Intelligent process automation (IPA) is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world. In 2020 the industry was reportedly worth a little over $1.2 billion, and it is now projected to exceed a value of $13 billion by 2030,

When you analyze the benefits of IPA, it makes sense why so many companies are changing the solutions for the repetitive and mundane tasks involved with their business operations. When employees are required to do less important, repetitive tasks each workday, it can lead to higher rates of employee burnout.

IPA bots can work every minute of the day, unlike human workers. They reduce errors involved in these mundane and repetitive tasks, and they eliminate the need for employees to enter manual data for customers.

Let’s not forget that IPA solutions are technically business solutions, so I’m sure you’re wondering: is an IPA solution worth the return on investment?

The quick answer is yes. This blog will go over some ways that intelligent process automation can save your business money and cut costs associated with human error.

Read on to learn more!

Limit Labor Expenses

IPA solutions are very useful for tasks that have specific rules to follow. A great example of this that has already been mentioned is data entry. Data entry has set rules you must complete in order to fill out something like a customer profile, however, the task is repetitive and mundane.

IPA bots can be used here so you can reduce your labor costs and have your employees get paid for more important things. By using a mix of IPA, artificial intelligence, and business process management solutions (BPM), some of the biggest multinational consumer goods providers have reduced their invoice processing by 50-90%, saving some of these businesses nearly 50% of their spending on their full-time employees.

These numbers do not mean that human workers are being replaced. Human workers are simply being freed from time-consuming and mundane data entry tasks so they can go work on more important things.

Increase Employee Productivity

Many business positions require an employee to manually transfer figures from one document/spreadsheet to the next. This kind of task is not only tedious and time-consuming but also mind-numbingly boring.

With an IPA solution, the time an employee spends on these kinds of tasks could be diverted to more lucrative tasks, allowing a worker to improve their productivity and promote innovation. When employees have more time for creative thinking, an employer opens new doors for improved business outcomes in the present, as well as the future.

Although this point is not strictly meant for cost savings, it leads to higher numbers in revenue, which should be just as good as saving money.

Lower IT Expenses

An important thing to remember about IPA solutions is that the bots within them operate through the user interfaces in all software applications inside of a given business. Many IPA solutions come with a code-free bot design studio where you can create the kind of bot you need, which means your business doesn’t need to spend large amounts of money on IT to start automating business processes.

You can even automate certain IT tasks like system maintenance. These kinds of tasks usually take up a bunch of time, but with IPA, you won’t need to hire an IT specialist from a third-party service, saving you even more money over the years.

Reduce the Need for Third-Party Services

In the previous point, I mentioned how IPA solutions reduce the need for hiring IT specialists. This is a plus, but it’s not the only outsourcing cost that IPA reduces.

With the rise of software as a service (SaaS) for things like finances, personalized customer profiles, and customer service engagement, businesses are forced to outsource even more of their core processes.

Automation with IPA bots provides cost-effective alternatives for third-party services. Instead of paying for the services of another company, you can create automated processes inside your business that is handled by the bots completely.

Customer service is a great example of how IPA can reduce processing times. If IPA bots are programmed to handle customer service requests, then a company can reduce its processing times by more than 80%. This, in turn, boosts the customer service department’s productivity without the cost of outsourcing the work.

Reduce/Eliminate Data Errors

As I mentioned before, mundane, repetitive work leads to employee fatigue and burnout. It may have been exciting to learn the repetitive task when an employee first started, but when you’re doing it for the one-millionth time, it can be hard to tell if you’re staying as accurate as you once were.

Although these mistakes are small, they can add up over time and lead to some expensive costs. It has been estimated that human error costs US businesses nearly $3 trillion a year.

Unlike human workers, IPA bots don’t get tired or distracted. If programmed correctly, they don’t make typos or errors. If you add some AI to your IPA bots, they will be able to complete even more complex tasks with a higher degree of accuracy.

In a recent Digital Workforce Solutions blog, we discussed how some IPA solutions have completely eliminated manual invoice/processing errors inside hospitals entirely. Money, as well as monthly staff hours, was saved in big ways. You can read more about that here.

