As Robotic Process Automation rapidly continues to make its mark within the business and economic landscapes, much uncertainty exists about the role of humans within the workforce. What is certain, however, is the sustainable value that desktop automation brings to any digital transformation initiative and the people involved. In fact, Desktop Automation intricately functions with humans at the heart of each and every customer interaction and business process, enabling the human workforce to reach its best potential.
In its truest form, Desktop Automation comprises of software robots that reside within each and every employee's desktop, with the cognitive intelligence to handle the dynamism of the desktop environment. As such, a robust desktop automation should have the functionality to emerge as and when the employee may need assistance or real-time process guidance. The close and unique alignment to each and every individual employee's desktop unlocks many value drivers for enterprises today.
On the job training via the real-time process guidance reduces the time and cost involved in training and onboarding of new staff members. Offloading the admin driven and repetitive tasks onto desktop automation robots, greatly simplifies operational processes for employees, enabling them to work more accurately and efficiently. Customer service representatives are then freed up to contribute more human and empathetic qualities to the customers' service experience.
Mastering the complexities of the desktop environment for sustainable value and ROI
Desktop automation capabilities should enable more business process agility to organizations. For example, if a new process in the form of a changed company policy needs to be introduced and implemented, it is as simple as creating a new solution file or rule. The new process can come into full effect the very next day with full alignment to employee actions. As employees arrive at work and access their updated desktop automation client, they will be intelligently informed of the new process and guided through each step in real-time. This agility allows for quick alignment of staff to new or changed operational processes.
In order for enterprises to gain the real and sustainable value that Desktop Automation brings to digital transformation efforts, it is essential to understand and master the complexities of the desktop environment. As humans are continually opening up many different applications and interacting with different screen elements, a rich and comprehensive desktop automation solution should effectively navigate and support some of the following complexities caused by human interaction.
Multi-instance refers to a scenario when an employee opens up more than one application at a given point in time. When two different windows from the same application are open with different customer info, the technology needs to ensure that the automation is initiated from the correct window with the correct customer information. On the other hand, user intervention is another dynamic caused by human users who may close various applications that break the connectivity and stops the automation. NICE has a mechanism in place called Connectivity Watcher, to detect the exact location of the connectivity break, enabling users to resume the automation with little to no downtime.
It is only natural that at some point a human employee will minimize certain applications on their desktop. The desktop automation should have the capabilities to connect into minimized applications while the automation is running. This ensures the proper functioning of the automation in the background while the employee may be working on something else on the desktop. Lastly, different desktops will vary in resolution and screen size depending on the individual preferences of the employees. As such, the underlying technology should be able to read and function well from a variety of different resolution settings.
In order for enterprises to build competitive advantage and strong service differentiators, it is imperative to understand the full potential that desktop automation is able to bring to any digital transformation initiative.
To understand and unpack the actual technologies that support true and robust desktop automations, stay tuned for the release of NICE's Desktop Automation whitepaper.