Robotic Process Automation

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is transforming every industry and its processes by eliminating tedious tasks and allowing teams to focus on more high-value work. From regular tasks like processing invoices to managing inventory and handling data entry, every industry is moving towards automation to operate more effectively and scale without any roadblocks.

However, bots can't handle every business function independently; therefore, finding the right process to automate is critical. In this RPA guide, we have covered everything you need to know so you can identify automation opportunities tailored to your unique needs and ROI objectives.

What is RPA?

Robotics Process Automation (RPA) is software technology that mimics mundane, repetitive tasks that humans would otherwise perform. Its objective is to save overall organizational resources, so humans have more time and space to focus on strategic tasks.

How RPA Works?

Step 1- Identify What to automate

A business has a number of processes running in various departments, from simpler to complex tasks. The first step is to identify the repetitive tasks that can be delegated to the rpa bots. For this, different process discovery tools guide organizations in collecting data, mapping each process and analysing inefficiencies or inconsistencies in existing processes to be filled with automation.

Step 2- Selecting the right RPA tool

Different RPA tools are available in the market that offer unique features and capabilities to cater to business needs. Once the automated processes are identified based on different criteria, the organization must pick the right RPA tool. The key factors used to differentiate include ease of use, scalability, cost, user interface, compatibility, etc. Some of the top RPA tools currently available in the market include UiPath, Blue Prism, Automation Anywhere, Microsoft Power Automate and Pegasystems.

Step 3- Development and integration

Development and integration are among the most crucial steps. They involve creating and training bots to automate specific business processes. This step is further broken down into several key components, like defining the sequence of operations the bot will perform and defining workflow acts detailing every action they need to take. The integration involves using application programming interfaces (APIs), screen scraping, data mapping and transformation processes so that bots seamlessly interact with various systems and applications to complete their assigned tasks.

Step 4- Testing and Deployment

Testing takes place before the deployment of RPA to ensure its reliability and effectiveness before deploying it in a live environment. Here, bots go through various scenarios to check that they are running without any issues or bugs. After the testing is completed, the bots are ready for deployment. Bots are either deployed in one go or deployed as needed by business processes.

Step 5- Monitoring and Maintenance

This step ensures that the bots deployed are performing as expected. Some activities that undergo this step include tracking resource utilization, checking error rates and types of errors, and monitoring outcomes. The step ends with a security and compliance check. Monitoring and maintenance are necessary to keep an eye out for any review, change, update or support needed in bots.

Benefits of RPA Technology

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) as a technology offers numerous benefits that can significantly enhance business efficiency, reduce costs, and improve overall operational effectiveness. Here are some of the key benefits of implementing RPA.

1. Increased Speed and Productivity

RPA bots are designed to take over repetitive human tasks, helping organisations significantly speed up overall performance and workflow execution. Delegating tasks to bots frees up employee time to focus on more complex and strategic work, thus boosting overall productivity.

2. Cost Saving

RPA technology can help organisations save considerable amounts of money by reducing the dependence on and need for manual labour in performing mundane and repetitive tasks. Bots also tend to perform tasks accurately and, in less time, so organizations also see higher returns with RPA implementation.

3. Scalability

RPA technology can easily scale up or down based on business needs. Companies can add or modify bots to handle varying volumes of tasks without the need for significant changes to the underlying systems.

4. Employee Satisfaction

By taking over mundane and repetitive tasks, RPA frees up employees to focus on more engaging and strategic work, which can improve job satisfaction and reduce turnover.

5. Customer Experience

Faster and more accurate handling of customer-related tasks, such as queries, processing orders, and managing data, leads to improved customer service and satisfaction.

Types of RPA with Examples

RPA technology can be broadly differentiated based on the business needs and their effectiveness in automating complex workflow processes. By understanding the different types of RPA technology, enterprises can decide which automation strategy will fit best for their specific business requirements.

1. Attended RPA

Attended RPA as the name suggests requires some kind of human intervention to handle tasks and are operated on the same desktop as a human user. These RPA bots are designed to provide real time assistance to humans and reducing their workload. The only limitation of these bots is fully dependent on human initiation and oversight, so their effectiveness is limited to the tasks within the user’s scope of work.

Example: Bots fetching customer data for representative during a call or bots filling out forms based on customer input.

2. Unattended RPA

Unattended RPA bots’ function without human users and designed to execute tasks based on predefined schedules or triggers from backend systems. Top advantages of these bots include the ability to run 24/7 without human intervention, maximizing efficiency and scalability in handling high-volume, repetitive tasks.

