Robotic process automation allows companies to implement intelligent software systems or robots. These simulate the actions in which people interact with applications. It can establish itself in a wide range of industries, where people perform repetitive, high-volume tasks, freeing them to perform activities of greater value to the company.
In this article, we will focus on showing cases or areas where robotic automation tools can be applied to automate processes and tasks. Let us see:
- What do we mean by robotic process automation?
- What kinds of robotic process automation are available?
- How do robotic process automation and business process management combine?
- How to use RPA effectively?
- What processes does RPA offer us and how to get the most out of it?
- What are the main benefits of robotic process automation?
- How can robotic automation help your company in general terms?
1. What do we mean by robotic process automation?
Robotic process automation (RPA) is the use of software robots to perform repetitive tasks that used to be handled by people. Most of its tools run on individual workstations and can perform routine tasks, such as moving rows of data from a database to a spreadsheet.
While individual bots work on simple tasks, many results can be achieved. Business automation can go a long way toward making a company run more efficiently as part of an overall business process management (BPM) strategy. Its use leads us to be more updated with new technologies.
The words robotic process automation may convey to you the idea of physical robots in factories, but they are software bots. Robotic automation uses them to automate repetitive software tasks that used to be handled by people, whether they are simple jobs (e.g., filling out forms and preparing invoices) or complex ones (e.g., serving customers and solving problems).
2. What kinds of robotic process automation are available?
Typically, an end-user can train and deploy a robotic process automation bot with no development skills, and the bot can start performing useful tasks immediately, 24 hours a day, and at a low cost. These solutions involve a low level of risk and a high potential return on investment. One of the main advantages of business automation is simplicity. We can use them in two ways.
There are two types of RPA solutions: supervised and unsupervised. The first one. Robotic process automation bots with supervision. They run locally on a workstation and handle client interaction tasks. They work alongside people, but can also be triggered by system events.
The second one. Unattended robotic automation bots. They work with company data internally on backend servers. As there is no human intervention, they are triggered by certain events or are scheduled to run at a specific time and moment.
3. How do robotic process automation and business process management combine?
Robotic process automation prevents workers from performing time-consuming routine tasks and allows them to focus on the most important activities, which increases efficiency. As such, it integrates seamlessly into a business process management (BPM) automation strategy.
BPM is the practice of modeling, analyzing, and holistically optimizing BPM processes so that you can achieve your strategic objectives. Its methodology can be applied to continuous or predictable tasks and processes, as well as those that are often repeated.
You can replace case-by-case workflow management practices with optimized business operations to deliver better products and services. This is an ongoing process that enables improvements over time. By using a holistic automation approach that combines BPM and RPA, you can streamline and improve your entire business process.
3.1 How can we relate RPA to artificial intelligence (AI)?
RPA software bots may appear similar to AI, and also the search is on for ways to integrate more of this technology’s functions into robotic automation. However, at present, most of these bots lack a quality that AI does possess: the ability to learn and improve over time.
RPA bots get set up to follow a set of repetitive, rule-based tasks and generally do not learn on the fly. If any aspect of the automated task changes, the typical bot will not figure it out on its own, so it will have to retrain itself.
However, there are particular cases where AI and RPA complement each other. An example might be the use of a deep neural network to recognize images when making decisions in a robotic automation process. Also, RPA vendors are increasingly offering solutions that attempt to combine the decision-making capabilities of AI with the productivity improvements of RPA.
4. How to use RPA effectively?
Customer service. Modern customers get used to quick responses and effective solutions. It becomes possible to deliver the results customers want, with the help of business automation. automation. Automated customer service software can sort inquiries and provide initial answers to customers.
Also, the automated system can segregate inquiries into different categories, such as by department. The sorting ensures that the inquiries reach the appropriate customer service agent for a quick resolution. There remains no need for the customer’s call to get transferred from one executive to another. Customer service has several rules-based processes that can become automated and simplified.
Also, we have invoice processing. The high volume of invoice processing has repetitive manual tasks and that can result in delayed and incorrect payments. On-time payments can bring high-quality goods and services. Invoice processing has many challenges, such as different invoice formats, which require consolidating data from different sources into a single financial database system.
Using an RPA tool will automatically process invoices once they arrive. The first step involves converting the paper invoices into a digital format such as excel or pdf using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. Also using OCR technology, the RPA tool will read the data from the scanned copy of the paper invoice and convert it to digital format.
