Gartner Says: In Financial Services, RPA Is Much More than Cost Optimization

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has already had a tremendous impact on financial institutions looking for added efficiency and cost savings. As RPA software bots automate high-volume, repeatable tasks within existing processes, they give knowledge workers the freedom to focus on higher-value interactions that build relationships and trust while expanding revenue opportunities.

Financial institutions typically rely on RPA to automate workflows and rule-based activities, using mostly structured data. But according to a recentGartner report, there may be opportunities for financial institutions to look beyond traditional uses for RPA toward more value-added capabilities with the potential to deliver previously unrecognized business benefits.

RPA at the Core of Intelligent Automation Strategy

For financial institutions to thrive in today's market, they cannot simply upgrade systems or outsource processes to optimize operations and improve efficiencies, they must focus on delighting customers with real innovation. Robotic process automation can pave the way to innovation by improving the speed and accuracy of core business processes and improving operational efficiency in middle- and back-office functions, many of which still require highly manual and time-intensive processes.

RPA, when deployed to critical points along the customer journey, can offer greater task transparency, access, and speed to enhance the customer experience. However, to be truly transformational, financial institutions must augment RPA with additional technologies and create a strategy for intelligent automation. Such a strategy frees up humans to do meaningful work like customer interaction and judgment tasks while automated processes and software robots do the repetitive work. Examples include:

• Account closure prevention: Financial institutions can use RPA to identify customers and accounts that are at risk of account closure, based on predefined rules and transaction patterns
• Security access management:Bots can automate the process of masking personally identifiable information (PII) data, automate the access invocation or revocation processes, and integrate with enterprise-based authentication systems such as, single sign-on (SSO) systems
• Regulatory compliance: Financial institutions can use RPA to search regulatory bodies for upcoming changes, address new regulations faster, and immediately design and automate processes for improved compliance
• Call center operations: Financial institutions can improve the customer experience and increase efficiency by bringing all the customers' account details onto one screen to enable client verification and for key details to be presented

The full Gartner report "Real-World Use Cases Are Key to Successful RPA Implementations in Banking" is a must read for financial institutions looking to identify areas where they can use RPA to deliver real-world benefits, including:

• Fewer errors
• Improved customer experiences
• Shorter processing time
• Enhanced regulatory compliance
• Increased operational agility

Additionally, you can visit Appian's Financial Services Resource Center to learn more about real-world use cases that are driving successful RPA implementations in banking.