Deloitte Us Cons Global Rpa Survey PDF
Deloitte Us Cons Global Rpa Survey PDF
Digital workforce is used to describe the automated solutions that are delivering processes within an
organization – ‘robots’, chatbots, algorithms and artificial intelligence. In most cases, the digital workforce
will be either working in the background on virtual machines or accessed by consumers and co-workers
through a command-based interface. Today, robots dominate most digital workforces and therefore
Robotic Process Automation is the main focus of this report.
Robotic Process Automation (RPA), often referred to as ‘robotics’ or ‘robots’, is defined as the automation of
rules-based processes with software that utilises the user interface and which can run on any software,
including web-based applications, ERP systems and mainframe systems.
Methodology
In September 2017, Deloitte invited organizations globally to take part in an online survey on their use of
RPA. We received responses from over 400 individuals across many industries with combined value of
$1.8 trillion. This information has been analyzed in aggregate and forms the basis of this publication.
Disclaimer
In this publication, references to Deloitte are references to Deloitte LLP, the UK affiliate of Deloitte NWE LLP, a member firm of
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited.
Contents
Foreword03
of respondents have
already started their
RPA journey
2020
72%
increase to current level, RPA will have
achieved near-universal
adoption within the
next five years
in the next two years
���
Payback was reported at less RPA continues to meet and exceed
than 12 months, with an average expectations across multiple
20% of full-time dimensions including:
equivalent (FTE) capacity Improved compliance 92%
provided by robots Improved quality/accuracy 90%
Improved productivity 86%
Cost reduction 59%
#worktodo | www.deloitte.com/us/rpasurvey
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Foreword
Welcome to the 2017 Deloitte report examining Robotics and Cognitive Automation with a particular focus
on Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and its role in shared services, global business services (GBS) and
other administrative organizations. This is our third such report, following 2015’s “The robots are coming”
and 2016’s “The robots are here”.
Over the past year, there has been intensifying interest in robotics and automation, both in the media and on
the conference circuit. The potential for these technologies to reduce costs and jobs in particular has been
highlighted. In our UK report “From brawn to brains”, we showed that 35% of UK jobs are at risk of automation
in the next 10-20 years. Our research demonstrated that, while technology contributed to the loss of 800,000
jobs between 2001 and 2015, in the same period it helped create 3.5m new jobs which, on average, were higher
skilled and higher paid. It is clear that the job landscape in the future will be dramatically different. In parallel
with moving to greater use of robotics and automation, businesses need to reimagine the shape and role of
their human workforce.
This year’s Deloitte RPA survey, which attracted well over 400 responses from around the world, shows that
awareness of robotics remains high. Continuous improvement and automation are top of the strategic agenda
for many companies. Even more organizations have investigated the RPA opportunity and/or built a proof of
concept. They are convinced robotics will deliver a significant productivity increase and that it is applicable for
a sizeable portion of their activities.
They are also convinced that robotics can deliver other benefits, such as improved compliance, faster
turnaround times and higher quality. They also report that payback periods are attractive – averaging around
a year. Yet levels of implementation remain similar to those reported last year, and only 3% of organizations
have managed to scale RPA to a level of 50 or more robots.
So, if a majority of surveyed organizations have started on their RPA journey and almost a quarter more plan to
do so in the next two years, why has adoption of RPA at scale not progressed faster?
Our experience of working with many organizations on robotic and digital transformations has given us insight
on the many challenges of achieving automation at scale. This report will look at how organizations have
addressed these challenges and ask how the remarkable potential of a large-scale digital workforce can be
released, to drive competitive advantage. Robotic and cognitive automation is clearly one significant disrupter in
the future world of work that needs to be understood, and responded to, as part of a much wider transition to
new ways of working.
We would like to thank all the executives who participated in the survey and interviews. We hope you find our
insights thought provoking and useful, and we would welcome the opportunity for further discussion with you
on this topic.
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Executive summary
This report builds on our previous research on robotics. The 2017
global robotics survey attracted over 400 responses and its findings
demonstrate clearly that robots are here and they are here to stay.
