The term Robotic Process Automation (RPA) describes the technology that allows one to easily configure computer software. Importantly, it also refers to the process by which a robot can simulate the way humans interact in a digital environment so as to implement a business process. According to KPMG, RPA software is a continuum of innovative technologies used to automate processes and operations traditionally done by humans. RPA robots display human-like abilities to retrieve data and use applications in myriad ways as humans do.

They can both interpret and cause responses and also interface with other systems, allowing them to perform a large number of repetitive tasks without being susceptible to errors the way that humans are. There are a number of emerging trends with regard to RPA platforms that may be good to know about. For instance, RPA platforms are now increasingly relying on AI to provide even more efficient automation than before. The fact that AI is factored in ensures that any automation of processes that occurs happens in an organic manner.

Benefits of Deploying an RPA Platform for Businesses

By assisting in automating repetitive tasks, an RPA platform empowers a business or an enterprise to achieve substantial time and money savings. This tweet by Agile Thought makes it quite clear. Let's look at some of the specific advantages that accrue to a business that decides to implement the RPA Platform:

1. Optimal Use of Time

A business or enterprise that has implemented an RPA platform can see a tremendous improvement in the time taken to complete important tasks. What’s wonderful about this is that everything from creating and testing to the deployment of an automation initiative happens in hours and not the usual days and months.

By helping accomplish tasks faster, RPA platforms free up the employees to focus on tasks that require a higher mental application than plain repetitive tasks. This leads to optimal use of manpower in terms of the productive man-hours spent by them.

2. Making Human Errors a Thing of the Past

Deploying an RPA platform helps get rid of human errors. A lot of these occur on account of the monotonous nature of the job. If, for instance, they spend long hours copying and pasting data into multiple systems, they will end up making mistakes. These kinds of human errors end up causing large sets up like those found in multinationals millions of dollars of totally unavoidable losses.

3. Improvement in Work Output and Efficiency

An RPA Platform provides a business the capability of workflow automation of all manner of repetitive tasks and helping complete them in a matter of seconds. That not only greatly improves output but helps deliver much more value to the customers. The thing about RPA is that it provides businesses with an extensive robotic resource pool that closely approximates human behavior and in the process helps take over repetitive tasks that have a negative impact on the productivity of human workers. The software code that powers RPA is delivered via cloud to locations around the world 24x7, 365 days a week. What’s more, the RPA bots don’t need a break and perform beautifully endlessly as long as their input logic is perfect.

4. Relieving Employees of Boredom

The deployment of an RPA system ensures that employees no longer have to spend long hours engrossed in carrying out mundane repetitive tasks. The thing about humans is that they are capable of much more than working like an ant or termite colony in performing set routine tasks. But that was what the industrial revolution and the introduction of the assembly line had reduced them to.

The introduction of RPA systems to help automate long-winded processes has in a sense liberated the modern employee from the yolk of mindless drudgery and they are now free to take up work of higher value.

Practical Applications of RPA Platform

Studies suggest that a good 70 to 80% of one's responsibilities are rules-driven and therefore prime candidates for automation. This implies that most of these can benefit from the deployment of an RPA platform. Let us look at some of the important businesses and functions that could benefit from the deployment of an RPA platform

1. Healthcare

Healthcare is one sector where the backend and admin functions have an immense impact on both patient outcomes as well as patient satisfaction levels. This is something that is almost tailor-made for the RPA to step in and majorly streamline processes. With RPA overhauling paperwork, enhancing overall efficiency, curtailing costs, and improving service to patients, this is a win-win situation all the way.

This is especially true now when the world faces the greatest healthcare crisis in a century. RPA helps the healthcare process across the board. From improving billing efficiency and maintaining accurate medical records to enabling machines to take over manually intensive tasks it metamorphoses the healthcare delivery system completely.

2. Banking

By helping automate the banking process by efficiently handing work of a repetitive nature that forms a large part of banking operation, RPA greatly enhances efficiency and helps banks provide way better service to their customers. RPA empowers banks to considerably enhance their productivity by providing real-time service to customers. The ability to get way more done with the help of robots means that banks can vastly enhance their ability to carry out banking transactions and thereby substantially improve their output.

RPA-powered banking robots can assume total control of the systems enabling them to easily carry out functions like opening applications, sending emails, as well as copy-pasting information across banking systems. RPA robots can be made to operate at the level of the individual data field level across all manner of banking software systems. Among other things that it can do for banking are generate compliance reports (suspicious activity reports) to check for fraudulent transactions, help with customer onboarding, account opening, mortgage lending, and loan processing.

3. Insurance

RPA can help automate a wide array of processes that form a part of the insurance industry like data management. RPA automation in insurance can help legacy systems automate repetitive tasks as well as collect external data. This helps enhance productivity and improve customer experiences.

