A Lesson on Robotic Process Automation
Defining RPA
RPA stands for Robotic Process Automation. As the name suggests, RPA automates structure mandate tasks, in other words, it interacts with user interfaces of your existing applications including legacy systems and carries out structured processes automatically. Think about the familiar Excel macro recorder except that it works with legacy screens and browsers, not just Excel.
Why do businesses use RPA?
- Control: RPA robots are programmed to do what it is told. Hence, it will not lose sight of your company’s goals and vision.
- Lower costs: With its versatility, you can apply RPA to a wide variety of business processes. If the tasks are rules-based and definable, they are a good candidate for RPA. For example, transferring data from one system to another. It saves administration hours, reduces human errors and comes with automated reports.
- Scale to suit demand: You can quickly and easily scale RPA — up or down, to meet variations in your business activities.
- Simplified communication: You only need to train your RPA robot once. After that, the bot can repeat the task sequence reliably, accurately and uncomplainingly.
- Accuracy and efficiency : RPA robots do not make typos and they do not take breaks. It keeps working until the tasks is done.
- Compliance and detailed data capture: You can program RPA to follow a prescribed set of operating procedures each and every time, and record an audit trail of its actions, ensuring compliance with business mandates. For example, a Japanese bank Sumitomo Mitsui was able to cut down 400,000 hours of manual labor for using RPA technology to streamline their compliance’s requirement.
- Decreased cycle times and improved throughput: Software robots are designed to perform tasks faster than a person can and do not require sleep — making 24x7 operations possible.
Here’s a video from IBM cloud about RPA bots in action:
RPA in today’s news
We know that RPA is going to significantly reduce low value and redundant work in many of today’s industries. It can automate things such as data entry, retrieving information, email management and much more. At the end of the day, RPA is efficient, cost effective, easy to implement and most importantly, able to link to existing applications and legacy systems either through user interface or APIs. Therefore, it is not surprising to find RPA as the fastest growing segment in enterprise software, according to Gartner.
The current trends show the biggest adopters are banks, insurance companies, telcos and utility companies. The main driver for these industries is the ability for RPA to integrate with legacy systems that would otherwise seem too expensive to upgrade or replace. RPA for these industries is the first step towards digital transformation. At the same time, RPA capabilities are also growing for digital business demands, such as event stream processing and real-time analytics. As the rapid development and adoption of RPA continues, it is blurring the lines for similar other automation technologies, such as business process automation, optical character recognition and artificial intelligence. With these emerging technologies, the market paradigm may converge into an overarching category to encompass all these automated technologies.
Who are the big players in the space ?
1. Blue Prism
Blue Prism is one of the top Robotic Process Automation Companies which has initially invented the actual term Robotic Process Automation (RPA). They provide solutions on the basis of rules and manual automation by making it a digital workforce in various ways. Blue Prism has a major role play in various sectors such as Investments firms, Banking Groups, E-commerce etc.
Features:
- Supports multi-environment deployment model
- Security provided for network and software credentials
- Can be used on any platform
- Will work for any application
Pros:
- High-speed execution
- Platform independence
Cons:
- Programming skills needed
- Expensive
2. UI Path
UiPath provides all core capabilities required for RPA. They processes Accounts Payable Automation, Claims Processing Automation, Contact Center Automation, Finance and Accounting Automation, and Healthcare Payer Automation to the RPA Service Providers.
Features:
- Provides security by managing credentials, providing encryption and access controls
- Provides an open platform
- Able to handle processes that are more complex
Pros:
- No programming skills required
- Ease of use through drag and drop functionality
- Community version is free of cost
Cons:
- Limited coding functionality/flexibility
3. Automation Everywhere
Automation Anywhere is another company who develop Robotic Process Automation software. The company is headquartered in California, United States. They have a few products such as Automation Anywhere Enterprise (RPA), IQ Bot, Bot Insight, BotFarm, and Bot Store. They also use technology which consists of Attended and Unattended RPA both.
Features:
- Provides Bank-grade security
- Provides security through authentication, encryption, and credentials
- Real-time reports and analytics
- Provides platform independence
Pros:
- User-friendliness
Cons
- IQBot has room for improvement
David is a serial entrepreneur and an advisor in mobile, blockchain, digital marketing, RPA, A.I and real estate related businesses. He is currently the managing director for Kroleo where he develops strategy, business developments and directs financial operations for the company. Prior to Kroleo, he also co-founded Veltrust — a boutique consulting firm that provides intuitive guidance in developing the best use cases of cutting edge technologies in the emerging market and also specialize in international fundraising for early stage start ups.
