Enrich Employee Onboarding Process with Automated Email Data Extraction and Entry
RPA
Humanize the Employee Onboarding Process by Automating New Hire Documentation Process.
Problem
When a new employee joins an organization, the Human Resources department must gather several different types of information from them. For example, W-4 forms and direct deposit documents are distributed so they can collect data like name, address, the account and routing numbers of the bank account in which they want their funds deposited, and how much of their paycheck the employee wants withheld for federal income taxes. These files are usually sent to new hires via email and then returned back to the HR specialists inbox when completed. All of this data must then be entered into the company’s accounting software.
Boring, repetitive, time-consuming: all terms HR specialists would use to describe this process. They must toggle back and forth between applications, leaving room for error. And the time knowledge workers spend on this takes away from face-to-face opportunities with the new hire. There’s definitely an opportunity for improvement here.
Solution
Extracting and saving new employee data from documents that are emailed to HR is a perfect job for process automation. Software bots can be programmed to monitor an inbox where new hires send their completed onboarding documents. Bots can open the emails and download the attachments. Using OCR technology, RPA bots can extract the new hire’s information including bank account numbers and fields from their W-4 form. And just like the knowledge worker would, the bot can log into the organization’s accounting software to create a new profile with all the extracted data.
Impact
By automating the process of downloading email attachments and saving the data in a company database, this workflow can be completed more quickly and with fewer errors. This helps the organization achieve more efficiency. More accuracy means there are no problems with a new hire’s compensation or taxes, so higher compliance. And rather than spending 12 minutes on the manual process, HR specialists can use that time to engage with the new hire in-person to make sure their first day is positive. This experience will be more fulfilling for employees and worthwhile for the new hire.
Conclusion
Process automation has a way of allowing humans to work smarter, not harder. In the case of HR department, injecting digital workers into the processes actually allows humans to provide better experiences in the workforce. This creates happier employees, specifically new hires in this case. Also, errors are mitigated, processing speeds increase, and higher compliance is achieved.
This is just one example of how process automation can be applied to human resource workflows. Other RPA use cases in HR include payroll, recruiting, reporting, employee expense reports and more. Put the “human” back in human resources with RPA for HR. Learn more about RPA services.
Get a Free Quote On your Project today!
Your idea is 100% protected by our Non-Disclosure Agreement
Related Posts
Enrich Employee Onboarding Process with Automated Email Data Extraction and Entry
Employee expense receipt management is the perfect process for RPA because it is logic based and redundant. Let’s look at an example.
Return 15% of Workday Back To Employees by Automating Patient Letter Process
Employee expense receipt management is the perfect process for RPA because it is logic based and redundant. Let’s look at an example.
Eliminate EHR Fatigue, Speed Up Claims Workflow with Process Automation for Medical Billers
In this process automation example, we demonstrate how RPA can be used to automate the process of syncing health data in the hospital…
Return 15% of Workday Back To Employees by Automating Patient Letter Process
RPA
How to turn a mundane task into an opportunity to innovate and return time to your knowledge workers with process automation.
Problem
Healthcare providers are responsible for notifying patients when they’ve been scheduled for an out-of-network healthcare visit. They must grab the patient information (name, address, and surgeon information) from EHRs and add them into the letter template. Envelopes also need filled out with the send and return addresses. Both the letter and envelope have to be printed, too. Healthcare providers spend 10-15% of their time doing this task. Fatigue and burnout are often side effects of this boring work. Patient letter preparation and printing also takes away time that care providers could be spending with their patients. Let’s see how process automation can help this workflow.
Solution
Robotic Process automation can take this task from knowledge workers. Software bots can collect patient data from EHRs. This data is then automatically plugged into the letter template. Process automation can fill out the envelope data, too. When all the assets are complete, the software bots can even print out the letter and envelope.
Impact
With robotic process automation, patient letters and envelopes are waiting on the printer to be sent out when knowledge workers arrive to the office. Now, the 10-15% of time knowledge workers were wasting on letter preparation and printing can be spent improving patient care. As a result, workers will feel more fulfilled and patients will be happier. Plus, software bots can complete this task much faster and more accurately than humans, meaning no patients are missed. With more speed comes increased satisfaction from patients on the receiving end of the letters. And with more accuracy comes better compliancy.
Conclusion
Robotic process automation for out-of-network letter printing can have a very positive impact on the lives of healthcare workers. The process of informing patients when they’ve been scheduled for an appointment with a care provider can be exhausting and time-consuming. Software bots can quickly and easily be deployed to gather patient data, complete out-of-network forms and envelopes, and print these assets. Automating this process is good for healthcare organizations because it saves them time and helps them deliver better patient care. RPA can also help knowledge workers feel more satisfied by giving them more time to pursue more fulfilling work. Patients also benefit from automation because they are informed quicker.
This is just one example of RPA for healthcare. Other RPA use cases in healthcare include billing and claim processing, appointment scheduling, credentialing, auditing, patient eligibility check, and more. Put the focus back on patient care with process automation for healthcare. Learn more about RPA services.
Get a Free Quote On your Project today!
