Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

 

WHAT IS ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION (RPA)?

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is software technology that’s easy for anyone to use to automate digital tasks. With RPA, software users create software robots, or “bots, that can learn, mimic, and then execute rules-based business processes. RPA automation enables users to create bots by observing human digital actions. Show your bots what to do, then let them do the work. Robotic Process Automation software bots can interact with any application or system the same way people do except that RPA bots can operate around the clock, nonstop, much faster and with 100% reliability and precision.

HOW DOES ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION WORK?

Robotic Process Automation bots have the same digital skillset as people—and then some. Think of RPA bots as a Digital Workforce that can interact with any system or application. For example, bots are able to copy-paste, scrape web data, make calculations, open and move files, parse emails, log into programs, connect to APIs, and extract unstructured data. And because bots can adapt to any interface or workflow, there’s no need to change business systems, applications, or existing processes in order to automate.

RPA bots are easy to set up, use, and share. If you know how to record video on your phone, you’ll be able to configure RPA bots. It’s as intuitive as hitting record, play, and stop buttons and using drag-and-drop to move files around at work. RPA bots can be scheduled, cloned, customized, and shared to execute business processes throughout the organization.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF RPA?

Robotic Process Automation has a positive snowball effect on business operations and outcomes. RPA delivers measurable business benefits right out of the gate—think cost reduction, greater accuracy, delivery speed—then continues to add value as it picks up momentum and spreads across the organization. RPA improves business outcomes like customer satisfaction and enables competitive advantages by freeing humans to do what they do best—solving problems, improving processes, conducting analysis, and other value-added work—resulting in higher employee engagement and new revenue opportunities.

Example

1.       Specialised Remote Infrastructure Management software featuring automated investigation and resolution of problems, using robots for first line IT support

2.      Chatbots used by internet retailers and service providers to service customer requests for information. Also used by companies to service employee requests for information from internal databases

3.      Presentation layer automation software, increasingly used by Business Process Outsourcers to displace human labor

4.      IVR systems incorporating intelligent interaction with callers

 

Applications

Data Migration and Data Entry

Most companies are still using legacy systems to perform critical functions. A legacy billing system is an example of such systems. It needs to interact with other systems that may not have the capability to get required data from APIs. In such cases, employees manually perform tasks to migrate the data using formats like CSV. With the implementation of RPA, manual labor, and unexpected clerical errors, can be reduced to the minimum level. Organizations can also automate entire workflows of data entries, which can maximize productivity by reducing the time.

Data Validation

RPA is more suitable than any other tools to perform data validation tasks such as checking the accuracy and quality of source data before using, importing, or processing the data. The primary aim is to create data that is consistent, accurate, and complete, so there will not be any data loss and errors during a transfer.

Generating Mass Emails

              

If there is a need for sending mass emails frequently, then RPA can be a great option to automate the process.

Creating and Developing Invoices

Since automation is faster than manual processes, customers will get the invoices earlier, including earlier payments and improved cash-flow. The process of generating invoices and sending it to the customers can also be automated.