Delivering digital transformation in public sector organisations through Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

The adoption of RPA is just one component of the broader digital agenda across our public services. It has effectively demonstrated the benefits possible for both public servants and Irish citizens accessing public services.

Since September 2019, Deloitte has been working in partnership with the Department of Public Expenditure & Reform (DPER) and the Office of Government Procurement (OGP). We support them to build knowledge of the opportunity RPA presents for public sector bodies. In the past three years, Deloitte has worked with public sector partners to reduce administrative burden on their teams by over 95,000 working days. The work already delivered is proving how automations can deliver material efficiencies, time and cost savings in very short time, while also freeing up resources to focus on different types of work.

Under the Framework, our Deloitte Robotic & Intelligent Automation Team work alongside many public sector bodies from healthcare to local government. We support them to reimagine how they deliver some of their essential services using RPA software, including:

Improved employee/citizen experience: Reduced number of mundane tasks for employees, and faster processing time for citizens. 24/7 scheduling which allows services to continue outside of working hours.
Improved data quality, and increased accuracy: Increased accuracy, quality, and security of data as well as overall reduction in the total number of errors because automation completes the task in exactly the same way each time
Managing spikes/peaks in demand: Automation supports teams to manage increased workload at peak times
Accelerating rate to scale: RPA supports staff by processing increased volumes, to help eliminate backlogs
Increased capacity and flexibility: Automating the process provides employees with additional capacity and flexibility, allowing them to focus their time where it delivers most value to their colleagues, patients, or the public
Standardised processes: Once a process is automated, a robot will carry out the task in the same way every time it is run. This provides agencies with reliable, auditable and consistent results for the public, reducing the back and forth between citizens and public service bodies.

A key focus of this project from the outset is to empower public service staff to become self-sufficient in using RPA. We are achieving this through extensive training, upskilling and knowledge transfer supports. The RPA Framework has presented the opportunity to build capability and expertise across the Irish public sector to re-design services using RPA as a key component.

Deloitte’s multidisciplinary teams support many government departments to adopt RPA including the Department of Social Protection, HSE, Department of Education and Skills and Revenue. We have delivered over 400 hours of training in 13 different bodies.

Developing shared capability and infrastructure for RPA creates the right environment and capability to drive the technology’s adoption. This will fast track the rate of digital transformation through sharing of expertise, assets, automations and use cases across the whole public service. This approach is already delivering value in the Irish public sector and for the Irish citizen.