UNIT-1

The History of Automation

When we hear the word ‘automation’ in this day and age, our minds automatically go to
advanced technology such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and robotics.
However, the history of automation technology is much deeper than just these extensions of
automation that are used in the workplace today. Automation is defined as the creation of
technology and its application in order to control and monitor the production and delivery of
various goods and services. The idea of automation isn’t necessarily a modern one, as the theory
behind utilizing automation technology has been around for centuries, although it has become
more specific as well as refined to fit certain industries in the last 100 years.

Photo by Luis Gomes from Pixels

The word automation traces its earliest roots back to the time of the Ancient Greeks,
specifically around 762 B.C. The earliest mention of automation technology came in Homer’s
The Illiad, in which Homer discusses Hephaestus, the god of fire and craftsmanship. As the
story goes, Homer discusses Hephaestus’s workshop, and how Hephaestus had ‘automatons’
working for him, which were essentially self-operating robots that assisted him in the process
of developing powerful weapons and other items for the Greek gods. Although there is little
to no evidence that Hephaestus’s workshop existed, this story was written by Homer, a real
Greek poet. It shows that the Greeks had at least thought of the idea of using automation
technology to solve a problem, which for them was to improve the efficiency of creating
weapons and tools.
The history of RPA
We are entering the fourth industrial revolution, the era of comprehensive automation. RPA, as a driver
of this revolution, inherits cloud deployment features and mimics human cognition with unattended
automation mechanics. Thousands of enterprises across the globe have already implemented the
technology. To better see why it happened, let’s trace back the significant stages of the RPA
development that made the technology what it is today.

Source: www.grandviewresearch.com

The 1990s: Adopting automation for UI testing

The story of RPA started with the automation of user interface (UI) testing. It usually means
testing visual elements of interfaces to make sure they work correctly, and a user won’t
encounter any issues working with the app.
Back in the 90s, few computer models were on the market, especially compared to nowadays.
However, the primary typical computer user persona started to shift from giant corporations’
and governmental organizations’ employees to ordinary home-based users. This was mainly
due to the emergence of Windows 95, the canonical operating system of that time. As a result,
the shift kickstarted UI testing development as the requirements and screen sizes became more
diverse.
At the end of the 90s – early 2000s, companies came to the agile development concept, one of
the key values of which is prioritizing people over processes and tools. Organizations also
recognized the need to speed up their operations to stay competitive. Thus, various UI testing
and quality assurance (QA) automation scripts were born out of necessity.

The 2000s: Banking and insurance automation

A big part of this was screen scraping technology, which is the automation of extracting data
from an application to use it for other purposes. It significantly boosted the efficiency and
effectiveness of businesses handling large amounts of data.
No wonder banks and insurance companies were among the first to embrace the idea. Another
reason why banks and insurance companies were the pioneers of automation is that they had
resources available. However, automation technologies still have their drawbacks. One of
them was a high entry threshold. If a company wanted to automate its processes at that time,
it would likely result in building a complex IT environment. The latter required expensive
engineering skills and time-consuming integrations.
The 2010s: Enterprise automation
The real pivotal point for the RPA technology occurred around 2012, when the technology was
finally officially recognized by large-scale businesses. There was a combination of factors that
made it possible, such as:

• Due to the recent financial crisis, businesses sought ways to reduce expenses.
• Businesses realized the need for digital transformation, and RPA was considered an
easy and affordable (in corporate rates, of course) solution for going digital.

These factors led to RPA taking the world by storm as more and more enterprises started
adopting RPA for their mission-critical tasks.

Now: Mid-market and SMB automation

The 2020s are truly the time of RPA democratization and the growing impact of RPA on all
segments of economics. The democratization is possible through the gradual departure from
costly licensing fees previously only affordable to enterprises to building partnerships with
managed service providers to enable the RPA-as-a-service model. It allows RPA technology
to expand to smaller businesses, providing SMBs with massive productivity outcomes.
We already see more and more evidence of RPA in SMBs moving from pilots and proof of
concepts to real-time production in much shorter times than Enterprises do. According to the
2021 report by Xerox, one of the largest ElectroNeek partners, 80% of SMB leaders saw
automating tasks and processes as crucial to their survival, with two-thirds planning on
upgrading their automation tools.

Demographics are also crucial. Since millennials and zoomers are in the workforce, they want
interesting, challenging tasks, not monotonous jobs. With the help of RPA bots, companies
can easily automate the work of many departments and specialists. When automation is
efficiently implemented for tedious, repetitive tasks, employees become more efficient
compared to previous years.

The changes in demographics and an MSPs’ focus on building recurring revenue drive the
popularity of a bots-by-subscription business model. With this model, clients make periodic
payments to MSPs instead of substantial upfront costs, which allows an even wider variety of
companies to access the benefits of RPA.

RPA Vs. Traditional Automation

Without knowing the definitions of Robotic Process Automation and Traditional Automation,
it is hard to understand the differences between them. Let's start with the definitions:

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is software used to automate a high volume of repetitive
and rule-based tasks. RPA tools allow users to design and deploy software robots that can
mimic human actions. These tools also utilize pre-defined activities and business rules to
autonomously execute a combination of tasks, transactions, and processes across software
systems. RPA can deliver the desired result without human interaction.

On the other hand, traditional automation is the automation of any repeated tasks. It combines
application integration at a database or infrastructure level. It requires minimal human
intervention.
Let's understand the differences between these two:

Robotic Process Automation Traditional Automation

It does not require any modification in the It requires certain customizations in the
existing systems or infrastructure. existing IT infrastructure.
It can automate the repetitive, rule-based It does not include the ability to mimic human
tasks. It mimics human actions to complete the actions. It only executes the pre-defined
tasks. programmatic instructions.

A user can start using RPA without knowing Users are required to have the programming
any programming. RPA allows automation skills to use Traditional Automation for
with easy to use flowchart diagram. Therefore, automating functionalities. Programming
users do not require to remember language language requirement depends upon the type of
syntax and scripting. They only need to focus automation tool. Users need to remember
on the functionalities given under automation. language syntax and scripting.

RPA provides the easy and quick Traditional Automation can take several
implementation. It requires less amount of months for implementation. Test designing and
time as RPA software is process-driven. feasibility studies take a longer time.

