Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

How Automating Business Processes Can Transform Your Business

Business is increasingly relying on robotic applications to stay productive and grow in profitability. RPA is now squarely situated as part of the critical enterprise network infrastructure. As the workforce and consumers become more agile in where they transact, automated systems are filling the gap, delighting buyers, and allowing disciplinary experts to focus on their strong suits.

What is RPA?

Robotic process automation (RPA) is a fast-emerging technology. With RPA, you can easily build, manage, and deploy robotic processes that replicate human tasks. These responsibilities can be with software, digital operating systems, and more. Automated robotic software can complete a wide range of functions. These include everything from navigating systems, identifying data, extracting data, completing keystrokes, and much more.

RPA Bots

Automation provides the most intuitive and robust solutions for companies looking to streamline complex processes without the need for an expert. Enterprise-grade technology can get you what you are looking for quickly and effectively.

RPA bots are specific programs you can use to complete digital work. These applications are much more sophisticated than simple chatbots. They're a digital workforce that can accurately replicate the processes done by humans, and there are different RPA bots specialized for different processes. Some of these include:

• Discovery Bot: These bots can fast-track company automation goals with automatic process discovery capabilities.


• Insight Bot: These bots can deliver real-time market insights and analytics throughout every business level to help forecast for the future.


• IQ Bot: Through the power of AI, these bots can learn on their own and help transform unstructured data into usable insights.

Through an automatic anywhere robotic interface (AARI), you can scale your automation workforce with ease. Not to mention, with an RPA workspace, you get field-tested bots that are ready to deploy immediately.

Digital Workers

Another area commonly implemented in a digital workforce is digital workers. Digital workers are a combination of intelligent automation and RPA. Typically in the form of an automated team member, they can understand human intent, respond to questions, and take action when needed. Digital workers enable humans to have more authority and control while providing an enhanced experience.

Since digital workers are software-based labor, they can independently complete consequential pieces of a business's processes. They can use their machine learning capabilities to automate tasks within a certain workflow. For instance, they can automate digital accounts payable, billings, customer service, etc. Because digital workers automate these areas, companies can allocate their human workforce to more strategic tasks.

RPA Benefits

RPA is applicable and can provide value for virtually every industry. However, it is essential that businesses know just how RPA can improve their departments. Some of the RPA benefits include:

Increased Productivity

One of the greatest advantages of automated robotic software is it can do it faster and more accurately than humans. Additionally, unlike people, these systems can work around the clock, continuously completing tasks without stopping. Generally speaking, these robots specialize in one specific function. For instance, a financial RPA bot can streamline a monthly earning report in a matter of days, if not hours.

Now, these bots will not replace your current workforce. However, it can make your workers more productive, which will help lower operational costs and increase profitability. Likewise, it will make the completion of daily tasks much easier.

Better Accuracy

Since humans are imperfect, we make mistakes. There's no denying that mistakes happen in the workplace, which is something we must all accept. However, with RPA, you can greatly increase workplace accuracy. Now, an RPA will not erase human mistakes altogether, but it can significantly reduce processing errors. When you properly optimize your RPA, you do not need to worry about it making frequent mistakes.

Enhanced Analytics

RPA technology is incredible at gathering data and information that businesses can use for analytical purposes. The software can accurately examine work patterns, sales cycles, processing errors, expectations, among many other areas.

The insights obtained from these analytics can benefit an organization in a multitude of ways. For instance, it helps with the decision-making process, especially for higher managerial and executive positions on both the micro and macro level. It can also improve company initiatives and help locate gaps in the current processes that businesses could enhance.

Boosted Scalability Options

If your business is growing rapidly, you need automation software that can scale to your growth potential. RPA provides flexible and adaptable scalability options that can meet changes in demand. You can increase the type and number of tasks for your RPA software at any given time. This gives you the most amount of versatility with your RPA. Because a robotic workforce can quickly adjust to time and task-specific requirements, even smaller organizations can manage the unpredictability of evolving markets.

Improved Customer Service

Providing high-quality customer service is a growing need for many companies in today's business environment. Many consumers are often disheartened by companies with poor customer service. With RPA, the software can take over the more dull and repetitive tasks. Therefore, the human workers can be more focused on direct customer interactions and customer care.

Companies can better address customer needs with their human workers while automating other processes with RPA bots. Additionally, the RPA software can utilize those automatically generated reports to provide consumer insights to help improve customer service even further.

RPA Solutions Per Industry

As stated previously, virtually all industries can implement RPA process automation to help streamline their processes. Here are just a few industries that use automation software and how it helps their business.

RPA in Insurance

The insurance industry is ripe with repetitive and tedious tasks. Fortunately, RPA can empower insurance companies to optimize their administrative, transactional, and other easily automated tasks. By implementing RPA in insurance, companies can minimize costs and adjust their human workforce to focus less on mundane tasks. Some specific areas RPA can address for insurance companies include:

• Claims Processing: Most insurance companies must process claims filed by insured members. With RPA, insurance providers can process these claims in their systems automatically.


