Ever wondered how every aspect of our daily life is getting automated day by day. Automation is becoming a vital part of our daily lives. Ranging from industries where we manufacture our products to our different products in each household, everything has evolved using automation. This can also be said for different computer software which has evolved into smarter and more efficient versions of themselves with time. The term that is coined for such automated systems is Robotic Process Automation or RPA.

Industry 4.0 bought RPA or Robotic Process Automation along with it. Let’s take a deeper dive into the Robotic Process Automation or RPA world and its applications to know it better.

What is Robotic Process Automation – RPA?

Robotic Process Automation or RPA is a technology allowing computer software to not only perform and integrate actions but also mimic humans. RPA also makes the interaction of this software with other systems possible. They are used for handling repetitive tasks and processes, and they also produce error-free results. The major technologies used in RPA are AI and ML.

RPA robots can not only capture data, run applications, and trigger responses but can even communicate. They are capable of doing data entry, processing standard transactions, and also responding to simple customer service queries. RPA not only gives better accuracy and consistency but also speed. They provide improved quality and scalability of production at reduced costs. It can also provide extra security for sensitive data and financial services.

Advantages of RPA:

• Mimics human actions.
• Obtains error-free results.
• Can work without any sort of rest or break.
• Fast execution and powerful performance.
• Works in a structured manner.
• Can operate any application.

RPA uses two types of robots. They are:

Attended Robots used in Robotic Process Automation

They generally work on the same workstations as humans. They execute specific tasks of the process after which they require human intervention to do the work. The tasks performed by these robots are directly related to the work that requires humans, and they work under the supervision of humans at all times.

Attended robots should have easy and clear controls. They should be trained in such a matter that they don’t react to what the human does every moment. Other than work, they should not require much attention.

Unattended Robots used in Robotic Process Automation

As the name suggests, they work independently. They do not require any sort of human intervention. Also, they have their own personal virtual workstations to work on. They may also require human intervention, but only in exceptional cases. Otherwise, they work separately on their virtual machines.

Along with independence, these robots have to be productive as well. Even if human input is necessary, they should be able to continue their work until it is received.

History of Robotic Process Automation

Blue Prism had coined the term RPA around the 2000s. They released their first product released in 2003. The first step towards RPA was ML, a term coined in 1959. Slowly moving towards Natural Language Processing and Artificial intelligence, it evolved and established itself by 1990.

The building blocks leading to RPA include:

Screen Scraping

Extraction of data from web programs and documents which can be further displayed by other applications is done through the technology of Screen Scraping. But due to the limitation of resources, it was very difficult to understand and work about it.

Workflow Automation

Its main aim was to reduce human work by using automated actions. Repetitive processes are automated by using Automation Management tools while the business rule checks the current step completion and taking off of the next step.

Artificial Intelligence

This enables robots to work at the levels of human intelligence. It has many applications such as image and speech recognition, sentiment analysis etc. It undergoes a process of learning, reasoning and later self-correction.

Although RPA uses these technologies, it uplifts the same and is more advanced.

RPA in today’s world

RPA is creating a partnership between robots and human users. Tasks are assigned to both based on their strengths. Generally, speed and accuracy-related tasks are given to robots, while critical thinking and complex decision-making tasks are given to humans.

It’s never too late to include RPA in your company models, and it’s always for the better. In fact, it is the perfect start for any sort of digitization in this fast-paced world. Here’s why:

• RPA is non-invasive, that is, does not require major architectural changes.
• It is easy to scale.
• It is future proof.

Applications of automation using RPA

Automation in services

• Customer invoicing
• Claim processing
• Contact center processes such as a change in services, information updating, and customer data gathering

Automation in finance

• Retail credit assessment and fraud prevention
• Account settlement and payment clearance
• Interrogation of public databases
• Automatic account closures

Automation in healthcare

• Digitalizing and regular updating patient files
• Inventory management
• Invoice settlement

Automation in education

• Course registration and attendance management
• Processing grades and report cards
• Creating class schedules

Automation in high-tech

• Client process and service removal
• Client data updating
• Downtime complaint management

Automation in retail

• Onboarding, offboarding, and payroll
• Inventory and contract management
• Invoicing and returns processing
• Sales analytics

Automation in manufacturing

• Inventory management and procurement
• Payment processing
• Customer communication

Automation in government

• Benefit claims
• Fraud prevention
• Payer data updating

Examples of RPA

Payroll processing

Payroll processing requires the companies to keep a track of not only the employees’ presence and salaries, but also bonuses, and taxes; to pay their employees accordingly and this needs manual intervention every month. RPA is capable of doing this.

Client information updates

Any organization having a Customer relationship Management database faces issues such as the client base being spread over geographies or excessively frequent calls to the backend database and constant updates and changes from multiple sources. RPA can process all these in batches, reducing the load on the backend systems; and also resulting in better performance and data quality.

Renewal process

The renewal process of clients is a very tedious job to do. RPA can not only do this whole process of standardizing communication with the client but also process changes to drafting documents. It can also update the internal systems.

Statement reconciliation

Financial statement reconciliation requires not only the accounting team to match orders and payments but also losses, margins, etc. They ensure that there are no errors and also provide reliable documents. RPA can do all these jobs, from start to end much more effectively and efficiently with also giving top quality work.

Compliance reporting

In every organization, it is required to manage and monitor the compliance requirements of every department. Reporting to authorities, complying with internal procedures, etc. are also very important. Robots can manage all of this with a lower error rate and also lower human intervention.

Customer complaint processing

Every industry has customer complaints which are important and help in improving the companies services. By using RPA, customer complaints can not only be categorized based on different parameters like keywords, etc; but this also helps in providing immediate solutions to the customers making the services better. This will also result in providing 24×7 services to the customers instead of fixed timings and provide better services.

Future of RPA

It scares most of the working population that the rising of Robots will lead to exponential job displacements. But it is estimated that the adoption of robots will create more number of jobs in the future than displace them. The graph below shows the same.

RPA is estimated to have a financial impact of about $6.7 trillion by 2025 and even higher in the future. The future also holds a technology namely RPA 2.0. Although already so advanced, it will work more and improve its technology around AI. This will not only make it more advantageous for businesses but also for development work without a larger budget.

The advancing world, with newer technologies and robots, is not only beneficial but also much more convenient for us to work around the future.