• Limitations: Less flexible in handling exceptions or unexpected variations in the process without predefined instructions or escalations to human handlers.

3. Hybrid RPA

Hybrid RPA bots are combination of both attended and unattended automation. Here both type of bots collaborates with human to perform processes at different levels. These bots leverage the strengths of both attended and unattended bots, providing a flexible, full-spectrum automation solution that optimizes both front-office and back-office functions.

Example: In a typical scenario, an unattended bot can handle data processing tasks overnight and attended bots could take over complex tasks requiring human decision-making.

How Is RPA Different from Other Kinds of Automation?

General Automation requires extensive system integration, programming and technology to perform processes without human intervention. RPA technology on the other hand mimics human repetitive actions using software bots. General Automation is focused more on system or API level while RPA works on user interface.

RPA and intelligent automation

Intelligent Automation works by integrating modern technologies like AI, ML and analytics. RPA, a component of IA, is responsible for handling rule-based repetitive tasks.

RPA and Artificial Intelligence

RPA and artificial intelligence are perfectly complementary. RPA is best suited to performing structured, rule-based tasks, whereas AI is best suited to cognitive abilities like understanding natural language, recognizing patterns, and making real-time decisions. When AI and RPA combine, they result in intelligent automation (IA) that empowers rapid business process automation.

RPA Use Cases from Different Industries

Let’s look at how RPA is being tailored to meet specific industry needs to drive significant improvements in efficiency, accuracy, and productivity.

RPA in Healthcare: Use Cases

The healthcare industry faces rocket high administrative burden, skills shortages and aging population. Healthcare providers are looking for efficient ways to deliver quality patient care. RPA in healthcare creates opportunities to improve manual and duplicated processes freeing up healthcare professionals to care for their patients. Here's a list of the most common RPA in Healthcare Use Cases:

1. Document Management and Audits
2. Payment Processing
3. Claims Management
4. Medical Billing
5. Patient Registration
6. Appointment Scheduling
7. Prior Authorization
8. Medical Employee Onboarding
9. Follow-up Communication
10. EHR Tasks and Updates
11. Inventory Management
12. Compliance Reporting
13. Data Migration and Integration
14. Data Analytics

RPA in Healthcare: Market Statistics

Related Read: RPA in Healthcare: Benefits, Use Cases, and Choosing the Right Partner

RPA in Manufacturing: Use Cases

The manufacturing sector is one of the early adopters of automation compared to many other industries. This sector faces several uncertainties and challenges, including shortages, time constraints, risk of human error and rendering higher-quality outputs. To survive these challenges, manufacturers need a solid automation strategy that increases their productivity, drives revenue growth and enhances customer experience while helping them maintain compliance, sustainability, and unexpected risks. Here's a list of the most common RPA in Manufacturing Use Cases:

1. Administration and Reporting
2. Inventory Management
3. Material BOMs
4. Vendor and Supplier Management
5. Invoice Processing
6. Purchase Order Creation
7. Production Planning and Scheduling
8. Production Planning and Scheduling
9. Supply Chain Optimization
10. Data Management
11. Manual Labor Reduction

Related Read: Top 10 Use Cases & Benefits of RPA in Manufacturing

RPA in Finance and Banking: Use Cases

The finance and banking industry has grown rapidly over the past decade, and with the introduction of modern technologies, the prerequisites to stay relevant have become vital.

RPA in the finance and banking industry is getting widely adopted, helping this sector move faster and deliver to customers' expectations. Here's a list of the most common RPA in Finance and Banking Use Cases:

1. Data Entry
2. Know Your Customer (KYC)
3. Credit Checks
4. Verifying Applications
5. Customer Onboarding
6. Loan Processing
7. Fraud Detection and Prevention
8. Financial Planning and Analysis
9. Financial Reporting
10. Cheque Processing
11. Risk Assessment
12. Loan Origination and Approval
13. Account Reconciliation
14. Tax Compliance
15. Financial Audits
16. Account Closure
17. Accounts payable automation
18. Accounts receivable automation

RPA in Banking and Finance: Market Statistics

RPA in Retail: Use Cases

Retail leaders today orchestrate through a number of processes, including inventory management, store planning, sales forecasting, enterprise resource planning (ERP) management and customer support. As customer demands evolve, retailers are growing more agile in navigating the complex and dynamic retail challenges. The key benefit of automation introduction in retail is that it allows retail leaders to shift their focus to more creative, strategic, and value-added tasks.