RPA allows users to assign work to hundreds On the other hand, Traditional Automation
or thousands of virtual machines that can uses different programming techniques to
perform the allotted tasks without the achieve parallel execution or scalability.
requirement of physical machines. Physical machines are required to perform
parallel execution. Those physical machines
should have the capability of providing good
processing speed.

RPA can be configured to meet the When it comes to customization, Traditional

requirements of a particular user. It can be Automation is considered as a critical and
combined with several applications (e.g., complex technology compared to the RPA.
calendar, e-mail, ERP, CRM, etc.) to The integration of different systems with
synchronize information and create Traditional Automation is a challenge due to
automated replies. the limitations of APIs.

RPA can be a little costly in the initial phase. Traditional Automation is cheaper in the initial
But it saves a lot of time, money, and effort in phase. However, it costs a lot more in the long
the long run. run.

RPA is a more efficient option since it can Traditional Automation requires more time,
make improvements instantly. effort, and a considerable workforce.
On the other hand, Traditional Automation
With RPA, users can easily update any may force users to change various scripts.
business flow due to its simplicity. Hence, maintenance and updation of this
technology can be tough.
What Makes a Good RPA Use Cases:
RPA automates digital tasks that are high-volume, repetitive, and rule-based.

So a good RPA use case is one that follows that structure, especially if the task doesn’t benefit
from human involvement or intervention.

What is robotic process automation (RPA)?

RPA is a simple and easy-to-use software deploying RPA bots that mimic human actions. It
can save you time and money, freeing your employees from monotonous digital tasks where
human intelligence isn’t needed.
RPA bots are able to mimic actions such as keystrokes, clicks, data uploads, transfers, and
more. They do so in the same user interface that your employees would use.

Those tasks typically fall in departmental functions and industries that manage a lot of data and
have monotonous processes within different computer systems, documents, and software.

RPA doesn’t need to exist on its own. The bots can be combined with other software such as
artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, process intelligence, Optical Character
Recognition (OCR), and more.

When that’s the case, it’s called Intelligent Automation where the RPA bots become digital
workers capable of advanced automations such as responding to customers, analyzing and
sorting data, and improving processes.

This creates even more use cases for RPA. Industry

RPA Use Cases

While RPA can be used in any industry, some rely on digital automation more than others.

These industries are:

• Financial services and banking

• Insurance
• Healthcare
• Manufacturing
• Government and the Public Sector
• Energy and utilities
• Retail
• Telecoms
If your industry isn’t listed but you want to know how RPA can improve efficiency in your
company, get in touch here.

Otherwise, scroll down to see unique RPA use cases in your industry.
RPA Use Cases in Financial Services Sector

The financial sector is riddled with digital processes that can be optimized and automated. So

it’s a natural fit for RPA.

The most common use cases in the financial services and banking sector are:

•Automating reporting tasks for reconciliations, monthly closing, management reports,

and mortgage processing
• Streamlining accounts payable and accounts receivable processes
• Fraud detection
• Payment processing
• Credit checks
• Loan application process
RPA works so well for banks that UAE-based Mashreq Bank uses RPA and Intelligent
Automation to lift over 1 million transactions a month.

They have 300+ bots running and they’ve automated 97% of their financial transactions. At
the same time, nearly 80% of non-financial transactions are run by robotic processes. And
they’ve achieved close to 30% operating efficiency of their outsourced operations in India.

Mashreq Bank uses RPA. These are the results:

300+ bots running
97% of financial transactions automated
Nearly 80% of non-financial transactions automated
Close to 30% operating efficiency in their outsourced operations team
If you want to find out more you can head to our page: how RPA is used in banking and
financial services.

Wealth Management

Wealth management companies are juggling sensitive data across multiple clients which
leaves little to no room for error. RPA is an automation solution that can ensure error-free
processes.

Here are some examples of RPA use in wealth management:

• Quality control management

• Following compliance practices
• Automating investor data migration and embedding the automation of data processing

Private Equity

Private Equity falls within the financial sector but comes with some unique use cases.

Most of the use cases exist around the need for businesses to adapt to and improve the
processes of more than one business at a time.
The top three use cases are compensation, employee onboarding and offboarding, and merger
and acquisition allocation.

We can break those down into even more specific cases where businesses can:

• Reconcile various compensation structures

• Calculate compensation and pay it out
• Update employee information and push the data to any relevant upstream
or downstream system
• Conform processes to compliance regulations
• Change employee access authority
• Automate data entry, mapping, and extraction

Insurance

In the insurance industry, companies are battling legacy systems, siloed functions and teams,
complex operating structures, limited underwriting talent, and the constant need to deliver a
great customer experience.

RPA helps insurance companies win those battles through the automation of repetitive tasks
that take up too much valuable employee time.

Here are some examples of where RPA comes into play:

• Registering and processing claims

• Underwriting
• Regulatory compliance
• Business and process analytics
• Policy cancellation
• Sales and distribution
• Legacy application integration
• Policy servicing/admin
• Incident management
Zurich UK uses RPA and Intelligent Automation to improve over 120 processes. The digital
workforce has processed 3 million transactions and allowed customers to report claims
quickly and get paid quickly.

You can read more about robotic process automation for insurance companies here.

RPA Use Cases in Healthcare

The healthcare industry relies on processes to deliver streamlined, efficient, and enjoyable
patient experiences. RPA is used widely to ensure that happens.

RPA can help healthcare providers with:

• Appointment scheduling
• Patient records and data management
 • Asset tracking and management
• Diagnostics and data analysis
• Patient outreach and post-treatment care

RPA Use Cases in Manufacturing

Manufacturing companies come with a lot of moving parts—both in the machines they use
and the digital processes they manage. That leaves plenty of room for automation
opportunities.

RPA eliminates the potential for human error and increases employee job satisfaction by
taking tedious tasks off their hands.

Here are just a few use case examples from our larger list of 20:

• Invoice processing
• Purchase order processing
• Supply chain management
• Accounts payable processing
• Audits

RPA Automotive

Rather than list use cases for the automotive sector, let’s look at how Jaguar Land Rover (JLR)
leverages RPA to stay ahead of the competition.

JLR has automated its accounts payable and invoice reconciliation so that it can increase
accuracy and reduce compliance risks while reducing time-consuming tasks.

Their use of RPA and Intelligent Automation has saved them time and human capacity
equating to over £1 million which they’ve been able to reinvest back in the business.

That’s just a glimpse into what RPA can achieve for a business in the manufacturing or
automotive industry.