Your idea is 100% protected by our Non-Disclosure Agreement
Related Posts
Enrich Employee Onboarding Process with Automated Email Data Extraction and Entry
Employee expense receipt management is the perfect process for RPA because it is logic based and redundant. Let’s look at an example.
Return 15% of Workday Back To Employees by Automating Patient Letter Process
Employee expense receipt management is the perfect process for RPA because it is logic based and redundant. Let’s look at an example.
Eliminate EHR Fatigue, Speed Up Claims Workflow with Process Automation for Medical Billers
In this process automation example, we demonstrate how RPA can be used to automate the process of syncing health data in the hospital…
RPA for Finance and Accounting
RPA
RPA for finance and accounting is transforming the way numbers departments operate by automating reporting, bank reconciliations, tax provisions, reporting, and more.
The Problem with Manual Finance and Accounting Processes
The finance and accounting department is critical to the everyday operations of an organization. Chief Financial Officers are under constant pressure to optimize their department’s output. And yet, finance and accounting workflows are riddled with countless boring, objective tasks that hinder the department’s operations. Knowledge workers—who are capable of much more challenging duties—are stuck with humdrum activities. Errors, delays, inefficiency, and burnout are just a few symptoms of a manually-managed finance and accounting department. Robotic process automation (RPA) has been a key driver of innovation in finance and accounting departments, delivering a host of benefits including cost savings, accuracy, scalability, and better compliance.
Process Automation for Finance and Accounting Departments
Finance and accounting departments around the world are implementing RPA into their workflows. Robotic process automation is the use of software bots to eliminate employee’s tedious, repetitive tasks so they can focus on more valuable work. RPA software bots are onboarded to “learn” and then take over the mundane and repetitive tasks carried out by humans. In turn, this frees up the humans to perform more high-value duties. Robotic process automation can be added as an additional layer on top of existing infrastructures and applications. RPA can be implemented at an individual level or an organizational level (click here for more on RPA adoption strategies).
A step-by-step process module for the task to be automated is prepared by the managing individual. The actions specified in the process module can range from understanding what’s on a screen, completing the right keystrokes, navigating systems, identifying and extract data. In a finance and accounting department, these actions include data entry, calculations, and other duties commonly found in finance and accounting workflows. Let’s get into some more specific RPA use cases for finance and accounting.
RPA Use Cases for Finance and Accounting
Robotic process automation can be applied to several different areas of a finance and accounting departments, including invoice processing, bank reconciliations, tax provisions, reporting, and employee expense receipts.
RPA for Invoice Processing Automation
Handling invoices is one of the most monotonous, time-consuming, error-prone, costly activity in the finance and accounting department. All of these characteristics make it the perfect candidate for automation. RPA software robots are able to constantly monitor a dedicated folder where invoices sent. The invoice PDF attachments are downloaded and saved in a folder. Using optical character recognition (OCR) and natural language processing (NLP) capabilities, software robots can read and extract key info from each invoice. That information is then inputted into the company’s data base or ERP system. For invoices with business exceptions, like a past due date, the bot automatically sends an email to the managing knowledge worker with the affected invoice attached. At the end of the process, RPA sends a final report to the knowledge worker. RPA will help F&A professionals by ensuring invoices are processed accurately, quickly, and on-time. Check out this article on automating invoice processing to learn more.
RPA for Bank Reconciliations
Managing different account types, institutions, payment times, and time zones makes bank reconciliation a huge hurdle for knowledge workers in the finance and accounting department. Rather than manually toggling between journals to match transactions, RPA can do it for you. Software bots can upload all the statements that they receive in paper, PDF, and excel formats onto a cloud-based statement processing system. Then a comparison is run to match payment details with bank records. All matching information is reconciled. If there are discrepancies in the data, like missing info or duplicates, RPA sends back the ledgers to the accounts payable team to investigate further.
Tax Provision Automation
Corporate F&A departments are responsible for setting aside capital in order to cover tax provisions. Manually calculating these estimates is quite cumbersome for knowledge workers. Nevertheless, the IRS will expect accurate expenditure each year. RPA can help improve this process. To begin the process, RPA bots connect to data source to create and export the trial balance data. Bots can cleanse the data against tax rules to make sure all compliances are met. Then, the bot can utilize visualization tools to showcase the forecasted tax provisions.
Financial Reporting Automation
Reporting and forecasting is critical aspect of the finance and accounting department. Major decisions are based off the past performance and future projections of the company’s financial health, so there is no room for error. Process automation can be utilized to enter queries in your data and analytics applications, extract data, save in a report, and send for your review. Bots can also be programmed to continually run analysis so you can constantly stay abreast of all the ongoing latest capital expenditures, investments, and financial statements.
Employee Expense Receipts
Automating the employee expense receipts can significantly improve the time, expense, and accuracy of the manual workflow. RPA bots will receive employee expense receipts via email, download the attachments, create a folder with the employee’s name, and save all the attachments in the corresponding employee’s folder. For an in-depth example, check out this article on automating your employee expense receipts, or watch the video below.
