Robotic process automation has been around for a few years at least, but Wesley Hartman, director of technology at accounting firm Kirsch Kohn & Bridge as well as the founder of automation solutions provider Automata, think accountants are still not utilizing it to its full potential. This is mostly, he said, because a lot of people still don't fully understand what it involves.
"On the RPA side of things, I think there's a lot of people who want to use RPA — maybe they've heard about it — but the problem is there's not a lot of knowledge on what RPA can do. 'Do I build it myself? Do I hire someone?'" he said.
This is especially the case when it comes to the fragmented landscape that characterizes much of the accounting technology arena today. As
"[Regarding] best-of-breed tech stacks with a person using different software packages, RPA [experts] can come in there, talk to accounting firms, look at their processes and procedures and at their software and figure out how to build a bot that can link it all together to solve the problem of entering the same information into four different software packages," he said.
The market, in response to these issues, seems to be moving more towards full-suite products that combine many different functions into a single comprehensive software package, which cuts down on the constant switching back and forth, and streamlines data processing. While this does improve things, Hartman noted that even among these products, nothing can do everything and so there will still be the need for different applications to work together, even if the total number is smaller. RPA, in this case, acts as a sort of connective tissue between software products that were not necessarily made to work with each other.
"I think RPA is going to bridge the gap between technologies, from one system to another because all the different companies are building their own platforms. There's no one platform that does everything. Either you end up in a suite of products like a Thomson Reuters or a CCH or you have these [many] little products. I think RPA can bridge the gap between some of the different software packages out there," he said.
Being able to do so well, according to Hartman, means keeping in mind the type of application programming interface used when developing an RPA solution. People should prioritize accessibility and openness in their APIs for maximum effect, though Hartman conceded that many API developers would prefer quite the opposite.
"My background is in computer engineering. For me, APIs are extremely important and I think the big reason for this is because … these other disjointed products are all trying to do one thing really well. I think the important thing is that developers need to be able to have open APIs available and also to create API tools that connect with each other. On the RPA side of things, we can build an RPA that will interface with one software and then the other to bridge the gap, by having those [APIs] available and not behind an enterprise wall. So many APIs are behind basically higher fees, you've got to pay more to use them," he said.
He pointed to a recent project of his own that is trying to be more open: an RPA bot library.
"So if an accounting firm has an issue with this RPA, we build to solve the problem and they can just subscribe to that bot and use it, for example, for inputting K-1 information from the spreadsheet to the software … I'm trying to build this library that can solve all these things, mostly how it can automate data input, taking it off the hands of high-billing-rate staff who should be spending their time on other things," he said.
He finally added that when considering RPA, it's important to also consider the hardware people will be running it on. He noted that at his own firm he makes sure to regularly supply staff with the proper equipment to be as efficient as possible. Firms upgrading and automating their processes should do the same, especially when it comes to people remote working.
"I'm a big fan of sending equipment to staff, lots of equipment … . It's worth it. This is something I think accountants in general should definitely look into because technology, generally speaking, especially one-time purchases of hardware, can be pretty cheap, so definitely give equipment to your remote workers, your home working staff," he said. "Everyone should have good equipment."
This story is part of the second season of the Accounting Today series called "The Frontier," where we explore the cutting edge of accounting technology through conversations with thought leaders across the country, who will share with us their observations, hopes, concerns and even a few predictions here and there.
See the rest of