RPA Use Cases in the Public Sector

The public sector is essential for the well-being of the public. That means it needs to run
efficiently so that people can get the help and support they need from the government.

The challenge is that companies in this industry are always short on time and short on budget.
Automation can help give them both back, at least in part.

These are some of the ways RPA helps the public sector to enable better care of the public and
their workforce:

• Data capture and analysis (surveys and census management)

• Statutory process automation
 • Content migration
• Registration office processing and administration
• Grant application processing, permitting, reporting and compliance
Norfolk County Council relies on RPA to give them back 133 hours that would have been
spent on manually processing employee payroll.

RPA Use Cases in Energy & Utilities

Energy companies are on the frontline of environmental changes and regulations. To keep up
and deliver excellent service to their customers they need to find ways to accelerate processes
and give their workforce the time to spend on tasks that require human intervention.

Here are some common use cases for RPA in the Energy & Utilities sector:

• Contact center processes

• Virtual agents
• Metering
• Statements and billing
• Customer account management
• Technician dispatch and reporting
Utilita uses RPA and Intelligent Automation to respond to customer requests quickly and
efficiently.

In fact, 50% of their customer service processes are not automated. That allows agents to
spend more time doing what they do best—speaking to customers and sharing other services
with them.

The RPA software robots, alongside natural-language AI, have been trained to read and sort
emails on Utilita’s behalf. They do this for 12,500 emails a month.

RPA Use cases in Retail

The success of retail companies hinges on having happy, repeat customers. There are a lot of
digital processes that go into making that happen.

Customer queries need to be responded to, new prospective customers need to be marketed to,
inventory needs to be carried and managed, etc.

That’s why retail is ripe for RPA support.

Here are the most common use cases for the retail industry:

• Demand-supply planning
• Product categorization
• Inventory management
• Call center processes
• Marketing automation
• Sales analysis
 • Supply chain management and logistics
• Customer support
• Fraud detection
John Lewis turns to RPA to ward off fraudsters. The software bots (turned digital workers
with the assistance of AI) were able to run 20,000 forensic fraud checks in one week. This
gave John Lewis employees 100 hours back they could spend on more strategic projects.

RPA Uses cases in Telecoms

Many companies in the telecommunications industry are combating new innovative

technologies with outdated processes. That puts them on the back foot, scrambling to keep up.
With RPA they can get ahead of customer demand and the competition.

Here are some use case examples in the telecoms industry:

• Network management customer onboarding or offboarding

• Data transformation
• Debt collection
• Expense control
• First Call Resolution (FCR)
Proximus, Belgium’s largest telecoms provider, uses robotic process automation to accelerate
the processing of invoices.

They use digital workers to scan 150,000 invoices so that their accounts payable team can
give their time and energy elsewhere. Removing monotonous tasks from their workforce has
led to an increase in staff morale. Win-win!

Function RPA Use Cases

Now that we’ve looked at RPA use in different industries, we can hone in on specific function
use cases.

RPA is most often used in Finance and Accounting, Human Resources, CRM, and Supply
Chain & Logistics functions. Though there are plenty of other functions that can use RPA,
we’re highlighting these four.

Let’s dive in.

RPA Use Cases in Finance and Accounting

The finance function of any business can benefit from having RPA in their team.

RPA does the heavy lifting of back-office tasks across multiple documents and software. This
spares you the headache of putting forth unnecessary manual effort into time-consuming tasks
around invoicing, reporting, and account management.

Here are some use case examples:

• Expense reimbursement
 • Financial planning and analysis (FP&A)
• Accounts payable and accounts receivable processing
• Accounting change
• Account and bank reconciliations
• Reporting
• Back Office Automation

RPA Use Cases in Human Resources (HR)

HR needs to be agile and scalable to help the business grow and overcome its challenges such
as hiring the right talent, delivering an enjoyable employee experience, and retaining high
performers.

HR teams can achieve operational agility with the help of RPA.

Here are some use cases to inspire how you can use RPA in your HR function:

• Spent analytics and reporting

• Learning and development administration
• Position management
• Travel and/or expense management
• Payroll Automation
• Payroll batch importing and validation
• Employee benefit invoice reconciliation
• New-starter onboarding
• Employee master data
• User credentials creation
• Access termination
If those use cases aren’t enough to help you envision all you can do with RPA, take
Santander’s real-life example.

Their HR function was able to reduce the time it took to onboard new employees by 85%.

How did they do it? Robotic process automation has been trained to automatically inform the
relevant departments when a new joiner is added, gather the required information, set up
accounts, and perform the necessary compliance checks.

A process that was taking six weeks is now completed in just two days and has enhanced the
employee experience.

RPA Use Cases in CRM

Customer relationship management teams often use RPA to increase customer satisfaction by
streamlining routine processes and manual tasks that can happen without human oversight or
intervention.
You can automate communications between disparate systems so that everyone is in the know
across the customer lifecycle.

Here are some use cases for your CRM:

• Customer support (including fielding customer complaints)

• Customer account management
• Order tracking
• Data transfers

RPA Use Cases in Supply Chain & Logistics

If your business handles a supply chain then you’re perfectly positioned to benefit from RPA.

From invoice management to inventory tracking, you can come up with automation ideas to
improve operational efficiency.

Here are some of the most common use cases across supply chain management and logistics:

• Shipment scheduling and tracking

• Invoice processing and credit collections
• Order and inventory processing
• Capturing, researching, and closing out loads
• Procurement and inventory
• Order and inventory tracking

Scope of Robotic Process Automation

RPA has a very wide range of applications. In reality, this will be the biggest advancement
over the coming years. RPA will eventually encompass the following −
• Using artificial intelligence to make complex inferences and decisions.
• There will be six fully automated areas in the bank.
• Business already uses RPA technology as well as some of the more popular tools.
Features of an RPA tool An
RPA Tools Includes −
• One of the RPA solutions is Automation Anywhere, a platform for automating and
managing operations in a business.
• Blue Prism − Quick and effective business operations expertise. Assemble a virtual
workforce to speed up automation and improve precision.
• A network for integrating software programmes and business procedures is called
UiPath.
• Open span − Increase operational efficiency and revenue development by utilising your
understanding of desktop automation technology
Learners' technical responsibilities −
• Candidates for the Robotic Process Automation position should prioritise Business
Process Automation while following the accepted RPA standards and guidelines.
• Design, develop, and distribute RPA products to clients all over the world while
working with international teams.
• Know the function, organization, and layout of the Business Process Framework.
• To implement the To−Be Processes, create a project design.
• Customization and development of automation solutions.
• Support the ongoing process of improvement as new needs arise.
• Provide direction for the change management process in order to implement updates
and support current practices.
• The facilitation of reports, validation rules, and process design.
• Setting up control objects, setting up the process flow, handling errors, etc.

