Overcoming Barriers to RPA Adoption in Malaysian Businesses
By Ginny Truc To, akaBot Country Manager, Malaysia
Malaysia is currently facing a conundrum in its journey of digital transformation. Despite the rapid uptake of digital solutions across the board spurred by the Fourth Industrial Revolution, 56 per cent of Malaysian businesses have yet to embrace any Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solutions.
This significant gap is exacerbated by the lack of localised solutions, steep implementation costs, and a general lack of awareness of the uses of automation in easing the digital transformation process.
RPA is nowhere near a new concept in the Malaysian market. Various companies have long contributed their RPA services in the country in various sectors to alleviate the burden of programmable, laborious, and ultimately repetitive tasks. Tech makeovers in old-fashioned industries go beyond serving one organisation alone, as digital transformation has been proven to help companies rise above their competition and emerge as a pivotal driver of economic growth and increased competitiveness. For instance, in Malaysia’s retail industry, companies that have embraced tech-enabled processes excel beyond their peers who are slower to adopt and adapt. As consumer expectations change, it is time that companies follow suit, starting with automation.
What is there to gain in RPA adoption?
RPA has proven its ability to present valuable contributions to various businesses across industries. One primary advantage is automation’s ability to simultaneously facilitate workforce upskilling while increasing employee productivity as companies adopt an RPA solution. RPA takes over the more mundane activities that plague most workplaces. This in return directly frees up time for employees to complete more impactful, fulfilling and high-value tasks for the company instead.
On top of that, the inevitability of technological advancements in business operations has led to a demand for technological skills in every industry. The workforce benefits from their broad knowledge and skills in traversing a highly digitalised ecosystem as this distinguishes them from their peers in the hiring process. However, hiring new talents can be more costly than upskilling their incumbent personnel. Introducing new technology with a more shallow learning curve like an RPA solution can ease the process of training the workforce.
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Malaysian Businesses: Barriers to RPA deployment
While plenty of RPA solutions on the market offer easy user interfaces to cater to non-tech users to diminish the learning curve, it is only one of a number of obstacles listed by Malaysian businesses when adopting automation technology. Other limitations include:
- Costly implementation fees
The potential strain of investing in RPA systems can be aggravating for smaller businesses. Due to their limited budget, most SMEs need to rely on prioritising efforts that can turn around higher sales in a shorter period of time. On top of workforce limitations and time constraints, RPA adoption often ends up on the back burner to allocate budgets for solutions with more immediate impact.
- Lack of localised solutions
Most RPA solutions are provided by international companies through third-party vendors and service agencies, which can present some issues, especially in terms of compatibility and customisation capabilities for a localised context. Additionally, communication may also be affected due to the reliance on third-party vendors, which can compound into an ineffective RPA service over time.
- Limited awareness of RPA’s potential and benefits
Malaysian Businesses may also not be aware of the full breadth of benefits they can reap from adopting an RPA. With limited awareness, they may be more resistant to any new changes and technological adoption. Overcoming this hurdle will require concerted efforts in educating both employees and decision-makers to understand the value proposition of RPA.
- Lack of infrastructure and tech maturity
Developing markets and industries also face complications in deploying RPA due to the lack of infrastructure. Surrounded by legacy systems and manual processes, many traditional businesses need assistance to upgrade their technological infrastructure to match the requirements needed for new technologies.
Closing the startling divide
For Malaysian companies to become more competitive on a global scale, they must take the first steps in addressing the implementation barrier to close the automation adoption gap between developing and developed countries. Local businesses are advised to start small by incorporating one simple solution at a time to ensure a smooth transition. akaBot coins this method as the Fast-to-Mass strategy, where companies with small budgets start small and within local contexts to showcase the benefits of successful RPA implementation with a lower risk of monetary loss before scaling up.
Stakeholder buy-in is also a significant aspect of RPA implementation, which remains one of the most resistant groups in automation implementation. Without the support from the workforce, RPA deployment can be severely unproductive, posing a significant loss for any organisation. Hence, it is a top priority for company leaders and managers to focus on educating their workforce to empower them with the knowledge required to streamline RPA adoption within the context of their organisation. On top of this, team leaders will also need to be able to offer a space for open communication and magnify the voices of their staff members should any concerns come up. These small steps can determine the eventual success of any new tech deployment.
Company leaders should be privy to the context of their business needs to choose the right technology for their business processes. Decision-makers need to allow themselves time to evaluate the tools and vendors available in the marketplace to find the exact service and solution for their goals. For those looking to scale up in the future, vendors with comprehensive offerings with localised expertise, such as akaBot, make for the ideal long-term RPA partner.
Emerging trends and the future of RPA
The future of RPA in Malaysia is promising, even though more needs to be done. RPA experts forecast continued growth in RPA deployment across industries. In step with the speedy innovation of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), computer vision and Natural Language Processing (NLP), RPA will be able to fully maximise generative AI capabilities to automate more complex tasks.
Concurrently, non-tech workers will soon catch up with their skilled peers with the popularisation of low-code and no-code RPA solutions. As accessibility increases in the world of automation, Malaysian businesses can further leverage the time- and resource-saving benefits of RPA. Malaysia is no exception to this future, especially with more RPA providers looking to enter the market and foster partnerships with local companies. In other words, RPA is set to become an indispensable tool shortly, transforming the way businesses operate globally.
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