With 2021 set to be the year that robotic process automation (RPA) goes mainstream, companies around the world are seeking new ways of streamlining their operations, adding new services, and increasing their competitiveness.
The ability to automate processes and actions is gaining in popularity, but a stumbling block that many quickly run into is cost and complexity – setting up and maintaining bots has not been an easy or inexpensive exercise by any means.
Until the launch of Roboteur by SpacePencil, that is.
Roboteur takes away much of the pain associated with RPA: it’s easy to build a bot and simple to maintain it. And it does this at a price point that’s easy to swallow.
For channel partners, the fact that they can offer their customers an effective RPA solution that’s not complex or costly is helping to unlock new business and let them offer their clients more value.
Towards greater customer-centricity
“One of our core competencies is to help our customers improve customer centricity,” explains Mornay Vivier, MD of MetaPerformance. “We aim to help customers improve their efficiency and their effectiveness. So they can do things more productively and do them right.”
Roboteur offers just this, he adds: the ability to help customer to be more customer-centric by increasing efficiency and effectiveness.
“Roboteur adds substantially to our armament, giving us the ability to take a very efficient tool that is cost-effective, to help our customers achieve their business objectives.”
Customers have different requirements from their RPA tools, depending on their business need and their budget.
“But the biggest thing, that comes up first and foremost, is cost-effectiveness,” Vivier points out. “There are many tools out there, and many of them could do the job required – but a lot of them are simply not cost-effective or able to scale.
“Roboteur, on the other hand, offers a cost-effective solution that in most cases will provide a sound business case as measured by the return on investment (ROI).
“And that’s what customers want: a solution that is easy to deploy, gives them an ROI, that doesn’t cost a fortune and that they can configure and run themselves.”
Vivier is no stranger to selling RPA solutions to clients and, in his experience, many of the products on the market are simply not cost-effective unless they are deployed at scale.
“One job we quoted on, the customer would have been in for R250 000.00 just to get started on deploying a bot. For many organisations, which don’t have deep pockets, this is simply not cost-effective.
Roboteur comes in at orders or magnitude less than partners are used to seeing, Vivier says. “And, because it’s so cost-effective, we can deploy Roboteur in just about any organisation – large or small.”
Just because smaller organisations can deploy Roboteur and quickly get value from it, doesn’t mean it’s not suitable for large companies either. “It has the same functionality as the more expensive alternatives, so we can position it for all of our customers.”
Vivier cites the example of a manufacturing customer his company was working with last year, trying to develop an RPA solution.
“With Covid-19 a lot of manufacturers have really battled. This customer had analysed their business and was trying to reengineer it to bring about savings and increase effectiveness. One of the solutions we looked at was a bot. At that time, we were working with a competitive solution and the customer simply couldn’t justify the cost.
“If I had known about Roboteur at that stage, it would have been the easiest sale I have ever made.”
But it’s not just the comparatively low cost that makes Roboteur attractive to customers, Vivier points. “Yes, cost is a factor, and Roboteur is extremely cost-effective with a great ROI.
“But it is also extremely easy to use. The Lego-like design, with the drag and drop interface, means that users don’t even have to be a developer to start getting value from Roboteur. As long as they understand the sequence of events and detail of the process, they can start designing and deploying bots.
“And customers can take the bots over once they are deployed, so they don’t have to depend on an expensive consultant.”
More than that, International Distribution Incubator (I.D.I.) is an easy company to work with, Vivier adds.
“It is a very flexible organisation, and the team is very keen to make a difference in the market. They treat their customers well and go out of their way to find solutions.
“I appreciate that they are not arrogant at all, but very enthusiastic.”
Signing up as an I.D.I partner was easy, says Vivier. “They are keen to grow their footprint and to partner with people that can help them do that.
“As a result, they have been very accommodating, and easy to work with. Obviously, there is a formal contract, but it’s not cumbersome and not one-sided.
“And, unlike some RPA vendors, we didn’t have to pay to sign up with I.D.I.”
MetaPerformance is a value-added reseller (VAR) for Roboteur in South Africa. It has also partnered with I.D.I as the sole distributor in the Australian market.
“We started engaging as a VAR towards the end of 2020,” Vivier explains. “So far we have signed up one customer in South Africa, and have a very healthy pipeline of prospects.”
The Australian operation have developed one Roboteur bot so far, using one of its own in-house processes, and this functions as a demo system when customers want to see a proof of concept (PoC).
“To be honest, we don’t usually do PoCs,” says Vivier. “Typically, we just build a bot for the customer and, if they like it, they simply keep using it.
“With Roboteur, it really is that easy and inexpensive to build a bot.”
A big plus for customers is the fact that Roboteur is a tried and tested solution, Vivier adds. “Roboteur didn’t just spring up overnight; it has been in the making for the last seven years. And one of the big banks is a long-time user, so there’s a sound track record or proof of its efficacy.
“In addition, we as MetaPerformance have been in the game for 15 years, so we come with our own experience and wouldn’t offer our customers a solution if we didn’t believe in it.
“If you combine the Roboteur team’s track record and our track record, we have a solid solution that any customer can feel confident about adopting.”
Added to this, the level of support from I.D.I has always been excellent, Vivier says. “It really has been amazing, we talk often and have a great relationship.”
Simplicity and ease of use
Customers want simplicity and ease of use, and RPA could help them achieve this.
