RPA, is a business process automation, governed by structured inputs and business logic to automate business processes. The Robotic process automation (RPA) is based on artificial intelligence (AI) or metaphorical software robots (BOTS). Various companies or organizations use RPA tools and configure the robot or software to manipulate data, communicate with another digital system, trigger responses, and interpret applications to process a transaction.
Robotic process automation has a wide range of scenarios. It can generate a simple automatic response to the emails, and it can also deploy the BOTS in a vast number, where each BOTS is programmed to automate jobs.
In traditional automated tools, a developer prepares a list of actions to automate a task and interface to the back-end systems, with the help of dedicated scripting language or application program interface (APIs). In contradictory to that, Robotic process automation (RPA) generates the action list by observing the users performing the task at the application’s graphical user interface (GUI). The RPA latter delivers the automation by repeating the job performed by the user directly in the GUI.
Testing tools of the graphical user interface (GUI) have technical similarities to that of robotic process automation tools. The RPA tools repeat the set of actions that are performed by the users to automate interaction with the GUI.
Robotic process automation software is trained to imitate the digital data tasks performed by humans. The RPA software performs various tasks such as calculations, filling out forms, producing reports, updating records, and achieving high volume transactional tasks that require moving the data between multiple applications. The RPA does not need a physical screen to complete a job. They execute the tasks step by step in a virtual environment.
Measures to have effective robotic process automation:
Understand the RPA operations before planning any process automation
It is crucial to understand and have clarity about RPA operations. The company or the organization developing the RPA must evaluate, identify, document, and then test and validate the RPA based on the results required. The process should be dynamically polished, actively utilized, updated, and evaluated.
Documentation for the existing process
Every existing process should have documentation. Registering the daily business outcome and targeting the day-to-day tasks that are repetitive in behaviour will influence the business positively. So, it is essential to start documentation, register the process concept, provide templates, and establish the universal standard for documentation, and document the workflow of all the robotic process to inspect before the automation.
Target a Specific goal
Having a specific goal about the robotic process automation is essential for an organization. All the partners and stakeholders need to be present on the same page with explicit knowledge about the various benefits of the business. The communication regarding the goal of the project should be clear.
Set and control the expectations
The rules and regulations are expected to be set before conducting any task. The working process, the technology used, and the purpose of the robotic process automation have to be defined ahead of developing the RPA.
Guide the team to adopt robotic process automation
Providing proper guidance about the robotic process automation to the team in an organization is essential. The organization needs to support end-to-end metrics to communicate and track the progress and focus on business outcomes.
Long term utilization of robotic process automation
The robotic process automation should be developed for long term utilization. And the tool must be flexible enough to embrace the future changes and advancement regarding the applications.
RPA tools are categorized mainly based on the three types of functionality
Usage: the RPA tools serve various unique functions. Some of them are more optimized for attended where some of them are optimized for unattended automation. Unattended automation is usually the background process of the attended automation.
Programming Options: robotic process automation needs to be programmed to work. There are various ways to program the RPA. Some of them involve a trade-off between programming time and complexity of bots.
Cognitive capabilities: the RPA are categorized based on cognitive ability, which helps them to determine the action of RPA based on input gathered from the other systems. RPA tools have a wide range of cognitive capabilities.
The types of Robotic process automation
Attended Automation
Attended is the type of automation, where the BOTS relay passively on the user machines and are invoked by the users at a particular instance. The users actively trigger automation since the point of invocation is hard to detect with the help of programs.
Unattended Automation
Unattended is the type of automation that raises the standard of the RPA to another level. Unattended automation allows the program to operate in the background by processing the required data to provide the output. The time of an employee saved has RPA deals with the data and processes.
Hybrid Automation
The hybrid automation is the combination of both support-environment and a back-end environment that makes the RPA more efficient and robust.
Benefits of RPA
Cost-cutting: the robotic process automation saves the labour cost of the organizations by accomplishing the various tasks in a short period.
Accuracy: the robotic process automation can reduce the error rate and inconsistency. The completion of the process is accurate when the robotic process automation is at work.
Digital transformation: the robotic process automation can be used by the organization or companies to automate the parts of processes without harming the legacy systems or investing the money on time-consuming and expensive back-end integration and thereby allowing an organization or company to digitalize the data completely.
Employee confidence and productivity: Automation of various complicated and repeated tasks allow employees or users to be more productive and confident.
Compliances: the robotic process automation reduces human interaction with sensitive data and minimizes the possibility of data fraud. It tracks the BOTS performances and collects the information for analyzing agreements with governance necessities and regulations.