Australian financial services businesses are leading the Asia Pacific in robotic process automation (RPA) adoption, with 78% of Australian organisations currently using these type of solutions according to a new survey report from Blue Prism titled “RPA In The APAC Financial Services Sector.

Australia's uptake rate leads India (49 percent) and Hong Kong (47 percent) with Malaysia and Singapore at 44 percent and 28 percent respectively.

The report surveyed business leaders from five key markets – Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, Hong Kong, and India. Of the 22 percent of Australian financial services organisations that have not already deployed RPA solutions, 8 percent are planning to implement such technologies within the next six months, and a further 4 percent are planning to do so within the next year.

An overwhelming majority, 89 percent, said the future growth of RPA was “extremely promising” or “promising”. The main driver was increasing efficiencies and speed within the organisation (85 percent), followed by reducing errors (78 percent) and costs (67 percent).

Most Australian financial services organisations currently leverage RPA in the finance (88 percent) and IT (69 percent) departments, compared to just 29 percent for sales and marketing. In the next two to three years, respondents said they expect to continue to invest in finance and IT departments, but the number of respondents that said sales and marketing would be a focus more than doubled to 67 percent.

Robert Dewar, Vice President, Financial Services, APAC, Blue Prism, said: “The Australian financial services industry has led its APAC rivals in terms of RPA and Intelligent Automation adoption rates with a particular focus on increasing the speed and efficiency of their organisations. Naturally, we’re seeing the industry expand the range of applications from cutting costs to increasing sales and ultimately as a catalyst for driving digital transformation.”

Australia Key Findings:

● 99 percent of organisations felt that RPA has improved overall business operations

● When it comes to the benefits associated with RPA adoption, most organisations ranked cost and time savings (88 percent) as the most significant benefit, followed by increased accuracy and quality of output (76 percent)

● In terms of factors that organisations consider when drawing up an RPA budget, most organisations ranked implementation costs (77 percent) as the most important factor, followed by maintenance costs (70 percent) and ancillary costs (67 percent)

● Of the organisations that are not currently using RPA solutions and technologies, 8 percent are planning to implement such technologies within the next six months, and 4 percent are planning to do so within the next year

● 89 percent of organisations said that the future growth of RPA is extremely promising or promising

● 97 percent of organisations said that RPA solutions and technologies were already implemented prior to the pandemic, ahead of Malaysia (91 percent) and Hong Kong (84 percent)

Full APAC report findings and insights, here.