Benefits of RPA for Human Resources
Leveraging the emerging tech concept of robotic process automation will help finance and accounting departments work smarter not harder in several ways: higher employee and customer satisfaction, more productivity, fewer errors, higher retention rates, rapid ROI, scalability, and better compliancy to name a few. While the RPA bot works around the clock to complete the administrative, logic-based jobs without error, knowledge can pursue more interesting an interactive work. This will mitigate burnout and raise their satisfaction levels. RPA for HR will also delight new and existing employees as they are getting more attention from their human resource colleagues. RPA system can be scaled quickly and easily when the workload spikes, all the while keeping perfect compliancy. Last but certainly not least, The Institute for RPA estimates that process automation solutions can deliver an immediate savings of 25% to 40% in labor costs alone. McKinsey Digital also found that automating business processes can result in an ROI of between 30 and 200 percent in the first year. These are just a few of the sprawling list of benefits of RPA for human resources.
Higher employee satisfaction
New and existing employees receive more attention from HR representatives, meaning more of their needs are being met.
Knowledge workers are more fulfilled
Boring work is replaced with more interesting and in-person work which reduces quit rates.
Higher retention rates
With more satisfied HR specialists and employees, fewer individuals will seek alternative employment.
Higher productivity
RPA bots can complete tasks 24/7 while knowledge workers can add value to the company elsewhere.
Higher Accuracy
Human error is the cause of many HR discrepancies. As long as they are programmed correctly, software bots can deliver error-free workflows.
Scalability
RPA system can be quickly scaled to handle large volumes of data when the workload spikes.
Higher Compliance
Software bots can be programmed to follow required compliances with 100% accuracy.
Cost Savings
ROI for RPA is a major driving factor for adopting automation.
Elevating Finance and Accounting with Process Automation
The future is automated, but finance and accounting departments are stuck in the past. Now, robotic process automation is being introduced to help alleviate knowledge workers of repetitive, boring tasks. From payroll to employee training, RPA is helping HR sectors put their focus back on their workforce by automating these boring jobs. As a result, companies are realizing higher retention rates, more satisfaction, better accuracy, and more. Together, knowledge employees and digital workers can collaborate for a truly efficient and powerful workforce. Gartner reports 80% of finance leaders have implemented or are planning to implement RPA. Will you be among them?
Get a Free Quote On your Project today!
Your idea is 100% protected by our Non-Disclosure Agreement
Related Posts
Custom Software Development Services for Operational Efficiency
Employee expense receipt management is the perfect process for RPA because it is logic based and redundant. Let’s look
24/7 customer support without hiring additional staff
Market monopoly is a myth except for the very rare lucky few. For the rest of us, reducing the time to market from ideation to delivery has…
8 Challenges Affecting Software Project Management
Employee expense receipt management is the perfect process for RPA because it is logic based and redundant. Let’s
RPA for Human Resources
RPA
RPA for HR can help transform human resource departments by automating payroll, recruiting, training, onboarding, and more.
The Problem with Manual HR Processes
Between payroll, onboarding, training, compensation changes, reporting, and more, human resource departments are bloated with monotonous, rule-based tasks. The very essence of an HR department is humans, but these boring jobs hinder HR specialists from adding interpersonal, creative, and critical value to their workforce. What’s more, these humdrum assignments can lead to knowledge workers experiencing boredom, burnout, and even the urge to seek a more challenging job. With nearly half of HR tasks having the potential to be automated, it’s time to put the “human” back in human resources with the help of robotic process automation.
Process Automation for HR Departments
HR departments around the world are implementing RPA into their repetitive, dull processes. Robotic process automation is the use of software bots to complete redundant, logic-based tasks so often found in human resource job descriptions. These tasks include payroll, employee onboarding and training, expense receipts, and other work that require a significant amount of manual and repetitive labor. RPA can complete these functions 24/7 with zero errors. In some situations, RPA for HR is reported to have slashed processing time by 85% and reduced the time of onboarding a new hire by 90%.
RPA Use Cases for Human Resources
Robotic process automation can be applied to several different areas of a human resource department. Wherever there are monotonous and objective duties, RPA can be deployed. A few RPA use cases for human resources include payroll, recruiting, onboarding, reporting, training, and expense reports.
Payroll
The payroll process is tiresome and time-consuming. Assign this task to RPA bots for speedy, error-free compensation distribution. A robot can pull salary data for each employee, automatically transfer funds on a scheduled date, and send a final report once the process is complete.
Recruiting
Spend less time sourcing and assessing candidates and more time engaging them in person with RPA for human resources recruiting. RPA bots can search through data bases and professional listing sites for employees that meet certain pre-determined criteria like education, skills, and experience. They will then automatically pull qualified individuals and add them to your HR/recruiting system or Excel sheet for the recruiter to review.
Training
Training is a time-consuming and repetitive process for human resource representatives. RPA can be implemented to identify the role of the new employee and automatically send appropriate login credentials, training modules, and employee handbooks for that specific position straight to the new employee’s inbox.
Onboarding
Using RPA to administer new employee paperwork can quickly and easily be done by a software bot so the HR rep can spend more face-to-face time with the person. Automatically distribute necessary paperwork, utilize OCR technology to extract the new hire’s information, and input it into the employee database with robotic process automation.
