What business processes can be robotized?
First, let’s take a half step back and understand what software robots are and what their role is in the implementation of digital transformation initiatives of the company using them, including the relationship between the concept of robotization and business process management.
A Bit of Theory
Currently, in the professional literature, there is no shortage of definitions of what RPA is (Robot Process Automation is the automation of processes using software robots). Definitions vary and include (or do not include), depending on the interests of the author, the features of the RPA technology, the business benefits achieved with its help, the tools used, etc.
However, the main and fundamental thing is what distinguishes RPA from all other automation tools. This is a technology for automating the work of users, which is based on imitating human actions when working with various computer systems, applications, and information sources.
Due to this feature, RPA:
1. First, it is ideal for automating regular and repetitive tasks that many categories of users inevitably have to perform;
2. Secondly, by imitating human interaction with the application, it does not require radical changes in current processes and costly improvements in existing corporate systems.
These two factors generate considerable interest in RPA technology, and this interest has only increased recently.
The demand for RPA in banking is especially high. And it is very likely that this is not just an outbreak of opportunistic interest dictated by the moment, but, indeed, one of the strategic directions for automating business operations not only in Russia but throughout the world, which, in fact, is evidenced by numerous analytical works of the world’s leading consulting companies.
Comparative Characteristics of Technologies
One of the ways to understand some new essence is to identify its difference from some other, long-known essence. In this case, it will be very useful to compare RPA and BPA (Business Process Automation is the automation of business process management). In short, RPA technologies are not at all designed to automate business processes, no matter how strange it sounds at first glance.
There is undoubtedly a certain external similarity between workflow management automation and business process management automation systems. And in fact, and in another case, we are talking about the automation of control of the sequence of work performed. In principle, this is the purpose for which this management is carried out.
Secondary, but not unimportantly, it is by what means this automation is carried out. Hence the wide gradation in the use of RPA services.
Application Structure Of Digital Workplaces In The World
Business process management is always carried out in order to achieve the key business goals of the company and provides for the priority automation of precisely those processes that make up the main chains of generating the company’s added value. They are the users of the system.
Total coverage of the company with automated business processes is impossible for economic, technical, and many other reasons. There are always separate areas of work in which employees are forced to perform repetitive, routine, and low-productivity operations.
What Kind Of Robots Are There?
The second important difference is how RPA processes interact with enterprise applications. Crucial is the ability of RPA to interact with enterprise applications through their user interface, and with web applications through the site object model.
And, although it is extremely obvious that this way of working may not be as productive as working through an API, it opens up tremendous opportunities for integration with applications that have an API that is fundamentally absent, unavailable, or impossible to use for economic, organizational, or technical reasons.
If the task requires integration with several systems, the use of each new API increases the duration and cost of consulting exponentially, not to mention the cost of development and support.
Thus, due to its features, RPA allows you to access the content of an arbitrary information system absolutely without interfering with its functioning, which is extremely important for industrially used 24/7 systems.