Jane Edwards
Raj Parameswaran, president of U.S. federal information technology at Maximus, said robotic process automation could help government agencies facilitate the delivery of services to citizens while allowing employees to focus on more complex tasks.
“RPA will continue to grow as a valuable tool for government IT leaders because it allows the immediate expansion and scaling of human labor without impacting existing systems,†Parameswaran wrote in a guest piece published Friday on GCN.
“With RPA, an agency can implement and test on a small scale and then quickly expand to automate additional manual tasks,†he added.
Parameswaran said there are factors agencies should consider in advancing RPA implementation, such as ensuring that the RPA technology is easy to use and deploy; addressing security at the architecture level and complying with agency requirements; and understanding the RPA platform’s capabilities and how the technology interacts with enterprise systems.
He noted that procurement, finance, human resources and operations are some of the areas with repetitive, manual tasks that could benefit from RPA and as agencies deploy the technology, they can assess and identify other functions that could be automated.
“I believe RPA will eventually become a part of the core technology platform stack for business applications that both directly address agency missions and their supporting functions,†Parameswaran wrote. “RPA will become an embedded component in standard solutions, and we’ll start to see that evolution beginning in earnest as soon as this year.â€
