Published on the 20/04/2016 | Written by Donovan Jackson
Consulting company sets up shop in ANZ, punts ‘robotic process automation’…
Who doesn’t like automation? (OK, perhaps unions and the Labour Party.) For those who find repetitive jobs boring, automation is a boon and for companies which have a lot of manual data processing jobs, automation is an obviously good idea. That’s something which consulting company Alsbridge is pushing pretty hard and it has a rather catchy name for it, too: robotic process automation.
Asked by iStart why it’s been dubbed that, instead of the more usual business process automation or workflow or just the plain solution integration we all know and love, the company’s US-headquartered CEO Chip Wagner let out a laugh and said, “Actually, yes, that’s a hilarious name for it, as we tend to think about robots as physical things, like R2D2. But what we’re talking about is software agents which mimic human labour behavior. They address repetitive data processes and perform that at an unrivalled speed.”
Makes sense; Wagner noted (much like bots crawling the web) the other advantages of ‘robots’ over people: no vacations, no fisticuffs with colleagues, working round the clock and no smoko. “The productivity improvements with a software agent means they do the work of 6 to 24 people.” The lack of any requirement for software development also seems to be part of the appeal; these robots can be put to work in front of existing screens.
He also let on that the term ‘robotic process automation’ isn’t as arcane as iStart first imagined; instead, it is used by a good number of vendors as a quick consultation with Google attested. The largest local example is at the ANZ Banking Group which has implemented an RPA approach for its support and customer service operations.
Wagner was recently in Australia and New Zealand as Alsbridge is in the process of setting up shop in these latitudes. He described New Zealand as ‘an interesting market’ and one which has considerable potential for the company; with NZTech recently noting low productivity and looking to technology to improve output, robotic process automation sounds like just the thing.
“We’ve got a team of two so far [largely focused on business development] and are likely to surround them with additional contractors with support from global. We have prospective clients with which I met while there and have a number of proposals in the market,” he said.
There is more to Alsbridge, too. One of its key service offerings is vendor management; Wagner explained how this adds value. “With outsourcing and managed services, large organisations can very quickly run into a very complex ecosystem which requires management of providers from India, the ANZ region, Europe and wherever else. You want to be sure that what’s being contracted is being delivered with no value leakage, that what is contained in statements of work is actually delivered.”
Alsbridge gets that sorted with specialists which Wagner said include people with legal, accounting and commercial backgrounds, supported by a software tool.
With the popularity of offshoring call centres and other processes by large corporations (and which cause all manner of headaches for local customers – see the comments sections on mainstream coverage of telecommunications), perhaps those services, too, will find fertile ground locally.
