What is RPA?

RPA is short for Robotic Process Automation. RPA is the automation of repetitive, high-volume, manual processes using software robots that mimic human actions. Think of an assembly machine that does the exact same 5-6 steps per day over and over and over again. Now replace the physical machine with a virtual software machine and BOOM, you have RPA!

What are the benefits of RPA?

Fortune 500 companies are using RPA as a way to increase efficiency, improve productivity, and minimize costs. RPA also decreases the likelihood of human error during data entry and improves employee morale by removing the need for them to do boring monotonous tasks on a daily basis.

Where is RPA useful?

RPA is best reserved for business processes that:

• are highly transactional
• have limited business rules
• are time consuming
• have a high volume
• are standardized and highly repeatable
• are easy to scale

Where is RPA a headache?

Changing interfaces

Most RPA software requires a developer to specify which UI element they want to interact with. If a textbox within an application was in the upper right hand corner when the developer initially built the bot then the bot will continue to look in that area for the textbox.

This is all fine and dandy assuming the UI of the application never changes. However, if the application has an update that makes a change to the UI and that text box is now in the lower left hand corner of the screen the bot may not be able to reconcile this change without failing and throwing an error. Some bots are built in a way that makes them robust enough to notice this change and still work, but most are not.

Bots need management, maintenance, and security

Building and implementing lots of bots into a production environment often requires integration of different types of technology which can be a headache for IT. You are adding another layer of complexity to your architecture, so IT has to spend time making sure your RPA deployment is sound and working as it should.

Fear of the unknown

Though RPA is meant to take away the boring and repetitive part of our workload, some are afraid it will take their job away completely. This fear turns out to be invalid.

“Every time there is a technology revolution, people fear they are going to lose their jobs, and that is not the case. History has shown that just the opposite happens. Some jobs go away, but far more jobs are created.” Denise Leaser, president of GreatBizTools

We can look at the advent of the PC as an example. It certainly changed and even eliminated jobs, but it created many more opportunities: McKinsey estimates that the PC has enabled the creation of 15.8 million jobs in the U.S. since 1980. That’s the net, meaning it also takes into account the number of jobs that were eliminated by the PC. Though this item is not particularly a fault of RPA technology itself is still very much a hurdle you should expect to face when rolling out an RPA deployment plan across multiple business units.

Case study of RPA in the marketplace

Still intrigued and want to know more? Well let’s look at a real life case study where RPA had massive benefits at the University of Melbourne.

About

The University of Melbourne is one of Australia’s oldest and most reputable institutions. The university’s main campus enrolls nearly 50,000 students in law, engineering, arts, media, business, and economics. The university partners with leading institutes and research centers and has been recognized as one of the world’s top 50 universities.

Challenge

The university’s student admissions team was overwhelmed with back-end approvals that involved manual data entry. The downloading of individual attachments and consolidation of student results limited the capacity of staff to tend to more important aspects of the admissions process. The university’s service improvement team was tasked with finding a solution that both reduced duplication and delays and enabled the student admission team to manage a growing volume of applications while improving customer experience.

Solution

The University of Melbourne deployed Automation Anywhere’s RPA technology to reduce manual work and automate administrative processes across student admissions, faculty administration, and supplier tracking. The deployed software bots now automate the entry of all data and attachments for new admission applications, and the university has slowly expanded its automation capabilities for staff across other faculties. This has allowed the University of Melbourne to increase the efficiency of critical business processes, boost staff engagement, and improve customer experience for its teachers and student body.

“By bringing in bots to take on the human-intensive and repetitive work, we have been able to create efficiencies and empower existing staff members to repurpose their roles—actually getting people to do what they’re most passionate about and qualified to do.” Shiv Chandra, Robotic Process Automation Manager, University of Melbourne