If there’s one quote that UiPath probably wants you to take away from this week’s Forward 5, it’s got to be this from the RPA giant’s new Co-CEO, Rob Enslin: “If you go big with automation, if you embrace it as the way you operate and the way you innovate–automation will go big with you.”
That was Enslin’s theme for his Wednesday Keynote, framed as being all about the need for users to “reboot and reimagine” their business processes to drive automation-fueled business outcomes.
This emphasis on ROI through automation is now a familiar one from the company, but Enslin brought out all the wow factors he could to banish any remaining doubts that RPA is good for the bottom line.
His logic is that he joined UiPath as it’s where the action is now—just as his previous employers, SAP and Google were the defining companies of their respective eras of ERP and the Web.
“That’s because automation is the game changer for this era,” he told attendees.
To prove his “game-changer” claim, he listed a wide range of sectors and individual global corporations he said show that automation users are on the cusp of the next ‘S curve’ of digital evolution.
These included the government of Singapore’s widespread use of robots to improve passenger capacity handling at Changi airport, and at its Ministry of Finance automations created by citizen developers have increased civil service productivity by 66%.
Another example, he said, is European insurer Generali, which has so far automated 1000 processes across 40 business units—leading to annual operational savings that will soon hit 125 million euros, Enslin claimed.
He also called out UiPath customers Uber and New York State, which respectively predict a 350% ROI out of buying its software in one year and which was able to power through COVID financial support claims by RPA, too.
“The Everest Group recently asked a group of automation leaders to calculate the impact of Intelligent Automation on their business. And here’s what they say: efficiency up 50%, productivity up 40%, and customer satisfaction also up 40%,” he said.
Enslin said he “knows these results are real and achievable” because all the 100 customers, business, and technology partners he’s met since been in the job across North America, Europe and Asia, in everything from financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, retail, the public sector and more have told him so.
These conversations, he claimed, are also what has convinced him of his “go big” advice: “The ones getting the most impact from automation are successful at tapping into automation’s power because they recognise that power, and then unleash it every way.”
Enslin then invited both a customer and a partner who is also a heavy UiPath user on stage to showcase their achievements.
These were telco Orange’s Spanish subsidiary and consultancy EY, which announced live that UiPath is now in its highest circle of partners.
Again, multiple metrics of positive business outcomes were soon coming thick and fast—like Orange Spain’s citizen automation developers having automated 300 processes last year alone that’s won back 100,000 hours for teams, and in the main tax process a dedicated RPA effort has saved 14 million euros.
Finally, EY was happy to sing automation’s bottom line praises, too. “We are focused on transformation, because it’s really the value path for both EY and our clients,” said EY’s Global Vice Chair – Transformation Hank Prybylski. “And automation is central to that transformation and how we’re using it to drive profitable growth for ourselves and for our clients. I can’t think of a better time to be talking about automation.”
Enslin concluded this detailed attempt to silence any hold-out RPA doubters by one last reminder that, “Business outcomes, business outcomes—that’s what automation drives.”
But some might still be struck by a rhetorical question he still felt he had to pose at the speech’s half-way mark:
“I always get this question, ‘We put all this technology in but when do we get value? We never see value–I promised my CFO this, but I can’t really show that.’”
Enslin claimed this was the old problem of technology.
Is it really, though… or are there still some users out there who have “gone big”—but not yet really seen the big bucks?