Positions in RPA
Since businesses have only recently learned about RPA's potential, it is a hot topic right now.
People with RPA skills have a variety of options to choose from and can get hired for the jobs
they prefer more. Consider this −
• Business Analyst
• Associate Process Consultant
• Solution Architect
• Developer

In the present market, RPA is a burgeoning sector. Numerous people are creating millions of
RPA apps, and there are endless things to look forward to.
RPA as a Career
RPA is seen as a career option that is quite successful. New graduates can readily predict a
sizable part of job opportunities worldwide. Professionals with these skill sets also receive
remuneration packages that are comparatively higher than those in other industries. You can
skew your career graph toward high−ranking success by utilizing the RPA training.
There are many duties performed by people in IT projects, including collaborating, planning,
reporting, managing, and controlling. RPA is used in the IT business to automate these tasks.
The next technology revolution will surely be ushered in by RPA, and as a result, thousands
of new employment will undoubtedly be created annually. More than 5 million vacancies are
available for application right now.
Best Approaches for RPA
Following are the things you need to do to be have a good career in RPA.
• Continuous learning − The RPA course never comes to an end. As you automate trickier
activities, you learn more. Daily tool feature learning should be attempted. Find out how
the relevant firm developed the tool once you've finished enjoying the product's
features.
• Stay current. Always check the tool's site and get in touch with the support team if you
need help. Be on the lookout for any tool updates. Investigate the papers that are offered
on the web for some time.
• Top−Down approach Ui Path, Automation Anywhere, and Blue Prism are the three tools
that take the longest to learn how to use. Never go out and start learning automation.
 Before choosing Automation Anywhere, try getting to know Blue Prism or Ui Path.
Learning Ui Path and Automation Anywhere will take you hardly any time at all if you
are an expert in Blue Prism. It will take you longer to get used to the other two tools if
you opt for the other strategy.
• Take chances. The opportunity to develop an RPA project won't be available to everyone.
If it has been more than two months since you last looked for a developer job, you are
headed in the wrong direction. Undoubtedly, you'll require a testing ground for your
abilities and knowledge.
If you want to see how others have approached problem−solving, consider volunteering
for a testing or support role in an RPA project. You'll learn something new, or you might
come up with a better solution idea. Never sit around after entering a company. Patience
and diligence are essential if you want to succeed in the career you've always wanted.
• If you're automating these programs, spend some time studying Microsoft Excel, SQL,
and PowerShell simultaneously. Within a few days, you'll become a highly certain and
competent technical person.

THE LIMITATIONS OF ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION

When technologies such as robotic process automation (RPA) were introduced years ago,
they were lightyears ahead of the manual business processes in place at the time. As a result,
they were often viewed as the end-all-be-all solution for the future. As organizations began
implementing RPA solutions, many experienced excellent results – and yet, as
implementations have matured, companies are now experiencing RPA limitations.

Struggling With Less-Than-Perfect Structures

While RPA has automated and accelerated the processing of highly structured, repetitive and
predictable tasks for many organizations, companies are now realizing how many of their
needs revolve around automating less-than-perfect documentation.

For example, although many forms in the insurance industry are standardized, the completion
of these forms are not always ideal. Missing information, poor scan or fax quality and slightly
skewed selection boxes mean that a high percentage of automated processing ends up on a
human being’s desk to be manually handled.

Skyrocketing Developer Costs

RPA implementations are often high-touch and high-maintenance as far as the IT resources
required - even for simple tasks. As a result, the skyrocketing salaries of developers have
taken a significant bite out of the expected return on investment that a company hopes to
achieve with RPA.

Labor challenges that are especially pronounced in the IT industry mean that attracting,
retaining, training and compensating IT professionals are more costly than ever today. Even if
an RPA solution has an affordable price tag of $25,000; developer salaries that easily reach
$200,000 per year can be prohibitive for many businesses.
 In addition, when exceptions creep upwards because of RPA limitations, additional human
resources are required to manage those exceptions.

Failure to Scale
According to an article in Forbes, an “inherent RPA limitation is that it automates specific
tasks — in other words, mimicking human behavior at the level of individual work.” Although
this capability can make a big difference at the micro level, it doesn’t automatically scale to
meet broad organizational digital transformation goals.
Unless individual RPA improvements can be linked and support the overall company
processes, they will remain only elements at an individual task level. A contributing factor is
that many RPA bots are isolated innately complex, requiring too many decision points to be
effective at a corporate level.

In Search of a Holistic, Flexible, Integrated Solution

As more companies experience the limitations of RPA, they are seeking out a more robust,
transformative, holistic solution that can harness the strengths of RPA while addressing its
weaknesses.
Businesses should abandon non-core capabilities that will not generate an adequate ROI from
RPA and focus instead on tasks that can affect organization-wide digital transformation.
Selecting next-generation technologies that can manage less-than-perfect forms and
documentation while kicking out fewer exceptions will maximize a company’s investment.
For example, the Digital Coworker from Roots Automation is well-versed in a wide
variety of common forms and documents in the insurance industry, learning from every single
customer for the benefit of future clients. In addition, customized tasks can be mastered
quickly through machine learning technology. The Digital Coworker can read, review and
interpret information like a human being much more so than conventional RPA solutions,
providing greater flexibility and performance for today’s digitally forward organization.

Advantages and disadvantages of RPA:

8 advantages of RPA
1. Efficiency gains. RPA can complete tasks more quickly than humans, and it's able to
do so at a lower cost. As a result, organizations can expect productivity boosts without seeing
a commensurate increase in costs that would have occurred had they hired new workers to
do the same volume of work within the same allotment of time.
"That's just how bots operate -- it's computer code, so it runs 365 [days,] 24/7, unlike us
humans who need to take breaks. It's tough to compete with," said Tony Abel, managing
director of the supply chain solutions practice and RPA lead at the consulting firm Protiviti.

