03 Jan, 2021 | Blogs
A growing number of organizations are moving to the cloud. For robotic process automation (RPA), this raises a fundamental question: whether to deploy RPA as a service (cloud) or on-premises. Businesses often include RPA as a part of their strategy to lower cost, increase efficiency and productivity, reduce errors, and provide enhanced customer experience. In this article, we’ll look at the various pros and cons of deploying RPA in the cloud and on-premises and tell you why most CIOs are now adopting RPA in the cloud.
On-Premises Vs Cloud-Native RPA
RPA in the cloud and RPA on-premises are the two extreme ends of the RPA deployment spectrum. Below are some of the advantages and disadvantages:
3 Advantages of RPA in the Cloud
Speed
To keep up with the growing customer needs and evolving business trends, RPA in the cloud provides the best way to stay competitive. It quickly automates repetitive processes and eliminates the need for complicated infrastructure setup and maintenance. RPA-a-a-service allows users to build and use a bot to get things done faster, thereby staying competitive and familiarizing with the latest trends and technologies in the industry. Businesses also get regular updates, which include a ton of new features that can be utilized instantly by the team.
Cost of ownership
When compared with on-premises deployment, the cost of RPA as a service is significantly less. That is because having a cloud-based platform eliminates the infrastructure and maintenance costs. IT departments are under immense pressure to migrate from the various legacy systems and processes to the cloud. Often, this task can become overwhelming when using ERP systems like SAP, Oracle, and others. When RPA is deployed in the cloud, it can deliver immediate cost and time savings by automating processes dependent on the legacy system.
Agility
Another biggest advantage of adopting RPA in the cloud is to remain agile in your industry and market. It allows companies to leverage new capabilities and technologies instantly. RPA as-a-service provides a platform that easily integrates artificial intelligence (AI). The platform should also come equipped with advanced tools like process discovery, which allows you to identify the process for automation and then create bots for it; software bots that can classify, extract, and validate structured and unstructured data in minutes; and a digital assistant that enables automation scalability across your workforce. These types of solutions help discover new automation opportunities and stay updated with the latest technology.
Finding The Middle Ground: RPA Managed Services
If you are new to RPA and are looking for a quick fix, then RPA in the cloud is the easiest and the most cost-effective solution. It gives you faster ROI and is easy to deploy. If you are using RPA on-premises, then you can run RPA in the cloud simultaneously without disturbing the existing program. If you are still unable to decide the deployment approach, consider a middle-ground option: RPA Managed Services. RPA Managed Services involves ideating with an RPA vendor on the best way forward and re-engineer the process.
Read more about business process reengineering
It can mean that the deployment of RPA happens in the cloud or on-premises after re-engineering the processes in terms of workflow enhancement, application updates, etc. RPA managed services allows businesses to leverage the skills of the RPA services provider to customize the process and manage it for optimized performance.
RPA managed services are usually adopted to lower costs, optimize processes, and ensure they are monitored 24×7 and run smoothly.
Talk to our RPA experts to help you choose the right RPA deployment approach.