Brief Intro to Robotic Process Automation

Robotic Process Automation, or simply RPA, is garnering more and more media attention these days. In this post we briefly introduce the technology.

First of all, what does Robotic Process Automation mean? It’s the use of software along with machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) to automate high-volume, repetitive tasks. If you will, call it a virtual workforce that doesn’t get tired of doing mundane but necessary work over and over without taking any breaks, and in many cases for 24 hours per day, rather than only 9-5.

RPA software is able to handle both simple and complex rules-based processes, any exceptions or errors that may be encountered, and novel situations, which sets it apart from traditional IT automation. This allows both large- and small-scale organizations to complete back-office and middle-office tasks very quickly, so employees can focus on more interesting work.

RPA is used to boost productivity, cut costs, and increase profits in automotive, banking, finance, consumer products, healthcare, insurance, marketing, sales, human resources, and numerous other verticals. Firms decrease operating costs, lower cycle times, relieve their employees from monotonous tasks and boost overall productivity. Furthermore, leveraging RPA all but eliminates business process errors.

Some of its benefits are:

Increased Control: Tight control over end-to-end business process and exception handling, in addition to eliminating human error.

Analytics: Allows for concurrent business analytics to make better decisions based on business process outcomes.

Cost Savings: Reduces costs by 25-90% depending on the business process automated. Can be quantified to upper management via FTE savings as well.

Boosts Revenue: Higher profits due to reduced cycle time and faster completion of processes that are automated.

Enhanced IT: Improves service desk operations and analytics of network devices.

Versatility: Highly versatile technology applicable to many business verticals. Does not require replacement of existing IT systems, instead running on top of existing technology infrastructure.

Quality & Accuracy: Eliminates human error during business processes.

Automated tasks: Automates repetitive, time-consuming, mundane yet valuable tasks so that employees can focus on more interesting work.

As a result, Robotic Process Automation is being adopted by firms around the world at an accelerating pace, with very high ROI.