Robotic Process Automation Tool is used to automate fixed and redundant workflows. By using the Tool:

• 100 percent reliable results can be obtained
• We will reduce processing time to less than a few

But to check if the system meets the requirement of the RPA tool, we need to make some quick evaluations. This evaluation is carried out using a process assessment tool.

Process Assessment Tool has 4 components:

Eligibility

• Analyzes if the workflow meets all the eligibility criteria that are required by the RPA Tool.

Priority

• With this tool, we can Prioritize the Application in workflow

Complexity

• The complexity of the workflow can be evaluated by simply giving input, type of application, number of screens

ROI Analyzer

• This tool allows us to prioritize the workflow application. Once the Assessment tool gives results, it becomes very easy for us to evaluate our workflow and create a flowchart to automate our process.

Once the Assessment tool gives results, it becomes very easy for us to evaluate our workflow and create a flowchart to automate our process.

Future of RPA:

The world is moving towards automation. According to the Mckinsey Report, Automation technologies will impact the economy between $5-6 trillion by 2025. RPA is the link between the physical world and AI-driven IoT world.

1. WIDER ADOPTION OF AUTOMATION: Deloitte is expecting a 72% rise in companies who are starting their RPA journey. This indicates the rapid adoption of Automation in companies.
2. INDUSTRIAL 4.0 ERA: The world is ready for a technological revolution where RPA will play a major role in connecting the physical and AI-driven IoT world.
3. SMART USER AUTOMATION: RPA is progressing towards SA where robots not only perform repetitive tasks but also analyze decision making tasks using machine learning.

Use of RPA:

RPA can be used to replace a person who does fixed and repetitive tasks. Some of the business processes that use RPA are as follows: 

1. Employee Database
2. Service Ticketing Tool
3. Customer Help Desk Management
4. Data Transfer from one application to another
5. Predictive Analysis of different processes
6. Verifying the supplies and stocks in the store.
7. Online application filing of Banking and Insurance Domain

Every time a business identifies a new process, the first criteria for evaluating the feasibility of the process is by checking the return on Investment (ROI). RPA tool is a 100% feasible solution that promises a high ROI with a one-time investment. If you are wondering how to measure this ROI, here are some parameters you can consider:

Time Duration:

1. If a human takes 5 minutes to complete one task, a robot can easily complete 10 such tasks in less than a second.
2. This scalability can easily be measured by counting the time duration of activity before and after using the Robots.

Productivity

1. A robot can easily replace 1000s of employees by providing the same or better output which can result in overall cost reduction for the company.

Quality

1. The best part of RPA is the quality of work that can be expected from a Robot. Once a standard is set for a Robot, it maintains the same standards no matter how many times the process is repeated.

Say, for example, a company instructs a robot to reply to queries put up by customers by following certain rules. A robot will handle all queries exactly as per the rules without missing any query or manipulate any answer.

Accuracy

1. If you have an excel sheet filled with data on 50000 rows, a robot can process each row’s data with 100% accuracy. Not even one data will be missed or misinterpreted.
2. This can be easily checked by conducting before and after the test analysis of using the RPA tool and checking the failure count.

If you are looking for a one-stop solution to check all these 4 paraments, Process Assessment Tool is an answer for you.

The steps used to create an RPA Workflow can be broadly divided into:

1. Input Data:

   Every process is initiated with a starting point. Similarly, we need to make the robot understand that if it encounters this kind of data, it should start its work. Now each tool will have a different way to identify this data:

   • Some tools identify it based on what name you provide to the data
   • Some tools identify the document’s name
   • Some tools can identify based on the type of data or keywords present in the data.
2. Robot Processing Flowchart:

   Once, the robot has identified the input data, it triggers the process based on the workflow that we have designed on the tool. The workflow gives rules and regulations based on logical decisions that the robot can judge and take. Some examples of rules are:

   • If else statements:

     If the condition is followed, the robot will follow steps under the “IF” condition. Else, it will follow the steps under “Else” condition.

   • Loop-based statements:

     The Robot will repeat the same statement until a particular condition or the given number is reached.

   • Add in a List:

     The Robot will categorize the data into different groups and add them to a list or a table.

3. Output File and Report:

   Finally, when the robot is finished processing, you can generate a report about the success and failure of the data, how many records were processed under what category, and send the mail to the concerned person.

