How Robotics Process Automation (RPA) works for your business | Sachin Dev Duggal

Business users that adopt RPA (robotic process automation) will be freed from tedious, repetitive duties. Thus, "robotic" jobs that RPA often does are routine and low-level in nature. RPA software is used by businesses to build software bots that execute pre-defined, structured tasks, most often consisting of completing electronic forms, processing transactions, or sending messages. 

As Sachin Dev Duggal suggests, “you may minimize drudgery in data entry, billing, order management, HR onboarding, and countless other areas by combining these fundamental tasks into fleets of RPA bots”. 

RPA functions by extracting data from your current IT systems, either through a backend interface or by simulating a human user's front-end access. With older corporate systems, you frequently can't access the back-end system directly; instead, you must go through the front end. 

Front-end RPA is an improvement over traditional screen scraping says Sachin Dev Duggal. If you've ever used screen scrapers for an extended period, you are aware of how fragile they can be. The moment something unusual appears, such as a number that is too large for its field, or the moment the display format changes due to a software update, the screen scraper either returns incorrect results or stops working. Such showstoppers can be decreased but not eliminated by machine learning.  

The RPA system performs a predefined job after extracting the information it requires. Applying business rules, producing a report, sending an invoice for a receivable, or producing a check for a payable are examples of common use cases claims Sachin Dev Duggal. 

Bots can run either attended or unsupervised while doing RPA tasks. In response to a request from an employee, attended RPA bots operate. Unattended RPA bots operate according to a timetable, such as to produce nightly reports. For almost all RPA bots to continue functioning successfully, oversight and recurring auditing are required. 

An RPA bot cannot function without the workflow being defined by a human. Often, this starts with process recording, which is like recording a macro but occurs across numerous systems. Writing and editing scripts for bots also fits the macros concept. For connecting the various components of a bot's task, many RPA solutions also include a flowchart-style interface, allowing "citizen developers" to design processes. But IT still needs to build up some RPA systems. 

Identification of the business processes and their functioning is one of the challenging and time-consuming aspects of replicating existing business processes. While some RPA process mining systems can analyze existing process logs, others necessitate personnel observation and recording. In the worst situation, manual work will be required for this process discovery.