SLASSCOM to launch RPA Week: Next frontier in automation

Jehan Perinpanaygam

Rohith Pradeep

Shanaka Fernando

Following the hugely successful RPA Conference and Hackathon in 2019, the first of its kind in Sri Lanka, SLASSCOM (Sri Lanka Association for Software Services Companies) will hold the 2020 RPA online conference from 9-11 December, with the entire week being designed as SLASSCOM RPA week! The week will include training workshops, hackathon and award ceremonies, in conjunction with this event that will be conducted on an international scale.

SLASSCOM as the national chamber for the knowledge and innovation industry in Sri Lanka sees immense potential for the adoption of this technology across multiple industries and envisions Sri Lanka being a centre of excellence for RPA streamlining

Next pitstop for enterprises riding the digital transformation journey

“The thinking is quite simple – RPA enables the automation of repetitive process-oriented rule-based tasks, bringing with it a massive potential to achieve cost efficiencies, while facilitating human resources to focus on more knowledge intensive work,” says SLASSCOM Chairman Channa Manoharan, highlighting the need for companies to embrace bots – the virtual workforce.

“It’s still the early days for robotics in Sri Lanka, but several of our member companies have already acquired world class capability and implemented several successful projects not only within the IT / BPM companies but in several industries such as banking and finance and insurance,” says SLASSCOM Finance Director and BPM Forum Board representative Jehan Perinpanaygam.

He notes: “This is a digital workforce that works uninterrupted, 24 x 7, and we are seeing a lot of mundane tasks being successful automated. RPA is best suited for large volume-based processes and incorporates functional intelligence into an application called a ‘bot’ which work on your computer and completes the designated tasks”

RPA – the vigour of enterprise operations 

Giving a further insight, SLASSCOM Forum Lead of the BPM Forum Shanaka Fernando said, “When it comes to RPA, it’s actually about merging technology and domain knowledge to develop software programmes that are able to follow standard and repetitive instructions.”

Clarifying the common question of humans being replaced or made redundant by such technologies, Shanaka explains that the use of bots translates into zero errors, zero interruptions, more volumes and scalability and therein more cost efficiencies and profits.” This means that humans are provided more knowledge-centric job prospects in analytics, strategy making and innovations, thus giving them the opportunities to reskill themselves.”

Through the pandemic, companies around the world have been cutting costs, but the general trend is for the majority of these firms to continue investments in automation and digitisation. “Companies haven’t skimped on RPA budgets because it is the future,” says Conference Chair and Alternate Forum Head Rohith Pradeep.

“The focus is on becoming efficient and cost effective, and gaining competitive advantage through RPA. With working from home becoming the norm, organisations with RPA deployed will require less employee interaction and dependency on employee availability since bots can be operated remotely.”

The conference will include industry experts and an international panel of speakers and panellists. The aim of the conference is to create a sense of urgency for companies to adopt RPA to start doing things faster, better and cheaper and showcase Sri Lanka’s capability internationally. The initiative will also encompass a training calendar in partnership with technology service providers, as well as an awards ceremony to recognise companies who have taken steps to automate, and through these case studies encourage others to join the revolution.

SLASSCOM’s member companies are dedicated to adopting RPA to empower local companies to compete better internationally and provide Sri Lanka’s IT/BPM industry with a competitive advantage with RPA as an enabler in attracting global business to Sri Lanka. SLASSCOM also recognises the continued support extended by their corporate sponsor Dialog.