Reporting
Performance reviewing is an important part of human resource departments. Robotic process automation can be utilized to enter queries in your data and analytics applications, extract data, save in a report, and send for your review.
Employee Expense Receipts
Automating the employee expense receipts can significantly improve the time, expense, and accuracy of the manual workflow. RPA bots will receive employee expense receipts via email, download the attachments, create a folder with the employee’s name, and save all the attachments in the corresponding employee’s folder. For an in-depth example, check out this article on automating your employee expense receipts, or watch the video below.
Benefits of RPA for Human Resources
Leveraging the emerging tech concept of robotic process automation illuminates new business possibilities for HR departments: higher employee and customer satisfaction, more productivity, fewer errors, higher retention rates, to name a few. While the RPA bot works around the clock to complete the administrative, logic-based jobs without error, HR specialists can pursue more interesting an interactive work. This will mitigate burnout and raise their satisfaction levels. RPA for HR will also delight new and existing employees as they are getting more attention from their human resource colleagues. These are just a few of the sprawling list of benefits of RPA for human resources.
Higher employee satisfaction
New and existing employees receive more attention from HR representatives, meaning more of their needs are being met.
HR workers are more fulfilled
Boring work is replaced with more interesting and in-person work which reduces quit rates.
Higher retention rates
With more satisfied HR specialists and employees, fewer individuals will seek alternative employment.
Higher productivity
RPA bots can complete tasks 24/7 while knowledge workers can add value to the company elsewhere.
Higher Accuracy
Human error is the cause of many HR discrepancies. As long as they are programmed correctly, software bots can deliver error-free workflows.
Elevating Human Resources with Process Automation
For years, human resource departments have been bogged down with menial tasks that take away from time that could be spent strengthening employee relationships and building company culture. Now, robotic process automation is being introduced to help alleviate knowledge workers of repetitive, boring tasks. From payroll to employee training, RPA is helping HR sectors put their focus back on their workforce by automating these boring jobs. As a result, companies are realizing higher retention rates, more satisfaction, better accuracy, and more. That is the power of RPA for HR.
Get a Free Quote On your Project today!
Your idea is 100% protected by our Non-Disclosure Agreement
Related Posts
Custom Software Development Services for Operational Efficiency
Employee expense receipt management is the perfect process for RPA because it is logic based and redundant. Let’s look
24/7 customer support without hiring additional staff
Market monopoly is a myth except for the very rare lucky few. For the rest of us, reducing the time to market from ideation to delivery has…
8 Challenges Affecting Software Project Management
Employee expense receipt management is the perfect process for RPA because it is logic based and redundant. Let’s
What are Citizen Developers and How They Help Scale
Automating From the Bottom Up
Citizen developers play a vital role in helping you scale your RPA strategy. The idea of knowledge workers being the force behind robotic process automation is becoming increasingly popular as more and more companies pursue digital transformation and intelligent automation. This grassroots approach is a great way to empower your knowledge workers to learn a new skill and offload their boring, rule-based tasks on a software robot. But before we go any further, let’s learn more about what exactly a citizen developer is. Then, we’ll find out why this RPA strategy is conducive to scaling. Let’s begin!
What are Citizen Developers?
Citizen developers are non-technical employees that are capable of creating simple automation for themselves and their department without formal cording experience. These semi-tech-savvy individuals use their critical thinking skills to learn the basics of automation to drag-and-drop application components and connect them together to generate a new automated workflow. UiPath reports 86% of employees say they want more opportunities to learn new skills, and 83% wish their company gave them a way to upgrade current skills. Citizen developers are positioned somewhere between the employees that use software bots but do not have the skills to build them, and your technically-trained automation developers/Center of Excellence team. The goal behind citizen development is to give the power of automation to the people who best know the day-to-day processes.
How Citizen Developers Help Scale
Like we mentioned above, citizen developers are essential to your organization’s scaling potential. But how? By crowdsourcing your RPA strategy to your employees, you’re able to scale faster than with a top-down automation strategy for three main reasons:
1. There are more automation possibilities beyond just company-wide software bots.
Taking a top-down RPA approach will help improve your large-scale processes, but there are still dozens—even hundreds—of other processes on the individual level that could help achieve greater accuracy, higher employee satisfaction, and rapid ROI.
2. Your CoE won’t have capacity for every automation request
Your Center of Excellence team will be absorbed with building and maintaining organizational-level process automations—they won’t have time to satisfy or even consider RPA requests from knowledge workers.
3. Individual RPA workflows will empower widened adoption of automation
Implementing RPA can be a real shock to your organization, so there is a possibility your employees will resist or even reject the change. If you empower your knowledge workers to create their own automations to improve their jobs, they’ll be more inclined to accept automation into their professional lives.
Citizen Developers + CoE = Digital Transformation
Beginning your robotic process automation journey with citizen development is a safe bet because it is low risk, can produce positive results quickly, and helps warm the employees up to the idea of automation. But your RPA strategy should transcend simply low-code/no-code tools. Combining citizen development with a Center of Excellence offers the perfect combination of top-down and bottom-up RPA adoption strategies; this is sometimes called a “sandwich” approach. Typically, organizations will launch small robots which will provide value over time as more robots are created and start the large implementation in parallel. So, while the citizen developers work at the individual level and the CoE team tackles the organizational level, the entire enterprise can achieve their goal of full-scale automation.
