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Robotic process automation (RPA) is transforming how businesses operate, but successfully adopting RPA can be challenging. This is where RPA managed services come in – providers that specialize in delivering RPA-as-a-Service to help clients implement automation smoothly and efficiently.
In this comprehensive 2,600+ word guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about RPA managed services from an analytics perspective:
Contents:
- Overcoming RPA Adoption Hurdles with Managed Services
- Benchmark Data on Automation Adoption
- Quantifying the RPA ROI Opportunity
- RPA Functions Commonly Outsourced to MSPs
- Building the Financial Justification for RPA
- Choosing the Right RPA Managed Service Provider
- Forecasting the RPA Talent Supply/Demand Gap
- Structuring a Center of Excellence to Govern RPA
- How MSPs Themselves Utilize RPA
- Understanding the Technology Behind RPA
- Key Takeaways and Next Steps
Conquering RPA Adoption Challenges Through Managed Services
Although RPA adoption is accelerating rapidly, many companies encounter hurdles when implementing automation. The top challenges include:
1. High Costs
RPA requires significant upfront investment in software, infrastructure, and services. One bot can cost $5,000-$15,000+ per year. 37% of organizations say RPA cost more than expected.
2. Talent Shortages
There is a limited talent pool of skilled RPA developers to create customized solutions. Only 26% of in-house RPA devs have over 3 years of experience, versus 37% at consulting/MSP firms.
3. Lengthy Implementation Times
RPA projects often take 4-6 months instead of 4-6 weeks due to issues identifying processes and lacking process knowledge.
4. Ongoing Maintenance Needs
RPA requires regular testing and updates as processes, systems, regulations change. This can overload limited internal IT teams.
RPA managed services provide the expertise and resources to tackle these adoption barriers for a smoother implementation:
- Lower Costs: MSPs have existing infrastructure with multi-tenant platforms, reusable templates and components.
- Specialized Talent: MSPs have more certified, experienced developers to build and manage automation.
- Faster Deployment: MSPs‘ process knowledge cuts time spent finding automation opportunities.
- Ongoing Support: MSPs handle maintenance, monitoring and updates as client needs evolve.
Benchmark Data on Automation Adoption
To understand the market outlook for RPA managed services, it helps to benchmark wider adoption trends in intelligent automation:
||2017|2022|2025|CAGR|
|-|:-:|:-:|:-:|:-:|
|RPA Licensed Seats|0.5M|14M+|20M+|60%|
|RPA Revenue|$250M|$2.4B|$13B+|>40%|
|AI Automation Revenue|$12B|$100B|$500B+|>30%|
(Source: Gartner, Forrester, MarketsandMarkets)
Key takeaways:
- RPA license growth is extremely rapid at 60% CAGR to surpass 20M worldwide by 2025
- But AI and hybrid automation revenue growing equally fast – RPA is just one piece of the intelligent automation wave
- Asia Pacific and financial services sectors seeing fastest adoption, but all regions and industries pursuing automation
Within enterprise RPA programs, the top use cases by popularity are:
- IT & Infrastructure (41%)
- Finance & Accounting (39%)
- HR/Admin (36%)
- Customer Service (30%)
Interestingly, smaller companies report higher productivity gains from RPA compared to larger peers. Firms with < $50M revenue have seen:
- 20-30% capacity increase in FTEs
- 50-70% reduction in processing times
- 333% 5-year ROI
(Source: Deloitte)
Quantifying the RPA ROI Opportunity
The business case for RPA managed services ultimately comes down to its ROI. On average, companies deploying RPA achieve:
- 30-50% cost reduction
- 40-60% productivity gains
- 50-70% faster processing
- 30-90% improvement in accuracy
- 15-25% increased revenue (McKinsey)
To financially justify an RPA program, typical benefit drivers include:
- FTE cost avoidance: Reduced labor expense from automating manual effort
- Increased throughput: Higher volume of transactions processed per day
- Revenue uplift: Higher sales conversion, customer satisfaction and share-of-wallet
- Cost avoidance: Eliminating errors and exceptions
- IT savings: Legacy system retirement, license reduction
Sample RPA Business Case
||Before RPA|After RPA|
|-|:-:|:-:|
|Annual FTEs|10|$0|
|Annual Labor Expense|$500,000|$0|
|Transactions per Day|500|2,000|
|Annual Transactions|125,000|500,000|
|Revenue per Transaction|$100|$100|
|Annual Revenue|$12,500,000|$50,000,000|
|IT Legacy System Costs|$100,000|$0|
Net Annual Benefit| |$38,400,000|
5-Year NPV| |$95,000,000|
ROI| |475%|
This basic model shows the order-of-magnitude potential value from RPA managed services. Download our free RPA ROI Calculator template to estimate benefits for your specific process.
