What is Robotic Process Automation?

Robotic process automation (RPA) is sometimes referred to as software robotics, which makes it easy to build, deploy, and manage software robots that emulate human actions interacting with digital systems and software. It is properly defined as a form of business process automation technology or software technology based on metaphorical software robots(digital workers/bots) or on artificial intelligence (AI). It is                 

Just like people, software robots can do things like understanding what’s on a screen, complete the right keystrokes, navigate systems, identify and extract data, and perform a wide range of defined actions. But software robots can do it faster and more consistently than people, without the need to get up and stretch or take a coffee break. RPA tools automate interactions by repeating a set of demonstration actions performed by a user. 

The typical benefits of robotic automation include reduced cost; increased speed, accuracy, and consistency; improved quality and scalability of production. Automation can also provide extra security, especially for sensitive data and financial services. RPA saves the valuable human time which goes to mundane routine activities and help to allocate the saved time for more valeu added tasks.

RPA streamlines workflows, which makes organizations more profitable, flexible, and responsive. It also increases employee satisfaction, engagement, and productivity by removing mundane tasks from their workdays. It is non-invasive and can be rapidly implemented atop an existing system to accelerate digital transformation. And it’s ideal for automating workflows that involve legacy systems that lack APIs, virtual desktop infrastructures (VDIs), or database access. Based on a recent survey from a reputed Enterprise IT survey agency, With RPA we achieve: –

• Accelerated Transformation: Among global executives, 63% say RPA is a major component in digital transformation
• Major Cost Savings: RPA drives rapid, significant improvement to business metrics across industries and around the world.
• Greater resilience: RPA robots can ramp up quickly to match workload peaks and respond to big demand spikes.
• Higher Accuracy: 57% say RPA reduces manual errors.
• Improved Compliance: 92% agree RPA has ‘met or exceeded expectations for better compliance.
• Boosted Productivity: 68% of global workers believe automation will make them more productive.
• More Value from Personnel: 60% of executives agree RPA enables people to focus on more strategic work.
• Happier Employees: 57% of executives say RPA increases employee engagement.

How can it help enterprises?

A principal barrier to the adoption of self-service is often technological: it may not always be feasible or economically viable to retrofit new interfaces onto existing systems. Moreover, organizations may wish to layer a variable and configurable set of process rules on top of the system interface which may vary according to market offerings and the type of customer, this only adds to the cost and complexity of the technological implementation. 

This is where robotic automation software provides a pragmatic means of: –

• deploying new services, where the robots simply mimic the behavior of humans to perform the back-end transcription
• the relative affordability of this approach that no new IT transformation or investment is required; instead, the software robots simply leverage greater use out of existing IT assets ramping up quickly to match workload peaks and responding to big demand spikes.

Enterprises in industries ranging from financial services, to healthcare, to manufacturing, to the public sector, to retail and far beyond have implemented RPA in areas as diverse as finance, compliance, legal, customer service, operations, and IT. And that’s just the start.

Hence, RPA adoption lies at the center of many enterprises’ digital transformation efforts.