RPA Life Cycle

RPA stands for Robotic Process Automation. Hearing the word Robotic, people assume that physical robots complete the task. But what RPA actually means is –
“It is the technique of automating an actual business process to complete a task without the intervention of human beings”.

• Robotic – Robots are entities developed to complete tasks performed by human.
• Process – Process is a sequence of tasks combined to perform a meaningful action.
• Automation – Automation is done to perform tasks without human intervention.

RPA Tools :

• Blue Prism
• UiPath
• Automation Anywhere

Life Cycle Of RPA Project :

1. Identify
2. Analyse
3. Design
4. Develop
5. Test
6. Implement

1. Identify and Analyze –
   The initial stage is to identify the business process that is to be automated. Once the process is identified, a team of RPA architects joins to discuss the solution for their process, it’s complexity and decides how to carry on with the project.
2. Design and Develop –
   RPA architects create a Process Definition Document (PDD) which explains each step in every process. Next, an Object Model Diagram or a flowchart is drawn to determine the sequence of steps. An RPA tool (Blue Prism, UiPath, Automation Anywhere, etc) to work with is now decided. The flow chart is then converted into a bot with the help of the tool.
3. Testing –
   Once the bot is developed, it is being tested to check if it satisfies all the requirements. Testing is either done by the development team itself or by a separate testing team.
4. Implement –
   The bot is now deployed. If any issues are encountered at this stage, the project is again sent to the development and testing phase for enhancements.

Advantages Of RPA :

• Improved Quality –
  In RPA, repetitive tasks are being automated. When an individual is made to do the same work over and over again, they tend to make errors eventually. Automating such processes reduces the occurrence of errors and improves the quality of the work done.
• Reduced Time –
  An automated process usually takes a shorter duration to complete a task. Unlike human working, no breaks are taken in between. The task gets executed regularly at the scheduled time. This makes the time available to employees to concentrate on fields that require human thinking.
• Cost Efficient –
  When RPA software is installed, the work of several employees is automated. This reduces the occurrence of errors, time utilized is scheduled, hence efficient work is done which increases the productivity of the company.

Disadvantages Of RPA :

• Potential Job Loss –
  As several tasks can be automated, the chances of people losing their jobs is high. This mainly affects employees in the data entry roles and other repetitive work roles.
• High Initial Setup Cost –
  The costs of installing the softwares with license is expensive.
• Hiring Skilled Staff –
  As RPA is an upcoming technology, there are only a few individuals with in-depth knowledge about RPA and it’s tools. There are approximately 6000+ openings in India, 5000+ openings in the USA, 1000+ openings in Canada and the UK.

Applications Of RPA :

• Data migration and Data entry.
• Data validation.
• Extracting data from PDF and other scanned documents.
• Regular report generation.
• Creating and developing invoices.
• Generating mass emails.
• Updating CRM.
• Automated testing.
• Absence management.
• Expense management.