What is RPA? Full Form, Benefits & Applications

What is RPA?

RPA (Robotic Process Automation) is a technology that allows organizations to automate tasks just as a human being would perform them across applications and systems. The purpose of RPA is to transfer the process execution from humans to bots. Robotic Process Automation interacts with the existing IT architecture with no complex system integration required.

RPA automation can automate workflow, infrastructure and back-office processes, which are labor-intensive. These software bots can interact with an in-house application, website, user portal, etc. RPA stands for Robotic Process Automation. The Robotic Process Automation software runs on an end user’s PC, laptop, or mobile device. It is a sequence of commands which are executed by bots under some defined set of business rules.

The main goal of the Robotic Process Automation process is to replace repetitive and boring clerical tasks performed by humans with a virtual workforce. RPA automation does not require the development of code, nor does it require direct access to the code or database of the applications.

In this RPA tutorial for beginners, we will cover various topics about RPA technology.

Why Robotic Process Automation?

Consider the following scenario in a typical enterprise, illustrated in the diagram below.

1. The business climate is ever-changing. An enterprise needs to continuously evolve its product, sales, marketing, etc. process to grow and stay relevant.
2. A typical enterprise uses multiple and disconnected IT systems to run its operations. With the business process change, these IT systems are not changed frequently due to budget, timing, and implementation complexity issues. Hence, the business process does not map the technical process mapped in the IT system.
3. To overcome this technical and organizational debt, a human workforce is hired to fill the gap between systems and processes. Example: A company made changes in the Sales process such that a mandatory 50% advance is required to confirm the booking of its product. But this is not coded in the IT system yet. A human worker will have to manually check the Invoice and payment details and process the sales order only if a 50% advance is made.

The problem? — Humans

With any change in the business process, a company would need to hire new employees or train existing employees to map the IT system and business process. Both solutions are time and money-consuming. Also, any succeeding business process change will need hiring or retraining.

Enter RPA

The next diagram shows the same gap being closed by a software bot instead of extra staff.

With Robotic Automation, the company can deploy virtual workers who mimic human workers. In case of a change in process, a change in a few lines of software code is always faster and cheaper than retraining hundreds of employees.

Here are some reasons why Robotic Process Automation is advantageous

• A human can work an average of 8 hours a day, whereas robots can work 24 hours without any tiredness.
• The average productivity of humans is 60%, with few errors compared to a robot’s productivity, which is 100% without any errors.
• Robots handle multiple tasks very well compared to a human being.

Example of RPA

Consider the following example in this RPA tutorial about the Invoice Processing business process. The flow below shows where a bot takes over and where a person is still required.

Description	Can be Automated via RPA?
Open invoice email from the supplier and print it for records	Yes
Barcode Scanning	Manual
Create work item in a legacy software system	Yes
Enter PO to retrieve Invoices	Yes
Check supplier name is correct or not?	Yes
Key Invoice, Data and Amount	Yes
Match PO and Invoice	Yes
Check if Amount is matches or not?	Yes
If amount match Matches Invoice, Calculate Tax	Yes
Complete Invoice Processing	Yes
Work Item Closed	Yes
If Amount does not match Hold, follow with vendor	Yes
Supplier accepts or resends Invoice	Yes
If Supplier name is incorrect to hold a pass to exception team	Yes
Flag for exception handling	Yes

Differences between Test Automation and RPA

There are multiple overlaps between a Test Automation tool and an RPA tool. For instance, they both drive screens, keyboard, mouse, etc., and have similar tech architecture. But following are the key differences between the two

Parameter	Test Automation	RPA
Goal	Reduce Test execution time through automation	Reduce headcount through automation
Task	Automate repetitive Test Cases	Automate repetitive Business processes
Coding	Coding knowledge required to create Test Scripts	Wizard-driven, and coding knowledge not required
Tech Approach	Supports limited software environment. Example: Selenium can support only web applications.	Supports a wide array of software environments
Example	Test cases are automated	Data entry, forms, loan processing, is automated
Application	Test Automation can be run on QA, Production, Performance, UAT environments.	RPA is usually run only on production environments
Implementation	It can automate a product.	It can automate a product as well as a service.
Users	Limited to technical users.	Can be used across the board by all stakeholders.
Role	Acts as a virtual assistant.	Acts as a virtual workforce.
AI	Can execute only what is coded.	Many RPA tools come with an AI engine that can process information like a human