4.1 What other uses can we take advantage of RPA?
Sales orders. Data consistency in business systems becomes a very tedious task. The sales rep must spend part of their time entering data into the CRM system as well as the ERP system. Financial analysts must replicate data and enter it into another system or module. Consequently, this can result in duplication, and errors and affect productivity. RPA can perform sales activities from start to finish by automating tasks such as sales order entry and invoicing.
Payroll processing. Payroll management integrates numerous repetitive processes and tasks, which involve processing large volumes of time-consuming data. This also can result in inaccurate data that can cause payment delays and employee dissatisfaction. RPA can verify the consistency of employee data across multiple systems, validate timesheets, and generate earnings and deductions.
Price comparison. Companies often have to make bulk purchases to manufacture products or provide services. The cost of these items can affect the company’s revenue or profit. Companies always research online to make informed decisions. The research process can be time-consuming and complicated, which means that many companies have now started using RPA.
Customer information storage. RPA can help you store, classify and organize all types of customer information to ensure that everything remains easily accessible. The system will automatically categorize different data such as contact information, purchase history, preferences, and personal information such as birthdays or anniversaries.
5. What processes does RPA offer us and how to get the most out of it?
Processing human resources information. Storing and processing HR information becomes a difficult task. It takes a lot of time and can make it a tedious process. A successful business generates huge amounts of employee data, which can become difficult to sort and organize. As a result, the RPA system can capture and manage all the data that your HR department requires.
Information such as employment history, payroll, reimbursements, and training level, can be sorted and stored through RPA. You can handle all the day-to-day tasks and allow your HR employees to focus on the human aspect. Fast refund processing. A business’ reputation relies on the quickness with which it can process returns.
Customers want this process to happen quickly and continuously. Complaints and refund requests generate a large amount of data that can become difficult to sort through. The RPA system deals with the issue effectively and processes the refund without delay. This improves the overall customer experience and has a positive impact on your reputation.
Recruitment process. RPA can help streamline the recruiting process considerably. The system can access resumes from different platforms, sort them, and filter the candidates who apply, reducing the time HR employees have to spend reviewing the applications they apply for. RPA can handle about 90% to 95% of vital recruiting processes, such as screening, assessment, evaluation, measurement, onboarding, and administration.
6. What are the main benefits of robotic process automation?
Reduction of operational costs and risks. One of the great qualities of RPA applications involves the progressive reduction of errors, resulting in lower operational risk and, in parallel and the economic costs derived from them. Flexibility and simplicity. One of the main benefits of RPA processes lies in the fact that there appears to exist no need to write code or any kind of language.
More accurate analysis and metrics. These systems provide tools to store data so that it can analyze when information or analysis tasks become necessary. Each task performed by the robots is stored in an easily accessible location. Facilitating the tasks of searching and analyzing such data.
Increased productivity. Robotic automation of processes has allowed the business world to make a great leap in terms of performance. Increased productivity in terms of resources used, workflows, and response times, without losing quality, has become a fact thanks to RPA processes.
Business automation can complete tasks with almost 100% accuracy, clearly influencing productivity and final performance. Therefore, giving you freedom from monotonous tasks. Within the functional duties in a given business area, there exist a lot of data generated and routine work involved in saving and updating data and reports.
6.1 What extra benefits does it bring and why should companies think about implementing it today or in the future?
Quality consistency is far superior to other systems. RPA systems are excellent at duplicating tasks consistently with little or no variability in quality. Also, they work non-stop every day of the year performing the same type of work efficiently and without error.
No need for new IT systems. Efficient implementation because robotic process automation technology does not require system replacement of existing IT systems. It is easily adaptable to the IT systems of the different departments of a company, forming part of the traditional system without significant changes.
Scalable system. RPA systems are scalable, allowing operations to be easily scaled up or down as needed, ensuring that companies can make adjustments based on seasonality. There are many benefits of this new technological trend, but these are some of the most relevant.
7. How can robotic automation help your company in general terms?
Robotic process automation will enable companies to perform repetitive tasks that require precision, with 100% accuracy. It will enable processes to become standardized and optimized, reducing turnaround time by more than a third, with the added benefit of improving quality.
On Connect Tech we believe that it is not necessary to implement automation of the entire system from the beginning. Start small and automate one process at a time to see if it is the right choice for your company. It is simply something that may be missing in your company or organization.
On Connect Tech we have professionals in the area of robotic automation. Subsequently, if you want to know more, do not hesitate to contact our team by calling +971 43 316 688. You can also contact us by e-mail at contact@connectech.dev.
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