Since the pandemic hit in late 2019, the economy has seen a downward turn. It seems inevitable that recession is on the way as stocks continue to fluctuate emphasizing the volatile economic situation. This has affected many companies, business users, and the employees worldwide.

However, a particular industry seems to have immunity to this downward spiral. As remote work is becoming mainstream, video conferencing and other tools that enable remote work are booming. All of these changes will leave a long-lasting effect on consumers and business behavior for quite some time.

A question that has popped up is the place of robotic process automation in all these changes. Will it follow the same trend as video conferencing companies that have seen a boost or be like other industries with a downward turn?

This article will explore robotic process automation and find out if it is recession-proof.

How the Economic Downturn Has Affected Businesses

COVID-19 has led to declines in employment, cost-cutting, and different downsizing efforts in many industries trying to stay productive. There have been three main strategic methods companies have taken during the economic downturn to stay profitable.

Defensive approaches involve companies improving operational efficiency, reducing the number of employees that handle routine tasks, or a combination of both as a natural response to the economic climate. On the other hand, Offensive approaches use methods like investing in new assets, developing new assets, or a combination of the two techniques.

We can divide the strategic methods used by companies and identify them as prevention-focused, promotion-focused or pragmatic companies depending on the business growth.

Prevention-focused companies put their efforts into making defensive moves and are generally more concerned about reducing downside risks and preventing losses more than their rivals.

Promotion-focused companies put more effort into offensive moves that give them upside benefits more than their counterparts.

Pragmatic companies combine offensive and defensive moves in their efforts.

There is one more “type” of company employing these methods, progressive companies. These companies deploy the required defensive and offensive moves with an eye on sustained growth and competitive advantage. This is by far the best way to go that has helped these companies’ businesses and made them stay relevant.

How RPA Fits into All This

In a bid to save money and make processes more efficient for a company, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) isn’t an obstacle to the process. Instead, it is a tool that can help these businesses on their path to transformation. Companies are using this technology to automate the manual tasks that humans would typically perform. Many of these tasks are like those in legacy systems that you can’t reach through web services and APIs.

Some companies and industries have taken advantage of this technology to implement more recession-proof operations in their business strategy. Traditionally, companies used outsourced work solutions to free up local staff and reduce costs. Still, the far-reaching effects of the Coronavirus have made the inefficiencies and limitations of this method more apparent.

Even though RPA is still outsourced work, it has proven to be a resilient system that can weather the challenges faced by the pandemic and the work environment in the future. Since its basis uses advanced technologies, RPA systems have proven to operate with the same capabilities regardless of the economic conditions. Apart from that, RPA methods deliver faster and more efficient work at a lower cost than traditional outsourcing.

Businesses that progress during the recession have leaders that focus on long-term profits and growth without allowing the current situations to deter their path. Many of these leaders don’t usually hurry to reduce their workforce considerably when faced with challenges. RPA has made it easier for companies to function better than their peers by downsizing at a lower rate, improving operational efficiency, and setting the stage to thrive after the recession.

So, RPA isn’t going to be one of the recession’s casualties, but rather is a means to help weather the recession and lead your company to come out on top and ensure business continuity.

Robotic Process Automation is Leading the Next Industrial Revolution

The many enhancements and improvements RPA has on businesses across all industries have led some to call it the next industrial revolution. In times of increased business volumes and economic downturn, RPA has continued to improve operational efficiency and reduce costs to deliver productivity and more profits constantly.

Even though detractors of this technology typically say that it is a job killer, it is from the wrong perspective as it gives long value gain for all parties involved. While it’s true that RPA replaces mundane and manual tasks, many of these fears are based on the misconception of the function of automation in the marketplace.

The challenge is how businesses can grow workforce productivity in the same way they do for scalability. Freeing up the schedule of these workers means they can handle higher-value work like continuous process improvement or customer-facing tasks that these systems may not be able to take.

If you let your staff improve at the same pace as technology, it is easier for your business model to remove process redundancies. Your workforce can also upskill and contribute towards better business operations. It encourages continuous improvement of skills so your workforce can be more beneficial and add value to the organization.

How RPA Can Help Businesses Combat Recession

COVID-19 has led to declines in employment, cost-cutting, and different downsizing efforts in many industries trying to stay productive. There have been three main strategic methods companies have taken during the economic downturn to stay profitable.

Automate Costly and Repetitive Tasks

Giving humans exacting tasks and routine operations to perform means there is a chance of mistakes occurring, especially if they’re stressed. A slight mistake or error could lead to a series of events resulting in costly human errors exposing the organization to risks. This isn’t the same with RPA bots. The systems can take on any administrative workload regardless of how complex the process is or the work intensity.

This advantage is especially crucial in industries like insurance, healthcare, banking, and other sectors where they are very data-intensive. Maintaining operational efficiency in these businesses is the key to remaining competitive. Eliminating any chance of manual working errors before they occur and improving workflow speeds is crucial to the sustainability of these industries.

Customer Focus

Regardless of the economic situation, customers still expect top quality and service. RPA allows your employees to focus on customer-centric tasks without distractions from other business processes so they can keep delivering excellent customer experience.

RPA also uses its advanced systems to give you a better look at your customers. It gives you actionable insights to drive your decisions, so it favors your customers. You can also use these insights to know when to send personalized messages to each customer at the right time. You can use this method to improve your organization’s brand and customer segments.

Provides Data-Driven Insights Towards Increasing Growth Potential

If the data health of an organization is lacking, there is already an apparent setback for them towards attaining market share. Good quality CRM data unlock teams’ potentials across the business and sets their path towards a goal. This cuts across several departments in an organization, including sales, marketing, and financial services.

RPA helps in better data organization and efficiently connects data silos across several systems. It also improves data accuracy by making the mapping of inputs to outputs automated. RPA also allows you to close up any regulatory gaps that are a challenge for non-compliance risks. RPA leaves behind digital audit trails to make progress measurement easier and evaluate an organization’s past performance to plan its future strategies.

Conclusion

You shouldn’t panic in times of recession and make decisions that negatively affect you or your business behavior. Your organization should have an approach to handling risks and implement RPA to ease the transition.

Leverage Sage IT’s expertise in RPA and build an efficient business organization. Get in touch!