What The F*** Is Robotic Process Automation?

Yeah, what the f*** is RPA?

The tech world is full of jargon that beats newbies and first-time entrepreneurs, so much so that they are often left scratching their heads. RPA or Robotic Process Automation is one such beast. I’ll be damned if I can find 10 entrepreneurs around me who are already using RPA! Yet, this new kid on the tech block is silently reshaping how businesses function globally. So, if you want to cut the clutter of tech jargon and understand what RPA is, stop picking your nose and dive straight into this article.

RPA has been around since the early 2000s, and has evolved alongside machine learning – the same tech that lets software bots do cool stuff like screen scraping. What’s screen scraping you ask? Well, it’s the technology that lets software programs capture data from the web, other software, and documents and do fancy stuff with them. The name RPA was willed into existence by Phil Fersht, founder and lead analyst at HFS Research, in 2012. But it wasn't until 2017 that RPA really exploded.

Here’s what Robotic Process Automation is and isn’t:

• RPA refers to software programs and not the Autobots of Transformers fame. So, RPA bots won’t wage wars for you or wait at your table.
• RPA cannot replace actual metal grinding, grease spewing machines. Its world is made up of 1s and 0s.
• Think of RPA as evolved versions of Microsoft Excel macros. Please don’t expect them to talk to you like Siri or Alexa. (They are dumb anyway!)

What does RPA do?

Quite a few smart things, apparently! Here’s a list:

• Open your email and read the attachments. (Scary, if you are having an affair outside marriage!)
• Log into web applications.
• Move files and folders. (Not the hidden ones named ‘Work’!)
• Copy and paste data across word processors and spreadsheet applications.
• Fill out forms.
• Read and write into databases.
• Scrape data from the web.
• Connect to system APIs.
• Do calculations. (RPA isn’t going to win the Nobel anytime soon!)
• Read structured data from documents.
• Collect social media stats.
• Be a good boy and follow “if/then” decision rules.

So, it’s all about automating repetitive tasks. If you are bored to death doing the same stuff every day and want to be the next great innovator instead, RPA is for you. Here’s an example:

Suppose you are Dick, a startup founder from New Orleans. You open your laptop every morning, check your emails, sift through tons of spreadsheets sent by your MIS guy, and copy all entries on the invoices above $500 into a master spreadsheet on your computer. Then, you sort the data and identify the top 3 customers of the previous day to reward them with discount coupons. You then send an email to your Marketing team with the names of the customers for issuing the coupons. Now, all this takes at least an hour and a half, and you want to pull your hair sometimes, wondering if you could spend those crucial 90 minutes on something more creative. I know I’d pull my hair! But don’t do it already, because there’s RPA.

By using one of the popular RPA platforms, you can automate all of the above and use the free time for stakeholder meetings and performance reviews.

If you want to know more about the best RPA platforms, read this article: Top 10 Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Companies in The World.

Some real-world examples of RPA being helpful to mankind

Walmart, Tesco, Loblaws, H&M – all the major retail chains are using RPA to streamline stuff like inventory management, order processing and fulfilment, pricing, customer service, data entry, sales and marketing, store operations, and whatnot.

Cognizant, Accenture, ANZ, Vodafone, Deloitte, PwC, Xerox – name a company in any given industry and they are either using RPA or in the process of implementing it. In fact, Deloitte took the lead in 2017 and did a global survey involving 400 individuals across several industries with a whopping combined value of US $1.8 trillion. And they came up with a few startling conclusions.

What Deloitte discovered in 2017

All the stuff mentioned below is exactly as reported by Deloitte in their survey.

53% of the respondents have already embarked on the RPA journey and a further 19% of respondents plan to adopt RPA in the next two years. If adoption continues at its current level, RPA will have achieved near universal adoption within the next five years.

For 64% of respondents on the RPA journey, it is a strategic or enterprise-wide initiative. This figure has grown significantly. Just 12 months ago, only 15% of respondents reported RPA being a part of a wider corporate initiative.

On average, the expectation is that 20% of FTE (full-time equivalent) capacity could be provided by robots. This expectation matches the reality for those that have already implemented RPA… they believe that 52% of FTE capacity could be provided by robots. This can enable the human workforce to be redeployed to more value adding activities.

RPA implementation has an attractive payback period – just under 12 months. Organizations that have piloted RPA expect, on average, a 9.3-month payback period.

Among those that have already implemented RPA, 78% expect to significantly increase investment in RPA over the next three years, with those that are piloting RPA planning to spend an average of $1.5m on RPA. ?Organizations that have implemented or scaled across the enterprise have already invested an average of $3.5m in robotics.

The global spending on RPA was around the US $3 billion mark in 2023. Companies are expected to spend even more in 2024. So, is the age where we become slaves to robots here? Not quite! On the contrary, the RPA bots are here to take our boredom away and make us more productive.

#RPA #roboticprocessautomation