RPA as applied to insurance can improve the new business and underwriting, claims, business and analytics, and manual data entry processes. That apart it helps impart scalability to the insurance processes, allowing them to vary the scale of operations according to the demand.

4. Education

In times of the pandemic, the education sector is going in for automation in a big way. The fact that there is a lot of paperwork, as well as a plethora of rule-based repetitive and time-consuming work can be better handled by inducing an RPA system that can help automate such functions.

RPA in education can automate a whole slew of processes including admission, attendance, the setting up of meetings, and handling assignments and grades. It also helps manage the admin and finance functions. Users can be enabled to connect, collaborate as well as communicate via multiple cloud-based apps.

By helping impart efficiency to routine everyday tasks with the help of RPA solutions the efficiency and productivity of the education sector can be made to witness a paradigm change.

5. Retail

RPA systems when applied to the various retail processes can impart across-the-board efficiency and positively impact the bottom line in a variety of ways. It helps retail organizations with all kinds of functions- business promotions, sales analytics, in-store planning, new product introductions, and supply chain management.

That apart, it can help introduce automated order processing and set up consumer behavior analytics. All in all, it can totally overhaul the retail process and make it perform at never-before levels of efficiency. The benefits that accrue to the retail industry from the introduction of RPA are not restricted to cost reduction and enhanced productivity. They go on to help in a number of other critical areas. These include all important aspects of customer, employee, and supplier management.

6. Human Resources

RPA possesses the ability to completely transform the human relations function. The very process of implementing robotic process automation can allow repetitive and transactional HR tasks making the HR function more oriented to human welfare. This is on account of the more efficient handling of the HR function and the freeing up of HR personnel to perform higher-value functions, instead of getting bogged down in time-consuming repetitive activities.

7. Purchases

When it comes to streamlining the purchase process, RPA is able to substantially reduce the time taken and minimize errors on account of process automation. It provides the purchasing department the ability to scan invoices and extract data and tally it against the purchase order. Any company can substantially improve its all-around procurement process by drastically reducing costs. They will not even have to hire new staff or invest in majorly expensive technology. All they will need to do is to adopt an RPA system.

The procurement function is intrinsically time-consuming on account of time processes involving manual work ideally suited to be handled by RPA bots. This encompassed things like contract management, third-party risk management, category management, as well as supplier relationship management. With RPA rationalizing and optimizing all these, the whole procurement process will work at optimal efficiency.

8. RPA in Customer Service

RPA can really prove to be a boon to customer service, given that it can be used to automate a large number of customer service tasks. These include handling and managing incident management, billing queries, updating records, and so on. Considering that errors in customer service have a very negative impact on brand image, the ability of RPA to eliminate improves a business’s client management tremendously.

The Way that RPA Platforms Are Headed

The future of RPA platforms is undoubtedly bright. The way the RPA technology is evolving, and its wider adoption across industries is a foregone conclusion. Going forward one can expect its further deployment in industries including oil and gas, manufacturing, retail, aviation, and manufacturing as well as the legal profession. In fact, any business that employs two or more people and comprises repetitive work on a certain scale can look at implementing an RPA system.

It possesses the ability to step up to the plate and completely take over all data entry and data recycling jobs. That apart all computer-aided processes that are carried out according to a set protocol will be managed extremely efficiently with the help of RPA. That apart, it will be used more and more for analytics and enhanced data efficiency.

Amongst the trends that we can anticipate are the following:

1. Greater integration with other kinds of tools-In these days RPA will be used in conjunction with other tools and technologies. Companies today realize that RPA works best when combined with other tools. Add to that a seamless integration with a human workforce and you can expect RPA to truly unleash its full potential.

2. Greater use of SPA (Smart Process Automation)-The times ahead will see a move towards SPA. What SPA helps do is leverage AI, machine learning, big data, and the cloud to not only improve processes but also to create and refine models.

3. RPA 2.0- What one can see more of in the case of RPA going forward is more leveraging of the power of digital employees, AI, Total Workforce as well as across-the-board digital transformation. By integrating the communication tools used by employees in the digital workplace one can remove all barriers to communication and enhance productivity, efficiency, and the ability to innovate.

Why BotPath is the RPA Platform Par Excellence?

What’s great about BotPath RPA is the fact that it helps automate work by recording one’s browser flow and coming up with a bespoke solution that is perfectly right for a business. It is very highly rated on all the important parameters that help decide the choice of an RPA vendor. The fact that BotPath is from 500 Apps is testimony to its ability to provide businesses and enterprises across industries and scale the wherewithal to become Fortune 500 companies.