The most competitive businesses today are ones that have decided to digitize and automate many of their processes that were once manual. Robotic process automation software (RPA) has emerged as a valuable solution for businesses looking to perform digital transformations that take those manual tasks to automated environments. Tasks such as collecting, reviewing, and inputting information among websites, systems, and portals have historically taken employees time and effort they could have put elsewhere. With robotic process automation software, businesses can realize greater levels of efficiency and process optimization while gaining a foundation of intelligent automation.
Robotic process automation software and intelligent automation will be especially crucial as businesses continue to feel the effects of 2020’s COVID-19 pandemic, according to Craig Le Clair, Vice President, Principal Analyst at Forrester. Intelligent automation technologies including RPA will automate processes in ways that have better results for businesses than standalone automation capabilities. Forrester anticipates that remote businesses will increasingly use intelligent automation technologies including RPA, collaboration technologies, task automation, and document-focused text analytics because they will look for more efficient ways to strategize for innovation and scale automation. As the pandemic sparked a surge in digital transformation, these technologies will help businesses adjust to become more agile.
What Is Robotic Process Automation Software?
RPA is a technology that enables a business to configure software to execute processes by emulating and incorporating how a human would interact with digital systems. RPA allows businesses to automate repetitive, menial tasks that – in older processes – required employees to move among systems and manually input data into various sources. With RPA, businesses can automatically obtain and integrate data from applications, portals, and websites to streamline their digital-content processes.
RPA is also an element of a business’s digital transformation and is a component of intelligent automation. Intelligent automation amplifies existing human intelligence, and it includes RPA (along with artificial intelligence) to empower business automation and accelerate digital transformation. As part of the wheel of technologies and concepts that are moving businesses toward better productivity, RPA is the next move for many businesses seeking to become more efficient and digitally transform.
RPA Software Key Features
The right RPA solution will incorporate any number of key features, as defined by Gartner. The global research and advisory firm have created several core capabilities of RPA that provide metrics for evaluating RPA solutions. Businesses should consider the following when shopping for RPA:
- Automation development focuses on how RPA users develop automations.
- Integration features incorporate a wide range of features that provide flexibility and easy integration.
- Control panel and dashboard focus on how the environment is monitored and controlled.
- Identifying change impacts means RPA should predict which automations are affected by planned changes.
- Resilience, error recovery, and security includes business continuity, redundancy, and the overall integrity of the environment.
- Integration with business rules/process automation means that the RPA will support more broad Business Process Automation (BPM) and should have integration with a BPM suite.
Learn more about all these core capabilities in this in-depth blog.
The Benefits of RPA Software (and an Example)
One of the primary benefits businesses see as a result of incorporating RPA is the ability to deploy software robots to new processes as your business needs change. RPA gives you the flexibility to onboard new processes without requiring developers to spend weeks or months coding and ripping out platforms. Your business will be able to adapt to a new speed as your employees aren’t bogged down by manual, repetitive tasks.
You’ll also be able to automate key business process activities that don’t require “human skills,” meaning skills that ask for empathy, intuition, and other non-robotic qualities. Software robots can automate interactions that a user would perform in an application so the user can devote his or her human skill set to more valuable work.
For example, Kofax RPA combines the power of external web data with internal data sources, so employees are more agile, informed, and empowered to do work that drives productivity. The platform allows users to control information integrations and workflows. It’s also the fastest and most efficient way for businesses to acquire, enhance, and deliver information from any application or data source. Kofax RPA enables businesses to connect disparate applications and systems, improve data integration flows, foster collaboration, access market intelligence, and lower development costs. Companies have realized innovative, speedier ways of processing and integrating data using Kofax – allowing them to be more competitive.
Each business has unique challenges that various RPA solutions can address. Now is the time to explore RPA for your business as its use across the wide swath of manual processes can automate things that are not typical to workflow automation. Forrester reports that 44 percent of businesses have implemented RPA and 22 percent plan to implement it in the next year. As back offices become more reliant on working from home, RPA will take more of center stage. If you want to digitally transform your business and explore how to get a competitive edge using the power of RPA today, contact All Star to start the conversation.
