Intuitive user experience is helping enterprises unlock the potential of Robotic Process Automation and the Cloud

Published 30/09/2019 by Dean McGlone, Channel Director, OneAdvanced

After years of steady progress towards digitisation, organisations are now accelerating their moves towards both Cloud-based technology and, potentially seen as more radically, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), a technology that until recently has been viewed with some trepidation.  Finally, enterprises are viewing disruptive technologies like RPA as an opportunity rather than a threat, with the flow of younger workers into key roles a driving force for this.  RPA and the Cloud are in high demand among digital native Generation Z workers – those born after the mid-1990s – who have never experienced the traditional manual (and often laborious) ways of getting things done in the workplace and expect automation and digitisation to do their job effectively. This is leading to a growing appetite for RPA and related Cloud-based technology.  According to Gartner, RPA software spend grew by a significant 63% to $846 million in 2018, making it the fastest-growing segment of the global enterprise software market, and is expected to reach $1.3bn in 2019.

With this dramatic shift comes the need for enterprise software companies like V1 to not only keep pace but set the pace for our partners and customers.  We must identify and develop advances in moving technologies like RPA to a Cloud-based environment, to offer new functionality before our customers even know they need it.  This recognition has been the driving force behind a number of recent advances in our invoice automation software, which uses RPA to revolutionise the invoicing process, removing the need for laborious, repetitive clerical tasks, saving time and reducing risk of human error.  Despite their reputation as one of the more traditional areas within organisations, finance departments are in fact one of the fastest growing for digitisation.  However, we have found that a key to adoption of RPA within finance and other functions is the user experience. Make this experience easy and intuitive, and teams will be far more willing to switch to new digital ways of working. The better the user experience, the more likely it is that ‘disruptive’ will be viewed positively and embraced by the people within the department.   

With this in mind, over the last few year, we set our development team the challenge of creating an innovative technology roadmap that would make our RPA software tools as easy and intuitive as possible to use.  The team rose to this challenge, analysing feedback from our partners’ customers – such as Sage - to deliver a new version of our invoice automation tools that integrate more smoothly with their financial management systems – for example, Sage X3 and directly align to customers’ digital strategy trends.  Importantly, our upgrades also include a much simpler, more responsive and modern interface to make the software easier and more enjoyable to use.  We have found that this not only encourages enterprises to make the move to RPA but also encourages their users to explore and take full advantage of the software’s functionality.  This enables customers to truly make the most of RPA and the Cloud to improve efficiency and release their talent away from admin and into more rewarding and high value work.

But this is an ongoing process where we are constantly driving to listen and respond by adapting and innovating with our road map.  Understanding and proactively anticipating customers’ needs and evolving our products will continue to be a core driver for V1 product developments moving forward, as RPA and Cloud-based software become an increasingly routine feature of enterprise infrastructure.