Robotics Process Automation

Robotics Process Automation

With the transition of economy from agriculture to services, the next big opportunity is now in automating services. Technology is rapidly changing and new opportunities are emerging such as Robotics Process Automation (RPA). RPA is “robotic” software that organizations configure to capture and interpret the actions of existing applications employed in various processes. According to World Bank automation threatens an overall 85% jobs – 69% in India, 77% in China and about 85% in Ethiopia. Similarly, Oxford University says that artificial intelligence (AI) will outperform humans in all the tasks within the next 45 years, if not sooner.

The key factors affecting the pace and adoption are primarily technical feasibility, economic benefits–increased quality alongside labour cost savings, regulatory and social acceptance and cost of developing and deploying solutions. The automation journey has moved from transformation / general automation to Robotization and moving forward to artificial intelligence.

RPA emulates human execution of repetitive processes with existing applications. Software robot (called Bots) aims to manipulate the presentation layer of the application software in the same manner a human does. RPA is IT enabled and business led. It interacts with any application or systems using non-invasive techniques and once implemented, RPA software can automatically process transaction, manipulate data, trigger responses and communicate with other systems, as necessary. RPA is useful in performing high volume back office processes such as those found in finance, accounting, supply chain management, customer service and human resources.

RPA provides significant benefits such as automated solution, works 24/7 driving responsiveness, reduced cost compared to a FTE, 100% accuracy in transaction processing, among several others.