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If talented employees at your organization frequently lose time to repetitive tasks, you've likely thought about integrating automation solutions. But can these tools really live up to the claims of streamlined work, error reduction, and better business outcomes?
Yes. Automation tools can transform an organization when implemented correctly. AI-driven and robotic process automations (RPA) can both improve upon already intelligent workflows, freeing up your talented team members' time and improving the pace and quality of your business processes.
Discover how RPA works, how to implement it correctly, and how to leverage AI tools to foster a smooth RPA integration. Explore real-life use cases that demonstrate the potential of successful, data-informed automations.
What is RPA and what does it automate?
RPA stands for robotic process automation and refers to using robots (that is, software bots) to complete routine, manual tasks. In the past, these tools required extensive, costly hardware, software, and infrastructure. But contemporary cloud-based RPA tools (known as RPA as a Service or RPAaaS), present a lightweight, low-code, affordable way to automate routine back-office or customer service tasks such as:
- Invoice matching: RPA bots scan and extract information from invoices, comparing it against accounting system data to identify potential inconsistencies.
- Data extraction and entry: RPA software can mimic human actions, gathering data from different locations and entering it into fields in programs. It can even sign in to and navigate platforms on its own.
- Report generation: Software bots are able to compile information and format it into reports, validating for accuracy.
- User provisioning: RPA software can create, manage, and delete user accounts by interacting with systems as if it were a human administrator.
- Ticket triage and updates: The RPA tool reads and categorizes incoming support messages, assigning them a priority level and channeling them to the correct department or agent.
Key benefits and challenges of RPA service offerings
Robotic process automation can streamline work, but it's not an end-all solution for eliminating redundant human labor, either. Learn more about RPA's possibilities and limitations, and maximize its potential by using it where it can really make a difference.
Benefits of RPA
- Improved efficiency: With bots automating routine tasks, humans can invest more time in work that requires their expertise and creativity, leading to the creation of more innovative products and stronger organizational results. Plus, RPA software bots perform busy work faster than humans ever did, cutting down process times. And since RPA tools can crunch large amounts of data fast, they provide business leaders with a wealth of codified, real-time information they can use to make informed decisions.
- Faster setup and deployment: RPA tools integrate with an organization's existing platforms, meaning they're virtually ready-to-use, requiring little to no pre-implementation work. In addition, RPA software rarely requires customization to function correctly, meaning companies can use it "out of the box." Other enterprise automation tools may take longer to integrate, delaying the positive outcomes for business processes.
- Lower upfront cost, pay-as-you-go pricing: Today's cloud-based RPA as a Service tools are more economical than their clunkier predecessors and often run on budget-friendly pay-as-you-go models, in which organizations are only billed for the services they use. For example, the RPA tool may track how many bots were deployed or the time an organization spent using the software to determine the amount owed.
Challenges of RPA
- Data privacy concerns for third-party clouds: While RPA data is governed by strict processing laws, like HIPPA, winning the buy-in of cautious team members may be difficult. They might feel skeptical about using a cloud-based tool that stores sensitive data "elsewhere"—in a place they can't visualize or access. Plus, RPA software integrates with other programs, so the security of the automated work it performs with them depends heavily on the safety protocols of those third-party platforms. This being said, RPA software is designed to protect information, preventing unauthorized access with tight login controls and security features like data masking.
- Reduced control and customization: "Out-of-the-box" efficiency can be a perk, but it also presents a limitation: Companies can't modify the RPA tool to automate more complex or nuanced tasks than the ones it's built to perform. RPA software isn't intended for the kind of generative or "subjective" work that humans and advanced AI tools do well.
- Risk of automating bad processes: RPA software follows the rules it's given, and this can present issues if trying to automate broken underlying processes, as the tool will continue to replicate those inefficient flows. And if teams attempt to improve those processes, the bot may become "confused," unable to continue participating in workflows until reconfigured. While this problem may be less present with today's more agile RPAaaS tools, it continues to present headaches. Organizations can use Scribe Optimize to identify and improve dysfunctional underlying workflows before integrating automation into them.
