What is Robotic Process Automation (RPA)? | How does RPA Works? | Benefits of RPA

How does RPA work?

We hear a lot about how automation will change the world, and how it will satisfy the needs of the manual workforce to build and deploy new processes on a day to day basis, whether it is a small or a big organization all of them are aiming to automate its business processes in a way that it complements the manual strategizing and also the process remained uninterrupted.

What is Robotic Process Automation (RPA)? | How does RPA Works? | Benefits of RPA

RPA or robotic process automation is a new-age technological marvel that is utilized by enterprises to automate day-to-day manual tasks and processes.

The manual tasks include -

1. Data Extraction 

2. Invoice processing 

3. Processing portal queries and prices

4. Maintaining consumer data 

5. Validating files and many more 

Now performing these thoughts without automation could be quite tedious. So, the solution to this problem is robotic process automation.

What is Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Consider an instance where you want to publish your articles on various social groups, at a specific time every day. Would you wish to do it manually yourself every day for each and every article, well this would cost you a lot and also would be tiresome for you instead you could just make a robot it will feel, you could just configure computer software or a robot to interpret the human actions and imitate them.

So here you can configure a robot to publish the articles every day at a mentioned time that would not only cost you less but would also be less tiresome.

So robotic process automation or RPA is a process of automating the tasks or processes with the help of robots or software to reduce human intervention.

These bots can either just follow the rules defined by the user or use machine learning capabilities to suggest the user with recommendations and generate meaningful results.

RPA can also be used to automate a humongous amount of tasks in the field such as Human Resources, financial service, health care, supply chain management, customer service, accounting, etc.

Each industry can use RPA in its own way to reduce a manual workforce and work with better efficiency. To ensure that the intelligence of the manual workforce is used in a better way to benefit the organization.

Now how do you think RPA is applied in these industries as in the world of art be a physical robot to not work?

Well the RPA is applied in the industries using the enormous amount of tools it has on a day-to-day basis. 

The most popular RPA tools are -

1. Uipath 

2. Blue Prism 

3. Automation anywhere 

These tools prosper in the market because of their user interface, vendor experience, maintenance, support, etc. 

Any RPA tool that you choose, must perform three functionalities it should be able to interact with various systems either through screen scraping or API integrations, it should be able to make decisions and determine its actions based on inputs gathered from other systems. it should have an interface to program the Bot.

How Does Robotic Process Automation(RPA) Work?

Consider a scenario where you have to read hundreds of invoices and extract the data from those invoices to store the data into specific cells of an excel file, how do you think you can start automating this task?

Well, our first step is to locate all the invoices to be processed in a single folder so that the bot design can easily access it, then you can define the actions of a bot to read the files from the folder one after the other until all the files are ready.

Now once the bot starts opening the files it has to extract specific data values and store them into an excel file, to do that you have to next design a step to extract the data value or identify the field from which you want to store the data either by dragging your mouse over the area or by mentioning a variable.

Then you have to mention the relative area that is the area next to the field from which you wish to extract the data, similarly, you can repeat this action until all the fields are designed to extract.

Till now you have designed your automation to only extract data but you haven't defined the rules to store the data into specific cells, to define this you can mention the starting cell name. 

For example - Automatically iterate the loop, store the next extracted value of the same invoice in the same row but the next column. Once all the data has been stored for a single file you have to define the rules for your bot in such a way that it I traits for the next file also. So to do that you can just define the tool to go one cell below and at the beginning of the row of the active cell. 

Then you have to repeat the action of extracted data and storing the values in the excel sheet this will store the values of all the fields in the designated Exel sheet and that's how you can design the process of automation.

But the life cycle of RPA does not end here once the business requirements are analyzed and a bot is developed to automate a specific task.

The next step that comes into the picture is running the testing cycles to analyze equality and correct defects in the automation workflow simultaneously, after the development and testing phases a bot enters the maintenance phase in which it provides continuous support and helps an immediate defect resolution.

This is how RPA works and how a single or complex process can be automated.

Benefits of RPA (Robotics Process Automations)

Some of the benefits of RPA are :

1. Accuracy - So RPA software's are generally less prone to errors and function with high uniformity and precision.

2. Consistency - So this software is built in such a way that all repetitive tasks are performed in the same manner, even if it is the thousandth time. It also helps in reducing the cost, RPA reduces the manual workforce and hence reduces the cost used to perform any task, it also increases productivity rate what I mean by that the execution time to perform any task is much faster when compared to that of a manual approach.

3. No or less coding is required - So RPA software does not require much programming knowledge so even if you are from a non-IT background you can definitely start your career in the field of robotic process automation to automate the task.

So robotic process automation not only improves the timelines but also improves the quality and productivity of the resources but today's world moving towards automation and RPA being the key leader to it this has definitely opened up a lot of opportunities for various roles and responsibilities in the RPA field as RPA developer.

So RPA developers are sophisticated developers of automation tasks with hands-on experience in the top RP tools such as path, automation anywhere, and blue prism. RPA developers who work for enterprises are responsible for problem-solving and designing the automation based on the need.

Once the automation is designed and rolled into production and RPA a developer also needs to make sure that the designed automation is achieving the desired results.

Salary of an RPA Developer

With such high responsibilities and RP, a developer earns a whopping amount of approximately 97 thousand US dollars. In India, an average salary of an RPA Developer is Rs. 650,000 per annum.

How you can become an RPA(Robotics process automation) developer 

You need to learn to analyze business processes and design automation around it. You also need to develop an understanding of which process can be automated, apart from that you have to gain hands-on experience on the various tools available in the market.

And then you can start implementing the automation designs which you might have created. Finally, you should be able to test your automation whether they are good to go or not.

Most important RPA skills that organizations look for -

You need to understand how to analyze a business requirement and at the same time you should be very good at understanding the flow of control, should have hands-on experience in RPA tools like blue prism UI path and automation anywhere.

You also need to understand how to integrate various components at the same time no or fewer coding scales are required.

• FAQ for WHat is RPA

Q1. Is RPA a good career?

RPA for short, is a good career choice, as more and more companies are beginning to see the benefits of the technology. However, the exact job roles vary across the industry, and it's important to understand what jobs you'll be working on, and their importance to your company.

Q2. Does RPA require coding?

RPA automation does not require the development of code, however, it requires a standard file structure with the content accessible to other systems as well as a standard interface of business intelligence and process management dashboards. You can, however, use code to interface with computer-aided tools in the process to trigger a sequence of steps within a workflow.

Q3. What is RPA used for?

RPA is a technology that uses software robots to automate specific processes for data analysis, information storage, data extraction, data replication, data and data manipulations, data mining, data manipulation, and other tasks. 

This software can help improve the accuracy of financial reports, analyze large volumes of data quickly and accurately, and automate certain tasks which are otherwise performed by human workers.