2. Reduction in errors. "Computers do what they're told. They don't make a lot of
errors as humans can sometimes do," Abel said, adding that RPA software also provides a
comprehensive audit trail so organizations can see what was done when.

3. Increased agility. RPA often enables an organization to more easily accommodate

business process changes, said Ken Weilerstein, analyst and consultant at The Analyst
Syndicate.

Workers can often make quick adjustments within the RPA software, which tends to be
lightweight and flexible, rather than request IT staffers carve out time and resources to revise
the underlying business systems -- typically, a more time-consuming, complex and costly task.

Similarly, because RPA is layered on top of enterprise systems and not built into them, new
RPA deployments or changes to existing bots come with a lower risk of disruption or
unintended consequences. Therefore, organizations have the option to use RPA to enable rapid
adjustments to processes, further increasing their agility.

4. Better use of people power. RPA often enables organizations to shift workers'
attention from low-value tasks to higher-value ones that deliver better customer
experience and ultimately support revenue growth, according IT advisors and management
leaders.

Walker saw that shift in her own company, saying: "RPA helps us scale by freeing up our
employees to do value-add work." For example, customer service representatives once spent
a significant amount of time gathering and keying data for rate change requests. This limited
the time they had to directly engage with customers in consultative conversations. But, now,
RPA bots handle that gathering and keying work, Walker said, giving workers more time to
engage directly with customers about how PSCU services could meet their needs.

Simply put, RPA lets workers spend more time on advisory tasks instead of copying and
pasting.

5. Increased employee engagement. Because RPA bots handle the repetitive,

and sometimes mundane, tasks within the enterprise, employees can shift more of their
time to more valuable work, which, in turn, often makes for more engaged employees, Abel
said.

6. Improved customer satisfaction. According to Abel, customers can also

benefit from organizations automating processes, as the automation can create a faster
and better experience. A bot, for example, can access and retrieve information to answer
a customer's request in real time so that there's no need to ask the customer to hold.

7. Standardization of processes. Even when organizations optimize their

processes, they can rarely ensure that the human employees follow the prescribed steps
every time in every single office location, said Kevin Martelon, a process consultant and
automation partnership manager at Saggezza, a global IT consultancy.

Sometimes, individual employees in different locations tweak the process to their own liking.
RPA, on the other hand, performs its tasks exactly as it's programmed to do, ensuring that a
process is followed consistently every time across locations.
8. Business continuity support. Organizations can use RPA to help support their
business continuity (BC) plans by building bots that can take on tasks typically handled by
outsourced services in the event those services are knocked offline, according to Martelon.

"RPA can act as a backstop; it's like buying a generator," he said, noting that, even if the bots
aren't called into action, their presence can help organizations meet BC objectives as required
by regulations or their insurance policies.

5 disadvantages of RPA
1. Attrition. Although RPA bots don't always displace workers, it is a possibility.
Moreover, because organizations can add bots to handle increasing workloads, they won't
need to hire the additional workers who would have otherwise handled that growing volume
of work.

"Vendors push that RPA eliminates work that's boring and redundant, but in reality, there were
people who earned their money doing that work. So, there is work being eliminated and jobs
and hours that are being cut," Weilerstein said. "It's a real worry for people, and it's also a
question of optics for business."

2. Sprawling technology. As organizations add more bots to perform more tasks, they
risk creating an unwieldy collection that becomes more difficult and more costly to manage
and maintain.

"That can happen if you're not governing it right, if understanding who has responsibility for
what isn't formalized [and] if you're just building bots and throwing them into production,"
Abel said, stressing the need for effective governance and an effective RPA center of
excellence to avoid such scenarios.

3. Added complexity. Similarly, RPA can create layers upon layers of software when
it's not effectively documented, managed and governed, Weilerstein said. It creates
complexity that could make business improvements harder to achieve.

"RPA makes it easy for businesses to cope with changing business processes, and that makes
it easy for them to do it piecemeal rather than updating the software in a systematic way. The
problem with that is, if something goes wrong, it makes it difficult to troubleshoot to find out
what went wrong," Weilerstein said. "It's having all the layers that makes the entire picture
more complicated."

4. Magnification of problematic processes. According to experts,

organizations that don't first review and, if necessary, reengineer and optimize processes
before automating them risk automating problematic processes. This means amplifying
inefficiencies, errors and anything else that was wrong with the process in the first place.
It also adds costs, which could negate any expected ROI, and introduce new risks.

5. Thwarted transformation. Executives who see RPA as a tactical point-by-point

offering rather than a tool that's part of a holistic strategy will get more limited benefits,
according to Martelon. Enterprise leaders who want RPA to support their digitization
objectives must have a strategic plan for prioritizing their automation projects and
understand how those projects fit into their overarching strategic visions.

Main types of RPA: traditional and cognitive automation

There are two main types of robots available for businesses to automate different processes.

Traditional RPA: are the software programs used for simple tasks that don’t require
decision making or cognitive activity. These types of bots are also called rule-based systems
as they require a set of rules on how to perform a task, where to log in, what data to collect,
and where to transfer it. In general, robotic process automation refers to rule-based bots, which
are good for simple tasks and scaling to thousands of automated processes.

Currently, traditional RPA covers nearly any business task off the shelf. Some providers like
Datamatics offer over 800 use cases for RPA. That number indicates that the solutions market
is mature and probably has a bot for your business case.

However, there are lots of limitations for this approach, as traditional RPA software can’t
handle, say, human speech or adjust to changes in UI automatically. In that case, the second
type of RPA can be used.

Cognitive Automation: is the advanced form RPA capable of recognizing images,

handwritten text, or understanding human speech. This type of RPA can be used to digitize
documents, automate communication with clients, or analyze unstructured data.

Despite its powerful capabilities, cognitive robots have to be custom developed for a specific
use case requiring a team that specializes in artificial intelligence and machine learning to
implement cognitive robots for your process. Check our dedicated article on cognitive
automation to learn more.
 7 Step Process for Successful RPA Implementation
A well-prepared implementation approach helps you to take full advantage of the technology.
The Final RPA Implementation Journey involves the below-mentioned steps:

Step 1: Program Initiation

A clear RPA business plan is a cornerstone of successful deployment. The program initiation
phase helps an organization understand the feasibility and advantage of an RPA solution.