Again, RPA tools like UiPath and Blue Prism can be used for test automation. Vice versa, advanced automation testing tools such as UFT (now sold as OpenText Functional Testing) can be used for Robotic Process Automation if you have good coding skills. But RPA tools are more fit for purpose.

RPA Implementation Methodology

In this Robotic Process Automation tutorial, we will learn the RPA implementation methodology. The four phases below run in sequence, as summarised in the diagram.

Planning

In this phase, you need to identify processes that you want to automate. The following checklist will help you identify the correct process.

• Is the process manual & repetitive?
• Is the process rule-based?
• Is the input data in electronic format and is it readable?
• Can the existing system be used as it is with no change?

Next, steps in planning phase are

• The setup project team finalizes implementation timelines and approach.
• Agree on solution design for performing Robotic Process Automation processes.
• Identify a logging mechanism that should be implemented to find issues with running bots.
• The clear roadmap should be defined to scale up RPA implementation.

Development

In this phase, you develop the automation workflows as per the agreed plan. Being wizard-driven, the implementation is quick.

Testing

In this phase, you run RPA testing cycles for in-scope automation to identify and correct defects.

Support & Maintenance

Provide continuous support after going live and help with immediate defect resolution. Follow general maintenance guidelines with roles and responsibilities agreed with business and IT support teams.

Best Practices of RPA Implementation

This RPA tutorial will teach about best practices to implement RPA automation.

• One should consider business impact before opting for an RPA process.
• Define and focus on the desired ROI.
• Focus on targeting larger groups and automating large, impactful processes.
• Combine attended and unattended RPA. Attended bots sit on a user’s desktop and are triggered by the employee mid-task, while unattended bots run on a schedule or trigger with no one watching, which is why most back-office queues use the unattended model.
• Poor design and weak change management can wreak havoc.
• Do not forget the impact on people.
• Governance of the project is the foremost thing in an RPA process. Policy, corporate and government compliance should be ensured.

General Use of RPA

Here are some general uses of Robotic Process Automation:

1. Emulates human action: Emulates human execution of the repetitive process using various applications and systems.
2. Conduct high-volume repeated tasks: Robotic Process Automation can easily simulate rekeying data from one system to another. It performs tasks like data entry, copying, and pasting.
3. Perform multiple tasks: Operates multiple and complex tasks across multiple systems. This helps to process transactions, manipulate data and send reports.
4. ‘Virtual’ system integration: Instead of developing a new data infrastructure, this automation system can transfer data between disparate and legacy systems by connecting them at the user interface level.
5. Automated report generation: Automates data extraction to develop accurate, effective, and timely reports.
6. Information validation and auditing: Resolves and cross-verifies data between different systems to validate and check information to provide compliance and auditing outputs.
7. Technical debt management: It helps to reduce technical debt by reducing the gap between systems, preventing the introduction of custom implementations.
8. Product management: It helps to bridge the gap between IT systems and related product management platforms by updating both systems.
9. Quality assurance: It can be beneficial to QA processes which cover regression testing and automating customer use case scenarios.
10. Data migration: Allows automated data migration through systems which is not possible using traditional mediums, like documents, spreadsheets, or other source data files.
11. Gap solutions: Robotic automation fills the gaps left by process deficiencies. It includes many simple tasks such as password resets, system resets, etc.
12. Revenue forecasting: Automatically updating financial statements to predict revenue forecasting.

Application of RPA

Here are important applications of Robotic Process Automation.