Start Empowering Citizen Developers Today
Citizens developers are a powerful tool to generate automated workflows throughout your company. Empowering your non-technical knowledge workers to implement RPA into their own processes will add an interesting challenge to their jobs and automate the boring, repetitive tasks they were previously completing. Citizen development pairs well with Center of Excellence RPA adoption strategy, and they can be carried out simultaneously to achieve full-scale digital transformation. In our experience, teaming up with third-party RPA technology experts to develop your Center of Excellence, or even advise the citizen development initiative, increase the chances of your digital transformation being successful not only in the short-term, but long term, as well.
Sunflower Lab has multiple locations to better serve our clients. Robotic process automation services Columbus, Ohio, robotic process automation services New Jersey, and robotic process automation services New York all designed specifically to accommodate the needs in each unique market. For more information and resources regarding robotic process automation services, please reach out to our RPA Experts.
Get a FREE quote on your project today!
Your idea is 100% protected by our Non-Disclosure Agreement
Related Posts
10 Essential Real Estate App Features that Enhance Your Business
Employee expense receipt management is the perfect process for RPA because it is logic based and redundant. Let’s
Guide To 7 Best Tech Stack 2023 for Software Development
Employee expense receipt management is the perfect process for RPA because it is logic based and redundant. Let’s
Why Outsource Java Development for Business Success in 2023
Employee expense receipt management is the perfect process for RPA because it is logic based and redundant. Let’s
RPA Glossary: Key Terms and Definitions
Robotic process automation for enterprises is on the rise with no sign of slowing down. It’s many benefits, rapid return on investment, and customer and employee satisfaction have small, mid-sized, and large organizations starting their automation journeys. And you know what? Your competition is likely among them. Take the first step by familiarizing yourself with common RPA-related terms and their definitions.
A
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is a technology capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence. It is considered to be a simulation of human intelligence by the Robots. When we talk about AI in context of RPA – It gives organizations the ability to have end to end automation.
RPA works best with structured data – With the introduction of AI, Robots gets a capability to read the semi and the unstructured data, scanned documents, images. AI run on analytics and enhances the automations. Some Examples of AI are Text Classification, Image Moderation, Speech Recognition, Language translation etc.
Attended Robot
Attended RPA bots are like assistants working along with humans under supervision. These are the robots working inside the individual desktop. These robots have to be triggered by the human whenever required. They are mostly seen in front-end automation. Attended robots come in the picture whenever there is a human intervention required in between the process such as approving a transaction requiring decision making. Attended robots help individuals with small and repetitive tasks. The processes are triggered by the user. Users always have an option to provide the parameters to the process they want to trigger. These robots will be executed on the user machine only.
An example of the attended robot is available below where the customer support executive speaks to the customers, get their inputs, understand the query and create input data required by the robot. Executive will then trigger the attended robot; the robot will execute on the executive machine as per the instructions provided and generate the results.
C
Center of Excellence
RPA center of excellence is a group of experts that oversees all RPA initiatives across the organization. CoE enables organizations to manage the required capabilities to effectively implement RPA in any project. This group has people from varied experience such as project managers, RPA developers, citizen developers, business experts etc.
The primary role of the center of excellence is to set up a governance model across the company that all the automations project has to follow and comply with. It makes sure that required standards are maintained, takes care of the servers and licenses and runs various automation initiative across an organization. CoE makes sure that all the learnings and knowledge is accumulated and redistributed for future deployments.
CoE is required for:
• Organization of RPA Initiatives
• Maintain Governance
• Make sure to have the correct set of tools and technologies are available
• Guide the developers on automation approaches
• Take cares of the deployment environments
• Agree on set of responsibilities and helps in prioritization
• Embed the automation strategy
• Develop a roadmap for automation
• Embed resources learning plan
• Manage the technical aspects of technology
• Explore the latest tools and technologies
Concurrent Bot Execution
One of the major benefits of using robotic process automation technology is scaling. This means whenever the number of transactions in the process are increasing or decreasing, we need to scale the robots accordingly. Concurrent bot execution comes in picture when the number of transactions is more and each transaction is taking more time to complete. In such scenarios, we implement multiple robots to do the same process
Concurrent bot execution usually is implemented with the help of queues. Now multiple bonds are assigned to the same queue and with the help of a prebuilt mechanism the transactions from the queue are intelligently divided among the robots.
Citizen Developer
A citizen developer is a person who develops automations using low code or no code software. The term citizen imply that the developer does not have a background of software development and is more inclined towards the business.
Organizations use citizen developers to develop automations for business applications to be used by a particular department. These developers work under trained developers for guidance so the end product meets expectation. The concept of end-users creating their own solutions has potential impact of empowering citizen developers. Citizen developers only build new automations using pre-approved automation technologies. These automation solutions are used most often by an individual or at team level.
