Stage One: digitalisation
Not surprisingly, the answer is “definitely YES”. A certain level of automation has already been reflected in some of the common processes, such as document digitalisation, scanning or conversion into electronic files. There are currently around ten large companies operating in Poland that deal with data scanning and digitalisation. Such services are growing in popularity with the volume of scanned pages running into millions. This marks one of the firststeps on the way towards business process automation, and further measures are to follow. Automation and robotics is moreandmore often employed in identifying text pieces, converting text into data and exporting information to the accounting, purchase, logistic and other systems. This not only contributes to eliminating errors but also accelerates process implementation.
The robot conquest
Given the above, do automation and robotics pose threat to the labour market of professional business services? As revealed by international surveys conducted by Monster.com,63% of respondents do not fear being replaced by machines. Is this correct? At the ITO&BPO Germany Forum 2015 conference held in April, Peter Clark, a Virtual Operations expert, referred to the British example where 250 robots had replaced 1000 banking sector employees dealing with back-office operations. The replacement process took nearly 2 years. Another example was also quoted, in which thanks to automation it was possible to give up on 500 offshore workplaces. Should we then anticipate being replaced by artificial intelligence that will take over most of our work? Not necessarily.
The devil’s not so black…
The progressing robotisation of services is a fact, but has it been for the automation process that the automobile industry has reduced its human labour force? There’s still a long way before we completely remove the human factor from many processes and we are unlikely to face the reality of sci-fi movies or Lem’s books at least for many years ahead. Robots are sure to become a commonplace, but at the beginning only themost basic processes we’ll be eliminated.
The companies whose activities are limited to simple business processes may need to re-consider their business profiles, as artificial intelligence tends to learn much faster and it performs various operational activitiesin a more cost-effective and less expensive manner. According to British experts, the costs of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) resources are generally one-third lower than the costs of a workplace in the offshoring model, and a robot usually replaces at least two human workers. It should alsobe stressed that robots need no breaks, which makes them even more effective as compared to an eight-hour working system, says Wiktor Doktór, President of the Pro Progressio Foundation.
Fortunately, the dynamic growth rate of the Polish BPO/SSC industry will not be compromised, as most of the outsourcing projects and projects implemented by Shared Services Centres are based on more advanced processes which (as of now) cannot be automated. Moreover, the BPO/SSC industry has already drawn some robotics and automation benefits, rendering high-quality services to those entities which have no access to such solutions. This concerns, for instance, the modern call contact centres whose activities involve increasingly advanced technologies while the human factor has remained equally essential.
Background
Considering the market evolution towards automation and robotics may help us get a better understanding of RPA. The idea of establishing shared services centres originated in the mid-1970s and has continued development since then. A growing number of companies that offer a wide array of operational activities decide to set up such centres, the only difference being that they are now much smaller than 10-15 years ago. A rapid development of the BPO and ITO sectors in the mid-1980s marked another step. This was when the “empire of services” emerged in India, the country with the largest business processes outsourcing sector, which however is now facing a major threat from process automation and robotics. The third development stage, i.e. nearshoring and offshoring, is inherently connected with the second one. It evolved mostly in the first decade of the present century. Robotics, commonly referred to as RPA – Robotic Process Automation, has enjoyed a growing popularity since 2010. It is worth noting that all the stages mentioned are still under implementation, and none of them has been either replaced or eliminated by automation and robotics.
Topical issues
The issues related to robotics have become a more popular topic at various conferences and industrial events.
Robotics was one of the issues dealt with at the discussion panel within the framework of the annual ASPIRE conference in Kraków. The upcoming Kraków-based ABSL conference will also feature the process automation topic, and so will the October IAOP conference in Frankfurt. This gives rise to another question: is BPO/SSC the only sector to express interest in automation, or is this issue significant also to other industries? At present, the implementation of process automation entails substantial costs and not every organisation can afford it. For this reason, outsourcing companies now tend to express more interest in acquiring new technologies than their current and/or prospective customers, says Wiktor Doktór, President of the Pro Progressio Foundation.
Photo © Pro Progressio Foundation