Understanding and applying robotic process automation – ITProPortal

Digital transformation is in full swing, driven by data and dramatically shaping how companies across industries work. Then again, you could have a mountain of clean, organized data, and as much as it could be a gold mine, it could be a bust if a company is unprepared for the work it takes to derive value from it.

Robotic process automation (RPA) is the use of technology to operate systems without the assistance of humans. Its foremost aim is to perform tasks that are repetitive and tedious, ones that dont advance a companys goals but still must take place because they underpin operations. RPA dont just mimic humans, it allows work to be performed with far greater speed and accuracy.

RPAs look nothing like larger-than-life robots from movies, in fact, theyre typically just computer applications. But because they can interact with computerized processes without constant supervision, theyre proving powerful in business. RPAs just need to be carefully designed and fed the right data to free their human co-workers of rote activities and enable them to focus on higher-level tasks that add greater value.

Like artificial intelligence (AI), there are two types of robotic process automation - specialized and general. Specialized RPA is designed to automate a particular task. This type of RPA, while highly customizable, works only on the process it was designed to take care of.

General RPA, on the other hand, can be used for a larger variety of processes and achieved via machine learning (ML). Further, it can be trained to understand and automate processes with unstructured, semi-structured and structured data. Companies that use general RPA software are often large enterprises that have the data flow to support automation.

However, with increased data in businesses of all sizes, and the competitive advantages it can provide, the possibilities are attracting a greater number and variety of companies.

The benefits of RPA are far-reaching. First off, when done right, itll automate tasks an employee would otherwise have to do, only faster, more accurately and with no training or ramp-up needed. This can add up to a lot of time and cost savings. At the same time, though, when it comes to money, you have to consider the cost of not automating; competitors that do will clearly be in a stronger position.

RPA mitigates human error to raise both the quantity and quality of work, too. Consider a high regulatory environment, like financial services, where mistakes can snowball into major issues. If youre an investment firm tracking different asset classes, youre facing a daily process that requires a lot of manual reconciliation. If a mistake is made, it might not be realized for weeks, and in the meantime, investment decisions would be based on flawed data.

Further, with settlements not causing issues - and processes moving in the right sequence, between the right people, at the right times - approvals come more quickly and checks and balances are in place to keep work running smooth.

Its pretty simple: costs are less and efficiency is high when everything is done right, the first time.

RPA can allow businesses to reallocate their employees, removing them from repetitive tasks and engaging them in projects that support true growth, both for the company and individual.

Work were human strengths such as emotional intelligence, reasoning and judgment are required typically bring greater value to the company, and, theyre also often more personally rewarding. This can raise job satisfaction and help retain employees. Further, the ability to reallocate employees can enable a business to apply their useful company knowledge to other value-adding areas, supplement talent gaps and more.

Of course, theres the attraction of being able to do ones job more efficiently, without manual processes that can make time drag. For instance, lets say youre at that same investment firm and there a rapidly growing hedge fund, requiring human resources (HR) to onboard a lot of people fast. Between provisioning accounts, providing access to the right tools, sending out emails and more, theres a lot of work involved. With a RPA bot, 20 new people could be processed at once, with the HR person monitoring progress through a window on the corner of their screen, which also notifies them if anything needs their attention.

Were talking about boiling a two-week process into days thats the time of time savings that can make an employee and company happy. And in a realm like investing, the ability to adapt and reallocate resources quickly can make all the difference.

I cant stress enough how important it is for organizations to create a prioritization framework and plan before plunging into RPA. Ive often seen executives say they need RPA, now, and so IT starts initiating various projects. Four months later, all they have is a thousand bots, costing many more thousands of dollars, and half of them dont work. This erodes executive confidence, budget and IT bandwidth.

That said, decide what project you want to do first, how to implement it and the ways youll measure results. Support it with a strong roadmap that keeps things moving ahead, incrementally. This will enable you to illustrate ROI and then build out your program further with the support and funding it deserves.

Rich Itri, SVP of Professional Services, ECI

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Understanding and applying robotic process automation - ITProPortal