RPA (Robotic Process Automation)- Part 1

Nirmesh Bagadwal

Apr 30·2 min read

What is RPA?

RPA is not a physical “robot”, it’s a configurable software that uses the company’s existing IT infrastructure and does data processing by pulling data, performing algorithms, and creating reports.

RPA system emulates what human does by using same process steps those contain business rules and algorithms.

RPA makes the most significant impact on manual work processes those are repetitive and recurring, and often have high human error rates.

A single “robot” can be configured to perform a variety of processes enabling multi-use robots, and variability as your business needs change.

What can be Automated?

Easiest to automate repetitive, high-volume, operational processes Back Office

Examples:

New hire simplification, Account Management, Off cycle pay, ACA validation, Garnishment processing,Tax processing, Pre and post payroll activities, Leave / vacation management,Training automation & reminders

Potential Applications of RPA

Sales/Services Order to Cash, Account Setup. 24/7 Customer Service Support, Customer Complaint Tracking

Procurement Vendor Setup, Requisition to Purchase Order, Invoice Processing

Finance & Audit Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, General Ledger, Payments Processing

Tax Sales and Use Reconciliation, Tax Master Data, Monitor / Renewal Processing

HR On-boarding / Off-boarding, Payroll, Resume Screening / Matching

IT Account Setup and Maintenance, Internet Checks & Processing, Database Checks & Clean-up

RPA Hard and Soft Potential Benefits

Reduced Costs

Improved Quality

Increased Security

Improved Compliance & Reporting

Upgraded Analytics

Increased Employee Satisfaction

Improved Operational Control

RPA Tools feature comparison

Leading RPA Software Providers

Opportunities Mapping by Process

RPA Common Capabilities

Opening email and attachments, Logging into web/enterprise applications, Moving files and folders, Copying and pasting, Filling in forms, Reading and writing to databases, Scraping data from the web, Making calculations , Connecting to system API’s, Extracting structured data, Collecting social media statistics, Following “if/then” decisions/rule