• Underwriting Processing: All insurance companies must maintain personal information from customers who request details about insurance products through underwriting records. RPA can take over the entire process of converting a potential prospect into an actual customer.


• Policy Administration and Servicing: During the insurance policy lifecycle, the needs of insurers change over time, which RPA bots can address as they arise.


• Premium Renewals: Every so often, insurers must renew their premiums. With RPA, clients can renew their premiums anytime they want.

RPA in Accounting

In recent years, RPA has received increased attention in the accounting industry. They are particularly popular taxation, assurance, and advisory parts of the industry. Some areas in accounting that RPA can help address include:

• Auditing: Historically, auditing was an extensive process that required manual interaction. However, today, new software has transformed the once cumbersome process into an automated affair. This helps improve business processes and services provided.


• Accounts Payable: Like auditing, processing accounts payable is a manually intensive ordeal. But now, RPA bots can manage invoices automatically, making the entire process much more straightforward.


• Accounts Receivable: The importance of account receivable cannot be understated. It directly impacts your company's cash flow. RPA can handle your accounts receivable quickly and accurately. This ensures there are not any cash gaps in your financial reporting.

RPA in Financial Services

Given the immense amount of low complexity processes, finance is another great industry for RPA. To help streamline processes, RPA can assist in these areas:

• Opening and Closing Accounts: Banks must certify a customer's information to adhere to compliance standards. RPA can handle the validation process, such as credit check, SSN validity, date of birth, etc. Furthermore, it can also handle the closing of accounts too.


• Credit Card Applications: RPA bots can handle the initiating process of a credit card application. The automation can gather all the required documentation, conduct the necessary credit and background checks, and decide whether a person is eligible for a credit card.


• Exception Processing: Exceptions in both finance and accounting are defined with a specific set of rules. RPA can handle the exception process.


• Account Reconciliation: Statement reconciliation is a common request by individuals. RPA can fully replace humans for this type of process.

RPA in Government

The public sector encompasses a large aspect of daily life. From public roads to education and much more, the public sector is there to help the people. Unfortunately, there is a lot of bureaucracy and red tape that slows down the process in the public sector. However, RPA can make these processes less tedious. Some areas RPA can address include:

• Form Processing: Local government services often allow residents to fill out forms online via web portals to apply for various civil services, such as permits, licenses, parking passes, etc. These processes are highly standardized, which RPA can cover.


• HR Tasks: Some HR tasks can be automated, including compliance, payroll, and data management. This frees governmental HR representatives to focus on other value-adding tasks.


• Transactions and Validation: Processing transactions is crucial for the public sector. RPA can take the headache of processing the vast amount of transactions by automating the entire process.

RPA in Healthcare

When working in the administrative side of a healthcare provider, you are dealing with a ton of patient information, paperwork, etc. Not to mention, you are in constant contact with insurance providers to ensure patients are covered. To help alleviate some of the day-to-day administrative burden in healthcare, RPA can help with the following:

• Patient Registration: Hospitals deal with a huge number of patients each day for many different medical issues. Healthcare providers can not waste precious time tracking patient registrations. That is why many use RPA to automate the process.


• Patient Confidentiality: Due to HIPAA laws, keeping sensitive patient information private is essential. All patient information entered through automated software is completely confidential and secure.


• Better Care Cycles: Because RPA bots are great at analyzing large amounts of data, they can provide accurate insights that help doctors and nurses make better decisions when it comes to patient care.

RPA in IT

According to a report conducted by Computer Weekly, IT members spend 30% of their time managing basic tasks. It is far more beneficial for IT departments if their highly skilled workers are focused on more important matters, which is why many rely on RPA bots to handle the mundane work. These include:

• Application Integration: Application integrations let two or more software programs communicate with each other. IT departments can use an automated bot to perform these tasks between programs, such as transfer data, images, text, etc.


• Data Migration: For data migration, all the data and images from an old software must be transferred to a new system. RPA bots can export, manipulate, and import all that inventoried data seamlessly.


• Downloading and Uploading: IT departments often spend a lot of time downloading and uploading different files, applications, etc. Instead of having a representative manually access these files to download, RPA bots can do it for them.

RPA Services

There are a wide array of services robotic process automation can provide. Each service is specialized in a different function to provide an optimized solution. Businesses can choose which services they want that best fit their business needs and goals, providing optimal flexibility for executives. The services RPA covers include:

• Scalability: Streamline data scalability through automatic integration of Bots and AI.


• Accuracy: Automate manual and repetitive tasks


• Efficiency: RPA provides maximized 24/7 output.