Capgemini estimates the retail industry could save as much as USD 340 billion a year by automating critical processes like customer returns, supply chain management, updating customer databases, and maintaining inventory records. Here’s a list of the most common RPA in retail Use Cases:

1. Sale and Returns
2. Inventory Management
3. Price and Promotion Management
4. Customer Data Management
5. Loyalty Program Management
6. Email Marketing

RPA in HR: Use Cases

The HR department plays a critical role in supporting any business, from finding the right talent to nurturing and training employees to employee exit management. While playing all these roles, HR faces the major challenge of timely allocation and resolution. That's where RPA in HR operations comes into play, helping HRs work at their fullest potential. Here’s a list of the most common RPA in HR Use Cases:

1. Employee Sourcing
2. Hiring
3. Onboarding Employees
4. Offboarding Employees
5. Payroll Automation
6. Leave and Attendance Management
7. Performance Management

RPA in HR: Market Statistics

RPA in Education: Use Cases

Educational institutions today face varied challenges, including staff shortages, endless paperwork, maintaining attendance and answering queries of parents and students. Here's where RPA in education becomes a life, automating all time-consuming, repetitive tasks, freeing up staff and allowing them to concentrate on quality education. Here's a list of the most common RPA in Education Use Cases:

1. Answering queries
2. Answering queries
3. Attendance management
4. Data entry and administration

RPA in Automobile: Use Cases

Automotive companies are looking to embrace digital transformation without disrupting ongoing operations, and RPA's ability to integrate seamlessly with existing IT systems is making it an attractive solution.

Gartner report revealed that by 2028, 70% of vehicles sold would utilize Android Automotive OS, a platform that allows frequent updates, smartphone connectivity, and enhanced telematics capabilities. Here's a list of the most common RPA in Automobile Use Cases:

1. Inventory Management
2. Vehicle Financing
3. Order Processing
4. Analytics & Reporting
5. Customer Service
6. Regulatory Compliance
7. After-Sales Service
8. Invoice Processing
9. Supplier Management
10. Manufacturing Operations
11. Payment Processing
12. Data Management

RPA in Oil and Gas: Use Cases

The oil and gas industry experiences increasing demands and numerous transitions due to economic, environmental, and geopolitical factors influencing its growth. Using RPA in this industry can help it become resilient and scale its initiatives. Let's look at some of the common RPA use cases in this industry.

1. Rig and Well Drilling Automation
2. Remote Monitoring
3. Field Operations Automation
4. Oil and Gas Production Optimization
5. Logistics and Fleet Management
6. Regulatory Compliance
7. Back-office automation
8. Data, Analytics, and Reporting
9. Workplace Safety
10. Pricing
11. Order Processing
12. Pipeline Monitoring and Surveillance
13. Lease Record Management
14. Asset Management
15. Procure to Pay Automation

What a Successful RPA Implementation Looks Like?

Learning what a successful RPA implementation looks like is critical before implementing an actual automation strategy. It requires careful planning and understanding of various tools and techniques to realize the right ROI based on the business needs.

Check out this blog for expert recommendations on the prerequisite steps before implementing RPA.

How to Choose the Best RPA Service Provider for your Enterprise?

Selecting the right RPA service provider requires a tailored strategy for your enterprise needs. Here's a structured approach to help you choose the best RPA service provider.

1. Expertise and Experience

Finding the right use case and expertise significantly impacts the success of your automation projects. Every industry and organization have unique challenges and requirements, so it's important to evaluate the track record of an RPA vendor.

2. Technical Capabilities

Another important factor in selecting the best RPA service provider for your Enterprise is assessing technical features like scalability, security measures, and integration capabilities with existing systems. The chosen RPA solution should be adaptable and compatible with all attended, unattended and hybrid automation scenarios.

3. Ease of use

A good RPA vendor should be able to bridge the gap between complex training and technical implementations. This straightforward approach can help you achieve seamless and quicker automation adoption.

4. Compliance and ROI

Consider how the service provider plans to demonstrate ROI through its solutions. This includes not only initial cost savings, but also long-term efficiencies gained through automation. The provider should also have solid governance frameworks for your industry to ensure accurate compliance with industry regulations.

Delivering Measurable Value with RPA

In this guide, we have compiled what RPA is capable of in your industry or business function. Automation implementation has enhanced productivity and reduced overall operational costs in varied sectors. Did you find the RPA use case relevant to your industry or business function? RPA's core advantage lies in its capacity to free up human resources for strategic work for every industry. As a trusted automation vendor, Accelirate bridges the gap between tech and your business goals.