Introduction to Robotic Process Automation or RPA
☛ RPA, or Robotic Process Automation, is the technology that enables computer software to emulate and integrate actions typically performed by human interacting with digital systems.
☛ It can mimics human actions, it is quick to implement and powerful to scale without making mistakes, also without taking rest.
☛ It Operates any application and reads, actions data in structured form.
☛ The computer software that executes the operations is called a robot.
☛ RPA robots are able to capture data, run applications, trigger responses and communicate with other systems.
☛ RPA primarily targets processes which are
♦ Highly manual,
♦ Repetitive,
♦ Rule-based, with low exceptions rate and
♦ Standard electronic readable input.
Following are some of the real examples of RPA or Robotic Process Automation
♦ Payroll processing
↬ It refers to the actions that companies take to pay their employees-keeping track of their presence, of their salaries,
bonuses and taxes.
↬ Payroll processing needs manual intervention month after month, every year.
↬ An RPA system can be used to extract the details that are required from handwritten time sheets and calculate the pay
from their stipulated contracts and pay them as well (by even ordering the necessary bank transactions).
♦ Client Information Updates
↬ Any organization that has implemented a CRM faces all sorts of related issues-the client-base is spread across many geographies,
there are frequent calls to the back-end databases,and updates and changes are coming from all sources.
↬ RPA can process these requests in batches instead of one after the other,reducing the load on the back-end systems and
ensuring better performance and data quality across the whole application.
♦ Renewal Process
↬ Irrespective of industry, the client renewal process is in general a complex process,but not necessarily due to exceptions and complications, but rather to the number of operations and the synchronization between different departments and systems.
↬ Robots can take over the entire process, starting with the standardized communication with client,processing the changes,
drafting the documents and updating the internal systems accordingly.
♦ Statement Reconciliation
↬ Financial statement reconciliation covers all the operations (done mostly by the accounting teams)of matching orders,
payments, losses, margins, and so on, with accounts and financial statements.
It is a common process that an organization needs to manage in order to ensure clean records and reliable financial documents.
↬ This process is well handled by the RPA software robots. Once they are set up,they can seamlessly replace the human beings
who would have to do these jobs, from the beginning to the end.
♦ Customer Complaint Processing
↬ Irrespective of industry,customer complaints are always on the radar.Their number and substance is an important indicator of the business health and good predictor of the future of the company.
↬ Through RPA, customer complaints can be categorized based on keywords and other criteria, and possible solutions can be
suggested to the customers right away.
By doing so, the customer complaints can be answered 24 x 7 instead of 8 hours a day and only 5 days a week.
Robotic Process Automation or RPA is non-invasive
↬ It does not require any major IT architecture changes or deep integration with the underlying systems.
RPA offers a reliable, fast and cost-efficient solution for a “light-weight” integration into processes and IT assets.
Robotic Process Automation or RPA is easy to scale
↬ The amount of work involved by a process can vary, as changes are likely to occur in most business environments.
If an RPA solution is used, companies can easily adapt by scaling the solution up or down, depending on the requirements.
There are 2 types of robots, from the point of view of human intervention
1.Attended Robots
2.Unattended Robots
1.Attended Robots
↬ These robots work on the same workstations as humans and execute some tasks of the entire process,
after which they require human intervention.
Attended Robots are generally used in business scenarios that require input or decision making from the human user,
or when a well-defined schedule cannot be applied due to the volatility of the process.
Following are the some specific scenarios in which Attended Robots are preferable?
↬ The automated process relies on data that needs to be validated by humans.
↬ The robot assists the human directly in performing his tasks(a robot filling in data for a call center operator)
↬ The automated task cannot be scheduled beforehand and needs manual triggering (a robot that gathers data
in real-time about a customer calling the support line)
How Attended Robots should be?
↬ Responsive: When triggered (either manually, or automatically), the Attended Robot needs to do his part
in order to enable the human to take care of the non-automated tasks.
↬ User-friendly: The human user needs to be able to operate the robot easily.
↬ Flexibility: The Attended Robot needs to be able to navigate between different applications and environments.
2.Unattended Robots
↬ These robots work independently of any human interaction.Also they work on separate virtual work stations.
Unattended Robots are generally used in manual, repetitive, highly rule-based back office activities,
which do not require any human intervention.
Following are the some specific scenarios in which Unattended Robots are preferable?
↬ Tasks must be completed continuously in a batch-mode model(a robot that validates bank payments).
↬ Large amounts of data have to be gathered, sorted, analyzed, and distributed
among key players in an organization (a robot processing claims for a health insurance company).
↬ The output of the automated process is needed as an input for humans in their work
(a robot that processes financial statements from subsidiaries from different countries).
How unattended Robots should be?
↬ Flexible to deploy on virtual or remote environments: since the human intervention is minimal(or absent),
the Unattended Robots are generally deployed to virtual or remote environments.
↬ Easy to scale: the Unattended Robots need to accommodate variation of task and data volumes.
↬ Accurate: again, because human intervention lacks or is minimal, the outputs have to be reliable.
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