UiPath has a separate studio called StudioX which is targeted to the citizen developers. With StudioX, business users get a no-code platform to automate their mundane and repetitive tasks. It’s a no-code drag-and-drop construction, easy to code interface with pre-designed templates. StudioX has a native integration for enterprise application such as Microsoft office. Hence, day-to-day automation creation is easy.
D
Disaster Recovery (DR)
Disaster Recovery is an approach in Robotics which ensures that all the robots are working, the workstation are up and the processes are getting executed all the time. The robots are meant to be executed 24 X 7 and handle a huge volume of data which in terms means that there should be a high availability configuration.
• The factors which are ensured in the DR are
• Machines availability
• Network Connectivity
• Storage
• Adequate Licenses
It is important to setup DR as once the robots start execution – we have a business which is relying on the output of the robot. Technical failures with No DR would result to break the business continuity. One other important aspect of the DR is the recovery time which is calculated by time the services went down and the time they were restored back. In RPA, the recovery time becomes an important factor.
H
Hybrid Robot
In simple terms, hybrid automation is a combination of attended and unattended robots. Hybrid automation is useful when we require a human intervention in an unattended process. Part of the process is done by human interventions and decision making and other repetitive and mundane tasks are carried out by the robot. This allows robots to work in parallel with humans in a dynamic context.
Business processes that combine structured and unstructured data or an unattended process with decision points that require human intervention makes it eligible for hybrid automation. Hybrid automation approach help companies influence the power of automation in a more various range of processes and scenarios.
An Example of the hybrid automation is shown below where an unattended process is triggered, it downloads various files from sources and keep it in a folder for the human to have a validation. The Human comes in picture – validates the files kept by the robot, does the manual checks, and keeps the files ready for the next part of automation. The next part of automation again processes the files, generate the reports, and share the reports to the various stake holders
Hyperautomation
Hyperautomation is an approach that organizations use to identify and automate as many business processes as possible. Hyperautomation involves the composed use of multiple technologies, tools or platforms, such as:
• Robotic process automation (RPA)
• Artificial intelligence (AI)
• Machine learning
• Natural language processing (NLP)
• Chat Bots
• Integration to enterprise applications
• Low code platforms
• Task mining and Task capture tools
• Process discovery tools and technologies
• Optical character recognition (OCR)
It enables the wider organization audience to contribute to the one automation goal. It makes sure to have involvement of developers, testers, solution architects, project managers, citizen developers. It provides advanced analytics tools to measure performance and evaluate the return on investments.
Hypercare
Hypercare is a stage in the RPA development life cycle. Cnce the processes are deployed to the production, for some particular amount of time it requires a continuous monitoring as the robots are running for the first time in the live environment. This is the period where we anticipate some of the unexpected issues to occur. The robots are monitored and any defect is fixed as soon as possible.
The teams which are involved in Hypercare are the support team and the development. Depending upon the frequency of the process, the Hypercare can range from weeks to month. Once the business achieves the confidence that the process is running absolutely fine without any hiccups, the Hypercare is supposed to end and the process is marked as a Live process.
Training the business users regarding the new process is a critical aspect of Hypercare. As the system is new, initially it takes some time to get accomplished with the systems. All the findings, bugs, learnings are well documented. The next phase which comes after the Hypercare is the long-term support.
I
Intelligent Robot
Intelligent automation is the combination of RPA with advanced technologies such Artificial Intelligence (AI), Optical character recognition (OCR), Cognitive Technologies, Computer vision etc. With the help of intelligent automations and use of analytics, we can have solutions with automated decisions providing more flexibility to the end-to-end automation.
The primary objective of intelligent automation is to improve the end customer experience, reducing manual interventions in the automation cycle and making automated decisions.
With IA, we can have flexible, resilient, and modern automation solutions with no human intervention. IA provide the capability to automate a business process end to end, improving the customer experience and saving more cost. Input format of data is no longer a challenge. With IA, we can read semi- structured and unstructured data that increase the scope of the automation in the organization. It decreases or eliminates the exceptions created by the automated processes as the robots learn and handle exception on its own.
P
Process Mining
Process Mining is an analysis which is done at the enterprise level by investigating the server logs, larger data sets and aims to automate the end-to-end business process and not just a task. A process consists of sequence of tasks which are when performed together completes the process. Process Mining would be dividing the process into sub processes and each sub process again having a set of tasks.
For Example: Below diagram depicts a complete process of report generation which are having at 4 tasks to be completed. when all the 4 tasks re completed in an order the process gets completed. Process Mining is the getting these details out of the Process. Each task can now have a separate set of steps extracted using the task Mining.
Proof of Concept (PoC)
Proof of Concept means a prototype of the actual automation. POC is usually created to test the capability of the automation tool. This is not a part of actual automation and cannot be used for delivery. POC is the first step for organizations who like to experience the RPA for process automations.
A POC allows you to observe an automation working with existing systems, applications, and data in their respective environments. It also provides an opportunity to validate the software or platform opted for the automation. POCs are quick to implement and deploy. A POC will always have a clear objective, defined start date and end date, will have the relevant test data and environments available. In terms of business benefits, the business does not actually have to onboard the complete solution, only minimal software’s and tools has to be onboarded.
