Robotic Process Automation: Definition, RPA Software & Tools

RPA Definition - What is Robotic Process Automation?

Robotic Process Automation (Abkürzung: RPA) ist aus dem Gebiet der Prozessoptimierung heraus entstanden. Es beschreibt den Gedanken einer Prozessautomatisierung von repetitiven, zeitintensiven, manuellen oder stark fehleranfälligen Tätigkeiten, die durch „Software Roboter“ (Bots) ausgeführt werden. Der Begriff Robotic Process Automation bedeutet auf Deutsch übersetzt „robotergesteuerte Prozessautomatisierung“. 

Robotic Process Automation (abbreviation: RPA) emerged from the field of process optimization. It describes the idea of process automation of repetitive, time-consuming, manual or highly error-prone activities performed by "software robots" (bots). 

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. RPA Definition - What is Robotic Process Automation?
2. History of RPA
3. How does RPA work?
4. Application areas - use of RPA
5. Tasks and application examples for Robotic Process Automation
6. Differentiation between RPA and traditional process automation (BPA)
7. Goals of Robotic Process Automation
8. Advantages and disadvantages (challenges) of RPA
9. RPA Software & Tools
10. Conclusion and reference to clous GmbH
11. Robotic Process Automation Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

The bots learn and automate activities by using artificial intelligence (AI), resulting in time savings for the company. In doing so, the bots act similarly to a human. Not only do they use application programming interfaces (API), but they are also capable of controlling application software through a presentation view. 

Des Weiteren ermöglicht RPA die Aufzeichnung von systemrelevanten Schritten, die entweder modellgetrieben oder selbst erlernt sind. Das Aufgabengebiet ist vielfältig und behandelt Themen wie Datenabfragen, Formulareingaben oder das Einloggen und Bedienen von elektronischen Systemen.

Furthermore, RPA enables the recording of system-relevant steps that are either model-driven or self-learned. The range of tasks is diverse and addresses topics such as data retrieval, form input, or logging into and operating electronic systems.

RPA solutions are architecturally located at the user level and consequently installed above the systems used to execute business processes. Software bots can be compared to normal robots in a production environment, which take over manual work from humans and thereby imitate their activities on the user interface. Nevertheless, software bots have a higher work performance because they can be used 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Typical applications include retrieving web pages, creating reports, extracting data, or filling out forms.

History of origins RPA

Process automation has long been a topic of discussion in the business world as a way to drive economic growth and make processes more efficient. The term Robotic Process Automation was coined by Phil Fersht, founder and analyst at HFS Research, in 2012. 

The idea of Robotic Process Automation is based on industrial robots, which are mainly used in manufacturing and save more time than humans. From this, the idea of RPA emerged, whereby digital robots are used here. These so-called bots perform their assigned process steps on their own according to instructions and are empowered to operate programs independently. The field of application ranges from simple manual tasks to the operation of complex software. 

In the early 2000s, RPA was first used for social media posts and interactive voice response (IVR). However, RPA's notable breakthrough occurred in test automation for software quality assurance. By 2018, the growth of the technology stagnated until the digital transformation of enterprises and the improvement of RPA platforms. Currently, the technology around RPA is one of the fastest growing classes of process automation.

How does RPA work?

Robotic Process Automation is one of the most popular computer-based processes due to its intuitive usability. This contrasts with programming interfaces (APIs) or low-code development, for example, which require additional expert knowledge and lack intuitiveness.

In practice, the recording of clicks or keystrokes serves as the basis for bots. From this, workflows can be created that can be used for automation at a later time. If there are problems with an app, for example, the bot can switch on, retrace the steps and make fine adjustments. Complex RPA tools also make use of machine vision. This allows symbols or layout to be interpreted and adjustments made if necessary. 

RPA tools have the ability to create hybrid RPA bots that can record a workflow and automate it afterwards. Other tools use process mining or task mining tools to capture business process workflows that later serve as blueprints for RPA automations.

Linking to AI modules is also theoretically possible. This allows RPA tools to have capabilities such as natural language understanding (NLU), machine vision or via decision engines. This results in Intelligent Process Automation (IPA), which can be used within cognitive automation modules.

Fully Automated and Partially Automated Processes

Robotic Process Automation distinguishes between two scenarios: Full Automation and Partial Automation. The idea behind RPA is to reduce or minimize human interaction with the processes and let the bots perform the process as much as possible autonomously. 

