The adoption of robotic process automation (RPA) technology in Thailand has been forecasted to continue growing. Many businesses in the region are preparing to roll out automation in efforts to re-engineer their operations.
This is aimed at improving performance, according to the Thailand operating unit of a Japan-based consulting firm.
As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, RPA tech is likely to help various business sectors enable enhanced business process engineering and targets achievement. This includes process enhancement, customer experience improvement, service delivery improvements and cost reduction, the Managing Director of the local branch stated.
Enterprises are being urged to learn and adopt RPA in their businesses in order to thrive in the new normal from both consumer and business side, as well as to be ready for the next wave of disruption in the future.
The MD stated, “from now on, the new normal will impact every business sector because consumer behaviour is changing.”
Businesses of all sizes and across all industries should invest in and adopt RPA, starting with processes that have high transaction volumes or which are highly repetitive, such as data entry, data processing, reconciliation, and report generation in the back office.
This will not only help firms cope with the new normal but will also prepare companies to be ready for the next wave of inevitable disruption.
Based on the company’s research on the country’s digital transformation situation, many firms in Thailand expressed interest in adopting RPA for their business.
RPA is able to support any organisation across different industries, as the technology allows anyone today to configure computer software, or a robot to emulate and integrate the actions of a human interacting within digital systems to execute a business process.
The MD mentioned that through a partnership with a leading RPA tech developer, the consulting firm is capable of providing RPA service capabilities in the area of business process re-engineering utilising the tech developer’s RPA tools.
The consulting firm’s RPA service value in Thailand increased by more than double in 2019 and is projected to continue with strong demand from the market in 2020.
RPA technologies have been adopted more and more in the past year, particularly by the banking and insurance sectors.
Last year, the firm conducted a survey through its 180 clients in Thailand by looking into digital transformation approaches.
In terms of the planning level of the digital transformation strategy, which is divided into three development stages, most Thai enterprises were found to be in the first stage with no strategy ironed out.
The second stage concerns individual digitalisation that has been put in place in particular divisions or areas, while the third stage involves a broad digital strategy adopted throughout a company.
The firm also looked into the stages of digital adoption at the execution level. Most Thai enterprises were found to be in the second stage, where they have connected with other business partners through digital tech with recognised value improvement.