Automotive manufacturing has long been a heavily automated process, with physical robots helping assemble, weld, and paint vehicles. Recent moves by some companies towards adopting robotic process automation (RPA), shows that the wider automotive sector, from manufacturers and national sales companies to dealers and remarketers, is now turning to a different type of robot technology to automate time-consuming back office processes.
RPA is a software technology that uses "bots" to handle repetitive, rules-based digital tasks. These "bots" can help automotive companies manage inventory, process payments and invoices, and even improve customer service, allowing people to concentrate on core business operations.
However, because RPA works by accessing information from existing IT systems or software, automotive companies using RPA need to think carefully about the impact that the technology has on their existing IT contracts. For example, can a third party supplier of RPA use your existing software, or would it breach the third party licence terms? Are user number restrictions or locations impacted by the digital workforce of "bots"?
As RPA interacts with other IT systems or software, this interaction could give rise to licence scope or charging issues for existing contracts governing other IT systems or software.
Issues often arise because the language used in existing contracts to define the scope of permitted software use and to determine the charging basis was agreed years ago and does not anticipate the use of RPA. This can lead to problems working out whether or not use of the software by the RPA is compliant with the permissions and restrictions of the applicable licence.
Automotive companies intending to use RPA should carefully review the nature and extent of the rights granted under any existing contracts and the method used to calculate fees under that contract to ensure that the way the RPA interacts with the applicable system or software is permitted and does not give rise to additional fees.
It is important for the automotive company to ensure that its use case matches the contract's licence scope, otherwise there is a risk of dispute around software over deployment, where the licensor says that the automotive company is using software beyond what the licence permits.
Another potential consequence of adopting RPA is the impact on automotive companies' data protection compliance. If the automotive company is using RPA to profile or make automatic decisions about individuals based on their personal details, it will need to abide by certain restrictions or, where the type of processing is high risk, carry out an assessment and ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place.
When it comes to RPA, contracts, much like car engines, need to be inspected and fine-tuned.
Originally published by Shoosmiths, June 29, 2021
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