Step 2: Assessing Potential Opportunities

The organization’s initial process assessment is essential to attain the best results. Make sure
the focus is on:

• Input and output volume

• Process variability
• Value unlocked via automation

Volume and process variability should remain in equilibrium, directly affecting cost benefits.
In addition, enterprises should consider data security, cybersecurity, and scalability during an
evaluation for the implementation of RPA steps.

Step 3: Developing Proof of Concept

After process selection, enterprises should experiment with robotic process automation
tools and technologies to understand their work.
 Aim at the key elements of the process and not the complete initiative. Cross-check if the bot
has the caliber to work and deliver the best results. This will help create an effective proof of
the complete concept and ensure the efforts don’t go in vain.

Step 4: Deploy a Pilot

Once you attain conceptual proof, run the pilot. Implementing this step for RPA
implementation further reduces bot deployment inefficiencies.

Deploying a pilot helps you understand if you are investing in the right software.

To ensure that, measure the bot’s performance vs. manual process. Then, keep running the
traditional process against the bot. This process helps in proving its actual worth.

Step 5: Resource Organization

Before pilot production, companies organize cross-functional project teams and resources.
The responsibilities must be well-defined to ensure business goals are in sync. A successful
strategy includes a plan where businesses should consider employees’ suggestions and
potential impacts, and training programs are welcomed.

Step 6. Setting up of an Implementation Plan

A comprehensive implementation plan with a detailed strategy is the need of the hour. A
complete team of business analysts, project managers, operating staff, and RPA developers is
necessary for the streamlined implementation of RPA. You also have to consider maintenance
costs and additional software development costs.

Step 7: Operate and Monitor

When bots are up and running, don’t forget to analyze their performance. Ensure they are not
overloaded. Operational benefits and greater productivity are worth considering.

If you are feeling overwhelmed with the above-mentioned stepwise RPA implementation
journey, here’s a quick checklist to help you to simplify the process further:

• Start with ‘simple to automate’ processes and list out processes to automate.
• Perform a feasibility assessment & make sure existing processes are efficient.
• Consider app scalability and AI support & prepare for advanced robotics.
• Conduct an audit trail & addressing data privacy risks.
• Analyze the cost-friendliness of RPA applications.
• Follow a Comprehensive Team Approach.

Selecting the Right RPA Vendor for your RPA Implementation

The RPA implementation needs are different for different organizations, and to fulfill them,
you need RPA vendors who can understand these needs and offer you customized solutions.
 Here’s a list of parameters you should consider while selecting a vendor for the RPA to avoid
any bottlenecks in the implementation:

• Cost and time required to deploy the bots

• Ability to deliver bots that can handle financial complexities
• Provisions for encrypting the data and ensuring their privacy and confidentiality
• Presence of audit trail feature, which records the transactions made by the bot
• The RPA bot supplied by the vendor should be non-intrusive and well-equipped to
adapt to the change in technologies.

Along with the organizational credentials, the technical skills of the vendors should be
verified.

Top 6 Benefits of Successful RPA Implementation

The global robotic process automation market size was valued at USD 1.89 billion in 2021 and is projected to
expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 38.2% from 2022 to 2030.

The benefits of adopting the RPA systems range from boosting productivity, improving
employee engagement, accelerating time to market, and generating more revenue. Successful
RPA implementation can generate operational and strategic advantages.

Source: Medium

When various tasks have to be differently processed, which adds costs as well as complexity,
especially for large enterprises. But the benefits offered by RPA make this technology worth
every penny:
1. RPA Gives Accuracy
Human error results in the loss of billions of dollars annually. Do you remember the simple
typo that caused the stock market to plunge 1000 points and wipe out $1.1 trillion in 2010?

To achieve the highest level of efficiency, it is important to eliminate errors. The average
benchmark for data entry errors ranges from 2 to 5%. This risk is significantly elevated with
tedious and repetitive tasks that induce boredom.

2. Productivity Enhancement
RPA never takes leaves or never goes on a vacation. They keep working tirelessly, round the
clock, with consistency and efficiency.

The productive gains of RPA are real as well as measurable. According to a new study from
the Information Services Group (ISG), a leading global technology research and advisory
firm, RPA enables companies to execute processes 5-10 times faster with approx 37% fewer
resources.

3. Time and Labor Saving

As per The National Association of Software and Services Companies, RPA reduces up to 35-
65% in labor costs and delivers a return on investment (ROI) in as few as six months.
 Source: Medium (Graphical Representation of Time Saving)

4. Scalability
The robotic workforce can be as large or as small as per your requirement. The new bots can
be deployed quickly, and that too at a minimum cost.

Whenever there is peak business activity like a new product launch, RPA can handle the
improved transaction volume. This means there is no need to hire new staff and train them.

5. Improvement of Service Level

Businesses that deploy RPA to handle routine tasks can refocus their employees on creative,
strategic work and deliver better customer service.

An intelligent way to integrate it into business operations is to allow the bots to work
efficiently on tasks.

For example, you can improve service levels by automating tasks during customer interaction,
reducing time to resolution, and decreasing customer frustration.

6. Flexibility & Adaptability

RPA is compatible with any software system. It mimics human action without coding changes,
making it flexible and adaptable to virtually any business. ERP, CRM, and industry- specific
applications are the best candidates for RPA.

List of Challenges for Implementing RPA

For a successful RPA implementation, it’s crucial to make a list of potential red flags and
prepare a strategy to address these challenges effortlessly. For a ballpark idea, here are some
of the key challenges businesses face during RPA implementation:

• Deluded expectations of RPA

• Working with an inexperienced RPA partner
• Deficit of skilled team members
• Inability to calculate ROI
• Identifying the wrong process for RPA integration
• Technical and operational concerns
• Lack of support from the RPA vendor
• Getting short of end-to-end process automation
• Not following best practices
• Culture shock
• Post-implementation adoption
Building your Center of Excellence to Implement RPA
Organizations from around the globe are trying to implement RPA to improve the
productivity of their business operations, reduce errors, and increase data security.

However, before you implement RPA and scale your use of it across the enterprise, you
need to consider important factors such as the:

• Software infrastructure
• Organizational objectives
• Organizational structure
• Resources available
• Governance of the RPA initiative

Creating an RPA Center of Excellence can significantly improve your ability to achieve
your automation goals, ensure you reap the full value of RPA, and maximize your ROI.

