Indian banks adopted IT-enabled infrastructure in the 1990s. This brought a phenomenal change in Banking solutions. Services that took days were done instantly. The next major wave of advancement in the Banking sector is due to Automation Technology.
Automation helps in creating customer-centric banking solutions. Once the Automation services are implemented, they provide 24*7 online services, thereby, reducing the service wait time. Employees make errors while doing routine tasks, but Automation eliminates such errors.
In this article, we will explore Service Automation and Robotic Process Automation (RPA), two automation approaches that are now popular.
What is Service Automation?
Service Automation is the delivery of services by a completely automated process. It provides the customers with a self-service solution, such that, customers can use the service through a website, chat, or other portals. They don’t need to speak directly to a service provider.
Service Automation creates an automated interface between the service provider and the end-users. It is cost-effective and can provide better insights into the needs of end-users. It is also a scalable business model. More data can be processed with the same workflows and scripts.
For instance, the customers can apply for a loan from the mobile banking app directly, without visiting a bank’s branch. They can also invest in mutual funds or buy insurance from the same app. These processes eliminate the need for customers to visit the bank’s branch or talk to any bank employees. These services can be availed at any time.
Service Automation aims to create a satisfying user experience. This is crucial because the customers will refuse to use the services if they aren’t satisfied or if the user experience is not good.
What is Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?
RPA is using bots or pre-configured software that can perform simple and complex repetitive tasks to accomplish a business process.
RPA can replace employees for low risk, high volume, repetitive tasks like data entry, customer information verification, account opening requests, loan processing, automatic report generation, customer, vendor or employee onboarding, vendor management, etc. and other back-office processes. Another major impact of using RPA technology is increased security.
RPA Platform is based on Artificial Intelligence, Screen Scraping technology and Business Process Automation. It can learn and solve problems on its own, just like a human brain. Data from a legacy application can be captured and displayed in new applications using RPA. Unnecessary manual efforts can be eliminated. Costs and error rates are greatly reduced.
An example would be the Customer Onboarding process. Before RPA was introduced, this was a time-consuming process because all the documents received from customers needed manual verification. Whereas, now RPA can capture the information on the KYC document using OCR (Optical Character Recognition) method. This information is then is verified against the data in the form filled by the customer. This makes the process instantaneous and efficient.
The implementation of RPA in banks is also fast and non-intrusive. No major changes are required in the IT Structure. In cloud-based RPA, hardware and maintenance are also minimal.
ICICI, a private sector bank is the first among Indian banks to implement RPA on a large scale. 750 robots were deployed to process twenty lakh transactions per day. Now, other banks have also started the implementation of RPA.
A study by Forrester Consulting conducted on behalf of UiPath reveals that 48% of survey respondents are planning to increase investment in RPA over the next year. We can infer that the pandemic has further increased the necessity of automation. Organizations need Automation technologies to build resilience and agility.
Differences Between Service Automation and RPA
The significant difference between Service Automation and RPA lies in the Scope of these technologies.
Service Automation is preferred for End User Services. For example, when customer service on websites or apps is automated, customers can get instant answers to their questions from chatbots instead of waiting for a customer service representative. Service Automation focuses on external services.
RPA, on the contrary, focuses on Back-office functions or internal services. For instance, HR operations, facility management, etc. prefer using the RPA platform to automate everyday administrative functions.
Another key difference is that vendors are usually different for both approaches. Service Automation vendors are from the IT services domain. RPA vendors usually have AI and orchestration technology background.
Similarities in Service Automation and RPA
- Service Automation and RPA are easy to implement.
- Both Approaches work by designing workflows and automation of scripts.
- They aim to generate a satisfying user experience.
- They also increase speed, reduce cost, and decrease error rates compared to humans doing repetitive tasks, etc.
Conclusion
Banks can integrate Service Automation and RPA to get maximum benefit. Service Automation can be used as a self-service solution through which all interactions happen with the end-users.
RPA can execute workflows and scripts in the backend to support self-service solutions. For instance, applying for a loan is a tedious and slow process. Service Automation makes it easier for the Customer to apply for a loan. RPA automates loan processing. They can successfully work in tandem. Thus, two different methodologies can collaborate to form a robust technology. Hence, using RPA and Service Automation as per business requirements seems to be the need of the hour, especially in the COVID-19 pandemic when moving around freely is difficult.
