BPS spending impacted by SDA can skyrocket to $10B by 2019 but will require a few kinks to be addressed.
The promise of next-generation benefits is powering explosive growth in the adoption of Business Process Service Delivery Automation (BPSDA), according to Everest Group, which reports that the number of BPS clients with SDA deployments rose by more than 80 percent year-on-year. SDA includes both Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
This growth in SDA is being driven not only by traditional drivers, such as efficiency and accuracy, but also by new-age drivers such as the need for enhanced customer experience.
“Increasingly, SDA is being used to enhance customer experience through much shorter response times for handling requests, round-the-clock availability, embedded intelligence, and reduced need to manually bridge gaps in technology,” said Rajesh Ranjan, partner at Everest Group.
However, although many more enterprises are adopting SDA, it is still rather nascent in the Business Process Services market today, says Ranjan. “Contrary to general belief, our data shows that the penetration and scale per BPSDA deployment is still quite low. One of the challenges is the mismatch between buyers’ expectations and reality, partly due to some inaccurate communication from service providers and automation vendors. However, the intrinsic benefits of SDA solutions, especially when combined with other digital components, the rising maturity of adopters and increasing sophistication of providers, suggest these issues will be addressed soon.”
As evidence of this low maturity of SDA, Everest Group points to the relatively meager amount of BPS spending on business processes where RPA has been applied. This amount is estimated to be US$700-800 million in 2016, or 2 percent of the addressable market, but it is expected to skyrocket in the future, reaching US$10 billion by 2019.
Another indicator that enterprises are barely scratching the surface of BPSDA’s potential is that a majority of current deployments (85 percent) involve Robotic Process Automation (RPA) only. Automation based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) is far away from widespread adoption.
These findings and more are discussed in Everest Group’s newly published report, “Business Process Services Delivery Automation (BPSDA)—State of the Market Report— 2017.” This report provides an in-depth view of the state of the BPSDA industry, offering a market overview, solution characteristics, an analysis of the service provider landscape, and recommendations for buyers and service providers on how to prepare for the future.
Other key findings:
- Finance and Accounting (F&A) and contact center emerged as the leading areas of application of SDA in BPS, followed by banking and insurance. The banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) industry accounts for the majority of the clients with BPSDA deployments.
- Customer satisfaction with BPSDA is rather low, primarily because there is a mismatch between buyer expectations and reality. Also, many providers and buyers look at SDA in isolation and lose sight of the bigger benefits of digital transformation powered by not only SDA but also other digital levers such as cloud and analytics.
- Encouraging signs abound in the market. Awareness of SDA benefits is increasing, investments in advanced AI-based automation are rising, and recognition of the utility of models such as automation-as-a-service is growing.
- SDA is likely to significantly impact the BPS industry in the near- to medium-term along five dimensions – service provider revenue and margin; pricing model; shoring model; talent model; and contract composition.
- In the face of this disruption, enterprises should adopt a set of best practices to ensure success with BPSDA. Service providers must develop robust strategies to ride the wave of BPSDA disruption and back those strategies with smart investments.
***A complimentary 13-page abstract of the report is available for download here.*** (Registration required.)