Continuous improvement and automation remain top RPA implementation has an attractive payback
of the strategic agenda: 53% of the respondents have period – just under 12 months. Organizations that
already embarked on the RPA journey and a further have piloted RPA expect, on average, a 9.3-month
19% of respondents plan to adopt RPA in the next two payback period while, in reality, the payback achieved
years. If adoption continues at its current level, RPA by those that have implemented and scaled RPA has
will have achieved near-universal adoption within the been 11.5 months. The difference is, perhaps, due to
next five years. an underestimation of time and cost to deliver RPA by
some organizations, since 63% said their expectations
RPA is increasingly becoming an enterprise-level of time to implement were not met and 37% said their
opportunity: for 64% of respondents on the RPA expectations of cost to implement were not met.
journey, it is a strategic or enterprise-wide initiative.
This figure has grown significantly. Just 12 months ago, However, organizations are continuing to invest in RPA.
only 15% of respondents reported RPA being a part Among those that have already implemented RPA,
of a wider corporate initiative. Many organizations 78% expect to significantly increase investment in RPA
that started with function-specific RPA initiatives have over the next three years, with those that are piloting
grown or consolidated these to take advantage of the RPA planning to spend an average of $1.5m on RPA.
broader opportunity across the business. Organizations that have implemented or scaled across
the enterprise have already invested an average of
There is an expectation that robots could deliver a $3.5m in robotics.
significant portion of current transactional activities.
On average, the expectation is that 20% of FTE RPA continues to outperform expectations on
capacity could be provided by robots. This expectation non-financial benefits such as accuracy, timelines,
matches the reality for those that have already flexibility and improved compliance, with at least 85%
implemented RPA. In fact, those that have scaled RPA of respondents reporting that RPA met or exceeded
appear to have had such a positive experience that their expectations in these areas. In addition, a total
their expectations are even more ambitious: they of 61% reported their expectations of cost reduction
believe that 52% of FTE capacity could be provided by being met or exceeded. Some highlighted the fact that
robots. This can enable the human workforce to be this enabled them to move people from performing
redeployed to more value adding activities. transactional tasks to higher-value activities that also
led to greater job satisfaction.
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In terms of stakeholder support, the C-suite and The cognitive agenda is increasingly anticipated. Those
functional leadership are the most supportive organizations that have implemented or scaled RPA
stakeholder groups for companies that have are already looking at cognitive automation: 44% of
implemented RPA: 72% reported a C-suite that is them have identified suitable solutions and a further
supportive of RPA. The IT organization, on the other 28% are already implementing cognitive automation.
hand, remains the least supportive stakeholder
when it comes to RPA. Overall, it would appear that The prize for organizations that get RPA right is
resistance to the implementation of robotics has significant. Yet, to achieve it they need first to establish
fallen since last year among all other stakeholders. the right ambition, foundations and agility. When
Critically, only 17% of respondents faced some exploring RPA our recommendation is to consider
employee resistance when it comes to piloting RPA. these elements carefully from the outset and establish
This dropped to only 3% with respondents who an ambition and a model that will enable you to deliver
were implementing or scaling RPA. Our respondents at scale and manage your digital workforce in a fast,
suggest that engaging employees in the design and fluid and flexible manner.
implementation of the RPA solution can be very
effective in reducing resistance and can lead to further This in turn creates opportunities for the human
positive impact including higher job satisfaction. workforce in the increasingly challenging market
for talent. Instead of considering RPA as a pure cost
Process standardization and change management reduction exercise, businesses should be looking for
are reported as the main challenges in the proof opportunities to invest saved time in more fulfilling
of concept and pilot stages of the RPA journey. As jobs and more flexible work arrangements, enhancing
organizations move to pilot, implementation and their employee experience.
scaling, integration with other IT systems and flexibility
of the RPA solution are often quoted as challenges.
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Introduction: Addressing
strategic priorities
Continuous improvement and automation “By using RPA on top of the
remain top priorities
The answers to our question about strategic priorities processes we can harvest much
show the same top two priorities as those in last year’s more information and data than
survey “The robots are here” (see Figure 1). Continuous
improvement and increasing the level of automation through traditional methods.
are still the main preoccupations for administrative This opens up new opportunities
functions and shared-service operations.
like leveraging that information
There is, however, a dramatic increase in the focus for cognitive and AI type of
on analytics, with 17% of organizations identifying
this as a top priority, compared with just 6% last year. technologies. As we scale up and
Organizations are seeing more opportunity to derive more data becomes available,
value from data that already exists and new software,
including RPA, is making even more data available to this link will be stronger and
use. There are also improved tools and techniques stronger.”
to interpret this data, to help generate insight and
Karolina Mikolajow, Simplification Lead,
support better decision making.