R
Robot
When we refer to robot in RPA, we mean the software robot. We are not talking about the walking, talking robots. We mean a program which is running inside our computer and doing the mundane task for us. Robots mimic a human worker by completing such tasks as logging into applications, entering data, calculating, transfer files and folders, copy and paste data, extract structured, semi-structured and unstructured information from documents, and more. Software robots are flexible and are capable of doing tedious work at much higher pace and accuracy.
S
Structured Data
Structured data is highly organized and have a defined structure or model. It is easy to use and do the data manipulation. We can easily query and interpret the structured data. An example is a Table of data having rows and columns which we have extracted from a Database.
T
Task Mining
Task Mining is the technology which allows CoE to understand how the processes are being executed in the organizations. This is usually done by monitoring the user interactions across applications and collecting the input and output from day-to-day operations. Data collected from Task Mining is then analyzed for repetitiveness and optimization. Processes are optimized and the potential candidates for automations are identified.
Task Mining often makes use of technologies such as OCR (Optical Character Recognition), NLP (Natural Language Processing), AI (Artificial Intelligence). Main purpose of the Task Mining is to record the process which the employee is doing. For Example: A Task for an Employee can as simple as Reading the Emails, Downloading the attachments and creating the reports out of it.
U
Unattended Robot
Unattended robots are the ones with the capability to run in background without human intervention or supervision. These robots are scheduled to run at a particular time. These are used for repetitive and transactional based process. These required elevated rights and access to the application. The end user directly gets the final output at a stipulated time without any intervention.
Unattended robots do not need direct user interaction to trigger an automation. It runs on dedicated machines; the user does not need to interrupt their work for triggering a task/process. Unattended robots are scheduled to run on timely basis such as hourly/daily/weekly. Back-office automations are good candidates for the unattended robots.
An example of the unattended robot is shown below where the unattended robot will schedule as per the trigger, download the files from various sources and keep it in a folder. Robot does the processing and generate results and share the results to the designated users.
Unstructured Data
Unstructured data does not have a predefined model. It is difficult to use and interpret the data. For querying the unstructured data, it first has to be converted to structured data. A good example would be an email which can be any length, any number or any types of data could be available.
W
Workflows
Workflows are the pieces of an automation project that, when combined, make a complete automation. These are reusable and are considered to be the building blocks of an automation project. Workflows are basically small blocks of automation (or small bots) which can be embedded in other automations. Talking an example from the UiPath tool – we can have the following kinds of workflows:
Sequences: Sequences are the simplest kind of workflow and are linear in nature. There are no decision blocks involved and the flow is executed one piece after other. For example: Get the user date of birth, calculate the age, and display the age.
Flowchart: Flowcharts are the kind of workflows which provides a two-dimensional layout. We can have decision blocks and the flow of automation is decided based on the decision points. For example: Get the user date of birth, calculate the age, check if age is less than or greater than 18, and decide if the user is eligible to vote or not.
State Machine: State Machine is a complex workflow type suited for transactional processes. We have called transitions that helps us to maintain the flow of execution. A state machine uses a finite number of states in its execution and can have more than one state to build complex automations. A classic example of state machine is UiPath robotic enterprise framework.
Global Exception Handler: The Exception handler is a workflow designed to identify execution errors and is designed to be used for both small- and large-scale deployments. Depending upon the exception type the next behavior of the automation can be controlled.
Get a FREE quote on your project today!
Your idea is 100% protected by our Non-Disclosure Agreement
Related Posts
Custom Software Development Services for Operational Efficiency
Employee expense receipt management is the perfect process for RPA because it is logic based and redundant. Let’s look
24/7 customer support without hiring additional staff
Market monopoly is a myth except for the very rare lucky few. For the rest of us, reducing the time to market from ideation to delivery has…
8 Challenges Affecting Software Project Management
Employee expense receipt management is the perfect process for RPA because it is logic based and redundant. Let’s
Why Organizations Need an RPA Strategy to Beat the Competition
Starting with a Strategy
Once you make the decision to adopt robotic process automation, it can be hard to resist jumping right in; the thought of automating your most boring, repetitive tasks is so exciting! But we’re here to encourage you to pump the breaks and begin your automation with an RPA strategy. Being strategic about your approach to implementing robotic process automation into your workflow(s) will be your blueprint from the discovery phase, all the way to digital transformation.
What is an RPA Strategy
An RPA strategy is a comprehensive plan for how an organization will implement RPA into its workflows. Adopting RPA without a well-intentioned plan will result in misaligned expectations, skill shortcomings, and other pitfalls that could take away from the success of your automation. Your RPA strategy should focus on 3 key elements of your business: people, processes, and technology. This will help illuminate your employee skills, your customer needs, your workflows, and your IT capabilities. Combined, these elements drive your business outcomes.
4 Essential Elements of an RPA Strategy
Now that we’ve established that your people, process, and tech will help drive your strategy, it’s time to establish the components of the strategy. Four essential elements are necessary to ensure your automation plan reaches its full potential:
Sourced from ifb
Vision
A clear vision will lay a solid groundwork for your RPA strategy. This will help define your expectations of the robotic process automation and align them with your colleagues. Business leaders should ask themselves, “What are we trying to achieve with RPA?”
