Company wins £4 million deal to support development of robotics process automation in central government
The Cabinet Office has chosen technology consultancy Capgemini as the private sector lead in its Robotics Process Automation Partnership, aimed at promoting the use of the technology in central government.
It has named the company as its partner in a £4 million, three-year deal to run an education programme, demonstrate the potential of RPA and help departments build business cases for its implementation.
It will also be in a position to help departments build RPA applications; but in contrast to the original prior information notice, the contract award does not make any reference to the setting up of a centre of excellence for the technology.
The Cabinet Office has previously indicated that, while there is no cross-government strategy for the use of RPA, it is included in the strategies of most government departments, and an interest group has been set up.
Capgemini already has a presence working on RPA in central government: it is providing solutions to HM Revenue & Customs through its Automated Delivery Centre, which opened last year. The company has said that robotics dashboards are now being used by more than 7,500 contact centre advisers and it has worked on a number of projects to extend the department’s capability in the technology.
Robotics is being used in HMRC’s employer registration process to validate data from online applications, and to provide a unique reference number to new companies when they begin employing staff.
RPA will be on the agenda, along with machine learning and artificial intelligence, at UKAuthority’s follow-up to its successful conference on the subject. Return of the Bots is scheduled to take place on 14 November 2017 in central London. It is free to attend for public sector employees. You can learn more and register for the event here.
Image by Gwydion M Williams, CC BY 2.0 through flickr