The requirements to use the RPA Tool includes:

1. It should have a logical sequence of steps that a Robot can blindly follow.
2. The steps that a Robot needs to follow should be stable. It is difficult to make a Robot perform a decision-making task.

Once these requirements are met, an RPA Tool can be ideally used to gain profits for the following situations:

1. When a company is performing a repetitive and time-consuming task, it can be replaced by a Robot to save time.
2. If 1000 employees enter data manually based on some rules and regulations, they can let a Robot handle the data. These employees can then be utilized for a more analytical and decision-making tasks.
3. A company can always encounter activities that have a huge volume of data to be transacted. In such scenarios, a Robot can be used not only to complete the task soon but to complete it with high accuracy.
4. Almost all companies use some ticketing services. Now usually this ticketing forum requires data to be entered by clicking on multiple applications. If a process requires interactions of multiple web/windows applications, a robot becomes ideal for such scenarios.
5. The most important use of Robots is during a complex process. When a human finds the process to be extremely complicated, he can just add the rules that need to be followed by the robot once and the robot will follow the same for all scenarios.

A typical example of RPA Profits can be deduced from a bank that used Robots to process 1.5 million transactions replacing 230 employees.

The complexity of a Process is decided based on many factors. Some of them include:

• The complexity of the input data:
  • Amount of free text
  • The process of generating the data
  • Form and type of data
• The cost of the process
• The time duration of each record being processed by the robot
• The time duration to develop the overall project
• Cost vs effectiveness measurement

Below is a matrix that is based on complexity vs benefits plot with 4 quadrants.

1. Quick Win
2. Low Hanging Fruit
3. Must-Do Improvement
4. Long Term Improvement

Based on various combinations of factors, the complexity of the project is decided wherein cost vs benefit analysis marks the major factor.

Currently, most of the companies require manpower to complete 80-90% of their activities. When a company decides to use the automation technique, it usually starts with one process at a time. But, how will a company decide which activity to start with or whether the activity requires automation or not? Each company will have its priorities when it comes to automation. Ideally, the following sequence can be used by the company as a guide:

1. Employee strength: If a large number of employees are performing a single and repetitive task, such activities should be chosen first.
2. Complex Activity: If the activity to be performed has rules and steps to follow leading to increased complexity, a Robot should be instantly used to replace such processes.
3. Large Volume of Data: one of the most efficient uses of Robots is to use them in processes that require a large volume of data to be processed.

FTE is completely dependent on what your process is all about. Each process will have different styles of calculating FTE.

Full-time Equivalent (FTE) is majorly calculated based on how much human power is getting saved. If a single person is taking 5 minutes to process a transaction, a robot is being replaced in his place and the time for processing the same transaction is calculated.

FTE = (number of transactions)*(time spent to complete one transaction).

Apart from this, cost vs benefit calculations need to be made to check if the savings are actually visible and is the process reliable and accurate to replace the manual process completely. 

Based on all the variables that affect the process, FTE can be analyzed before and after using a Robot based on which savings can be calculated.

A business owner will think 100 times before investing in any product or service. This decision is highly influenced by the results that can be expected from the product or service.

Similarly, investing in RPA requires an analysis of the results. One way to look into such analysis is by using the Process Assessment tool. Some of the results worth exploring are:

1. Value of Time and Money
2. Volume and Velocity Handler
3. High Accuracy and Complexity
4. One-time investment

Robotic Process Automation is a tool where virtual robots can be created to replicate an instruction-based work handled by humans manually. So, the basic requirements before creating a robot can be listed as:

1. The process should contain repetitive steps.
2. The process should have clearly defined steps to follow in order to complete the task.
3. The process should have a stable environment.

When we talk about long term usage of RPA Robots, we need to focus on the third point listed above.

Wondering what a stable environment is? Well, lets us explore a few examples of this:

1. Consider a ticketing process that requires you to log in, select your area of interest, fill details, and submit your query. These steps will remain the same for a long time.
2. The webpage is created with stable ids i.e., the HTML page is stable and doesn't change regularly.
3. Your website is converted from one platform to another and you need to shift the data manually which needs to be done with a clearly defined step.

A situation similar to the above can be automated for a long time. We can invest once to buy the license to create one robot and we can use the robot as long as the process exists with a similar environment.