API+RPA Partnership at the heart of Hyper automation

While RPA was suspected to be the death of API fragile scripts, inflated expectations and uncertainty at scale have caused RPA bots to fail. Now that the initial excitement has faded and organizations are ready for round two, what have organizations learned from the first RPA wave?

1. RPA is not a suitable solution for all types of automation: It’s generally true that manual and narrowly repetitive processes can be automated with RPA. However, what happens if a tight set of business rules do not manage the process or the expected benefits of automation are insufficient? While organizations want to quickly adopt automation via RPA, it may not be a suitable solution for everything.
2. Bots are not 100% safe and secure: Bots require access to tools and applications for integrating and automating. This makes Bots susceptible to hacking and security incidents. Also, data that bots collect can be compromised. Proper security measures need to be implemented to mitigate data leakage and fraud. Relying on the RPA tool’s built-in security will not be enough. Robust security frameworks may be necessary to make bot integration complete.
3. Securing business buy-in for RPA is not a given: Processes considered for automation need to be adequately evaluated to ensure the planned ROI is in line with the company’s policy for accepting new initiatives. Also, processes that provide no value to downstream processes or other departments may not be good candidates for RPA. Proposing the use of RPA to businesses does not guarantee buy-in; IT teams will still need to demonstrate value and provide proper road-maps to justify spending on RPA tools.
4. Bots are not always stable: Programming and deploying bots is not a one-and-done thing. Generally speaking, any changes in the robot environment, unhealthy coding practices, or process automation that are not best suited for RPA impact Bot stability. Like traditional programming, there are frameworks necessary to ensure Bots stay stable.
5. Building bots does require IT skills, well, at least a little: RPA platform development, debugging, and testing are essential skills for successful RPA implementations.

When RPA bots were first introduced, everyone felt they could choose API or RPA. No single program can offer power, intelligence, and capabilities to provide end-to-end automation of complex business processes entirely. There is a need for the consolidation of advanced technologies to hyper-automate. So, who are the essential players in ‘Digital Process Automation? RPA, AI (Artificial Intelligence), iBPMS (Intelligent Business Process), and API-led integration are used to achieve a higher level of digitalization. With the intersection of API-led integration and Robotic Automation, the lines between these technologies are being challenged.

The fusion of artificial intelligence and RPA helps identify the best optimization practices for automated processes, resulting in the most significant impact points. Some notable benefits of hyper-automation are :

• Increased business Agility.
• Increased ROI.
• Improved operational efficiency.

However, organizations often underestimate how difficult it is to lay the foundation for hyper-automation. To ensure the success of hyper-automation, data integration is critical. When data is locked in silos, it is impossible to derive insights for action. Lack of data security and governance challenges hinder automation. With APIs and API-led connectivity, Data integrations can be successfully delivered. Centralized platforms and comprehensive integration solutions can help unlock data securely and help monitor and manage processes. Adding low code or no code tools to the mix like MuleSoft Composer for quickly unlocking data, connecting apps, and automating integration workflows to boost productivity will help accelerate innovation. Bots can bring in fast value by automating routine tasks and freeing time for innovative activities. With a balanced approach like this, organizations will be better equipped to hyper-automate with ease.

Automation is a driving force in a modern digital enterprise. Organizations willing to invest in building a stable foundation for the extension and transformation of automation into hyper-automation will be future leaders and successful disruptors in their industries.