Jarco Deale, operations manager of Diginetix explains: “What customers are looking for is to make their lives easier.
“I’ve been helping customers deploy enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions since 1996 and the one thing they all wish they had is a button they can press which will do everything for them.
“Yes, you can write custom programs that automate functions to a certain extent, but so far we haven’t been able to give them a solution where the system will do things itself.”
RPA started to gain traction about five years ago and has become more visible since. “But, from an adoption point of view, it hasn’t done as well as you would have thought.
“Now we could develop that button to do everything but our customers still weren’t adopting it.”
Part of the reason for the poor adoption rates was the high price tag that comes with some of the international RPA solutions on the market, and part of is the complexity involved in making them work.
“So I was pleasantly surprised when we discovered Roboteur by SpacePencil, and immediately contacted them to find out more,” Deale says. “I.D.I is a local company, with a locally-developed product – I was very excited.”
When Diginetix’s RPA analysts had a look at Roboteur, they too were pleasantly surprised at how easy the solution is to set up and manage, while offering the full range of functionality.
“By the time we signed up with I.D.I and started selling Roboteur we knew exactly what we wanted to an RPA solution,” Deale explains. “We’ve been around the block a few times and we know what our customers are looking for.”
Signing on as a VAR was a painless exercise, Deale says, and the relationship with the I.D.I team has grown from strength to strength.
“I love Roboteur and I like the people at I.D.I. They have a great can-do attitude and are always willing to work with us to meet customers’ needs.
“This is from both a product point of view and in the pre-sales cycle. They are always there to help us and make it easier for us to make things work.
“Because they are a South African company, they understand the local market which we’ve found that to be a big plus as it makes it much easier to business with them.”
With the development team based in South Africa, and intimately involved with customers, new features can be developed and added as needed.
“This was one of the first things we discussed with the Roboteur team,” Deale says. “We wanted to be able to talk to someone who was willing to work with us and our customers to take the product to the next level, to add features that are really needed and not what a development team sitting on the other side of the world thinks is needed.”
Pricing is in South African terms as well, which makes it attractive for local companies. “Everyone has a budget, and it’s easier to stick to your budget if pricing isn’t influenced by currency and wont’ fluctuate as the exchange rates does.”
Diginetix has already got customers using some Roboteur features and has a healthy pipeline of prospects, some of whom are busy with PoCs.
“From my side, I always tell customers that if a solution doesn’t save money or make money they shouldn’t do it,” Deale says. “And fortunately, Roboteur absolutely does save them money.”
He explains that RPA needs to be measured on exceptions. “This is not what a bot can do to simulate the normal tasks and functions of a person, but how well it addresses the exceptions that human find as part of a task.
“So we use the bot to not only perform certain functions, but also to do the checks and balances, auditing what is done by the humans. Because accuracy plays a huge role in companies’ operations, and bots can ensure that the checks and balances are in place.
“You can generally throw human resources at most problems, but you can’t always guarantee how effective and correct they will be.
“On the other hand, a bot does the same thing, the same way, every time. If you set it up to do something, that’s what it will do.”
Roboteur at a glance
a robust robotic process automation (RPA) system that combines sophisticated features with a user-friendly interface and simple process design.
- Drag and drop development – Dragging a command function onto the studio page effectively writes all the required code. Further input‘s set the input variables to that portion of code and link the inputs and out puts to the next building block.
- Ready to use commands – Over 120 packaged commands available. All with the same interface look and feel. Unlike other development languages you don’t need to learn a new syntax. This is all done inherently. Easy configuration of required variables completes the building block.
- Repetitive command configuration – Learning how to configure your first command building block enables knowledge of all command blocks. The differentiators are merely the inputs and outputs to and from each. This makes it quick and easy to build your first bot.
- Reusable development – The modular building blocks provided and further object building blocks can be built to be reusable and to take different inputs. You can save any self-built building block (Macro) for later use receiving different inputs, new or previously used inputs and output to the next building block or Macro. In effect you are building new blocks of code using the tool to build itself.
- Command line instruction – Any unique requirements in the development or functions that do not form part of the pre-packaged command set can be supplemented by using any traditional language that can be executed from the command line with the required argument. Like a reusable macro you now have a new command block function that will be able to run in any process flow.
- Scheduling – The point of RPA is to be less reliant on human intervention. Bots can be configured to start at a scheduled time is part of the platform. Once it is scheduled it will run automated.
- Easy navigable logs – All development and management of the processes, and the bots themselves, are managed from a central server either in cloud or on site depending on your requirements. Managed access enables starting and stopping of processes . This is helpful for managing processes and bots in remote locations.
- Central management of robots – All development and management of the processes, and the bots themselves, are managed from a central server either in cloud or on site depending on your requirements. Managed access enables starting and stopping of processes . This is helpful for managing processes and bots in remote locations.
- Macro import and export – Sharing of macros between servers is just a push of a button, point it in the right direction and it is exported or imported to the required place. The macro is now ready to be populated with the new required variables and ready to run.
- Easy to start – With a download and watching of some freely available videos you are engaged in the world of RPA. There is no myth or magic, it is just a case of knowing your requirements, logic and process flow, and dragging and connecting them into the studio.
- Macro import and export – Sharing of macros between servers is just a push of a button, point it in the right direction and it is exported or imported to the required place. The macro is now ready to be populated with the new required variables and ready to run.
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