C-Suite Seeks Enterprise Automation Platform to Enable
Self-Service Business Users to Achieve Immediate
Benefits
LONDON, June 23, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Delivering new
insights into the future of work, today Blue Prism, (AIM: PRSM)
announced the findings of its annual global survey in a report
titled, "The Impact of a Digital Workforce on Business Agility
& Survival". The report, based on research conducted with more
than 6,700 knowledge workers and senior IT decision makers
globally, reveals that in the UK 86% see robotic process
automation (RPA) as solving the global productivity problem,
92% for driving digital transformation, and 83% as essential for
business to remain competitive.
C-suite executives globally are also embracing automation with
92% looking to deploy and extend these capabilities throughout
their organizations, while 81% indicated RPA and/or automation is
critical in scaling technologies such as AI across their
business. From creating and enhancing jobs, saving time and
costs, accelerating and improving work quality, and making
organisations more innovative, those surveyed universally
agree that RPA is providing a hugely positive impact on work,
business agility and resilience.
"These survey results help validate the sea change we see
happening from automation," says Jason
Kingdon, Executive Chairman and CEO of Blue Prism.
"COVID-19 has put a spotlight on just what a Digital Workforce can
do for business continuity, but it is just the beginning. This is
about using intelligent automation to empower the non-technical
knowledge worker to do more, faster and more efficiently, without
having to rely on IT. This goes beyond using desktop macros or
screen scraping productivity tools for a quick ROI, intelligent
automation is at the center of enabling digital transformations for
large scale enterprises."
The New Normal — Post COVID-19
Gauging the impact
COVID-19 is having on businesses, Blue Prism also surveyed its own
global customer base and found that 94% see a renewed urgency to
use RPA as a lifeline for maintaining business continuity and
ensuring a higher level of overall responsiveness. 94% of these
customers also see Blue Prism's Digital Workforce enabling greater
competitiveness while supporting remote collaboration in this "new
normal". 100% of respondents are now looking to expand or extend
RPA use within their organization, a sign of continued customer
momentum and permanence.
Tackling Global Productivity
Across every industry,
most knowledge-based work isn't delivering anywhere near its
potential, evidenced by diminishing global productivity that's
stagnated at one-tenth of what it was 40 years ago for some
economies. With the pandemic, organisations face additional
challenges from reduced workforces, customer demands and
macroeconomic pressures. The survey results reveal a positive link
between automation, global productivity, business agility and
resilience. In the UK where 510 knowledge workers and 202 senior IT
decision makers were surveyed as part of the study,
84% believe too much time is wasted on administration tasks,
while it is telling that 88% of those decision makers see
Automation as a solution to the global productivity problem, and
95% feel it can help them meet customer demands too.
Future-Proofing Businesses
In the UK, 83% of business decision makers believe that RPA and/or
Automation is essential for their businesses to remain competitive.
These positive sentiments are a reflection of the major time
savings, improved accuracy and cost savings reported by UK business
leaders, 94% of which already have plans in place to extend the use
of automation across their businesses.
In today's competitive economic environment, UK decision makers
also recognise that strategic technology investments like RPA can
keep their digital transformation efforts on track. In fact, 92%
surveyed identified RPA as an important factor in driving digital
transformation - with nearly half indicating that RPA allows them
to scale the deployment of other emerging technologies too. Prior
to the coronavirus outbreak, 76% of UK decision makers reported a
struggle to meet customer demand, and 95% felt that automation
would help address this challenge.
A Skills Shift Coming
The global survey reveals
there's a need for re-skilling and training, with over three
quarters surveyed indicating that there are skills which they are
constantly sourcing for, such as data analysis and data science. To
address this, 69% of UK knowledge workers surveyed indicated their
organizations are providing learning opportunities for new
skills/qualifications when they introduce technologies that will
transform their job.
Automation Anxiety
Fear of automation is diminishing
as there's a growing level of trust with more organisations
adopting digital colleagues. UK knowledge workers are becoming
increasingly comfortable with RPA, just 26% worry about related job
losses in the next three years. More than half of knowledge workers
are excited at the opportunities that RPA will create, while
decision makers feel that adopting new tech will attract talent.
Encouragingly, 83% of UK business decision maker believe that their
employees would trust working alongside a Digital Workforce and 82%
would even trust them to manage employees.
UK Businesses See
Growing Preparedness for Automation in the Workforce
|
2019
|
2020
|
Business decision
makers who agree their new hires are more prepared to work
alongside a Digital Workforce
|
79%
|
85%
|
Business decision
makers who agree that adopting these technologies is an important
factor in attracting and retaining the best talent
|
68%
|
83%
|
Business decision
makers who believe that their organization has been positively
impacted by automation
|
70%
|
84%
|
Knowledge workers
with fears about job loss related to RPA
|
32%
|
26%
|
All these results highlight RPA being used as a platform and not
merely a productivity tool, giving customers access to end-to-end
Intelligent Automation solutions that cover all IT environments —
on-premises, cloud, hybrid and SaaS. Blue Prism continues to push
flexibility and choice for customers through innovations like Blue
Prism Digital Exchange 2.0, Decipher IDP, v6.8 and Blue Prism Cloud
making a Digital Workforce for Every Enterprise a reality.
Read the full results of the survey here
About the Report
The research was conducted by
independent research firm Sapio on behalf of Blue Prism. 1,725
global business decision makers (those with a final say over budget
spend of technology implementations) were surveyed in the UK (202),
US (402), Japan (106),
India (101) Australia (106), Germany (101), Singapore (100), France (100), Sweden (103), United
Arab Emirates (103), Russia
(100), China (100) and
South Africa (101). A
further 5,063 knowledge workers (workers whose main capital is
knowledge, whose job is to "think for a living" and who have access
to technology as part of their day-to-day jobs) were surveyed in
the UK (510), US (1023), Japan
(250), India (503) Australia (250), Germany (253), Singapore (255), France (251), Sweden (250), United
Arab Emirates (250), Russia
(507), China (599) and
South Africa (250). All
respondents worked in organizations with 250+ employees. In
addition, the respondents worked in companies in which automation
had already been adopted. All interviews were conducted online by
Sapio Research during March 2020.
About Blue Prism
Blue Prism's vision is to provide a
Digital Workforce for Every Enterprise. The company's purpose is to
unleash the collaborative potential of humans, operating in harmony
with a Digital Workforce, so every enterprise can exceed their
business goals and drive meaningful growth, with unmatched speed
and agility.
Fortune 500 and public-sector organizations, among customers
across 70 commercial sectors, trust Blue Prism's enterprise-grade
connected-RPA platform, which has users in more than 170 countries.
By strategically applying intelligent automation, these
organizations are creating new opportunities and services, while
unlocking massive efficiencies that return millions of hours of
work back into their business.
Available on-premises, in the cloud, hybrid, or as an integrated
SaaS solution, Blue Prism's Digital Workforce automates ever more
complex, end-to-end processes that drive a true digital
transformation, collaboratively, at scale and across the entire
enterprise.
Visit www.blueprism.com to learn more or follow Blue Prism
on Twitter @blue_prism and on LinkedIn.
© 2020 Blue Prism Limited. "Blue Prism", "Thoughtonomy", the
"Blue Prism" logo and Prism device are either trademarks or
registered trademarks of Blue Prism Limited and its affiliates. All
Rights Reserved.
Photo -
https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1194700/Blue_Prism_Global_Survey_Infographic.jpg
Logo -
https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/663826/Blue_Prism_Logo.jpg