can take the strain off of your employees, helping them perform better. But we all know that outsourcing can be a bit of a gamble – projects take too long, aren’t performed as specified, or the whole thing ends up costing more than expected. After years of dealing with this outsourcing model, businesses were looking for another option, and RPA stepped up to the plate. ReShoring, or bringing your business and IT processes back under your control, is gaining a lot of ground thanks to RPA. It’s especially true of IT.

If you’re an IT professional, think of any time that you end up clicking through the same buttons and entering the same information for your work. That could be automated. The beauty of RPA is that it works on the presentation layer, so it can navigate between systems without extra coding. It’s also programmable to execute workflows on trigger, as for a software update. RPA is easily coordinated; you can switch robots between tasks with the click of a mouse. Here at UiPath, we know IT professionals like to have complete control over their software, and we give you that option within our Desktop program.

Perhaps it’s time to tip the balance of IT away from 80/20 and towards a more innovative environment.