According to a Deloitte survey, 53% of businesses have already set out for the robotic process automation venture to leverage this technology to drive business value. Forward-thinking enterprises have realized the importance of business process automation software in accelerating their day-to-day business operations. They are implementing RPA software to boost productivity while minimizing human errors in their business processes.
RPA has become a buzzword in every industry, bringing several perks that ultimately enhance revenue generation. The blog will unpack the fundamentals of robotic process automation, the RPA life cycle, and the advantages of RPA.
What is Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in Business?
Robotic process automation (RPA) is one of the new-age technologies that involves the automation of repetitive manual tasks with the application of robotics. It is a business process automation software that involves the implementation of a ‘bot’ to perform jobs through replication of the desktop actions performed by a human employee.
Let’s understand with an example. RPA tools record the desktop action sequence and scripts of employees through previous conversations. Now, when a customer messages the business, the RPA tools enable the bot to respond to the customer based on the message or action movement on the screen. It basically captures data of repetitive actions and responds with the recorded action while interacting with an interface. Therefore, it basically interacts just like a human would.
How Does RPA Work?
The sole purpose of robotic process automation software is to implement automation by reacting to queries and actions just like humans do. It captures data to mimic the actions involved in manual, repetitive digital tasks. This may involve simple tasks of copy and pasting as well as complex tasks of data entry.
RPA software integrates with your existing business applications to retrieve information about the human execution of business processes. Utilizing this data, it replicates the actions on the user interface to implement automation.
What are the Key Benefits and Challenges of RPA?
RPA implementation has manifold advantages in automating business-critical processes, improving customer experience, and enhancing product development/ service quality. It also enables accelerating time-to-market for products in product-based companies. The capabilities of robotic process automation technology bring multiple benefits and challenges.
Benefits of RPA (Robotic Process Automation):
1. Streamlines Business Operation:
RPA implementation enables the business to streamline operations of multiple departments leading to improved employee performance.
2. Enhances Productivity:
Eliminating mundane, repetitive tasks with RPA frees up your resource to focus on more complex, creative, and personalized tasks. RPA implementation can save up to 30% of time spent by employees on repetitive digital tasks.
3. Efficiency:
As RPA involves business-critical tasks like data entry, the accuracy level is greater than when done manually. Therefore, increased accuracy drives efficiency in the business process.
4. Cost Reduction:
As RPA takes care of low-level tasks, employees perform better on high-level tasks. Gartner has found that eliminating manual tasks through hyper-automation can reduce operational costs by up to 30%.
5. Seamless Integration:
RPA eases the process of accessing information from legacy systems. It serves as the entry point through the user interface to ensure hassle-free integration of legacy technologies.
Challenges of RPA
1. Replaces Human Employees:
One of the criticized pitfalls of RPA implementation is that automation is taking away the jobs of human employees as the data entry and clerical jobs are eliminated.
2. Robotic Responses:
Although RPA ensures faster response to customers, it lacks the capability of empathy and intelligent response, impacting the customer experience. However, the capabilities are evolving with the application of AI.
3. Complexity:
RPA implementation may seem complex to the employees and lead to adoption issues. It requires some time to witness the impact of business process automation software. Most people fail to keep their patience and discard the concept of RPA before realizing its value.
Important Phases of RPA Life Cycle
RPA life cycle involves identifying the area of automation required, development, and execution of the solution. It is the sequence of steps involved in RPA implementation. The phases of the RPA life cycle can be stated as follows.
Phase 1- Identification
This is the very first step a business undertakes while implementing robotic process automation. It involves the use of the best RPA tools to identify tasks that can be automated to execute task mining or process mining.
Phase 2- Assessment & Prioritization
After the tasks or processes are identified, it requires an assessment based on the impact of automation of those tasks. It also involves assessment of the value that automation of the task can rear for the business. Once the task or process is assessed and qualified, the tasks are enlisted as per business priority to send for design and development.
Phase 3- Design & Development
The main phase of the RPA life cycle involves defining, designing, and developing a bot that provides the functionality to automate the predetermined task. The designing phase involves creating the blueprint of the bot, while the development phase involves building the mechanism to enable the bot to respond to different systems.
Phase 4- Testing & Deployment
After developing the bot, it is in this testing phase that the QA team performs numerous tests to qualify it for deployment. Once qualified, the bot is configured and deployed in production.
Phase 5- Monitoring & Changes
The bot is continuously monitored to ensure that it runs without any error. In case of any error, the development team is notified to make amends.
Every phase of the RPA life cycle affects its performance, capabilities, and uptime. Therefore, it is essential to execute RPA life cycle management to fetch greater ROI for your business.
Why is RPA Important in Modern Business?
RPA serves as the gen-next technological salvation for modern businesses to drive efficiency and gain a competitive edge. The importance of a robotic process automation solution lies in the fact that it takes the burden of mundane digital tasks off your employees’ shoulders to boost productivity.
The impact of RPA implementation are as follows:
- Reduces turnaround time
- Ensures compliance
- Streamlines inventory and supply management
- Cuts down operational costs
- Optimizes business outcomes
RPA implementation boosts overall productivity and efficiency, enhancing the revenue generation of the business.
Which RPA software is best in 2022?
There are multiple robotic process automation tools available in the market. Here are the top picks for RPA software in 2022.
- BluePrism
- UiPath
- AutomationAnywhere
- Pega
- Kofax
The Bottom Line
Business process automation is the solution that ensures the sustainability of the business. RPA implementation empowers businesses to achieve better outcomes in less time. Scrum Digital is a leading robotic process automation services provider and consultant who can help you tailor robotic process automation solutions to meet emerging business needs. Get in touch with us today!
