Intelligent CIO Middle East Issue 53 | Page 37

///////////////////////// TALKING business ‘‘ A global study commissioned by Automation Anywhere, a leader in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) of more than 10,000 office workers spanning nearly a dozen countries, reveals that they average more than three hours a day on manual, repetitive computer tasks which aren’t part of their primary job and are ripe for human error. The research, conducted by OnePoll, investigated the time spent on and attitudes towards manual, repetitive digital administration tasks in the modern enterprise. New data reveals that nearly half of workers surveyed who expressed an opinion find digital administration boring (47%) and a poor use of their skills (48%), while the majority say it gets in the way of doing their main job (51% overall, rising to 80% in India) and reduces their overall productivity (64%). Over half (52%) of millennial respondents felt that they could be more productive if they had less administrative tasks to complete, slightly higher than the average at 48%. “There was a time not so long ago when workplace technology was viewed as liberating,” said Shelly Kramer, Principal Analyst, Futurum Research. “The PC age “ ACCORDING TO THE SURVEY THE AVERAGE EMPLOYEE LOSES 60 HOURS PER MONTH TO EASILY AUTOMATABLE TASKS. “ EMPLOYEES COULD BE GIVEN BACK A QUARTER OF THEIR ANNUAL WORK TIME (4.5 MONTHS) TO FOCUS ON MORE MEANINGFUL WORK, BOOSTING PRODUCTIVITY AND OVERALL BUSINESS VALUE. freed office workers from rigid processes, placing each of us in control of our own workflow. But there’s been a trade-off, and today, those tasks have become a significant burden. If you work in an office, likely your productivity and happiness are significantly undermined with having to be responsible for manual computer administration tasks that could easily be automated and eat into your day.” Data entry is the world’s most hated task At the very top of the hated task heap is general data entry – manually inputting data into a computer or other devices, followed closely by managing email traffic and filing digital documents – such as documents, spreadsheets, images or PDFs – into the correct digital folder. Compiling reports from IT and software systems and invoice management round out the top five most hated tasks. The survey revealed that the top three most hated tasks are also the top three administrative tasks workers report that they www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO 37