Well, you don’t actually need to bow, that’s just a metaphor. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is here, its advent is eminent and has caused a profound impact on the field of business processes already. Like the Superstar drives his fans frenzy when his movies hit the screen, this new star has left us perplexed with its unprecedented utilities and benefits.
While RPA is quite a familiar terminology for many, less-known is its presence. Yeah, it is ubiquitous and has gripped the IT industry with its iron fist, but for all the good reasons. Enough of the much-needed hype; let me brief you on RPA.
Robotic Process Automation aka RPA is an emerging technology (hence the new star) that uses software robots (or simply bots) to emulate the actions of a human’s interactions with digital systems. Much similar to industrial robots in manufacturing facilities, these digital robots have been crafted to do work that humans cannot, and in our case, works that we find rather repetitive. Who of us wants to do those monotonous and boring jobs at the office?
So, these robotic workers are here to save us from extinction; haha :D, yeah, I’d rather be extinct than do those tedious jobs. What exactly are the jobs we are speaking about in here? The applications are manifold but are most importantly in business processes. Well, here’s a list (of the important ones among others)
Process automation, which comprises back-office tasks in finance, procurement, supply chain management, accounting, customer service and human resources, including data entry.
IT support and management, wherein RPA can consistently investigate and solve problems for faster process throughput. It can also improve service desk operations and the monitoring of network devices.
Automated assistant, as in voice recognition software and automated online assistants, where RPA can provide answers to employees or customers in natural language rather than in software code. This technology helps call centers and customer interaction centers conserve resources. Reduced physical efforts in the back office and improved customer service in the front office are achieved through these applications.
“Researchers at Hadoop estimate that the potential savings that companies will experience with RPA by 2025 are between $5 trillion to $7 trillion. And RPA market that was valued at $357.5 million globally is expected to grow to $8.75 billion by 2024 at a CAGR of 31%.”
To achieve automation, RPA systems develop an action list, which has traditionally been developed by a human software developer, by monitoring the user perform a task in the application’s graphical user interface, and then perform the automation by repeating those tasks.
Imagine your teammate (hope your teammate is not your arch-enemy :D) logging into applications, moving files and folders, copying and pasting data, filling in forms, and more (God save him from more such silly tasks)
I’m pretty sure your mate is not liking these tasks. So, you rope in a robotic mate (software bot). Now, this new mate will do exactly the same job as your teammate. Voila! Your teammate thanks you for liberating him from those mundane tasks (you can ask for a treat in return).
Perform pre-defined steps on computer systems, rather than human employees performing the processes manually. They need to be developed by employees in a company and must be configured to capture and interpret existing applications for processing a transaction, manipulating data, triggering responses and communicating with other digital systems.
Bots being termed automation, you needn’t worry, RPA isn’t laying-off any of us any time soon in the foreseeable future. They are to be viewed as teammates (virtual though), along with whom we can boost our capabilities, and save our money and time! RPAs have been reported to have posted surges in companies’ revenues all around the globe, and have impacted numerous employees like me who were looking for the grasp of Innovation!
We shall embrace RPA with joy, like I did, by learning Blue Prism® https://www.blueprism.com. Blue Prism is the leaders in RPA, and by learning from the pioneers, I am adept in developing the applications needed for automation of any organization. I can now free people from those mundane tasks, thereby helping them concentrate on meaningful and intellectual tasks.
Hail RPA!
