SAP Intelligent RPA use cases span across various industries– from creating an end-to-end smart system for a polymer factory to automating orders to ensure speed and accuracy needed in distributing pharmaceutical products.
Robotic processing automation (RPA) has been driving efficiency and productivity in many enterprises even before the pandemic disrupted the world. Designed to augment repetitive tasks that require significant manpower, RPA enables the workforce to focus on more complex problems that require human assessment.
The surge in demand for RPA has been evident in recent years as reported in a Forrester survey of 45 companies in Australia, India, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Singapore. In the report, the Asia-Pacific region accounts for 17{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} of RPA’s global market and is the driving force behind the technology’s growth.
RPA Technology in the COVID Environment
With COVID-19 in the background, RPA technology has been gaining more traction not only in addressing business-process vulnerabilities of enterprises but also in helping the healthcare industry automate patient data. One example of its use case in healthcare is the recent initiative of Singapore’s National University Health System (NUHS) to deploy RPA bots to automate and facilitate the administration of COVID-19 swab patient records in an SAP system. By utilising RPA technology, NUHS has significantly reduced the patient registration time from two minutes to just 30 seconds, which gives staff more time to focus on critical tasks.
“In healthcare, a lot of staff are very experienced, and they can be a little reluctant to change because they are worried about bots taking over their jobs,” shared Lily Loo, Director at NUHS. “So, when we embarked on RPA, we told the staff that their jobs would not be replaced and that they would be upskilling their expertise.”
For the post-COVID-19 rebound, RPA is foreseen to remain as a key technology investment according to IDC’s Worldwide Digital Transformation Spending Guide.
Al Hilwa, Senior Director of AI, Machine Learning, and Platform Technology Research at SAP earlier said:
“The coronavirus pandemic has increased demand in RPA. The integration of machine learning into RPA is driving many of the new investments, including more funding and acquisitions.”
Three Years of SAP Intelligent RPA
Over the course of three years, including the pandemic year of 2020, SAP Intelligent RPA has significantly improved to cater to the evolving needs of SAP customers. Since its launch in 2019, the SAP RPA solution has tapped over 50 partners worldwide and has achieved a major milestone with 1 million automations over the year by end of 2020. Closing back-to-back customer deals, including that of REHAU China and Villeroy and Boch, and offering a free trial experience to customers have remarkably increased the demand and recognition for SAP’s RPA solution.
Gaining momentum, especially in the last quarter of 2020, SAP was recognised in the Top 3 Automation Product Suppliers across the Global 2000 companies– a testament that SAP’s objective of helping businesses run better remains relevant amidst the pandemic.
This month, SAP was named a “Strong Performer” in The Forrester Wave™: Robotic Process Automation for the first quarter of 2021. The recognition is a result of the software giant’s three-year effort to create the best RPA solution for its customers.
“SAP’s RPA solution is a strong alternative for SAP customers, particularly for enterprises concerned with bots disrupting core SAP systems and those usually needing the central SAP development team to design, develop, and maintain RPA for clear accountability, or for companies seeking a feature-rich RPA tool that comes with a broad ecosystem of partners,” the Forrester report stated.
Here are some of the key features offered by SAP Intelligent RPA:
- Visual design of bot-enabled workflows
- Repository for bot skills and analytics
- Prebuilt bots for accelerated processes
SAP’s latest Business Transformation as a Service offering, RISE with SAP, also leverages RPA along with other AI services under its Business Process Intelligence component.
