Find out about what keeps most global financial executives awake in the ghost hours of the night, and you wouldn’t be startled when automation is most likely to linger on their notepads. On daily basis, global business executives are eager and actively surfing for better and cost effective ways to improve the business operations and delivery of their services. Much more of this research is in the spectrum of software robots.
Take a walk into a VW manufacturing plant in Germany, and you would be greeted with a number of physical robots and automated systems having assumed the roles of humans in fixing, lifting and handling multiple tasks. If you happen to visit the offices of the Federal Reserve Bank in US or the SSNIT Emporium at the Airport City in Ghana, you will find robust software used to crunch mountains of financial documents in a rather expeditious manner than human clerks or analysts can. SSNIT data retrieval and claim management has now become convenient and less costly and other incidental finance functions like writing summaries and reports have also received some inroads through automation.
A number of financial service companies aplenty in the area of insurance, investment banking, and advisory services are using robust software to automate the finance and HR functions in the areas of risk detection and control, accounts payables and receivables management, bank accounts reconciliation, error and fraud detection, standing order processing and payroll management. Banks embraced the use of Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and mobile banking to automate customer interface as ways to minimize human costs and improve business efficiency. Banks have now been able to serve many more customers with fewer tellers.
Menial, laborious, time consuming, and monotonous works that are typical of the back offices of banks are gradually being substituted by automation. These technologies including software algorithms can be used to crunch and process huge volumes of complex data in a cost effective and expeditious manner that hitherto took ages and much more head counts to complete. A study by Oxford University and Deloitte found out that over the next 20 years, about 95% of chartered accountants will be substituted by some form of automation. I guess accountants wouldn’t be pleased with this finding but hey, it is more of a reality than a myth.
So which jobs are most vulnerable to automation? A study by Carl Benedict Frey and Michael Osborne on the probability of computerization for 702 occupations found that about 47% of workers in United States of America have jobs highly susceptible to automation. Some of these workers are in the area of sales and services such as account clerks, telemarketers, counter and rental clerks, and accountants. Martin Ford, a social entrepreneur and the author of “Rise of the Robots” also hinted about the gloomy picture of the job market on the wave of automation positing that routine and repetitive jobs would be assumed by robotic technologies.
Most financial institutions across the globe have advanced to the use of efficient ERP system and other technologies – SAP, SUN, Oracle, and ACCPAC, in their efforts to minimize cost and compete favorably on the global market. After all, robotic software automation are repeatedly trusted for accuracy, execution of complex and scalable tasks, fraud control, swift data retrieval and aggregation as well as fluidity in financial reporting.
It is also argued by critics that the more financial processes a firm automates the more exposed it is to cyber threats. A cyber-attack is likely to dominate among the most worrisome threats in the minds of business leaders as it has adverse effect to the bottom lines and reputation of most companies.
Financial institutions that want to survive and possibly expand their businesses must joyfully and creditably embrace the advancement in robotic software and automation or face extinction eternally. Finance leaders must awake to the realities of the opportunities and threats presented by this wave of automation and ensure a corporate strategic fit.