Fully automated processes are characterized by the software bot working completely autonomously, without human intervention. Human intervention is only necessary in exceptional cases. As a rule, the bot reacts to a defined trigger (e.g. arrival of a mail with a certain content) in order to perform defined activities. It does this even if no "human employee" is logged into the system. Full automation is used in back-office activities and supports various tasks such as collecting, sorting or analyzing different data within a company. 

Partially automated processes deal with an interaction between bot and human. Here, the software robot acts as a digital assistant that supports the employee by performing standardized tasks. The actions of the bot are initiated by predefined events, commands or actions of the employee. This type of automation supports the employee in that he or she can focus on analytical tasks or possible process gaps and perform qualitative work there. The range of tasks includes database queries, summarizing information or filling out forms. 

In principle, full automation aims at a complete reduction or minimization of human contact with the process. In contrast, partial automation focuses on collaboration and support between humans and the bot. 

Areas of application - use of RPA

RPA is preferably used for processes that are easy to automate and whose automation at the same time brings a high benefit. Processes with enormous benefits through automation are characterized in particular by a large savings potential of costs and/or a quality improvement. 

If a process is characterized by a high number of repetitive activities and manual time expenditure, there is a great opportunity to achieve cost savings through RPA. Quality improvement can be achieved specifically in processes that have some form of high manual effort, long cycle times and long idle times. 

Industries that have a high number of repetitive activities prefer to take advantage of Robotic Process Automation. These include healthcare, insurance, finance, telecommunications, transportation and logistics, and the energy industry.

Healthcare

In the context of healthcare, primarily billing and administrative processes are automated, creating more time for physicians to spend with their patients. It also ensures quality of care through more efficient analysis of patient data. 

Insurance

RPA is primarily used in insurance companies for clearly structured processes. These include sending insurance confirmations, online new registrations, address changes, calculating premiums, closing contracts or creating standing orders.

Finance

The financial sector, like the healthcare sector, is taking advantage of RPA. Preference is given to efficiently maintaining master data, handling financial processes, creating invoices and notices. This automation allows employees to focus on new, regulatory tasks.

Telecommunications

Telecommunications companies are focusing their RPA efforts on automating customer service. Processes suitable for this include customer inquiries, automated fault reports, orders or inquiries from new customers. RPA in this area again leads to a reduction in the workload for customers and, at the same time, to improved customer care.

Transportation & Logistics

In the area of transportation and logistics, Robotic Process Automation can improve both the efficiency of operations and its economies of scale. Back-office activities, such as inventory planning, order entry, customer data maintenance, are the target of automation. There is also the opportunity to automate and thereby facilitate access to billing companies and logistics partners.

Energy industry

The energy industry is automating the processing of meter readings, adjustments to tariffs, receipts of payments and new customer intake. Robotic Process Automation leads to more transparency and enables the processing of higher volumes.

Tasks and application examples for Robotic Process Automation

Robotic Process Automation is typically used for highly repetitive tasks, such as querying customer data, maintaining and managing invoices and customer data, or updating status messages. In principle, many routine tasks are ideally automated and processed by bots. A selection of classic RPA tasks is as follows:

• Structure, move, copy and paste data,
• Perform IF-THEN commands,
• Fill out forms,
• Perform calculations,
• Reading files from different systems,
• Read and recognize structured documents,
• Create reports,
• Opening, forwarding and sorting emails, and forwarding them,
• Accessing websites and social media,
• Maintaining data in ERP and CRM systems,
• Dispatching and ticket processing,
• Processing data from the Internet.

In enterprises, RPA is gaining traction for various applications. Repetitive work steps are performed wherever employees transfer or convert data in a standardized manner. In addition, Robotic Process Automation can be used to create previously unconnected interfaces and thus transfer data automatically. Reports are built in a user-friendly way by automatically searching and analyzing diverse data. 

Furthermore, RPA enables automated conversion from an "old" to a "new" forma after the introduction of new systems. Robotic Process Automation is perfect in the application to review large amounts of data. This allows data sets to be examined for grievances, analyzed, corrected if necessary, or forwarded to employees.

Process automation also makes it easier to search for and, if necessary, delete sensitive data while adhering to compliance requirements. RPA is often used in use cases for ad hoc queries. This use case is usually found with CC agents who answer queries in predefined systems.

Distinction between RPA and traditional process automation (BPA).

Traditional process automation is usually referred to as Business Process Automation (BPA). It is classically an automated outsourcing of business processes. 