UBS Investment Bank
Figure 1: What is the top strategic priority for your operation today?
Improve governance/ 8%
service management
5%
Increase level of 5%
process integration
9%
Increase service scope
(number of functions 5%
served/services
delivered) 8%
Increase geographic
scope (number of 4%
countries/ 6%
geographies served)
2%
Other
2%
5
0 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
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Given the high impact of RPA on these top-three We are surprised that so few have scaled, given the
priorities, continued investment in its adoption is not relatively low cost of implementation and the high
surprising. benefit of automating carefully selected high-value
activities.
Yet there remains a large core of organizations that
are, at best, slow to benefit from RPA (see Figure 2). While a few early adopters are already moving from
Compared to last year, there has been a relatively experiment to scale, process automation using RPA is
small increase in the number of organizations still in its infancy and many organizations have yet to
investigating RPA or building a proof of concept, and fully realize its benefits.
only a tiny minority (3%) of progressive leaders have
reached any form of scale with more than 50 robots
in service.
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It is a part of an
On average, respondents who had implemented RPA
enterprise-wide
initiative
38% estimated that 20% of capacity in their operation
could be delivered by robots. This was in line with the
expectations of organizations at proof of concept or
pilot stages, which were targeting just under 20% of
capacity in their operation.
It is driven by my
operation 33%
However, among organizations that are already scaling Think benefits – and think beyond
robotics the average target was as high as 52% of cost reduction
capacity. Those implementing at scale believe their There is temptation with RPA to focus solely on
digital workforce will exceed their human workforce the benefits of reducing headcount in rules based
in terms of delivery capacity, for administrative and processes. Cost reduction in the target processes
repetitive tasks. is typically achieved through attrition, freezing
recruitment and through moving people into higher
Of course, companies do not expect to realize these value roles. This tends to be what drives business
targets immediately. One Deloitte client delivered cases and helps organizations achieve an average
an initial 8% of FTE capacity in the first wave of reported payback period of just under 12 months.
implementation which was realized through attrition
and redeployment to higher value roles. But it However, the evidence yielded by this survey
recognized that as it built system-specific, re-usable underlines and amplifies what we have learned
components, the cost to implement would reduce and through experience implementing RPA – that top line
additional lower-volume processes would become and productivity benefits can outstrip cost benefits:
more financially viable. 86% of respondents indicate that their expectations
of productivity improvement from RPA were met or
exceeded, while the same is true of 61% in relation to
expectations on cost reduction (see Figure 4).
Improved compliance
Improved quality/accuracy
Improved productivity
Flexibility to scale up
or down capacity
Cost reduction
Speed to implement
Cost to implement
Providing better
management information
0 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
n=32
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Confidence in RPA’s capacity to deliver benefits Think high – get your C-suite on board
such as improved compliance, quality and improved Implementing a premium, enterprise-wide digital
productivity remain high (in the 85% to 92% range). workforce requires C-suite support and sponsorship.
As organizations progress in their RPA journey, they Our survey shows that C-suite and functional
increasingly value these upside benefits as they see leadership are the most supportive stakeholder
how these positively impact their organization. groups in companies that have implemented and
scaled RPA (see Figure 5).
However, for some organizations not all expectations
are being met by RPA: 63% of respondents said that C-Suite awareness of, and support for, RPA in particular
their expected speed to implement had not been has increased since our last survey. Organizations
achieved and 43% found that RPA had not delivered can capitalize on this to cut through organizational
planned improvements in management information. barriers and to accelerate scaling, both of which are
especially useful where there is resistance from other
In our view, digital workforces require stringent parts of the business.
planning, design and implementation. The rush to
commoditize robot development has, in many cases,
led to organizations failing to recognize that high-
quality architecture, planning and building of a digital
workforce can yield much-improved results.
Figure 5: How supportive of the RPA implementation were your stakeholder groups?
