Automation is on top of mind as companies look to improve profits and efficiencies. Almost every process within an organization can improve, however, each business is different. How many times have you said, “I wish [ENTER TASK] could be automated, but it is too specific to our business”? Robotic Process Automation (RPA)  gives you the chance to customize your automation.

What is RPA?

Robotic Process Automation (RPA), is the technology that gives anyone the ability to configure software by creating rules, rather than code. RPA can react to specific triggers and mimic many, if not most, human actions. In effect, it can automate any repetitive, time-consuming task that an employee might do manually. This allows employees to spend time on the work that truly matters. RPA companies offer a point and click UI solution for anyone who understands the business and it doesn’t require writing any code. Businesses love this because it is cheap, easy to implement, lead by the business, highly scalable, and easy to adapt to changing environments on the enterprise scale.

RPA Use Cases in Enterprise

Human Resources

Deloitte's 2017 Global Human Capital Trends study found 22 percent of the highest-performing HR organizations are currently implementing or have implemented RPA, compared with just 6 percent of the lowest-performing organizations. Also in the same study, nearly half of HR executives believe RPA will deliver 10 to 20 percent savings to their businesses, with 9 percent expecting a savings of 40 percent or more.

RPA can improve tasks, such as payroll, benefits enrollment, onboarding, and compliance reporting that all require a significant amount of manual, repetitive labor. At Ernst and Young, RPA is used to track employees' continuing-education and notifies the HR team if any action is needed to receive additional training.

Information Technology

Keeping all applications and services running smoothly is a critical responsibility of IT. Routine monitoring and maintenance of IT systems are important to avoid unexpected outages that can bring business to a halt. Organizations use RPA to perform routine checks on the servers, applications and other systems to ensure that they are functioning normally. IT teams can configure their RPA programs to automatically flags an issue to alert the team to make updates or fixes to ensure the business runs smoothly.

Legal

Automation in the legal industry brings a lot of immediate value because it can free high lawyers and staff from the mundane tasks of handling paperwork, timesheets, etc. so that they focus on their customers and reduce nonbillable time.

Searching through huge databases of precedents and coming up with relevant analogues is crucial. RPA can be used to structure huge amounts of data, which can be time-consuming, tedious, and prone to error. After using RPA, teams will be able to access the database with a lot less effort.

Accounting

Within accounting, there are numerous end-to-end processes such as Procure to Pay, Order to Cash and Record to Report cycles, that can be heavily automated through RPA. For a specific example, many companies have streamlined their invoicing process, but onboarding new suppliers are still done manually. Implementing RPA can screen new suppliers and create a complete report on their credit scores, tax data, etc.

Getting Started

To get started, work with your business units to identifying the top processes for potential automation based on volume, standardization, and complexity. Start with two or three RPA solutions for the use cases identified. One advantage of RPA is it can often be easily used with legacy platforms without having to replace or disrupt the systems that work well today.

RPA Solutions

UiPath

UiPath is a leading Robotic Process Automation vendor providing a complete software platform to help organizations efficiently automate business processes. UiPath is the most widely used RPA platform in the world today, drawing together elite enterprises, global partners committed to excellence in implementation and product innovation, and the largest RPA developer community ready to make an impact on the world.

RapidRPA

RapidRPA offers an integrated management platform that aims to standardize third-party solutions with its suite of smart robotic process automation (RPA) products and services. RPA currently supports many back-office applications such as human resources, finance and accounting as well as front-office applications such as customer service. With RapidRPA's Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Lean Six Sigma best practices, employee performance and business outcomes are dramatically enhanced.

Vizru

Vizru delivers business process automation, data visualization, and collaboration in real-time across its users’ cloud and on premise systems. The apps are built for business teams to design new processes or optimize existing ones, without IT intervention. It is equipped with responsive UI, workflows, and collaboration capabilities.

Automation Anywhere

Automation Anywhere empowers people to focus on the work that makes their companies great with robotic process automation that automates virtually anything. Their intelligent process robots transform the way businesses operate, delivering complex business and IT work across a range of processes including procure-to-pay, quote-to-cash, HR administration, claims processing, and thousands of other front and back office processes.

Blue Prism

Blue Prism develops robotic process automation software and transforms the core business processes to drive innovation. Blue Prism brings to life the virtual digital workforce of scalable, enterprise-strength software robots which are capable of completing rules-based processes more efficiently, accurately and securely. Blue Prism has pioneered the development of robotic process automation software and helped businesses transform by enhancing core business processes, improving customer service and better allocating resources to drive innovation.

Our Enterprise 2.0 program is dedicated to disrupting the foundational status quo of every company: HR, IT, Accounting, Legal, and Operations. Find out more here.

If you work for a corporation that is interested in meeting cutting edge Robotic Process Automation startups tailored to your specific business goals, contact us here. 

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