Basically, the stated goal is to reduce human resources, which results in cost savings. BPA focuses on restructuring a company's core tasks so that day-to-day business can be conducted more efficiently. Business Process Automation makes every effort to speed up processes and reduce execution time. The concrete analysis of processes and the time invested in them provides long-term added value for companies. As a result, workflows can be built that promote effective and efficient work. 

BPA and RPA differ in that BPA, in its definition, focuses on optimizing existing processes. Processes that do not work or are slow are to be restarted and made more efficient. RPA, on the other hand, deals with the programming of a software robot (bot). This acts within the process as a digital collaborator and ensures an accelerated and cost-efficient throughput process. 

Compared to BPA, RPA does not attempt to automate faulty processes, but rather to reduce manual activities and make general work more efficient. Companies that are not planning to restructure their processes should rather look into RPA. 

Basically, internal communication promotes the success of Robotic Process Automation, as it can help employees understand the benefits of such an installation. This prevents a negative attitude towards the topic and supports a faster adaptation of the technology within the company. 

Goals of Robotic Process Automation

The goals for implementing Robotic Process Automation are basically the same as for using robots in production. The essential four points are quality (process and work results), productivity (performance), flexibility (scalability and capacity) and safety (compliance).

The use of RPA and the associated use of bots eliminates potential sources of human error. This guarantees and ensures consistent, reproducible quality of processes and work results. 

Compared to humans, bots can solve standardized tasks faster and more carefully, which increases productivity. The optimized processing speed and, above all, the permanent availability of the bots significantly reduce the reaction, throughput and processing time of work tasks and thus increase capacity. With the help of RPA, this can be adapted to the changed conditions even in weak periods. 

Robotic Process Automation pursues the goal of reducing monotonous activities for humans. It also makes it easier to comply with compliance and security regulations when processing information and data.

In Deloitte's 2018 "Global Outsourcing Survey," the top five goals of more than 500 U.S. managers are stated in terms of implementing RPA. Fully 62% of respondents hope to improve performance, while 59% expect RPA to improve speed. Roughly half of respondents hope to reduce errors (53%), improve streamlining of existing processes (52%) and gain access to new technologies (51%). 

Advantages and disadvantages (challenges) of RPA

Advantages of RPA

There are numerous and versatile benefits to implementing RPA in everyday business:

• Increased efficiency & cost savings: the benefit of increased efficiency is based on streamlining workflows and the resulting reduced response time. Processes are executed faster, increasing productivity and reducing costs.
• Data quality improvement: Data quality improvement is enabled by the given transparency and consistency that bots are able to maintain when processing data sets. As a result, work steps are stored and logged to comply with governance regulations.
• Error reduction: The introduction of RPA and the resulting implementation of service robots ensures compliance with regulations and reduces human errors. This results in an increased level of compliance and a reduction in fraud risks. 
• Improved customer service: companies' customer service experiences a higher reputation, as employees have more capacity to actually interact with customers through the use of RPA.
• Increased employee satisfaction: Software bots relieve employees of time-consuming, repetitive tasks. As a result, they have more time to engage in more intensive customer interactions and handle strategically valuable tasks. The result is an increased commitment to the company and a feeling of increased appreciation.
• Ease of integration: departments are able to implement RPA on their own, as no new software is required. Additionally, no special programming skills are required, making RPA very easy to integrate into the system landscape. 
• Better scalability & expandability: automation through RPA is highly scalable and the volume of work required can be adjusted as needed. Furthermore, there is a chance that you can combine Robotic Process Automation with AI, which allows you to automate non-standard processes.

Disadvantages of RPA

There are a significant number of benefits associated with Robotic Process Automation, yet there are also certain known challenges and drawbacks. 

• Complex, unstructured processes: First, RPA is less suitable for complex, unstructured processes. These are difficult to map with rules and steps and thus cannot be combined with RPA. 
• Reconfiguration of bots: The software robots sometimes have to be reconfigured as soon as there is a change in the system landscape used. Therefore, RPA sometimes proves to be inflexible. Continuous monitoring and, if necessary, manual adjustment of the bots are necessary.
• Ambiguous decision situations: Robots working with IF-THEN commands is advantageous for linear processes, but should an ambiguous decision situation arise, dubious decisions may result. Are processes not sufficiently recorded or exceptions not properly defined to make the right decision. This makes RPA useful for simple criteria that have a linear relationship. However, problems arise for more complex situations.

RPA Software & Tools

Automation Anywhere

Automation Anywhere is one of the leading RPA software providers and is particularly suitable for medium to large companies. The software solution offers all important RPA functions as well as an on-premise and cloud service. 

