Robot process automation technology has been developed for many years. Because its implementation and management are very similar to human employees, we have to think about the relationship between this technology and labor force, as well as the possible digital working mode in the future.Although after nearly 30 years of information system construction, various large, small and medium-sized enterprises, governments and public utilities have owned thousands of IT systems, we are surprised to find that 80% of the work still needs manual operation, including startup, input, submission and inspection, while only 20% of the work can realize automatic operation.The behaviors of employees in the office mainly include doing things, thinking about things, analyzing things and stopping to have a rest.If we want to realize or replace these behaviors through technology, that is to use robot process automation instead of "doing things", cognitive computing instead of "thinking about things", and data analysis instead of "analyzing things".We can combine the three technologies of "robot process automation + cognitive computing + data analysis" to form a new form of labor force, that is "digital employees".That is to use the combination of technology to realize the work behavior of employees, and manage them in a similar way.The common characteristics of digital employees and human employees are as follows:Operating computer system
Using the keyboard and mouse
Understand the operation interface of the application system
Obtain effective information through various means
Execute work tasks according to business rules
Be able to arrange work for them
You can check whether he / it has completed the task
Digital employees have the following advantages over human employees:Faster task execution
The operation process is more accurate and error free
No fatigue and laziness
Can expand scale quickly
No bad mood
Easier to be dispatched and follow the command
The advantages of human employees over digital employees are as follows:Creative
Empathy and teamwork are better
Know how to handle flexibly
It's easier to learn new knowledge
More friendly
However, digital employees are not able to work completely independently，Nor can it replace 100% of human employees to work, so there is bound to be a scene in which human employees and digital employees work together in the workplace in the future，We call it "digital workforce" and we call the platform for managing digital workforce "digital workforce platform".In this new digital labor work scenario, human employees should give full play to their unique advantages and complete the work tasks with the characteristics of innovation, communication and learning.Employees with the same characteristics of digital and repetitive tasks should complete a large number of fixed tasks.For the remaining tasks of other types of work, both parties should adopt a cooperative way to complete them together. Many experts predict that in the future, with the increasing proportion of digital employees in enterprises, the whole society will usher in a digital labor revolution.In the field of technology, many new technologies, new products and new concepts come out every year. They may become the next development field with great potential, or they may gradually fade and disappear in the long history of human technological development.Although the development speed of many new technologies will fall from the peak and eventually flatten out, most experts and industry insiders believe that RPA will be one of the few technologies that can meet people's initial high expectations.
No matter which technology is applied, the final problem to be solved is to automate the business process as much as possible, and this goal remains unchanged。Each technology is based on the continuous accumulation of the previous technology and used together with other technologies at the current stage. Therefore, it is not possible to make mutually exclusive comparison for each automation technology, but downward compatible comparison.The main reason for this positive consideration is，In the future, enterprises will face continuously difficult market conditions. High efficiency, low cost, improving productivity and compliance will be the primary task of enterprises.Enterprises need to change the way they operate in order to survive, and RPA may become a key driver of this new way of working, or even a new standard of automation. However, the road to success is still long, and there are still many uncertainties in the future.Experts from all sides believe that automation technology will change the current business pattern and rebuild the operation ability of enterprises, which will have a significant impact on different levels of the whole society. Only time can prove whether this impact is positive or negative.But today, most people still welcome automation and prefer a positive prospect to greet the era of robot process automation with optimism.
This paper refers to Yan Wang's RPA process automation leading the digital labor revolution