Competence
Robotic process automation requires a certain number of skills to be successful. That is why organizations need to know the possibilities and limitations of their current competencies. An important question to ask during this phase is, “What skills are required for robotic process automation, and how can we acquire skills that are missing from our team?”
Organization
The organizational aspect of an RPA strategy requires leadership to delegate management of the automation. Companies can opt to manage their RPA centrally (Center of Excellence), or disperse responsibilities (Grassroots). The most important question to answer is, “Who will manage the RPA?”
KPIs
Before investing in robotic process automation, executives will want to know the ROI for RPA. This is just one of the important metrics you’ll need to measure in order to determine the success of your RPA strategy. Key performance indicators (KPIs) will help answer the question, “How will the success of RPA be measured?”
Why You Need an RPA Strategy
We’ve already discussed why you should adopt RPA, but now it’s time to get into why you need an RPA strategy. You need an RPA strategy because it will be the blueprint to your entire digital transformation journey. It’s easy to launch a single software bot to complete a few rule-based tasks, but in order for your project to be truly effective, you need a strategy. Here’s why:
Avoid wasting time, resources, money
Let’s face it: you’re probably not an automation expert. That means you may not know exactly how to incorporate robotic process automation into your workflows. This could lead you to investing valuable time, resources, and cash into something that won’t succeed. Implementing RPA where it isn’t needed or where it doesn’t deliver the most value is a wasted opportunity and a waste of your money. A strategy will help identify the right places automation will thrive and give you a return on your investment.
Clearly define goals and expectations
Business automation is a very exciting prospect for an enterprise. Everyone will have their own ideas about what they expect from the endeavor. But unless you come together on shared goals, there will be those left unsatisfied. An RPA strategy will give everyone an opportunity to voice, discuss, and brainstorm their hopes for the automation. At the end, the strategy should reflect company-wide, agreed-upon goals.
Scale RPA in the future
When it comes to business automation, the sky is the limit. The expansion possibilities can be at your fingertips if you incorporate scalability into your RPA strategy. This includes establishing a solid foundation and competencies, as well as empowering your entire organization to embrace automation from the very beginning. Remember: your future scalability hinges on how well you start, and a good RPA strategy can guarantee that. Speaking of the future…
Long-Term RPA Strategy
Adopting robotic process automation is a big step, but your RPA strategy should take you to higher heights. Your long-term RPA strategy should incorporate the ideology of digital transformation: a movement to modify existing business processes to meet the needs to today’s digital age. This concept marks the reimagining of the way we do our jobs and engage with customers. While robotic process automation is the first step in achieving digital transformation because it is a simple automation that returns positive results quickly, it is only the beginning.
In order to extend the horizons of the automation, more digital transformation technologies need to be incorporated. Intelligent process automation, or intelligent automation, or IA exists to accelerate the technology transformation journey. Intelligent automation is the combination of RPA with advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), optical character recognition (OCR), cognitive technologies, computer vision, etc. With the help of intelligent automations and use of analytics, we can have solutions with automated decisions providing more flexibility to the end-to-end automation.
Creating Your Own RPA Strategy
We know that strategizing is certainly not as satisfying as witnessing your software robot complete its first task. But, as you can see, developing an RPA strategy is crucial to your automation achieving success. Taking the time to scope out the aspects of your project—your vision, competence, organization, and KPIs—it will help you avoid wasting time and money, define your goals, and scale your strategy for the future.
Sunflower Lab has multiple locations to better serve our clients. Robotic process automation services Columbus, Ohio, robotic process automation services New Jersey, and robotic process automation services New York all designed specifically to accommodate the needs in each unique market. Reach out to one of our RPA specialists today to know more about our Robotic Process Automation Services.
Get a FREE quote on your project today!
Your idea is 100% protected by our Non-Disclosure Agreement
Related Posts
Custom Software Development Services for Operational Efficiency
Employee expense receipt management is the perfect process for RPA because it is logic based and redundant. Let’s look
24/7 customer support without hiring additional staff
Market monopoly is a myth except for the very rare lucky few. For the rest of us, reducing the time to market from ideation to delivery has…
8 Challenges Affecting Software Project Management
Employee expense receipt management is the perfect process for RPA because it is logic based and redundant. Let’s
Improve Customer Satisfaction with RPA and Sentiment Analysis
RPA
The ability of sentiment analysis to show a comprehensive insight into customers’ emotions—subsequently winning their faith and confidence—is the reason sentiment analysis adoption is on the rise with no sign of slowing down. Let’s explore an example.
Problem
A well-known dance competition company hosts many contests across the United States throughout the year. They strive to maintain the same process and compliance at every event, but this can be a major challenge as the competitions aren’t always managed by the same crew. The truth was, they had no idea how they were doing and didn’t know how their events were being perceived by participants and attendees.
So, the company started gathered feedback at every contest. They quickly realized that with so many comments and reviews on various platforms, they did not have the time to analyze each and every one. And even if they did, they did not have a proper process in place to accurately decipher the true feelings of participants and spectators. They needed a change.