Any employer knows that low prices are one of the top factors that creates competition between businesses. With IPA, you can cut your business process costs to offer competitive prices and take the lead from your competitors through the digital speed that drives your business to better financial outcomes.

Even with a business’s current operational costs, IPA solutions can result in savings of up to 25-80%. In the financial service industry, finance companies have already seen up to 70% in savings across all of their departments.

Since IPA reduces and eliminates errors, quality also increases. IPA bots handle their assigned tasks in a highly effective manner. This is directly reflected in the quality of services that your business offers. When you avoid costly errors, your business can begin to save some serious money in the long run.

Intelligent process automation is a wonderful solution for businesses that are meeting specific cost objectives. This, in turn, results in higher ROI compared to manual processes that were once performed by human workers.

These solutions are perfect for money making rather than money spending. If you combine IPA with AI, much of a business’s manual work can be given to the IPA bots, saving the business money that can be given to human workers for more important tasks.

IPA software reduces operational costs compared to the processes that human workers have to complete. This means that company executives can invest in more high-value opportunities. Labor automation is also very scalable with IPA, meaning that a business’s cost reduction will increase over time.

With an IPA solution, an employer can find, multiply, and utilize high-value employees and their human potential. By releasing and multiplying human potential, IPA solutions can transform a business into a more attractive and employee-centric work environment.

Since IPA focuses on the human workers inside the workplace, it creates new roles, tasks, and processes for the employees. Human workers now have the chance to direct their focus toward new roles that require human skills. This maximizes the skills of the human workers and the value of the role/process/task changes.

You can also use IPA to scale up your business. Intelligent process automation creates the opportunity to automate seemingly endless amounts of processes that can save your business time and create flexibility that can scale your business.

With 2023 right around the corner, I’m sure that almost everyone has seen the large, clunky robots that are used inside factories to automate certain processes. Although these bots are useful in their respective position, a bot like this in most businesses would steal a human worker’s job, and ultimately make the remaining employees feel underappreciated.

The good thing about IPA bots is that they don’t take away a human worker’s job; in fact, they work alongside the employee. You also don’t need IPA bots to fully automate a process for it to bring value to your company. With proper planning, you can begin to integrate intelligent process automation inside your business one small step at a time.

But how does this implementation lead to a quick payback? Simple! IPA bots generally only need about 4-12 months to pay back initialization expenses.

Additionally, IPA bots work 24/7 365 days a year, so you’ll begin to notice a significant acceleration in the business processes that you choose to automate. As mentioned before, this will also lead to a boost in overall productivity.

Most IPA bots, especially when intertwined with other forms of AI, will learn as time goes on. Not only will they get faster and smarter, but their overall performance will become enhanced too. As performance improves, business processes improve even more compared to their initial automation, leaving employees and customers alike feeling more satisfied and valued.

IPA solutions come with a slew of substantial benefits. Whether you’re implementing IPA bots for the sake of your employees, trying to stay ahead of your competition, or limiting manual human errors, IPA does a lot more than fix one given problem.

When a company switches over to an IPA solution, the mere implementation is already leading them toward a cost-effective and cost-saving future. Fewer errors are made, saving companies large amounts of money that would otherwise be spent on fixing these errors. IPA-powered businesses also get a far more competitive edge against their competitors, making their services and job positions more attractive to customers and prospective employees.

The return on investment that IPA offers is almost too good to be true. IPA limits or completely eliminates the need for third-party intervention, meaning that your business can become even more self-reliant and independent. When more processes can be completed in-house, you’re setting yourself and your business up for even more success in the future. If trouble arises, there won’t be any need for a bunch of phone calls to your outsourced positions.

IPA keeps business processes centralized and running smoothly, all while cutting costs and saving the business time and money. If you feel like your business is ready to make the switch to an IPA solution, contact one of Digital Workforce Solutions’ representatives now to get the latest and greatest intelligent process automation solutions!