RPA Center of Excellence:

A COE is a way to embed and implement RPA deeply and effectively into the organization.
It enables organizations to gather, assess, and manage the necessary knowledge and
capabilities needed to effectively implement RPA. By bringing together people from
different disciplines, a CoE can combine learning and oversight around a specific area,
driving the organizations to align multiple disciplines together.

The CoE is focused on providing training, best practices, and resources for the
organization. It standardizes the rules and guidelines that govern development, thus
ensuring that all projects are a driver of organizational outcomes.

Why implement an RPA Center of Excellence:

Many organizations are realizing that implementing RPA at scale in silos is impossible.
An RPA CoE brings people from various disciplines to share knowledge, collaborate,
and develop automation in a more effective and streamlined manner. The CoE is designed
to drive innovation, improvement, and collaboration - it enables teams to measure,
experiment, and accelerate performance.

The RPA CoE is meant to drive all the functionalities of an RPA initiative to be successful.
The model should include:

• Organization: Considering the CoE within the enterprise context will ensure that RPA
properly implemented throughout the organization. The CoE will dictate internal and
external roles and responsibilities that will support the RPA initiative.
• Governance: This establishes clear RPA standards, procedures, and policies along with
governing bodies, escalation paths, and segregation of duties. It ensures that
compliance regulation, security requirements, and regulatory standards are met. It
will decide task prioritization and the level of access for different teams and
employees.
• Technology: It’s up to the RPA CoE to choose the right automation tools for the
appropriate tasks and take care of the maintenance of them. The CoE acts as the
 architect of the robotic operating environment. It will support RPA integration into
critical areas such as IT Service Management and Configuration Management
Database.
• Processes: The RPA CoE is in charge of evaluating automation opportunities,
deploying RPA into suitable environments that are stable, scalable, and secure.
• Operations: If the implementation of RPA is successful, there are some structural
changes that will have to occur. These changes which can include changing job
descriptions of human roles and overall operational change management is
managed by the RPA CoE.

Functionalities of RPA Center of Excellence

• RPA centre of excellence provides a structural framework that manages the growth of RPA
within an enterprise. It also drives the functionalities of an RPA initiative. The functionalities
of the Center of Excellence are:
• Governance: This functionality of CoE establishes the standards, policies, and procedures.
The establishment of these standards requires the qualification, development, and
deployment of a bot.
• Organization: It describes the organizational structure of CoE to take care of all internal and
external responsibilities. It supports all the aspects of the RPA initiative and is responsible for
seamless change management.
• Technology: This part includes the selection of tools. It organizes the maintenance and
support of the selected tools.
• Processes: These include the execution and monitoring of the RPA lifecycle. It is responsible
for the evaluation of automation opportunities to deploy bots into the production
environment.
• Operations: This element analyzes how RPA affects social roles when it changes job
descriptions to overall operational management. By using these functionalities, RPA CoE
manages the growth of RPA within an enterprise. Apart from this, the implementation of RPA
CoE must be decided. It means its implementation can be decentralized, centralized or hybrid.
The capabilities of decentralized CoE are spread across the organization, and its
functionalities run from separate business units. But centralized CoE includes all the
capabilities to run an RPA distribution. In the case of hybrid implementation, business units
assess and prioritize their automated processes on their own, and the CoE includes centralized
operations.

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How to build the RPA Center of Excellence?

Organizations can build internal scalable, self-sustaining RPA models to embed RPA deeply
and effectively into the organizations. Here is how to get started.

• Build a team for RPA

The heart of RPA CoE is the RPA operations Team. The team has defined roles and
responsibilities. This team is responsible for implementing Organization-wide RPA.
 1. RPA Project Manager
2. RPA Sponsor
3. RPA Analyst
4. RPA Architect
5. RPA Developer
6. RPA Infra
7. RPA Support

• Build a Technical and Functional Environment

Once the team is established, the technical and functional environment needs to be set up.
From the tools that are required for implementation to the kind of configuration, performance,
and connectivity requirements.

• Create an Effective Governance Model

The Governance Model for RPA CoE lays out consistent criteria, protocols, and regulations
for robotic process automation together with regulatory structures, escalation pathways, and
role segregation. The Governance Model also guarantees that legislation, the specifications
for cyber management, and regulatory guidelines are fulfilled. It would also define the
prioritization, the level of access granted to the RPA operation team, and others.

• RPA CoE Launch

Launch of RPA CoE with all the processes and the teams are focussing on making RPA part
of the organization and all the strategic requirements are met. But it just doesn't stop here,
constant feedback to scale up the RPA efforts and drive greater business outcomes.

What is Business Process Standardization

Business Process Standardization is the act of establishing a “Best Practice” of how to carry
out a process and make sure that the entire organization follows it.

Standardization of the processes is done to gain their benefits or as part of a more significant
initiative such as Business Process Management (BPM).

It helps to achieve componentization where you can re-use the same process, which is already
established as a component of another process. This can range up to different areas/
departments of the same company.
 Process Standardization

Standardization steps usually include

• Setting the standards

• Reporting on the standards for the management

• Adherence to the established standards

• Continuous improvement

What RPA has to do with Process Standardization

• Robotic Process Automation (RPA) aims to replace highly manual, repetitive, rule-based
processes that handle huge volumes of data.

• RPA is not a nail that we can use to fix a broken process that humans perform manually on
a specific routine.

• Every RPA project should focus on some level of process standardization before any
automation efforts.
 Robotic Process Automation

Why RPA Require Process Standardization

Characteristics of a Non-Standardized Process include:

• Increased error rate

• Decreased quality of routine tasks

• Inefficient tasks

• Excess repetitive tasks

• Reduced functionality

• High maintenance costs

• Less reliable end results

• High variability in output

• No clearly defined inputs and outputs

Automation of such processes will not gain the necessary improvement to the organization
without the proper application of process standardization. RPA is also a technology that
eliminates wastes DOWNTIME:

• D — Defects

• O — Overproduction

• W — Waiting
 • N — Not utilizing talent

• T — Transportation

• I — Inventory excess

• M — Motion waste

• E — Excess processing

Process Standardization is one of the key requirements customers expect from an automation project

Over time, small/ medium/ large organizations have accumulated multiple, disparate, and often
redundant processes to accomplish the same purpose throughout the organization. This
generally leads to inefficiency of the tasks that are carried out and a lack of ability to provide
the required output consistently. Standardizing a business process is a must before applying
automation onto it. Process standardization should be done in a way where it can be applied in
multiple sections of the organization. Applying RPA on standardized processes will provide a
better automation end result.