RPA Functions Commonly Outsourced to MSPs
RPA can automate processes across the business, with these functions often provided as managed services:
Finance & Accounting
- Accounts payable/receivable
- Financial reporting and forecasting
- Auditing and reconciliation
Information Technology
- Data management, warehousing and migration
- Network and server monitoring
- Cybersecurity policy enforcement
Human Resources
- Candidate background checks and scheduling
- New hire onboarding paperwork
- Travel expense report approval
- Payroll validation
Building the Financial Justification for RPA
Constructing an ironclad business case is critical to secure leadership approval and funding for an automation program.
The core elements of a financial justification model include:
1. Baseline Metrics
- Number of FTEs per process
- Annual operational expense
- Transaction volumes and processing times
- Defect and error rates
2. Future Solution Metrics
- FTE reduction potential
- Expected throughput increase
- Projected quality and accuracy improvements
3. Financial Assumptions
- Loaded labor cost per FTE
- Infrastructure expenses
- Software licensing fees
- Professional services
4. Benefit Estimation
- Labor cost avoidance
- Increased revenue (volume, price)
- Reduced IT legacy costs
- Quality and compliance cost avoidance
Combining these inputs, you can build a 5-10 year net present value and ROI projection to quantify automation potential and guide your business case. Download our RPA Business Case template to model different scenarios.
How to Select the Right RPA Managed Service Provider
With the growth in RPA managed services, it‘s important to choose your provider carefully based on:
- Industry expertise: Domain experience speeds understanding of client processes and automation opportunities.
- Technical capabilities: Assess their preferred RPA platforms, coding languages and integration capabilities.
- Client results: Ask for case studies and client stories to prove the value delivered.
- Pricing model: Compare fixed-fee, process-based, or outcome-based pricing.
Leading global analyst firm Forrester recommends asking RPA providers about these key factors in their new evaluation checklist.
Forecasting the RPA Talent Supply/Demand Gap
Developing custom automations requires experienced RPA developers – a role facing major talent shortages:
| Year | Demand | Supply | Shortage |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 733,000 | 303,000 | 430,000 |
| 2025 | 4.1 million | 1.1 million | 3 million |
(Source: Automation Anywhere)
This enormous gap exists despite automation professionals ranking among the highest-paid roles in technology:
- RPA Architects: $140,000
- Automation Consultants: $135,000
- RPA Developers: $115,000
To access and retain skilled talent, organizations must invest in change management and training programs to upskill staff. RPA managed services can deliver development expertise until internal capabilities mature.
Structuring a Center of Excellence to Govern RPA
To scale automation across the enterprise, leading practices point to developing an RPA Center of Excellence that includes:
Steering Committee
- Executive sponsorship
- Program governance
- Budget approval
- Benefit realization tracking
CoE Program Team
- Automation director
- Process experts
- RPA architects
- Technical development team
- Training specialists
Key Focus Areas
- Process assessment
- Opportunity pipeline
- Standards setting
- Technical support
- Monitoring and control
Well-structured CoEs yield higher automation ROI and user satisfaction by maintaining rigor, oversight and best practices. Our RPA Center of Excellence template provides starter documentation to accelerate establishment.
How Managed Service Providers Utilize RPA Internally
Interestingly, MSPs themselves are adopting RPA to improve their own operations in areas like:
- Automating delivery of monthly client reports
- Processing service tickets and invoices
- Onboarding new clients into systems
- Syncing data across internal tools and platforms
Per the State of RPA 2022 survey, MSPs using RPA internally have achieved:
- 63% faster onboarding processes
- 55% efficiency gains in financial reporting
- 45% increased service desk productivity
- 36% higher customer satisfaction scores
RPA helps MSPs optimize costs, free staff to focus on high-value work, and overcome issues like time zone gaps between distributed teams and clients.
Demystifying the Technology Powering RPA
To truly understand the full value RPA managed services can provide, it helps to grasp the underlying technologies that power robotic automation:
Screen Scraping
This critical technique lets software robots interpret and input data from legacy apps not designed for automation. Bots can scrape data from screens without APIs.
Optical Character Recognition (OCR)
OCR lets bots read text-based documents like scanned PDFs and image files that lack digital text. This unlocks automation of paper-driven processes.
Together, screen scraping and OCR give RPA the flexibility to automate almost any manual process that involves desktop apps or documents.
Key Takeaways and Next Steps
RPA managed services offer a faster, lower-risk approach to automation by tackling key adoption barriers like costs, talent, speed of implementation and ongoing support.
Leading MSPs can deliver RPA-as-a-Service to automate processes across finance, IT and HR functions. Carefully evaluating providers is critical to drive value.
Now that you understand the business case for RPA managed services and the technology powering it – the next step is to:
- Document your processes to identify automation opportunities
- Define business goals and expected ROI
- Research and engage with leading RPA MSPs
The automation experts at AIMultiple offer free process discovery sessions to help companies understand the value RPA could bring to their unique business. Book a session today to start your RPA managed services journey.
