RPA Development – Goodbye to Drudgery?

Although the technology itself is not new, robotic process automation (RPA) has been increasingly discussed in recent years. But what exactly is RPA, and why is it so important? Let’s take a closer look!

About RPA in General

RPA is a business process automation technology that uses virtual software robots, also known as bots, to perform manual, repetitive, and time-consuming tasks.

A software bot is a computer program designed to execute specific operations. They can perform simple or complex tasks – more advanced bots can even simulate work or user behavior. The significance of RPA is demonstrated by its market growing at a double-digit rate annually, making it one of the fastest-growing segments in the global enterprise software market.

First, where can RPA development help?

RPA technology can automate various tasks, including:

• Manual and repetitive tasks: such as collecting data from multiple sources (e.g. websites or Excel) and using it to create new content.
• High-volume tasks: steps that need to be performed periodically, such as data migrations and approval workflows.
• Tasks involving multiple systems: accessing various applications, such as web applications, RPA solutions, external software, and others.

At least the first two of these can be commonly referred to as drudgery or menial intellectual work.

What are the key features of RPA?

• Easy integration: RPA tools can be easily integrated into existing systems without requiring significant development work.
• Scalability: RPA solutions are easily scalable, allowing for expansion in parallel with company growth.
• Quick ROI: The implementation of automated processes can yield a quick return on investment due to significant time and cost savings.
• Continuous operation: RPA tools operate 24/7, increasing productivity and availability.

But what are the benefits of using RPA tools?

• Increased efficiency: Automating repetitive manual processes can result in significant time savings and efficiency improvements for many companies.
• Cost reduction: Implementing RPA allows companies to reduce labor costs.
• Fewer errors: Eliminating human errors makes processes more accurate and reliable.
• Increased employee satisfaction: Employees can focus on tasks that require actual intellectual effort instead of manual drudgery”.
• Enhanced competitiveness: Automated processes allow companies to respond faster to market changes, providing a competitive advantage.

Comparison of the most important RPA tools

Let’s look at the most important RPA tools on the market today and how they differ from each other.

The major advantage of Microsoft Power Automate is its ease of use (no programming skills required) and simple integration with other Microsoft products. However, its main advantage is also its limitation: limited functionality can be problematic when automating complex processes.

Automation Anywhere is highly flexible, contains powerful analytics tools, is scalable, and secure. However, its more advanced functionality comes with higher costs and more complicated implementation.

Like Automation Anywhere, UIPath offers extensive functionality and an intuitive user interface, with strong community support being a significant advantage for less experienced users. However, implementation can be cumbersome, and licensing costs are higher.

RPA and DSS

At DSS, we work with the most popular RPA tools: UIPath, Automation Anywhere, Microsoft Power Automate, BluePrism. Here are two examples of how we helped our clients with RPA.

Processing Incoming Invoices

For our client in industrial manufacturing, processing incoming invoices involved a lot of manual work for the employees responsible for this area. An employee spent six hours a day on this (not very motivating) task, and the possibility of errors due to the human factor could not be ruled out. We automated this process using Microsoft Power Automate and Automation Anywhere, where RPA performs the following tasks:

• Extracts essential information from incoming invoices (usually attachments) received via email (e.g., supplier name, address, other identifiers, invoice date, subject, amount, VAT content, etc.).
• Uploads this information in a structured format to the ERP system.
• Sends an automatic notification to the operator after every 50 processed invoices.
• Moreover, with its automatic error-correcting function, it can even eliminate minor errors (e.g., typos in company name, address, identifier).

Thanks to the automated process, processing incoming invoices now takes 30 minutes instead of six hours a day, practically eliminating the possibility of errors and resulting in significant time and cost savings.

Software Testing

For our large banking client, we developed two complex systems integrated with each other and other systems, which receive significant updates 4-8 times a year. Before each release, we perform regression tests – for these two systems, this means more than 400 regression test cases in total. Running these tests manually takes an average of 15 minutes each – running all test cases takes 80-100 work hours, i.e., 2-2.5 weeks of work for a tester. With eight software updates a year, this amounts to 16-20 weeks, which is a significant labor investment and cost and also delays the go-live of developments.

Using UIPath, however, we successfully automate these tests, allowing them to run overnight with minimal labor investment. Any surfaced errors can be quickly addressed, and a more error-free development goes to UAT (user) testing. All this results in significant test cost savings for our client.

As we have seen above, RPA offers a good solution for automating repetitive, manual workflows, reducing both the working time and related costs dramatically. Perhaps we have also been able to convincingly demonstrate that DSS Consulting has the expertise and experience in this area.

If your company is looking to automate its processes, why not discuss this over a good cup of coffee?