C-suite 72%
Functional leadership
72%
Global process owners
and/or Continuous
improvement functions 63%
Team members
53%
50%
Managers and
team leaders
IT
31%
% supportive or highly supportive n=32
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Build a strong
foundation
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It requires responsive and secure The perception of most respondents (see Figure 5), is
technology support that the IT organization can often be least supportive
Buy-in from an effective IT organization and of RPA. This picture has not changed since last year,
successfully integrating the RPA solution are the despite other stakeholder groups apparently warming
next challenges in implementing RPA – a point that to RPA. In our experience, it can be difficult to move
highlights the fundamental importance of including RPA up the priority list of IT organizations when they
and integrating the IT organization in the automation are often focused on more immediately pressing
process. and large-scale challenges of keeping the lights on,
migrating estates to the cloud, and preparing for next
The IT organization is essential in setting up a scalable generation ERP.
and secure bot infrastructure – to “plump” robots into
your existing systems – and can hold the key to testing We recommend engaging the IT organization from the
systems, approving user acceptance testing, signing outset, integrating it into your governance and sharing
off go-live and incident management on live systems. face time with executive sponsors. If IT teams are
struggling, consider engaging CIO support to create
a small handpicked team of agile, digital-minded
“IT are absolutely critical to technologists to support your RPA implementation
and help you successfully navigate the wider IT
the successful deployment organization.
of RPA. This was a lesson we
learned early on in our own
RPA deployment in Deloitte.
I have found there is a significant
difference in both speed and
cost to deliver between clients
that have an engaged and
supportive IT function and those
where IT is less supportive.”
David Wright, Director, Deloitte
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You need engaged people Some organizations had engaged their employees in
Organizations that have succeeded in scaling RPA the design and implementation of the robots and in
tend to have engaged people and have effectively how this alters the role and skills of the people who
built buy-in to the change process. In contrast with will be working alongside them. They reported that as
outsourcing, there seems to be little resistance across a result, many employees had welcomed RPA, found
organizations to the introduction of RPA. Just 17% their jobs were more satisfying after implementation
of organizations that are piloting RPA faced some or and wanted to pioneer this new technology.
significant employee resistance, and among those
that have progressed to implementation or scaling
resistance was negligible (see Figure 6).
n=73
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Figure 7: How do you plan for your Figure 8: Do you plan to engage an implementation
RPA investment to change in the next partner, in addition to the RPA vendor, to support
three years? your implementation?
47%
Increase
significantly
Yes, we plan on
engaging an
implementation
63%
partner
Increase 31%
19%
No, we will use the RPA
vendor for support
1%
We don’t plan to implement RPA
Decrease 3% due to other priorities
1%
We don’t plan to implement RPA
due to negative business case
n=32 n=149
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In many organizations, RPA adoption is also leading Specialist skills and capacity are required.
to development or acquisition of new skills: RPA For the majority of organizations (63%),
architects, developers familiar with the RPA products, implementation will involve working alongside a
and robot operators are new roles where there are dedicated third-party partner (see Figure 8), often
few subject matter experts. Respondents, particularly to provide advice and skills that are scarce in their
those at the early stage of their RPA journey, report a own organization. This support ranges from turn-key
“Lack of RPA resources/skills/talent/expertise” as a key solutions to collaborating to up-skill in-house teams
challenge. But it is not just RPA-specific specialist skills and build internal RPA-delivery capability. Choices
that are required: project management, process and about third-party support are likely be driven by the
change-management skills are essential. nature of the digital workforce that an organization
is seeking to establish and by factors such as the
In addition, to fully harness the potential of AI and complexity and number of roles required, the need
robotics, businesses will need to upskill the people for flexibility and the need for quality assurance. Just
who will work alongside the robots, in the ‘augmented’ 15% of surveyed organizations plan to develop and
workforce, enabling them to deliver higher value implement RPA without any external support.
activities.
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The type of digital workforce will depend on your key This operating model change is enabling a move
choices, e.g.: up the value chain in many shared-service and
administrative organizations. Some organizations are
looking to move to “lights-out” functions, where all the
Extent of process re-engineering transactional and administrative activities are fully
automated. The human workforce center on higher-
Use of unattended vs. attended bots value and higher-paid skills, delivering tasks that
demand human contact, judgement and creativity.
