RPA in a Nutshell

What You Need to Know about Robotic Process Automation

Let’s be honest, the word “robot” either brings mental images of moving arms on a factory floor or a humanoid figure that can be a butler or take our jobs. RPA is the polar opposite, in fact, we can’t actually see our robots. That’s right, they’re small pieces of software that reside on our computers or servers, ready to do the day-to-day business processes that we map out for them. Here’s 4 quick facts about RPA that clear the air of mystery around automation in the workplace. 

Fact #1 – RPA is scalable to any organization  

Whether your labour force is 10 people or 1000 people, RPA is can be deployed to meet the productivity demands of any organisation irrespective of size. The number of robots needed is based on the number of business processes that are ideal candidates for automation, the volume of work expected to be processed, and the complexity of the processes to be performed. 

Fact #2 – RPA Cannot Replace Humans in the Workplace  

Is the robot going to take my job? The stickiest question ever. But the answer is comforting: No. There are tasks that robots are well-suited to perform but any process that is associated with a high exception rate or needs frequent human intervention is certainly better off staying with a human in control. RPA gives businesses the opportunity to take a deep dive into the nature of the work and assess whether it should be automated so that human abilities can be refocused on more important work that requires their cognitive and emotional skills, oversight, and knowledge.  

Fact #3 – Don’t Have Techie Skills? It’s Not Necessary with RPA.  

The goal is to ensure that everyone can be the most productive version of themselves at work. RPA makes it easier to accomplish with the breakthrough of a “drag and drop” easy to use automation designer tool to build workflows. While some tasks may be automated, there is now the opportunity for the human workforce to re-skill and upskill to perform more high–level jobs. After all, someone needs to command the robot army.   

Fact #4– The RPA Community is MASSIVE.   

Despite RPA being a nascent technology, its usage is spreading like wildfire. The online RPA community has grown exponentially within the last 5 years and is now a rich source for technical support, best practice guidance, and use cases. This means that we can achieve a faster time to value from an RPA investment because there’s lots of support and knowledge available to make sure we get it right the first time around.