Understanding why automation is driving digital transformation
The way people work has changed over many years. People used to do a lot of complex activities manually before the era of computers; however, with the introduction of computers, people slowly moved into a digital way of working. Today, every employee in this world interacts with some software applications to get their daily work done. All these actions still have us (that is, humans) as the central point of contact. Therefore, although we developed many software applications to take care of our day-to-day activities, we were still busy doing the same mundane and repetitive actions. Over time, work started piling up again and people got into a standard set of repetitive tasks to work like robots every day.
What is the solution to get out of these repetitive actions? RPA is the answer.
RPA is a technology that has evolved over many years. During the initial stages, there were automation workflows that were specific and dependent on an application, such as macros in Microsoft Excel. These automation scripts worked only within the application's scope and automated some time-consuming manual activities. This technology slowly evolved, and next, we were able to use tools that replicate actual user activity, which increased the capabilities of automation and increased the efficiency of the tasks performed. The software industry is a fast-growing industry, and you will come across many new technologies every day. The evolution of the latest technologies—such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), Microsoft, Google, and other cognitive services—helped to widen robots' capabilities. Today, RPA combines multiple technologies such as workflow automation, ML, AI, intelligent character recognition (ICR), and so on.
RPA is a technology that automates tasks previously performed by humans in a digital interface. This software uses a computer robot to run applications the same way a person would do by interacting with the software user interface (UI). In addition to mimicking human interaction, RPA includes capabilities to consume background services such as application programming interfaces (APIs), databases, and many more to efficiently and accurately perform actions. RPA aims to replace repetitive tasks performed by humans with a digital workforce, to focus on more value-added activities in an organization. The software robot acts as your virtual assistant that will simply use your existing applications with no change in its existing infrastructure to perform its actions, documenting every step consistently for reporting and maintenance purposes. Such robots are capable of interacting with any software application, mimicking human actions.
Further, robots can work 24/7 without any errors and with minimal or no human intervention. RPA primarily targets highly manual, repetitive, rule-based processes with low exception rates and standard electronic readable input. These robots are considered virtual workforces where the business and the information technology (IT) teams manage their operations.
Not only is RPA a type of automation today, but it is also one of the most popular technologies available in the industry. RPA gained popularity because of its unique capabilities that made it the technology driving digital transformation. Some of those unique features of RPA are described in more detail here:
- RPA is a non-invasive technology: Using RPA in your organization does not require any significant changes in the existing IT infrastructure or deep integrations with existing software applications. RPA is a technology capable of providing a reliable, fast, and cost-effective solution for automating processes.
- RPA is easy to scale: RPA implementations are usually not limited to a specific process. Further, automated business processes are also subject to change over time. Organizations that implement RPA usually look for ways to quickly scale up and scale down, depending on their future requirements. Hence, RPA solutions are built in a way where they can be easily scaled without much hassle.
- RPA is future-proof: The automation solutions built today use the technology that is available today. However, these robots are easily extensible to use the technology that would be available tomorrow.
- Customer expectations: Every day, the demand for services increases. However, to meet the increasing demand, organizations have to spend a lot on costly resources. Using RPA helps organizations reduce the cost they pay on new resources as RPA brings with it a virtual workforce's power to meet the growing demand quickly. Apart from that, the utilization of a virtual workforce increases the efficiency and the reliability of the process, as robots can deliver a high accuracy rate.
- Compliance and regulations: Every organization has to adhere to government rules and regulations. Meeting compliance and regulations requires a lot of manual effort as there any many tasks to be done. However, using a virtual workforce helps comply with rules and regulations as robots generate execution logs for compliance reporting.
Digital transformation is an essential topic today because RPA is changing the way we work in our personal lives and at work. These virtual workforces can quickly meet customer expectations, compliance, and regulatory requirements with future-proof technology. It is essential to know that robots' capabilities have expanded over time, enabling them to mimic almost all the actions performed on a digital platform. Such robots today are being used in multiple industries at a large scale.