The target audience for this solution is companies in the healthcare, pharmaceutical and financial industries. With Automation Anywhere, companies can record user interactions and convert them into workflows. Furthermore, the RPA software impresses with a user-friendly drag-and-drop approach, real-time reports and in-depth analytics.

Automation Anywhere is touted as the most intuitive solution on the market. There are over 500 pre-configured bots available. The software is also considered very secure. Additionally, customers are supported in configuring software robots in the existing ecosystem (A+). 

To the Automation Anywhere

Blue Prism

Blue Prism is considered one of the pioneers in the field of RPA solutions. The company is considered one of the most secure and trusted solutions on the market. Blue Prism's target audience is the public sector and large corporations. 

Blue Prism provides all core RPA functions and supports all types of applications and platforms. Users are provided with thorough monitoring protocols and the solution promotes the use of internal and external encryption and decryption keys. Compared to other solutions, this solution requires a certain level of programming knowledge despite all its ease of use. Medium to large enterprises are perfectly suited for this type of RPA solution. 

Meanwhile, no records of processes can be made. Workflows must therefore be recorded independently. The advantages of these solutions mainly represent security, encryption and stability.

Go to Blue Prism

Microsoft Power Automate

Microsoft Power Automate is part of the Microsoft Power platform and helps companies with business intelligence reporting, virtual agents and app creation. This solution predominantly supports and focuses on automating various common processes in Windows 10. Moreover, Microsoft Power Automate can be deployed across the enterprise and comprehensively.

The user interface is easy to use and allows users to track workflows and turn them into an automated routine that can be modified. A distinction is made between attended and unattended processes. Power Advisor, an additional tool, ensures that performance statistics are collected and potential bottlenecks are identified.

To Microsoft Power Automate

UIPath

UIPath is considered one of the most well-known RPA providers on the market. This software solution is suitable for companies regardless of size to automate processes of any kind. 

The solution has a free and a paid version. The free version allows companies to automate standardized processes. The paid solution includes additional cognitive functions that cover an extended range of work. 

All in all, UiPath convinces with intuitive operability through drag-and-drop. Robots can be trained quickly and easily thanks to the excellent structuring. Third-party providers are able to develop their own components and make them available through the shared service offering. The community with more than 300,000 members and the ease of use makes UIPath one of the leading providers for SAP processes. 

To UIPath

Conclusion and relation to clous GmbH

Robotic Process Automation is suitable as a fantastic solution to automate repetitive tasks and processes and perform them faster and more efficiently. 

RPA as a technology is the simplest and most cost-effective level of automation and is suitable for IT-supported business processes that are repetitive and rule-based. Furthermore, the data used must be structured. The benefits of using it range from a reduction in costs, an increase in speed to an increase in quality. 

However, as soon as the processes become more complex and the data is unstructured, RPA reaches its limits. This is often the case in engineering, which is why RPA is not yet widely used in this area. 

We at clous extend the scope of RPA by the cognitive aspect. This is introduced either by humans or on the basis of machine learning. Thus, clous is able to automate even complex processes. These include feasibility analyses, calculations, CAD designs and the creation of 2D derivations.

The business benefit of software-based automations depends primarily on the number of suitable processes of a company. Here, a structured analysis with suitable parameters (e.g. rule-based, volume, susceptibility to human error, etc.) is required to identify the processes for which implementation is worthwhile.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about Robotic Process Automation 

What is RPA?

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a software solution that automates back and front office processes. In the process, so-called software robots (bots) carry out the automated processes. The bots imitate human interaction with work steps, computers, applications and processes and basically act as an optimized workforce for repetitive and standardized activities.

How does Robotic Process Automation work?

RPA mimics human work behavior. Bots take over tasks that were previously performed by employees. Most of these are routine tasks such as filling out forms. This allows employees to concentrate on more strategically important, qualitative activities.

Where is RPA used?

Robotic Process Automation is basically used for different tasks. In particular, these are repetitive, standardized activities, such as processing orders or customer inquiries, data transfers, changes to master data in payroll accounting or general data maintenance. RPA is used in industries such as finance, healthcare, administration & logistics or telecommunications.

What are RPA bots?

RPA bots or so-called software bots are "digital employees" in the form of software. They perform activities that are normally performed by humans. These RPA bots operate in both the front and back office, supporting employees in their day-to-day business and relieving them of less demanding tasks.