Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a software technology that makes it easy to build, deploy, and manage software robots that imitate human actions interacting with digital systems and software. It is like having a digital assistant to do repetitive tasks for you. Imagine you have a job that involves a lot of workload, instead of doing it manually, you could train an RPA bot. It will follow your instructions and complete your task quickly and accurately.
Just like people, software robots can do things that need understanding, such as navigating through systems, extracting the data, analysis and identification of tasks. Also, it is more consistent and doesn’t need rest. RPA can significantly speed up processes and reduce errors. It also reduces labor costs and improves productivity by efficiently handling increased workload without requiring additional human resources. RPA is non-invasive and can be rapidly be implemented to accelerate digital transformation.
Intelligence process automation demands more than simple rule-based systems of RPA. RPA “does” the tasks while AI and ML “think” and “learn”, respectively. It can also access information through integrating well with other applications.
Some of the significant beneficial aspects of RPA is that it accelerates transformation, helps in significant cost savings as it drives rapid improvement to business metrics across industries and around the world. It has greater resilience, higher accuracy, boosted productivity, and improved compliance.
While RPA is helping many enterprises grow, there is still some obstacles that it faces. Implementing RPA could be challenging. It requires careful planning, analysis, and configuration. Introducing RPA can also disrupt existing workflow and requires employee to adapt new ways of working. It is repetitive and needs human judgment. It needs to be scaled or modified to meet every new requirement.
Despite these challenges, RPA is a valuable asset to many companies and organizations willing to invest time, effort, and resources to implement it effectively.
Here are the top 10 cases in which RPA is used in organizations:
1. Data Entry
Automating data entry tasks like filling out forms, entering customer details and information, or processing invoices which demands a lot of human resource, are automated by RPA. Bots can automate the extraction process using Optical Character Recognition and Natural Language Processing tools to read and interpret data from documents. Bots can fill forms, process invoices, manage customer’s data.
2. Data Migration
RPA automates the data moving from one system to another, often during mergers or acquisitions. Bots can be programmed to navigate through the user interface of applications to pull necessary information. It uses inbuilt scripts to perform transformation, date formats, normalizing text fields, or applying business rules.
3. IT Support
They are automating routine IT tasks like password resets, software installations, or system maintenance. It automates repetitive and time consuming tasks, improve response times, and enhance service quality. They can also assign tickets based on predefined rules or past patterns, ensuring that incidents are handled promptly.
4. Finance
It is automating tasks like reconciling accounts, generating reports, and processing payments. They can match the extracted data against purchase orders and validate it before posting it into the Enterprise Resource Planning or accounting system. It accounts payable and receivable automation, financial reporting and reconciliation.
5. Customer Service
It is answering FAQs, processing orders, and providing essential customer support. RPA bots can be programmed to recognize frequently asked questions received via email, chat, or social media. Bots can answer questions related to customer’s queries, order status, product information, return policies, etc.
6. Human Resource
It automates on-boarding tasks like generating offer letters, scheduling orientation, processing payrolls, calculating taxes, and generating pay stubs. It can also track employee work hours, attendance, leaves, overtime, and developing time sheets.
7. Supply Chain And Logistics
RPA processes orders by automating order entry, inventory checks, and shipping label generation. It mends vendor information, process invoices, tracks payments, optimizes inventory levels, transportation routes and warehouse operations.
8. Healthcare
Bots manages medical coding assignments such as diagnostic and procedural codes to medical records. It automates the insurance claiming process, including eligibility checks and payment verification. It manages patient’s appointments, send reminders, and update medical records.
9. Legal
RPA reviews legal documents for specific keywords or phrases. Collect, process, and analyze electronic evidence. Manages legal contract life-cycle, tracks deadlines, and ensure compliance.
10. Government
RPA automates citizen services tasks such as processing permits, licenses and registrations, ensure regulatory compliance with government regulations and standards. It also manages government budget, track expenditures, and generate financial reports.