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Right-sized governance – decisive yet flexible Governance was mid-way on the table of challenges
An agile approach with the right leadership, talent for organizations at the pilot stage of RPA. However, it
and governance is key to driving high-velocity was at the bottom of the list for the small number of
implementation. organizations that had already implemented or scaled
RPA, perhaps because in order to do so, they have
It is important to take a value-chain view of the already had to address the issue of developing and
organization and to consider how a digital workforce running effective governance that is tailored to RPA.
will enhance the end-to-end flow of value. In order to We believe governance should be considered carefully
fully take advantage of a faster, more-accurate digital and implemented correctly at the beginning of your
workforce, it may be necessary to make changes RPA journey.
elsewhere in the value chain and the organization’s
leadership needs to be open to this possibility. Agile ways of working are required
With RPA being the start of the next-generation-
Once robots are live, governance needs to be at an automation journey, agile should become the norm.
appropriate level to enable control but not to obstruct This requires embedding different ways of working
change and improvement. Robots are dynamic and and cultivating a mind-set that enables your teams
should not be governed like an ERP or core system. to succeed or fail quickly and, if they fail, to rapidly
Their governance requires a different mind-set – adapt their approach to learn from their experience.
managing them as digital workers. While organizations Utilising techniques like developing a “minimum
need to be able to schedule and prioritise work on viable product” allows you to operate at this speed
a real-time basis, they also need to be able to adjust by restricting the size of each automation. Regularly
what they do to meet changing business requirements engaging stakeholders such as process specialists is
and the evolution of the underlying systems. also key – for example, running a “show and tell” at the
end of each sprint where your team demonstrates the
latest iteration of the automation can help you obtain
regular feedback and course correct promptly.
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4%
I am already implementing it 7%
28%
17%
There are some solutions
available I could use 49%
28%
6%
It is too expensive/time consuming
to implement now 5%
16%
41%
Not on my agenda at the moment 29%
13%
23%
I am not familiar with it 5%
3%
0 10 20 30 40 50
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Start with a bold ambition Build a strong foundation Deliver high-velocity change
1. Think broad – Robotics should 1. Focus on process – Invest in 1. Get lean – Plan your digital
be adopted across the whole defining the process in detail workforce to be fast, scalable
enterprise to maximize benefits and keep it simple as process and able to work 24x7. This
complexity drives robot workforce is a source of
2. Think big – Make your target complexity competitive advantage for
significant, leverage RPA fully, those who get it right
then incorporate cognitive 2. Gain IT buy-in – Secure IT
automation support from the outset. IT are 2. Build a responsive support
often less supportive to RPA organization – Establish the
3. Think benefits – Look beyond and this can be a major obstacle right kind of support for RPA
headcount reduction and aim to a successful implementation with ownership from your
for the top line, and for quality operation and co-ordination
and compliance through 3. Engage your people – Build across the enterprise
robotics automation with and for your
people, so they understand it 3. Implement right-sized
4. Think high – Get your C-suite on and feel the benefits. This will governance – Make it decisive
board. Speak to them as they help keep resistance to RPA low but flexible. An agile approach
are likely to be supportive of works best and effective
RPA adoption 4. Make it a transformation governance is essential for
– Scale RPA by treating it as a scaling robotics
transformation not an
experiment and recognize that 4. Become agile – Adopt agile
you will need to invest and to ways of working and a digital
partner mind-set to enable you to take
full advantage of robotic and
cognitive automation
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Contacts
Anthony Abbattista Scott Sopher
Principal, Cognitive Advantage Principal, Robotics &
Delivery Lead Cognitive Automation Lead
Deloitte Consulting LLP Deloitte Consulting LLP
+1 312 486 5210 +1 404 631 2600
[email protected] [email protected]
Authors
David Wright Dupe Witherick Marina Gordeeva
Director, Robotic Process Manager, Enabling Technologies Senior Consultant, Finance
Automation Lead, Lead, Global Business Services Transformation
Global Business Services +44 7827 880157 +44 7776 465579
+44 7801 430370 [email protected] [email protected]
[email protected]
Acknowledgements
Peter Cosgrove
Jessica Green
Oscar Hamilton
Richard Horton
Stuart Kerr
Liz Percy
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