RPA MSP or RPA Managed Service providers play a critical role in getting RPA in the hands of all types of business verticals and businesses of all sizes. This includes SME / small and medium-sized enterprises. RPA MSPs play a critical role in bringing RPA to the masses and enabling all businesses to operate more effectively in today’s Information Economy.
What is RPA?
Let’s take a step back and look at the definition of RPA. RPA is Robotic Process Automation. Robotic refers to a software instance capable of doing complex tasks by acting like a human and reading a computer screen, copying, and pasting information, and moving and clicking a mouse, … just like a human would. Process refers to a sequence of steps that are part of a meaningful work function or activity that a human would ordinarily be doing. Automation, within the context of RPA, refers to processes getting done automatically and without human intervention. Using RPA in business provides considerable value. Based on this it is easy to see why RPA managed services make sense.
What is an MSP?
Let’s look at the definition of managed services, and as a result, what the definition of an MSP or managed service provider. A managed service, according to Wikipedia, is loosely described as “outsourcing the responsibility for maintaining, and anticipating need for, a range of processes and functions to improve operations and reduce expenses.” Furthermore, it’s an “alternative to the break/fix or other on-demand outsourcing model when service providers perform on-demand services and bills the customer for the work done”. An MSP or Managed Service provider is the one contracted to do this work. This is done as a service or aaS and uses whatever relevant software is required in a SaaS or software as a service model. As we think about the definitions of RPA and of an MSP it is clear to see why automation as a service and RPA as a service make sense … especially for SMB / small and midsize business.
Why does an RPA MSP make sense for SMB & SME?
Up until now, RPA has mostly been used by enterprises and not SMEs & SMBs. Less than 5% of RPA managed services have been deployed by MSPs to date. This is further proof that so far RPA has been the domain of large enterprises and the consulting and technology firms that cater to them including Deloitte, Accenture, Cap Gemini, IBM, Tata, Wipro, etc. At Valenta we aim to bring the same technology tools and professional services to SMB and SME that large corporations and enterprises are able to leverage. We do this with our consulting services, outsourcing services, and digital transformation services. Part of our digital transformation portfolio is providing RPA as a managed service.
MSPs historically play a critical role in enabling SME and SMB to use more complex IT technologies. Cybersecurity is one example, but there are many others. RPA, AI, ML, Conversational AI, and IoT are all examples of new technologies where MSPS are there to help SMB & SME clients. Automation as a service and RPA as a service definitely makes sense for SMB and SME.
Some of these benefits include the following:
Focus
Maintaining a laser focus on a business’s main reason for existing is a great reason to use RPA and to leverage RPA through an MSP. An MSP can off load all the heavy lifting of designing, implementing, and maintaining an RPA platform for SME / small and medium-sized enterprises.
Scalability
With the use of RPA, and without the burden of designing and maintaining an RPA platform, SMB / small and midsize businesses can scale rapidly. Because they are focused on their core business and not their tech stack, they can grow their business most efficiently.
Innovation
Partnering with RPA experts SME / small and medium-sized enterprises will know that they are always deploying the latest and leading-edge solutions in the area of RPA. They will not be distracted with staying up to date on the latest tools and trends and can rely on RPA MSPs to do this. SME’s can therefore innovate technically and within their core business at a rapid pace.
Cost reduction
The desire to drive down expenses and the cost of doing business is one main reason to use RPA and an RPA MSP. RPA inherently is about cost reduction. Leveraging an MSP at an SMB / small and midsize business level is the most cost-effective way these types of businesses can leverage the same tools as Fortune 1,000 and large enterprises. MSPs that cater to SMBs also do not bring with them the same cost and bloat of large consulting firms.
Risk reduction
Because of the flexible engagement models that an RPA MSP brings to the table, where everything is delivered aaS as a service and leveraging SaaS software as a service, SME / small and medium-sized enterprises minimize their risk. These types of engagements are typically month to month and can scale up and down as an SME’s business scales.
Where can RPA MSPs provide the most value?
Using RPA in business can have many benefits. RPA as a service and automation as a service from an MSP can provide value in every department of a business. Every business no matter its size has Finance & Accounting, Sales & Marketing, Human Resources, IT and Operations functions. Every one of these departments or pillars of a business can benefit from RPA. In Valenta’s experience, some of the areas where RPA provides the most value and where much of the lower hanging fruit resides includes:
- Accounting processes
- Account reconciliation
- Daily P&L
- Bank statement reconciliation
- Payroll automation
- Report preparation
- Procurement
- Invoice processing
- PO processing
- Data entry
- Data extraction
- Data updates and validation
- Sales operations
- CRM processes
- Customer support
- Expense tracking,
- Social Media management
- IT operations
- Software updates
- Hardware updates
- IT user updates
- Human resources management
- Employee onboarding
- Compliance operations
Do RPA managed services make sense for your business?
RPA managed services and RPA managed service providers play a critical role in terms of getting RPA in the hands of all types of business and SME / small and medium-sized enterprises.
RPA MSPs, like Valenta, can play a critical role in bringing RPA to the entire SMB / small and midsize business community and can enable all businesses to operate more effectively in today’s Information Economy. RPA managed service providers, like Valenta, can help SMB and SME to focus on their core business, scale at will, and innovate like large companies … all while driving down costs in their business and avoiding the risk associated with deploying new and unknown technology.
Valenta is here to help. If you would like to learn more about Robotic Process Automation and other automation topics our website is a great place to start . If you would like to have a short conversation to determine if some of this is a good fit for your business, please feel free to Contact Us