Real-life use cases for RPA
Virtually any industry can benefit from intelligent automation solutions—especially those with high-volume workflows containing repetitive, human-driven tasks. The following use cases demonstrate the positive potential of RPA tools across diverse departments.
- Finance and accounting: RPA software generates, distributes, and processes invoices and triggers payments, checking for inconsistencies. These tools also automate data aggregation for financial reporting.
- Insurance: RPA tools process claims, perform data entry and extraction, and calculate settlements. This software can also automate processes like document creation and risk assessment.
- Retail and ecommerce: RPA software automates inventory management, order processing, sales data collection, and report generation. It also creates competitor cost comparisons that business leaders can leverage to make data-backed pricing decisions.
- IT: RPA tools streamline routine IT tasks, like data entry, account management, and the processing or categorization of service tickets.
- Manufacturing: RPA software tracks inventory, automates processes related to invoicing and order processing, and improves supply-chain management with performance monitoring and triggered messaging with providers.
How Scribe Optimize maximizes the impact of RPA
One of the primary drawbacks of RPA is that it can lock in suboptimal workflows, perpetuating slow, resource-draining work.
Scribe Optimize provides visibility into where automation will have the greatest impact. It eradicates bottlenecks and redundancies in current processes, using the power of AI and machine learning to generate iterative, intelligent insights and roadmaps for improvements. With the greatest opportunities identified and more efficient underlying processes, your organization can maximize the potential of automation tools like RPA.
Scribe, backed by Workflow AI, helps teams make smarter RPA decisions with:
- Automatic workflow capture: Scribe continually gathers data on workflows, mapping how work really happens at your organization so you don't have to base decisions on how you think tasks get done.
- AI-generated recommendations: Scribe Optimize leverages AI to analyze inefficiencies in current business processes and workflows, recommending data-backed improvements and opportunities for automations, like RPA.
- Continuous improvement loops: Scribe Optimize functions iteratively, constantly reviewing the efficiency of both old and new workflows. The tool identifies inefficiencies and presents real-time data and suggestions for process optimizations that drive positive change.
Maximize your ROI with successful automations
Robotic process automation allows companies to automate repetitive tasks, more efficiently completing routine work without wasting talented team members' time. Ensure a successful RPA integration by spotting inefficiencies in current workflows and rectifying them, instead of training automation software to repeat broken processes.
Scribe Optimize uses the power of AI to identify hidden areas of opportunity and suggest workflow improvements that ready your business for the seamless, beneficial adoption of RPA tools.
FAQs
What's the difference between RPA and BPA?
RPA refers to robotic process automation, a software-driven initiative that streamlines repetitive tasks, and BPA stands for business process automation, a comprehensive restructuring of operational workflows, with an eye for efficiency.
How is RPA as a Service different from traditional RPA?
RPA as a Service is a subscription-based, cloud-based automation tool that allows companies to improve certain processes (and pay only for the services they use), without completely overhauling their workflows or infrastructure. Traditional RPA is a legacy system: an on-site automation solution often requiring special hardware and software, implying more expensive and time-intensive integrations.
How do you decide which processes to automate first?
Use Scribe Optimize to identify high-priority workflows that aren't running at their best. While team members may have valuable first-hand experience on process inefficiencies, AI-driven software can confirm the existence of these pressing issues and uncover hidden ones to help you triage what to automate first.
How can workflow visibility improve RPA outcomes?
When you visualize how work actually happens at your organization, you make more intelligent decisions for process automations. And by correcting inefficiencies in existing workflows, you ensure more successful RPA implementations and better business outcomes as a result.
How does Scribe Optimize support RPA implementation services?
Just like humans, robots can't do their best work without proper context. Use Scribe Optimize to determine improvement opportunities and recommend process automations that RPA tools can execute. Optimize will also help you pinpoint faulty underlying workflows that stagnate RPA's potential, giving you a chance to correct issues before implementing RPA.
