By Richard Milam, Special for USDR
How RPA actually supports organizations’ “go green” efforts and saves on energy bills and wear-and-tear on pricey equipment and virtual environments.
As more and more companies attempt to “go green” and reduce their environmental footprint, Robotic Process Automation technology becomes instrumental in this effort, plus affords an enormous cut in their energy bill and reduces the daily wear-and-tear on their electronic machinery.
The information age has emerged as a digital economy, where businesses and organizations operate in a virtual space. While the 21st Century electronic machines (computers, monitors) have enabled industries to function in a global market—without ever leaving their office—it has also drastically increased businesses’ energy quotient and their energy bill.
Power is not cheap, but is one of the most essential resources companies need to function, not only in their daily operations, but many times to perform overnight data processes, especially since mobile banking and digital applications are so abundantly used amongst the consumer population.
While Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology was not created as a green technology—whose intended use is to mitigate or reverse the effects of human activity on the environment—but inadvertently and opportunely, RPA is one of the most environmentally friendly, green tech tools a business can employ.
Robotic Process Automation functions to perform multiple, and an almost unlimited number of, business processes. Plus, it is so easy to learn and use that staff will be effectively automating many of their daily transactional and operational processes, which would normally be performed manually on multiple personal machines and for a greater amount of time. Because RPA technology can be installed on a virtual server, it can be accessed by any personal; thus, multiple processes can be performed within a shorter amount of time, saving a ton on energy costs.
Earthle is the energy-saving search engine created by Goggle showcasing the devastating—and costly—energy consumed by the simple background color on LCD displays. Imagine how much electricity is consumed when multiple computers and their associated monitors are running in full-screen, in the usual white light mode. This is a regular daily and possibly nightly practice in most businesses—costing a bundle in energy expenses. What is worse is actually a commonality in most corporate cultures: employees leave their PC running all of the time, not even powering off when they leave the office! To show the math, if a company has 50 employees that leave their machines on 24 hours a day, this amounts to a yearly expenditure of 66,000 kilowatts hours of electricity. Not to mention the yearly $10,550.00 cut in the company’s pocketbook for computer use alone. Calculate how much energy you are wasting on the Saving Energy calculator.
Here is the good news, Robotic Process Automation becomes the solution for not only automating a business’s processes required to keep it operating and growing, but advanced RPA technologies can actually perform data processes in the background of a computer. In fact, the monitor does not even have to be on for EnableSoft’s Foxtrot automation software to run processes.
Better yet, many businesses must run reports, such as GL postings or inventory management updates overnight so as not to impact their daily operating procedures. The innovative built-in intelligence of Foxtrot RPA now empowers businesses to take their environmental efforts to a higher level. Users are able to instruct the “robot” to perform the required process and subsequently log-off and shut down the machine. No longer do businesses have to waste energy on running computers and monitors 24 hours a day. One or two machines can perform the nightly actions until they are shut down. Job done; energy saved!
Businesses are discovering that in their efforts to “go green,” Robotic Process Automation solutions are the most advanced and beneficial green tech tools in the market. Not only does RPA technology effectually impact an organization’s operations by reducing employee workload and streamlining business processes, but by doing so, it minimizes a business’s energy quotient—reducing their environmental footprint and saving them a fortune on costs.
BIO:
As an early innovator in the Robotic Process Automation market, in 1995, Richard Milam founded the company, EnableSoft, which creates the automation technology, Foxtrot. Prior to being Founder and CEO of EnableSoft, Richard was a partner and Senior Vice President of FiTech PLUSmark, and held other positions in Information Technology, Operations, and Sales.