• Advanced Analytics: Collect and analyze real-time data processes to streamline


• Cost Savings: Reallocate resources to more valuable areas


• Low-Risk: Complete projects and tasks quickly without interfering with systems already in place

RPA Projects

The time savings and consistency offered by automated RPA projects fuel business reliance upon these systems. Well-known projects include:

• Data entry and migration


• Invoice processing


• Customer support emails


• Online receipts


• And many more

Begin with simpler projects and then expand as your business grows.

RPA Lifecycle

No matter the industry or need, RPA development follows a specific lifecycle. It includes six distinct stages, which are the following:

1. Identification: First, developers must identify a business process for RPA development.


2. Discovery: Next, they conduct an analysis to determine the requirements for a client's processes.


3. Design: Once the analysis is complete, they design a flowchart to better grasp the flow of the process.


4. Development: In the development stage, developers create codes and automated scripts to address the process.


5. Testing: Post-development, developers test their new automation software.


6. Implementation: If the testing phase appears to work as intended, they can then implement the RPA for real-world use.

Implementation Strategy

RPA is an incredibly useful transformation tool that can improve large aspects of a business. However, businesses also have to ideate and execute an effective implementation strategy to reap the most benefits. There needs to be strong communication between managers and employees during each phase of the process to ensure a smooth transition.

All of your departments, especially IT, must understand the new technology being implemented and how it will impact the day-to-day workflow. The key to success for implementation strategy is choosing the right project team leaders. These individuals are people who understand the technology, know how it works, and, most importantly, can explain the process to others effectively. They must be able to educate team members about the pros/cons, risks, and safety controls with RPA.

Other tips include having a detailed plan throughout each phase of the RPA lifecycle. You want to stick to your plan as closely as possible. Slight deviations are expected. But if your managers and team members are committed to the plan, implementation will happen much quicker. The most important aspect of your implementation strategy is to have strong and sustained leadership throughout the process.

RPA Best Practices

Although the implementation expectation is different for each company, there are a few best practices businesses can follow. Here is a shortlist of best practices that your business should apply when implementing robotic process automation:

• Break Down Processes Into Workflows: Business processes can be complex, but when you break them down through a series of steps, it is much easier to understand the process as a whole.


• Establish a Framework: Establishing a framework helps managers and team members understand the specific goals and expectations from automation.


• Save Reusable Components: Common information, like emails, logins, passwords, etc., must be shareable through automation. This creates a library of reusable information that isn't lost during the process.


• Construct Error Handling: Errors throughout the automation process can bring it to a standstill. To prevent slowdowns and stoppages, you need a failsafe error handling strategy that addresses different error scenarios that can occur.

RPA Case Studies

1. RPA in Healthcare: RPA Software Helps Cancer Patients Get Faster and More Tailored Treatment

Healthcare prices have been rising dramatically since the 2000s. The surge in prices has put a strain on both the healthcare and the insurance industries. For a lot of patients, they would have to wait weeks for approval for even basic treatments.

However, Oncology Analytics, launched in 2008, used RPA to reduce the costs for cancer treatment and improve the quality of care. They work with both healthcare providers and physicians to provide tailored solutions for a patient's care that adhere to the newest protocols.

2. RPA in Business: How RPA Helped a Midsized Company Modernize and Optimize for the Future

One of the most difficult challenges that midsized companies face is sustaining continual growth. The difficulty of persistent growth can be stressful for managers, team members, and other personnel.

One Florida company looking for a competitive edge turned to automation. They needed a comprehensive digital transformation that would modernize their operations and set them up for future success. RPA rebuilt their entire operations from the ground up, and now the company is more confident to handle the constantly changing markets of the future.

Robotic Process Automation FAQs

1. Is RPA affordable?

The price of RPA depends on the task. RPA is best for repetitive labor-intensive tasks. When considering the price tag, you must also consider the cost-saving benefits from process automation.

2. How long does it take to fully implement a robotic system?

The length depends on several factors, such as the number of tasks, size of the company, production goals, etc. Simple projects can take a few weeks, while larger ones can take a couple of months. That is why it is essential to have an effective implementation strategy in place.

3. Will RPA grow with my business?

RPA is 100% scalable. It grows as your business grows! Not to mention, AI and machine learning technologies allow businesses to grow faster now than ever before.

4. Is RPA difficult to use?

RPA software is generally user-friendly and relatively intuitive. However, to ensure everybody understands how to operate RPA software, there should be company-wide training during the implementation process.

5. Is RPA secure?

RPA security depends on the security platform and provider you use. Regardless of RPA, cybersecurity should already be a top priority for your business.

6. Do you need the Cloud?

Having the cloud isn't a must. However, it does remove some barriers, makes the transition process easier, and helps ensure project continuity.

7. How has RPA evolved?

In the beginning, only large companies had access to RPA. Now, the process has become affordable to smaller and medium-sized businesses and has become the mainstream for digital transformation.

8. What is the future of RPA?

RPA is constantly expanding and evolving. RPA has already defined a new era of work. Its impact will be present for generations to come. Many tech forecasters believe the next stage for RPA is hyper-automation.