Industry	Usage
Healthcare	Patient registration Billing
HR	New employee joining formalities Payroll process Hiring shortlisted candidates
Insurance	Claims Processing & Clearance Premium Information
Manufacturing & Retail	Bills of material Calculation of Sales
Telecom	Service Order Management Quality Reporting
Travel & Logistic	Ticket booking Passenger Details Accounting
Banking and Financial Services	Cards activation Frauds claims Discovery
Government	Change of Address License Renewal
Infrastructure	Issues Processing Account setup and communication

RPA Tools – Robotic Process Automation

Selection of an RPA tool should be based on the following 4 parameters:

1. Data: Ease of reading and writing business data into multiple systems
2. Type of tasks mainly performed: Ease of configuring rules-based or knowledge-based processes.
3. Interoperability: Tools should work across multiple applications
4. AI: Built-in AI support to mimic human users

Popular Robotic Automation Tools:

1) Blue Prism

Blue Prism is a Robotic Process Automation software. It provides businesses and organizations with an agile digital workforce. The product is now sold as SS&C Blue Prism following its acquisition by SS&C Technologies, and it is positioned at large enterprises with strict governance and compliance requirements.

Official site: SS&C Blue Prism

2) Automation Anywhere

Automation Anywhere is a developer of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) software. A free Cloud Community Edition is offered for learning and small projects, and the platform now bundles agentic and document-processing capabilities alongside classic bots.

Official site: Automation Anywhere

Learn more about Automation Anywhere.

3) UiPath

UiPath is Robotic Process Automation software. It helps organizations efficiently automate business processes. UiPath has been the most widely deployed independent RPA vendor for several years and now describes its product as an agentic automation platform, where AI agents plan and the RPA robots execute.

Official site: UiPath

Learn more about UiPath.

Benefits of RPA

Some benefits that RPA can provide to your organization:

1. Large numbers of processes can easily be automated.
2. Costs are reduced significantly as the RPA takes care of the repetitive task and saves precious time and resources.
3. Programming skills are not needed to configure a software robot. Thus, any non-technical staff can set up a bot or even record their steps to automate the process.
4. Robotic Process Automation supports and allows all regular compliance processes with error-free auditing.
5. The robotic software can rapidly model and deploy the automation process.
6. The defects are tracked for each test case story and the sprint.
7. Effective, seamless build & release management
8. Real-time visibility into bug/defect discovery
9. There is no human involvement, which means no time is needed for training requirements.
10. Software robots do not get tired, which helps to increase scalability.

Disadvantages of RPA

Let us not forget some cons of the RPA process:

1. The bot is limited to the speed of the application
2. Even small changes made in the automation application will need the robots to be reconfigured.
3. A bot follows instructions but does not understand context, so unstructured documents and unexpected data formats still need a human or an AI layer.

Myths of RPA

1. Coding is required to use RPA software. That is not true. To use Robotic Process Automation tools, one needs to understand how the software works on the front end and how it can be used for automation.
2. RPA software does not require human supervision. This is an illusion, because humans are needed to program the RPA bot, feed it tasks for automation and manage it.
3. Only large big companies can afford to deploy RPA. Small to medium-sized organizations can deploy RPA to automate their business. However, the initial cost will be high but recovered in 4-5 years.
4. RPA is useful only in industries that rely heavily on software. RPA can generate automated bills, invoices, telephone services, etc., which are used across industries irrespective of their software exposure.

Most frequently asked RPA Interview Questions and Answers to help you prepare for your RPA job interview – Click Here

How do design tools build robots for robotic process automation (RPA) applications?

There are a few ways that design tools can build robots for an RPA application.

• One way is by using a programming language to create the robots. This approach is used when the design tool has access to a preexisting robotic system or when the programmer is familiar with the robotics codebase.
• Another method is by using an off-the-shelf robot builder. These tools allow designers to drag and drop objects onto a screen, and the robot will automatically create the corresponding code for you. This approach is useful when there is no preexisting robotic system or when the programmer does not access robotics code.
• Finally, some design tools include built-in robots that allow users to prototype and test their designs with robots quickly. This approach is useful when there is already a robotic system available.

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