Month: September 2018

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Shabbir Chunawalla

Alongside AI and automation in the IT services/BPO industry, RPA has emerged as the latest buzzword. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) allows us to transact in any IT application or website, typically the same way a human would, to automate complex rule-based work. In other words, RPA software and services, allows developers to tailor complex automation to a company’s processes. When an RPA robot is at work, it performs tasks just like a human would — logging in, operating applications, entering data, performing complex calculations and logging out.

RPA has a role play for any task that is repetitive, rule-based and does not require subjective judgements to be made.

The global market for RPA software and services is growing.

Early adopters of RPA have been banking and financial services, telecom and healthcare sectors. There will be substantial employment opportunities in the RPA sector.

Software Robots or Bots

Automation changed manufacturing decades ago. The same effect is observed on the business processes by software robots or bots. Bots help the HR in processing job applications by comparing them with job descriptions. They select a few and schedule interviews. In customer service, the customer’s intent is recognised and answers are provided rapidly. In business transactions, the purchase cycle is completed from the placement of order to the receiving of payment.

All this could be summarised as Robotic Process Automation (RPA). RPA refers to a variety of technologies, e.g. document recognition, screen scraping, handwriting recognition, optical character recognition (OCR). These are combined with natural language processing (NLP) and artificial intelligence (AI). The invoices could be combined in different formats — pdf, tiff, jpeg. AI can train bots to understand each invoice.

ANZ adopted RPA very early, across HR , technology and finance. They reduced manual processes by 85 per cent. It has speeded up the work.

In fact, bots are digital workers. They are faster, more accurate and ensure more compliance and security. They do credit checks for loan approvals. Things can be done concurrently,  rather than sequentially .

RPA is highly cost effective. RPA replaces manual work. There are new supervisors who supervise both bots and people.

India is on the way to become the biggest base of RPA manpower. MNCs run their global RPA charters from their centres in India.

Creativity in Digital Advertising

Shabbir Chunawalla

In digital advertising ,both the client and the agency do not give representation to the creative people. The big consulting firms have technology, big data and platforms. However, they lack ideas and the creative people. These days media agencies hire techies. Similarly, consulting firms feel they will hire creative people. Media agencies are in competition with the consulting firms. And consulting firms command a premium. Creative excellence is secondary, and first comes the algorithms, the rising costs, the techies creating videos for the price of the pack of salted peanuts. There is focus on mobile screens weaning away the TV audiences. There is perception that you need youngsters to create communication for the millenial. There are AI applications. In all this, creative excellence is put on the backburner. Creative people too will have to adapt to the new environment. They will have to master new skills. They will have to be fast to deliver the ideas. They will have to learn how to create a post that leads to maximum engagement. In digital world, consumer processes brand information in a matter of seconds. Creative people can experiment, as the price of failure is low. Yes creative people can retain their insights and observations and moorings. They can have India-focus. At the same time they will have to blend their traits with the new context of longer formats, GIFs, interactivity and customised copy.

The new creative team will be crusader out to win respect back for advertising . They will have to care genuinely for the client’s business. They will have to establish contact with the CEOs who know where their company is headed. They will have to develop the contacts with the media so as to get the opportunities to contribute to the popular culture. No digital campaign has affected national consciousness.

Today, digital has reduced itself to the deals and discounts. Media companies have to build solutions around client’s business. That is not happening. They have just become agents again, rather than drivers of growth.

Digital business has prolific output. Every minute 46200 posts are uploaded on Instagram. It is rich content. Every minute 4,52,000 tweets are created. Millions of YouTube videos are viewed, and thousands are created every minute. Digital is a black hole, with the ability to hold unlimited amounts of content. Content creation is democratised. Here, you must have a piece of content that stands out in this clutter. It is much more challenging.

Role of Agencies Redefined

Shabbir Chunawalla

In advertising, there is now competition between big media agencies and tech companies. Both behave differently. A global pitch tends to go big media companies,

There is competition between ad agencies and consultancies. Consultancies specialise in project work and analytics. Agencies will have to develop deep relationships with clients by understanding the strategies to be adopted by them for their business. Agencies must have good talent profile to do so.

A tech company has an advantage over an agency. A lot of people could serve a client. The client executives know the domain. They organise verticals so that they coalesce.

Some agencies are reactive but this depends on agencies. Though they are not a tech company, they too are driven by data and technology and tools.

Clients have become sophisticated. They have a good understanding. They have in-house teams, Agencies have to add value and they have to reinvent.

Digital too is measurable. It is as measurable as you set it up to be. In search, the digital metrics are clear. To get the effectiveness of display and video, and thereafter trading online and offline, the measurement should take notice of these. First understand what you are measuring.

It is desirable that agencies move away from briefs and campaigns but it is difficult to do so. It is easier for the right talent profile.