RPA 101- An overview

RPA  - Robotic Process Automation  is a form of “ business process automation technology based on metaphorical software robots (bots) or artificial intelligence (AI) workers” as per Wikipedia.

Lets dwell a little more to understand RPA. Now for those who don’t know what “Automation” is it’s the  technique of making a process or a system operate automatically. In other words the creation and application of technology to monitor and control the production and delivery of products and services. There are different types of automation, fixed, programmable & flexible sometimes called hybrid.

Robotic Process Automation  was coined by Blue Prism in 2012.Now for beginners to get a better understanding think of Robotics Process Automation as a  software solution that automates rule based tasks performed on single or multiple applications. Its Automation that mimics human activities carrying out steps of rule based, non-subjective process. Here Software robots are pre- programmed with sequence of tasks, “IF-Then” logic. Robots can interact with any application the same way a user does in a  Non Invasive / UI based interaction.

Let’s take an example of a “ Claim processing”  by a finance team member in production. Here the finance team member logs into the financial application, views their assigned task and clicks on the task where a claim needs to be approved.Based on the rules & guidelines set up for claim processing the finance team member views the claim, the proof of submission and if it within the ambit of the rules and guidelines set up for the claim. The finance team member approves or rejects the claim. The robot can be programmed to do this whole task.

Now one would say to automate this we could use an excel macro, yes we can and probably it would work well too. Macros have technology limitation and dependencies. One needs  to know a programming language like Visual Basic. Macros do work well with office applications and yes needs governance. Have you heard of a macro bringing down a complete mainframe system post a developer leaving the firm costing a large firm millions of dollars in loss?Yes unbelievable but true. There are challenges with excel that still can be addressed the question we ask is if everything that can be done by RPA could be done by excel then why was it not done years ago? Some so called technologists  would like to belittle RPA by saying RPA is macros on steroids.

Having given a view of Macros lets understand the power of RPA. The economic value is that it reduces operational cost and its attains return on investment goals faster. From a workforce standpoint it moves from labor centric to technologic with the capability of working 24/7.There is improved accuracy and an audit trail and helps in digitalization of manual process. While there is advantages in using RPA ,It still needs to be thought through and project selection becomes critical.

Here are some of the considerations to take advantage of RPA. A careful assessment of the following factors is required to determine where we use RPA and what impact to expect. Note this is not a whole exhaustive list but some important ones.

1.     What is the Business Objective of using RPA?

                                I.            Is it speed of service delivery

                              II.            Quality of service

                           III.            Is it to meet Risk management, Regulatory objectives

                           IV.            Is it to improve Efficiency and to reduce Cost

2.     Is the process rule based, repetitive [e.g. moving data from one system to another, creating report from multiple sources, etc.] or is it subjective?

                                I.            Do standard rules or variable rules apply. Are they documented?

                              II.            Volume of work , has this been captured and determined?

                           III.            Seasonality / Variability/Exceptions of the process

3.     Are there major changes in the immediate horizon?

                                I.            Process changes

                              II.            Platform / Underlying technology changes

4.     Is there a need to Optimize / Re-Design process ahead of Automation

                                I.            Can lean be applied and wastes eliminated before we apply RPA?

                              II.            Complexity of Process Redesign, Not everything needs to be automated.

                           III.            Time to Market, how important is this?

In other words to start of with RPA one could consider a simple process which intensively manual  with high volume, structurally repetitive, low exception volume, high likelihood for human error process to start with. The key is the business process is well understood and documented. I’m not going to dwell on how important is the business involvement and stakeholder commitment  towards the RPA initiative , like any other project it is very  important to set expectations with the sponsor or business unit.

Finally while you think RPA , make sure you think of all other process and governance areas like you would do for any project. Do consider what is the business continuity plan, change management governance, how the RPA teams both business and technical teams are engaged in the governance. Do consider separation of duties & roles and responsibilities. How are the robots being monitored and is it approved by the information security office and meets regulation for that business process.

RPA is here to stay , though I’m sure future products, applications would be pre-automated and there will be convergence of RPA technologies within the products. Stay tuned for more in RPA!