What is robotic process auto­ma­tion?

Robotic process auto­ma­tion (RPA) helps companies to make their business processes more efficient at a software level. Robots allow companies to com­pletely automate manual tasks. This can include certain tasks like contract ter­min­a­tions and order pro­cessing.

What’s behind RPA tech­no­logy?

RPA describes the auto­ma­tion of business processes using software robots.

In this area of auto­ma­tion, robots carry out re­pet­it­ive steps of processes pre­vi­ously un­der­taken by humans. Such steps are often time-consuming and liable to errors. Such tasks include, for example, data entry and data transfer in the back office.

For this type of work, software bots, or robots, are used. These are able to access and use system com­pon­ents via an interface as well as operate ap­plic­a­tion software. This means bots can carry out tasks in a similar manner to humans within a process landscape.

RPA not only optimises human in­ter­ac­tions through the user in­ter­faces of software systems, it also gradually di­git­al­ises in­ter­ac­tion paths. In practice, in­di­vidu­al tasks or even complete processes are recorded and then carried over in in­di­vidu­al software scripts or complete script chains.

The tech­no­logy combines different in­ter­faces (such as APIs) with in­ter­ac­tions with the user interface to carry out re­pet­it­ive tasks.

The scripts can be deployed and executed in different lengths or runtimes. The cor­res­pond­ing runtime file is called Bot, which is where the name robotic process auto­ma­tion came from.

How is robotic process auto­ma­tion different from AI?

RPA is often falsely compared to and confused with ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence (AI). These tech­no­lo­gies are different, but, in some ways, they do com­ple­ment each other. The dif­fer­ence between the two lies in their practical im­ple­ment­a­tion and how they are used:

• AI is data based
• RPA is a process ap­plic­a­tion

RPA bots follow set routines that have been developed by pro­gram­mers. On the other hand, ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence relies on existing data. Through machine learning, for example, it can re­struc­ture existing data patterns or recognise and learn from patterns in un­struc­tured data sets.

Together RPA and AI mutually benefit each other. Some tasks within RPA routines can be com­pletely automated using AI. AI also makes more complex tasks possible. Bots, on the other hand, can support AI, by elim­in­at­ing the need for manual im­ple­ment­a­tions.

When carrying out its tasks, RPA works autonom­ously so that activ­it­ies on software systems can be carried out in­de­pend­ently.

What are the benefits of RPA?

Firstly, robotic process auto­ma­tion is there to optimise current processes and make them more cost-effective and efficient. Designed to con­sol­id­ate resource-heavy processes in the back office, bots are used to carry out rule-based tasks so that other resources are freed up for more complex projects.

This leads to a better, long-term return on in­vest­ment and quicker di­git­al­isa­tion for companies that have invested in RPA-based processes. Another effect of increased auto­ma­tion is a decrease in workload.

RPA not only enables in­di­vidu­al employees to become more pro­duct­ive by letting them focus on work that adds value, it also helps to con­tinu­ously increase employees’ level of job sat­is­fac­tion. Ad­di­tion­ally, employees can be given more complex tasks, for example, those which require human in­ter­ven­tion.

Ad­vant­ages of RPA inside and outside of the company

• Less need for pro­gram­mers: you don’t ne­ces­sar­ily need de­velopers to use RPA. Drag and drop makes con­fig­ur­ing the software easy, even for those employees without IT expertise.
• Fewer errors: bots carry out re­pet­it­ive tasks based on scripts within the system. This means that over time human mistakes can be avoided. This includes tasks that require a lot of accuracy, such as com­pli­ance.
• Improved mon­it­or­ing: by using RPA, you can also carry out mon­it­or­ing and audits in a stand­ard­ised way, meaning that you can con­tinu­ously optimise scripts without the need for much work.
• Retention of func­tion­al­ity: if you use RPA, you don’t need any ad­di­tion­al systems and can avoid in­teg­rat­ing APIs. Since bots work on the present­a­tion layer of the system, your current processes won’t be affected by them.
• Improved customer sat­is­fac­tion: bots aren’t tied to your customer service times and are able to work on customer requests outside of these hours. This means that your company will be able to work 24/7 on improving customer sat­is­fac­tion.
• Improved employee sat­is­fac­tion: by getting rid of highly re­pet­it­ive tasks, not only are employees more efficient and able to focus on more complex tasks, they also value their work more and are happier with their jobs.

Companies that are planning to introduce robotic process auto­ma­tion should fulfil a range of basic re­quire­ments. This is because this tech­no­logy can only bring about an increase in ef­fi­ciency if high-quality data is available and there is a clear com­mit­ment to fact-based data man­age­ment.

What are typical RPA use cases?

RPA tasks are par­tic­u­larly suited to rep­lic­at­ing standard processes that occur in day-to-day work. This includes tasks that are carried out daily in most trading and service companies. Some real-world examples include:

• Order processes
• Customer request pro­cessing
• Document creation
• Ac­count­ing pro­cessing and general data man­age­ment in business areas

RPA has many benefits, es­pe­cially when it comes to customer com­mu­nic­a­tion. In fact, this is one of the areas where RPA is heavily used. This is due to the fact that many customers expect quick if not immediate answers to their requests.

The positive effects of auto­ma­tion can quickly be seen when customers receive quick answers to their requests and there is a reduction in errors when pro­cessing incoming letters or emails.

Using RPA also has a cost benefit since the reduction in errors results in less time being spent redoing work. With an increase in customer sat­is­fac­tion comes improved customer loyalty.

Automated form entry

One of the most common customer processes is contract can­cel­la­tion, which can be quite a cum­ber­some task for humans. You can automate this by using RPA, allowing you to receive the can­cel­la­tion request, check it and then cancel it auto­mat­ic­ally.

This means that employees will no longer need to per­son­ally fill out the forms required for can­cel­ling a contract. Instead the bots will complete them and send them out, saving you and your team time.

Process orders auto­mat­ic­ally

When an order is placed, a range of documents are produced which belong to a stand­ard­ised document pool. This normally includes an order con­firm­a­tion, followed by a payment request. Following this, a delivery note needs to be created and printed out along with an invoice.

This order process is perfect for RPA since the processes to create documents as well as the data needed to do so are stand­ard­ised and can be put into a script and then recalled over and over.

Summary: RPA is worth­while for companies who have sound data man­age­ment

By using RPA, you can improve your customer com­mu­nic­a­tion which, in turn, can increase your customer sat­is­fac­tion and provide you with cost savings. In addition to being an important factor for companies who want to stay com­pet­it­ive, it also has an effect on employee sat­is­fac­tion and loyalty. RPA can take over manual and time-intensive tasks, freeing up your employees’ time for more complex and exciting tasks. This can have a positive effect on their working en­vir­on­ment and improve employee mo­tiv­a­tion.

However, RPA is not the perfect solution to everything. The key factor in this is having quality data as well as being know­ledge­able about data man­age­ment. Without having this in place, it will be difficult to ef­fi­ciently and ef­fect­ively automate your processes.