Governments handle a tremendous amount and variety of data while serving hundreds of millions of citizens. With increased citizen expectations yet limited budgets, government agencies need intelligent solutions to work smarter. This is where robotic process automation (RPA) comes in.
RPA offers immense potential to reduce costs, quicken processes, minimize errors, and elevate citizen experiences. Let‘s explore the capabilities of this transformative technology and how forward-thinking agencies are applying it today.
Why RPA Matters for Government Productivity and Services
RPA allows configuring software robots to automate repetitive, manual processes. This liberates government staff from monotonous administrative tasks so they can focus on higher-value work.
Consider that a 2021 Fedscoop survey found:
- 65% of federal agencies and 41% of state agencies have adopted RPA
- 46% see faster citizen service delivery as the top success metric
- RPA saved 34% an estimated 5,000-50,000 annual work hours
The UK government estimates 861,000 public sector roles may be automated by 2030, translating to £17 billion in costs savings.
Government RPA Adoption Rates (Source)
Beyond direct time and money savings, RPA enables analyzing more data with fewer errors. And bots operate 24/7 with no lapses in performance over time.
Surging Public Sector Adoption and Maturity
While RPA rose to prominence in banking, insurance, and IT, government agencies now rank among the most aggressive adopters.
In an ICS survey, over half of public sector leaders cited plans to deploy RPA within two years—the highest among all verticals.
Driving this momentum is RPA‘s rapid ROI realizing hard dollar savings and productivity gains. The State of Arkansas recouped RPA implementation costs in just 90 days through automating mundane IT ticket processing. Federal civilian agencies report saving upwards of 2000 FTE hours annually through early RPA pilots.
Sophistication is also maturing, as shown in Deloitte’s government RPA capability model:
RPA Maturity Stages in Government (Source)
- Stage 1 (Basic) – Focus on isolated, rules-based processes. Goal of freeing staff hours.
- Stage 2 (Improving) – Shift to mission-level changes touching citizen services. Consolidate bots into enterprise scale.
- Stage 3 (Innovative) – Pursue agency-wide transformation by embedding RPA into core legacy systems and daily workflows.
Top-tier governments are progressing into advanced stages with RPA positioned as an integral productivity and modernization linchpin.
6 High-Value Applications of RPA in Government
Though still early in the adoption curve, innovative agencies are exploring many uses for intelligent automation. Here are six top applications:
1. Legacy System and Data Migration
Most government entities rely on outdated legacy systems that pose integration headaches. RPA bots provide a quick, economical way to transfer and migrate data between platforms.
Bots can scheduled migrations during off-hours to minimize downtime. Their rules-based operation also ensures quality and accuracy, with automatic deduplication and error notifications.
Workload automation solutions can further optimize migrations by orchestrating end-to-end processes spanning systems.
2. Public Sentiment Monitoring and Analysis
Understanding citizen perceptions is vital for agencies striving to improve services. RPA bots enable clever integration with online review platforms to gauge public sentiment.
For example, the Singapore government automated web scraping of public housing portal feedback. Beyond efficiency gains, this unlocks a rich dataset for customer sentiment analysis to continuously improve services.
Bots can also scrape Google Maps comments and ratings for specific government offices. Analyzing this data identifies strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities to better meet community needs.
3. High-Volume Data Entry
Government workers spend countless hours performing manual data entry across various documents like processing paperwork, claims, records, and more. RPA drastically accelerates this workflow.
Bots reliably transfer information from scanned files and paperwork into digital systems. Their integration with OCR technology also enables inputting free-form, handwritten data.
The New York Department of Health deployed RPA for data extraction and document processing to manage over 100,000 medical professional license applications annually. This cut processing times by 75% with far greater accuracy.
4. Applying Advanced Analytics for Improved Decision-Making
With intelligent software robots parsing more data faster, agencies gain an expanded, enriched fact base to guide decisions. Bots combined with analytics techniques help model the implications of policy and spending choices.
As one example, the Office of Financial Research harnessed RPA and machine learning to assess financial stability risks. The insights supported evidence-based policy to promote stability.
5. Automating Request and Application Processing
Whether issuing driver’s licenses, granting small business loans, or enrolling citizens in assistance programs, agencies handle immense application volumes. RPA helps keep pace with demand in several ways:
- Bots rapidly validate applicant details against reference databases during submission, reducing follow-up manual reviews. This saved the Australian Tax Office 60,000 hours annually.
- They route applications meeting preset criteria for instant no-touch approval while escalating more complex ones to specialists.
- RPA enables quick automated processing for mundane requests like license renewals.
6. Dynamic Reporting for Internal and Public-Facing Needs
Agencies need comprehensive reports to monitor budgets, demonstrate accountability, communicate initiatives status, and more.
RPA fills reporting gaps in two common scenarios:
Internal reporting – Software robots integrate data from agency legacy systems, documents, and productivity software to generate financial statements, operational analyses, and business intelligence faster with sharp accuracy.
External public reports – Bots also create citizen-facing communications like program updates, public health advisories, environmental studies, and news releases tailored to community needs.
Overcoming RPA Adoption Barriers
Despite RPA‘s tremendous potential, roughly 25% of state agencies lack understanding of its capabilities according to Fedscoop’s research. Further, they are unsure which processes are suitable automation candidates.
Additional roadblocks like security fears around bot credential abuse, risks from third-party access, and general change resistance also slow adoption.
These education and skill gaps show why taking a self-guided approach poses pitfalls. Instead, partnering with specialist RPA consultants pays dividends.
