Marrying Managed Services and Zero-License Costs in an RPA World

If you look at any technology evolution, whether it be infrastructure to cloud, software to SaaS, or internal support to outsourced, all trends tend to lead to a managed service model where the CapEx cost transitions to a monthly OpEx cost. Accomplishing this with any of these trends however, will always be difficult when the cost of software is sold yearly and can change at any time – not to mention the fact that software pricing isn’t controlled by the companies providing the service itself, as it has been over the past few years within the RPA industry. With few exceptions, like Office365, which has a fairly fixed flat monthly rate already, these technologies will fail to scale to expectations unless clients gain access to commercially available managed services providers with qualified resources in order to successfully implement and support the programs. Already in the last few years, the demand for RPA resources has increased over 15x and is not expected to slow anytime soon.

The challenge here, is that the increase in demand drives up the implementation costs beyond the generally accepted value the technology would bring. This happens because there are far less available trained resources than the demand requires, which allows for higher bill rates. The net result of this, combined with licensed product costs where clients will buy in bulk in order to get discounts, is a scattered and inconsistent implementation, ultimately leading to unused licenses or “shelfware” that drives up maintenance costs while producing zero value.

With the onset of commercially viable zero-license RPA options, providers now have access to source code and open training while having enterprise product support available. Now providers with qualified RPA developers and analysts can start to wrap a managed service offering that allows clients to pay as they consume (for service) and avoid license costs altogether. This also mitigates the risk of having a single provider going out of business, since it is a community and commercially-backed initiative.