As the world responds to the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses are doing the same, learning how to communicate, operate and navigate their way through completely unforeseen circumstances. The extreme volatility of long-held business standards like supply and demand is creating market upheaval. Meanwhile, factors we once took for granted—like simply showing up to an office for work—have been completely eliminated from the current business dynamic. And that’s just scratching the surface. “Challenging” doesn’t even begin to describe the climate.
RPA and the Recovery Effort
From data collection to health monitoring, robotic process automation is helping businesses and governments alike make adjustments during the COVID crisis. As agencies and departments put together action plans and initiatives for recovery, they’re leaning on RPA to help manage the extreme and sudden workloads. The United States Federal Government, for example, has implemented RPA to speed up the rate that infection data is counted. This helps officials understand the impact the virus is having on our communities as quickly as possible.
RPA is also helping on the ground level, giving hospitals much-needed relief for testing analysis and coordination. RPA allows hospitals to collect COVID testing data and share it with the CDC much faster than humans can, speeding up our understanding of the virus and bolstering our ability to respond.
Focusing Your Business Response with Automation
Whether by choice or circumstance, unprecedented global events often incite a period of reflection. And the business world is no different. According to one study by EY, more than half of surveyed businesses are restructuring operations because of disruptions from the global health crisis. As production and interaction in many businesses dwindle to a near-standstill, it can provide a small respite: an opportunity to fix your business process while volume is still relatively low.
For others, the volume is at an extreme high, but the challenges are just as problematic. Critical supplies, materials, and services are being ramped up to manage the crisis, but businesses are left to operate with minimized staff. In these instances, automation can provide much-needed support through unpredictability.
This is a time when process automation can help you not only improve how your business has been running but can even help to fill some of the newly created gaps caused by the COVID crisis. Take this time to dive deep into process analysis and automation.
Consider how work might get done differently in the event of extreme change. Are there good opportunities for remote work in the current process? Where can software bots alleviate existing bottlenecks? Which new ones will arise if and when the workflow is disrupted? Are there offline processes that should move online? Is your legacy system prepared to handle the stress of such a scenario?
As you work through the answers to these questions, it becomes clear that change is an essential part of survival. Automation can bring newfound efficiency in a way that helps you deal with change—and thrive in its wake. And if you’re not prepared to work through these answers, don’t worry. You’re not alone and we’re here to help.
Thanks to technologies like RPA, you can lighten the load, adding efficiencies where they’re needed most, filling new gaps where people are unable to complete critical work, and ultimately, helping everyone recover faster.
Learn more about how automation can help your business. Schedule a free 30-minute demo today.