Top RPA Adoption Obstacles (Source)
Experienced services firms help agencies:
- Thoroughly assess operations to pinpoint automation opportunities
- Devise bots and system integration tailored to existing infrastructure
- Train staff on leveraging RPA to transform workflows
- Install controls ensuring data security remains airtight
- Define success metrics and ROI tracking
Best Practices for Change Management
Implementing RPA is not merely a technology upgrade but rather a workflow transformation. Without thoughtful change management, organizations struggle getting user adoption even with the most advanced bots.
McKinsey’s research on public sector automation projects reveals several change management best practices:
Stage automation opportunities – Pursue quick wins like automating form processing before mission-critical system migration. This builds confidence.
Co-design processes – Involve business leads early when assessing automation potential to secure buy-in.
Consider change impacts – Analyze how workflows shift between offices to minimize disruption.
Train employees continuously – Beyond technical training on RPA tools, share success stories and progress to maintain enthusiasm.
With user mindshare secured, agencies position RPA efforts for smooth uptake and maximum benefit realization.
Global Government RPA Outlook
Worldwide, RPA adoption in government is projected to grow at a 24% CAGR according to a Verified Market Research report.
Driving this trajectory is increasing maturity of AI capabilities. As smart bots grow more sophisticated, they open automation potential forjudgment-intensive processes involving advanced perception like processing video footage or sensor data.
For example, the Estonian government developed AI software to validate identity documents simplifying over 500 citizen services. Linking bots and AI stands to propel the next evolution of government process enhancement.
Further, leading agencies are shifting from isolated, small-scale RPA pilots toward full-fledged automation centers of excellence to drive enterprise-wide strategy.
The UK established Automation Delivery Centres of Expertise with cross-department resources and governance accelerating ROI at scale. And the US Pentagon launched its Defense Agencies Initiative taking an ecosystem view of systems and data flows to holistically transform back-office functions.
These initiatives exemplify maturing tactical and strategic sophistication in leveraging intelligent automation as a core productivity driver.
Real-World Wins: RPA Improving Government Services
Beyond hypothetical use cases, real-world implementation success stories prove RPA’s immense value:
- The Missouri Department of Transportation trimmed license plate renewal processing down from 4 minutes to 30 seconds, boosting capacity 10X with just 1 bot (Read more)
- Florida’s Orange County government automated accounts payable steps to speed invoice processing by 75% while lowering errors (Learn more)
- Automating Utah’s Medicaid prior authorization workflow delivered 92% straight through processing rates, allowing expanding services under cost containment directives (See details)
- The Internal Revenue Service applied RPA across areas from returns processing to audits and call centers, yielding 4 million freed employee hours annually (Read more)
- Singapore’s Housing Development Board sped retrieving resident document requests by 80% while reassigning staff to higher-impact work (See details)
These real-world examples demonstrate the immense potential to drive higher performing agencies even as budgets tighten.
Key Considerations for Effective RPA Implementations
As government entities progress their RPA journey toward transformational productivity, keeping several success factors in mind is critical:
Legacy system readiness – Automation integrates best when modernizing legacy systems first focusing on standardization, upgrading servers/storage, and data cleansing. Too much technical debt creates integration headaches down the road.
Data governance – With bots accessing vast datasets, scalable policies for security, accessibility, lineage tracking and management are crucial. RPA directly interfaces underlying data, so understanding existing control gaps helps prioritize remediation to enable expansion while safeguarding information.
IT change impacts – Adding bots intrinsically alters system landscapes. Planning for needs like expanded bandwidth, storage, identity management scaling, and access policy shifts smooths onboarding. Bot performance monitoring also enters IT’s responsibilities.
Platform capabilities – From attended vs unattended bots to OCR and computer vision integration, not all RPA tools are created equal. Carefully evaluating product strengths and weaknesses against specific process requirements ensures picking the right provider fit.
Deployment models – On-premise, cloud, or hybrid RPA infrastructure decisions carry distinct security, scalability, governance, and cost pros and cons. Agencies should assess all facets from internally managed to fully managed outsourced models.
While tactics will differ across organizations, keeping these foundational principles in mind supports successful automation journeys in the unique public sector context.
The Future of Automation in Government
RPA infiltration throughout government so far marks just the opening act in the automation revolution. Looking ahead, solutions will grow smarter, more seamless, and expanded in scope.
IDC forecasts the AI software market to balloon from $156.5 billion in 2022 to over $500 billion by 2025 indicating the massive growth runaway ahead. Already state governments are piloting innovations like chatbots fielding citizen inquiries to AI optimizing traffic flow.
As technology capabilities widen, opportunities to embed automation for smoother government operations will dramatically multiply over the coming years – from completely touchless license renewals to real-time data analytics guiding decision-making.
Training procurement officers, IT managers, business analysts and other key staff on intelligent automation will prime their ability to recognize and spearhead new initiatives. Agencies not actively building competencies risk falling behind as automation7564 becomes the new normal.
Conclusion
While still in its infancy for government applications, RPA holds immense potential to:
- Save substantial costs through automating labor-intensive processes
- Empower employees to deliver higher-value work unlocked by offloading administrative tasks
- Make use of rich data for sharper decision-making
- Provide citizen services reliably around the clock
Pilot projects demonstrate value, yet broader adoption depends on clearing hurdles around understanding exactly how software robots integrate with specific workflows and legacy systems. This requires specialized expertise which leading agencies now recognize.
By tapping consultants well-versed in public sector challenges, government organizations make rapid RPA advancement possible. Complementing tactical deployments with sound data, security and IT governance establishes the foundation to keep progressing through advanced automation stages.
With innovation accelerating, RPA and AI will grow more tightly intertwined. Investing today trains staff and modernizes systems to capitalize on the coming new capabilities. By proactively upskilling workforces around automation, forward-looking government entities ready themselves to lead in redefining what efficient, effective and elevated citizen experiences look like in the 21st century.
