ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION: A TOOLKIT TO WORK EFFICIENTLY IN A DIGITAL AGE
Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
RPA is an emerging technology that applies business logic to configure digital or software robots to process transactions, manipulate data and communicate with other digital systems. It is a form of automation that enables digital robots to mimic the way humans interact with a computer thus, freeing up time for humans to engage in creative or strategic tasks that are more rewarding and offer better value to the organization, whilst offloading repetitive and mundane tasks to be performed at a better efficiency and precision by robots.
The human brain is generally best at logical reasoning and strategic thinking. Digital robots on the other hand are best at repetitive tasks and can operate all day long without taking a coffee break, with little or no errors. Through RPA, a partnership is created in which both humans and software robots are allocated tasks that each is best at.
Criteria for Determining Automation Potential
In today’s digital age, our work revolves around decision making and processing data through interaction with applications such as Excel, Word, Outlook, etc. Automation potential can be determined using two criteria; process fitness and automation complexity.
1. Process Fitness: This criterion examines the suitability of a process for automation. A process can be one or more of the following;
· Rule based: RPA is best suited where decisions made in the process can be captured in a predefined logic with low exception rate.
· Manual and repetitive process: These are sequential processes which are usually performed by the user in the same manner at all or most instances. They are best candidates for automation and can be integrated in business logic.
· Standard input: The process input should be readable either electronically or through other technology such as Optical Character Recognition (OCR).
2. Automation Complexity: This criterion determines the intricacies involved in automating a process. The complexity of an automation process depends on the;
· Number of screens; Digital robots are usually programmed to perform tasks at the screen level. As the number of screens increase, more elements must be configured thereby increasing the automation complexity.
· Types of applications; RPA robots mimic human actions through interacting with applications such as Excel, Word, Java, Outlook, Chrome, etc. Applications such as mainframe need high automation effort whilst office suit and browser applications are quite easy for automation. Moreover, the more applications involved in a single automation, the higher the complexity.
Considering the process fit and automation complexity, potential automation processes can be categorized as;
a. No RPA: Processes that change frequently with high manual intervention.
b. Semi-automation: Processes that can be broken into steps that are automatable and steps that need to stay manual.
c. High Cost RPA: Processes that can be automated but will require high cost technology such as OCR or high programming skills.
d. Zero Touch Automation: These are best candidates for automation. They are digital with highly static systems and environment that can be broken into logical steps for programming.
RPA Implementation
Organizations can implement RPA from two dimensions; company driven approach or employee driven approach. With a company driven approach, a specialized team or RPA Centre of Excellence spearheads the automation process in a centralized way by using professional tools and methods to identify best opportunities for process automation as well as manage each stage of the automation cycle.
Employee driven approach on the other hand seeks to equip employees with the right tools and skills to document automation fit processes in their fields of expertise, propose automations and develop automations.
RPA Centre of Excellence (CoE)
RPA CoE is a dedicated team consisting of diverse expertise and roles, established to see to the development and effective implementation of RPA projects, as well as sensitizing employees on RPA potentials in an organization. Typical RPA CoE roles include;
· Business Analyst: Through their in-depth knowledge of the process to be automated, business analysts document the process requirements as well as clarify the inputs and expected outputs.
· Solution Architect: Defines the RPA solution architecture, reviews code and sees to the final team delivery.
· RPA Developer: Responsible for translating automation ideas into fruition using RPA tools.
· Infrastructure Manager: Responsible for testing and maintaining RPA resources such as software and hardware.
· Implementation Manager: Responsible for managing RPA project team and serves as liaison officer between the project team and external stakeholders.
· RPA Support: Post implementation, the support team offer support services to the users working with the digital robots.
RPA Use Case
RPA can be applied in various industries including;
Health
· Digitizing and updating patients’ files
· Inventory management
· Invoice settlement
Education
· Course registration and attendance management
· Processing grades and report cards
· Creating class schedules
Manufacturing
· Inventory management and processing
· Payment processing
· Customer communication
Finance
· Invoicing customers
· Generating sales report
· Posting journal entries
Benefits of RPA
1. Reduced staff cost: RPA does not require major IT architecture changes or deep integration with the underlying systems hence low implementation cost. Organizations can therefore reduce staff cost and human errors with the implementation of RPA.
2. Increased productivity: Digital robots can produce more output within the same working ours with less errors, enabling humans concentrate on more cognitive tasks to improve overall productivity.
3. Improved profits: The less implementation cost of RPA coupled with high productivity level will boost profits in the long run.
4. Enables employees to undertake more valuable tasks: Through RPA, humans can engage in cognitive reasoning tasks and strategic decisions as digital robots carry out the repetitive and mundane tasks. This will boost employees’ morale.
5. Derive high value from big data: Organizations are churning out more data than they can process. RPA comes in handy and can be applied to parse through large datasets to make meaning from the data collected.
References:
https://academy.uipath.com/learningpath-viewer/1555/1/148001/3
https://www.boxxe.com/automation/robotic-process-automation-explained
https://www.cio.com/article/3236451/what-is-rpa-robotic-process-automation-explained.html
https://www.nintex.com/blog/why-rpa-is-important-for-process-automation/
https://www.uipath.com/rpa/center-of-excellence