A featured contribution from Leadership Perspectives, a curated forum for enterprise technology leaders, nominated by our subscribers and vetted by the CIOApplications Editorial Board.

Hibbett Sports

Benefits of RPA in Business

Ronald Blahnik is Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Hibbett Sports since joining the team in 2016. He is responsible for all things related to Information Technology including; Enterprise PMO, Business Solutions, Solutions Delivery, Infrastructure and Operations, Security, Quality Assurance and IT Compliance. He is also responsible for Corporate Strategy, Innovation and Retail Analytics. Prior to joining Hibbett, Blahnik had an IT consulting business, been SVP and CIO for Hudson’s Bay Company and VP Information Technology Architecture & Infrastructure Services for Lowe’s. Raised in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Blahnik studied Computer Science earning a degree in Information Systems. He is a veteran of the United States Army having served for more than 20 years both active and reserve.

What are some of the challenges impacting to the RPA space?

Today folks getting into any organizations are not just focus about what they're doing for the associates; rather they're looking for a real payback. This makes organizations to pay them more to perform a task that will be necessary in the next stage of corporate expansion. Moreover, when it comes to idea of headcount, unemployment is a constant challenge that we are confronted with. There has been an uptick in the market's demand for people with specialized skill sets. In order to overcome these issues, one can leverage RPA, which can function almost around the clock and which can of huge benefit for us.

Due to the increased investment in RPA, employees are constantly facing internal challenge that RPA may leave them unemployed. One needs to get through that and sell themsleves on the potential it presents by freeing up time to work on other things that are vital to the firm. Moreover, RPA space is not only evolving very swiftly, but it's also maturing. When I looked at RPA three years the tools and technologies out there were just making their space in the market, but now there are many upper right quadrant tools that demonstrated track records with great success. So one of the issues that we encounter with that is putting these things together and pay for it year after year.

What are some of the trends impacting BYOD space?

The automation of retail outlets is one of our primary focuses. We operate 1100 locations around the country with the help of 10,000 sales staff. Our objective is to position our staff members in a way so that they interact directly with customers. As the longer they spend time with their customer, the greater number of sales they make. Therefore, automate anything like this and execute that consistently across 1100 locations without experiencing any failure, is extremely valuable. In order to achieve it, one of our most important initial goals, which we are now working on, is figuring how to automate the price adjustment process.

When it comes to merchants who run supply chains or stores, doing so requires a significant number of people working together. In addition to automating business systems, we are looking forward to automating this aspect of the business and working toward that end.

Due to the increased investment in RPA, employees are constantly facing internal challenge that RPA may leave them unemployed

What is your piece of advice for budding professionals in the field?

RPA is expanding rapidly. To be disruptive in the market, one must understand the business processes they are trying to support and any potential issues they want to encounter rather than focusing just on what the a tool itself can do. Becoming an expert in processes such as re-engineering, automation, and re-engineering enables one to become extremely useful to a company. These skills are highly valued across the board.

The articles from these contributors are based on their personal expertise and viewpoints, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of their employers or affiliated organizations.