The process standardization is done by Business Analysts and BPO experts

Data Structures

Automation robots work best with structured data.

Hence, RPA can be easily applied to a process that uses structured data where there are not too
many variations in the process (standardized process).

Latest trend — Unstructured data all around

If the process that uses this unstructured data is not standardized, there will be unmanageable variations
in the process. Matters become worse when automation is applied to such processes.

Have a standardized process — Applying cognitive automation through RPA is

quite easy to bring the unstructured data to a standardized, meaningful format that robots or
humans can use for many tasks.

Process Standardization Benefits as Part of RPA

Applying RPA will:

• Improve the quality of routine tasks

• Increase overall process efficiency

• Decrease error rates

• Reduce redundant and unnecessary tasks

• Reduce dependencies on multiple systems and screens

Significant contribution to the above benefits will be made through standardization as they
highly contribute to

• perfecting customer service

• productivity & process improvement

• increased quality and clarity

• Easier onboarding of new technology

Process Standardization & Approach
Every step of a business process deals with data. RPA focus on automating every step of a
business process in a standardized approach.

Process Standardization & Approach

Improvements can be made at every level in the organization.

Organization levels that RPA can be applied

 Approach to Standardize a Business Process as Part of RPA
The Below framework can be used as a business process standardization approach in any RPA
project.

Process Standardization Framework

Standardization Framework — Analysis

Business Analyst should carry out the below tasks to identify standardization procedures

• Detailed discussions with the stakeholders of the existing manual process & expected
automated process

• Detailed documentation of the existing manual process to identify manual, semi-

automated & automated activities within the process

• Identify standard operational procedures which can be introduced and mapped it to

the process map

• Plan for a standard business rule library that can be used by the automation process.

• Come up with standard procedures for the maintenance of the business rule library

• Identify the complexity of the existing process and investigate ways of reducing the
complexity by applying standardization.
Standardization Framework — Standardization & Technical
Feasibility
The below guide is followed by a Business Analyst to find the best candidate processes for
automation.

Where the Standardization Framework is Applied in Process Life

Cycle

Process Life Cycle

Robotic Process Automation Development Life Cycle (RDLC)

The RPA development life cycle is a blueprint that consists of the processes of the
organization to be automated, the criteria to follow, the deployment of a bot, and constant
monitoring once the bot is in place.

RPA process flow is approached in a segmented process to ensure each stage of RPA can be
closely studied, assessed, and improved to enhance delivery, execution, and performance.
The RPA implementation strategy typically consists of the following 6 phases.
Identify

The first stage in RPA lifecycle development and testing is to identify the prospective business
process or processes that can be automated through robotic processes. Remember not all
processes can be automated thru robotic processes, yet.

For example, RPA prefers data in a structured format but more than 75% of data pertaining to
any business is unstructured. Also, RPA is best suited for a rules-based process than a
judgment-based one, even though artificial intelligence and machine learning can help to some
extent with the exceptions of such rules.

Hence, it is important for RPA stakeholders together with the business teams to identify the
correct processes that are viable for RPA development. Usually, RPA development follows a
segmented agile and customized approach.

Analyze
The second stage in the RPA process flow is to analyze the processes that are identified as
potential candidates for automation.

A process architect identifies the requirements for such processes after thoroughly analyzing
the technical feasibility. The degree of automation is assessed in this stage based on the
analysis and the various complexities involved in the identified processes such as- What is
the saving factor in terms of time and money? Can this automation bring to the whole business
process? Does this automation really improve the quality of the output? What is the business
value this automation can deliver once it is put in place?

Design
In this phase of RPA life cycle development, a Process Definition Document or PDD is
prepared.

As the name suggests, this PDD defines the sequence of steps involved in the process to be
automated. This is also the stage in which the dependencies the automated process might have
like the systems it interacts with or the regulations that impact it are identified and mapped.

Next, a flowchart or the Object Model Diagram is prepared which illustrates the sequence of
steps involved in the process to be automated.

Develop
Once the process for RPA is identified and designed, the next step in the RPA lifecycle is to
develop the automation scripts and codes using various RPA tools available according to the
requirements and definitions arrived in the design phase.

There are various RPA tools available in the market such as Keysight’s Eggplant, Blue Prism,
UiPath, Automation Anywhere, and Pega, each offering a variety of capabilities.

These tools vary according to the requirement and the level of complexity that needs to be
handled. The RPA developer identifies the best tool for the process and builds the bot
accordingly.

Test
In RPA lifecycle development and testing, once the bot is developed and ready, the same is
tested to check whether the bot satisfies all the requirements and is performing as desired.

This post-development test phase is usually conducted by the testing team with QA. Once the
bot passes the QA, the same is ready for deployment.

Implement
The last stage in the RPA lifecycle is Implementation. Once the bot passes all the QA tests, it
is ready to be deployed. All the components are tested for integrity. Any issues that arise are
dealt with by going back to the development and testing stages for a possible resolution.

Once the bot is implemented, it is required to continuously monitor the bot for its performance
and ensure it is running successfully with optimal capacity.

The Importance of RPA Life Cycle Management

The most important capability of an RPA system is the ability to communicate with other
systems either by way of API integration, screen scraping, or through any other means.

As the bots are software programs built on top of other software. Each bot has various
interactions with different systems and any change in those systems may affect the performance
of the bot.

Change management is an important stage in RPA lifecycle management. And proactive

change management methods that can anticipate and correct the change before the bot
crashes or produces unwarranted results can drastically improve the performance of the bot
by bringing down the downtime and thus increasing the ROI.

Execute Bots
Robotic Process Automation or RPA has been touted as one of the hottest technologies that
enable businesses to automate digital tasks. The market for collaborative robotics is predicted
to reach $12 billion by 2025 as per a Markets and Markets survey. With so much hype and
curiosity around RPA, many businesses who want to adopt the technology for improving their
processes and drive cost efficiencies often wonder how RPA differs from traditional software
development. That is, can they utilize their in-house software development capabilities for
automation or if RPA needs a different set of skills.

In a nutshell, RPA leverages technology and skills not too different from traditional
programming. Yet, there are key differences that make RPA solutions more niche and
specialized.

RPA Control Flow Architecture:

The architecture of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a combination of several tools,
platforms, and various infrastructure elements to form a complete RPA tool.

There are several blocks available in the RPA solution: