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August 12 2022・37 min read time

All You Need to Know About RPA

RPA is revolutionizing industries around the globe. But how does it actually work? What processes can be automated, which scenarios are ideal for RPA, and what’s the cost (and potential savings)? Dive into the guide to learn more.

cmo

Michał Rejman

CMO at Destan

RPA: Why It's Worth Your Investment (and Our Time)

“Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do to stay in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”

The Red Queen's insight might have puzzled young Alice in Through the Looking Glass, but for today's executives, it strikes a painfully familiar chord. In an era where speed is everything, businesses are moving faster than ever. With just-in-time production, rapid turnaround cycles, real-time decision-making, and immediate user interactions, companies aim to outpace the competition and meet the growing demands of their customers.

In this fast-moving landscape, speed and agility are often the most valuable assets. The quicker information flows, decisions are made, and interactions happen, the faster a company can respond to market needs and drive profitability. However, many organizations face significant hurdles when it comes to optimizing processes. Human limitations mean there's only so much a worker can do within a fixed timeframe. When productivity suffers, the company's bottom line takes a hit.

What is Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?

If you're new to Robotic Process Automation (RPA), the term might sound complex. The technology behind RPA solutions can be intricate, involving components like voice or image recognition, predictive analytics, cognitive decision-making, self-healing, and more.

From a business standpoint, RPA is easy to understand. It’s about automating repetitive, time-consuming tasks by using bots to streamline processes and reduce operational costs.

RPA is ideal for business processes that are:

  • Repetitive
  • Rule-based
  • High-volume

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can greatly optimize processes.

To help explain the concept, here’s a brief details:

explain

RPA utilizes bots, or software robots, that replicate human actions to complete repetitive, high-volume tasks with enhanced speed and accuracy. These bots can perform various tasks, such as reading and entering text, categorizing items, retrieving data, executing queries, and updating records. (For industry-specific examples, see the ‘RPA for industries’ section below.)

While there’s more to RPA, this basic explanation should be enough for now. One key point to understand is the difference between attended and unattended automation:

Attended automation – As the name implies, attended automation requires human input and cannot function independently. These bots work alongside humans, assisting with tasks and providing support in real-time. They are primarily used in front-office operations to improve productivity, reduce human error, ensure compliance, and accelerate task completion.

Example: Call center automation bots that help agents by guiding them through the script or retrieving answers to customer inquiries.

Unattended automation – operates autonomously without human intervention. These bots are programmed to independently execute rules-based tasks, either triggered by specific events or scheduled on a timer (see also RPA & AI: What’s the difference?). Unattended automation is particularly effective in handling batch back-office processes.

Example: RPA bots that extract data from various sources like invoices, bills, or bank statements, compare the information for accuracy, and then approve, reject, or forward it for further action.

Advantages of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Solutions

"RPA is a major catalyst for enhancing performance and efficiency, with its true value reflected in improved accuracy and customer satisfaction." — Prakash Mall, Senior Director at RPA, Target

The key benefits of RPA for businesses include:

1.
Boosted Speed and Productivity

By eliminating repetitive tasks and cutting down the processing time for routine operations, RPA greatly enhances employee productivity, allowing for higher output.

2.
Optimized Processes

The primary aim of RPA is process optimization. Automation helps businesses enhance workflows, eliminate inefficiencies, reduce errors, and accelerate project completion.

3.
Lower Operating Costs

With minimal upfront costs, low-maintenance automation bots deliver quick returns on investment, significantly lowering operational expenses and driving cost savings.

4.
Error-Free Operations

RPA solutions ensure 100% accuracy, maintaining clean, organized data, boosting productivity, and guaranteeing top-notch service quality.

5.
Enhanced Workforce Productivity

By automating repetitive tasks, software bots alleviate the burden of mundane work, allowing employees to focus on more strategic, value-added activities.

6.
Exceptional Customer Experience

RPA robots ensure 24/7 availability, rapid responses, and lightning-fast query processing, allowing agents to focus on building deeper customer relationships by handling repetitive tasks.

7.
Improved Decision-Making

RPA streamlines the organization of vital data, giving decision-makers quick access to key information, which supports timely, data-driven decisions for strategic planning.

8.
Ensured Regulatory Compliance

RPA solutions track every process and adhere to established guidelines, ensuring full visibility, traceability, and compliance across business operations and data management.

Note: By 2022, more than a third of businesses are expected to create new roles to complement automation, with job growth balancing the impact of technological advancements. Source: WeForum

RPA vs. Business Process Management

Are Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Business Process Management (BPM) the same?

Although both RPA and BPM are designed to enhance business processes, it can be tricky to differentiate between the two. While there are some similarities, RPA and BPM are distinct technologies that work together to drive business transformation and optimization.

What sets RPA apart from BPM?
difference
RPA vs. BPM: Which Should You Choose?

RPA and BPM solutions serve distinct purposes, each playing a unique role in business optimization.

BPM platforms are central to business development and transformation. They are designed to drive large-scale improvements in agility, productivity, cost-efficiency, and compliance across the organization.

On the other hand, RPA systems primarily automate repetitive tasks that were once handled by humans. While RPA bots do not enhance entire workflows or radically alter your business processes, they excel at streamlining simple, time-consuming tasks that don’t require complex decision-making—freeing up valuable resources for more critical work.

Rather than choosing between RPA and BPM, it’s more about how to combine these technologies effectively for optimal results.

RPA vs. AI: Clarifying the Distinction

The difference between RPA and AI can be even more challenging to pinpoint than the distinction between RPA and BPM.

Both technologies involve software that mimics human actions to assist with various tasks. The overlap is significant. To complicate matters further, RPA and AI can work together in a concept known as "Intelligent Automation" or "Hyper-Automation." So, how do they differ? Let’s break it down.

RPA vs. AI: Understanding the Difference

A simple way to distinguish between RPA and AI is through this analogy:

"AI imitates human intelligence and enhances our abilities, whereas RPA replicates human actions to help us achieve tasks more efficiently."
Key Features of Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
  • RPA is process-driven and requires programming to function.
  • It is best suited for repetitive and straightforward tasks.
  • The goal of RPA is to automate manual work and streamline workflows.
  • RPA executes rule-based tasks exactly as instructed.
  • Due to its simplicity, RPA operates with minimal CPU usage.
  • Designed for business applications, RPA is user-friendly and doesn't require specialized expertise to manage.
Key Features of Artificial Intelligence
  • AI depends on high-quality data and is capable of independently defining tasks and goals.
  • Its potential applications are vast, enabling AI to handle highly complex tasks.
  • The technology focuses on resolving challenges that traditionally require human intelligence.
  • AI systems can self-learn, constantly refining their outcomes over time.
  • The demand for significant computing power is a hallmark of AI systems.
  • Operating advanced AI systems typically requires expertise in data science.

Comparing AI to RPA is like comparing apples to oranges — they serve different purposes. However, in recent years, we’ve seen the two technologies converge across a variety of applications. This is especially true when business processes need more advanced solutions than basic automation. For instance, simple automation bots can process structured data generated by AI systems, allowing organizations to automate even unstructured content.

By integrating cutting-edge technologies such as BPM, RPA, and AI, you unlock Intelligent Automation—an advanced solution designed to enhance efficiency and drive profitability. Dive into the potential of Intelligent Automation and learn how we can support your journey here.

Overview of RPA Platforms

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solutions are straightforward, making them highly appealing to companies looking for business optimization, particularly those with limited initial capital. In addition to being easy to implement and manage, automation bots are also budget-friendly.

Open-source and subscription-based RPA platforms allow for rapid automation of business processes with minimal software investment. At Destan, we leverage these platforms to create custom solutions that help our clients increase productivity and unlock new revenue opportunities.

Here are some of the top technologies we work with:

1. UiPath RPA Software

Often regarded as one of the top RPA tools, UiPath was founded in Romania in 2005 under the name DeskOver. Initially, the company outsourced its automation libraries and software development kits to major corporations like IBM, Google, and Microsoft. Over the years, UiPath developed its own product, specifically aimed at the RPA sector. Today, with over 7,000 customers, nearly 3,000 employees, and a thriving community of contributors, UiPath has become a major player in the automation space. It offers a comprehensive platform for desktop automation, combining process mining and RPA capabilities.

Key Strengths:
  • All-in-one platform
  • Low-code development environment
  • Free community edition

2. Blue Prism RPA Software

Blue Prism delivers RPA solutions designed to enhance digital workforce capabilities, streamlining and automating complex end-to-end operations. Originally developed on the Microsoft .NET framework in 2001 for backend optimization, Blue Prism has since evolved into a comprehensive solution for both front and back-office automation. The platform simplifies automation with its user-friendly drag-and-drop interface, making it accessible to non-technical users. With the ability to automate any application across any platform, Blue Prism has become the go-to choice for enterprise clients.

Strengths:
  • Code-free automation
  • Cross-platform compatibility
  • Minimal maintenance needs

The Ultimate Showdown: UiPath vs. Blue Prism

Clash

3. RPA Software by Automation Anywhere

Founded in 2003, Automation Anywhere is a pioneer in the RPA industry. The platform combines robotic process automation with cognitive technologies like natural language processing (NLP), data analytics, and machine learning, offering an extensive suite of features. It supports both cloud and on-premise deployments and provides users with tools to develop, deploy, and manage their bots. With over 2.4 million bots deployed globally, it serves more than 4,000 customers.

Strengths:
  • User-friendly interface, easy to navigate
  • Highly scalable for businesses of all sizes
  • Low total cost of ownership (TCO), with cloud-based hosting

4. RPA Software by KOFAX

KOFAX, a global leader in intelligent capture and exchange solutions, added RPA to its portfolio in 2013 to help businesses streamline data-heavy processes, cut down on manual labor, and reduce costs. By integrating RPA with intelligent document processing, machine learning, business process management (BPM) tools, and advanced data analytics, KOFAX provides a comprehensive automation suite tailored to large enterprises looking to transform operations.

Strengths:
  • Designed for large-scale organizations
  • Seamless integration with advanced analytics tools
  • Robust ecosystem connecting with enterprise applications

5. Microsoft Power Automate

Formerly known as Microsoft Flow, Power Automate is a cloud-based platform that enables users to design automated workflows for streamlined process management. It offers powerful automation features, including both attended and unattended robotic process automation (RPA), with intuitive drag-and-drop or point-and-click configuration. Power Automate can automate individual tasks or large-scale systems, connecting seamlessly to enterprise applications, even those without APIs. The platform also enhances legacy applications that lack API support. Leveraging AI-driven intelligence, Power Automate bots can handle both structured and unstructured data from digital and analog sources.

Key Strengths:
  • Comprehensive support for various apps and platforms
  • Versatile automation capabilities for diverse use cases
  • AI-powered understanding of both structured and unstructured data

RPA Applications Across Various Industries

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) emerged in the early 2000s, but it gained significant traction around 2015 when the technology entered the mainstream. Initially, RPA was primarily used to optimize processes in the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO), banking, and finance sectors.

Over time, RPA vendors shifted their focus to industry-specific applications in sectors such as healthcare, retail, energy & utilities, and manufacturing. Thanks to this rapid growth, the global RPA market is expanding at an impressive pace. With a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.3%, the market is expected to reach $6.81 billion by the end of 2026. This rapid expansion highlights the significant cost and productivity benefits that RPA delivers across industries, which we’ll explore further in this section.

across

1. RPA in BPO

Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) thrives on optimization, making it an ideal environment for Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solutions. By automating repetitive tasks, improving workforce efficiency, and lowering operational costs, RPA opens up new avenues for BPOs to manage their global operations more effectively.

RPA technology is especially valuable in optimizing back-office functions and addressing inefficiencies in key business systems like ERP, CMS, and CRM. Automation bots handle routine tasks such as data entry, validation, classification, report generation, document manipulation, data reconciliation, and more. By doing so, they free up outsourcing teams to focus on higher-value activities, boosting productivity, reducing errors, and ensuring greater consistency and compliance with SLAs.

With highly scalable, on-demand bots, BPO companies can realize economies of scale. These bots allow businesses to reduce costs by employing a smaller, more agile workforce and minimizing idle time for resources. The result is higher quality work and faster turnaround times, enabling BPOs to offer specialized, high-value solutions to their clients.

2. RPA in Telecommunications

Automation bots offer telecom companies a significant opportunity to transform both front and back-office operations. With the telecom industry facing a growing volume of data, an expanding portfolio of products and services, and fierce competition, RPA technology helps service providers streamline processes. These bots replicate human actions and interact with core systems, taking over routine tasks and allowing resources to focus on higher-value activities.

Telecom companies are integrating RPA solutions into their systems to improve service delivery, reduce operational costs, and boost customer satisfaction. These solutions automate critical functions like billing, invoicing, and reconciliation across all channels and departments. RPA also enhances network management and diagnostics, automating tasks such as incident reporting and issue transfers.

Customer service is another key area where RPA is making a difference. Bots assist human agents by handling basic inquiries, responding to emails, and improving first-call resolution rates. They can also manage tasks like porting customer phone numbers, resolving billing issues, and facilitating dispute resolution. RPA's ability to automate data collection, reporting, and analysis provides valuable insights into customer preferences, as well as market and pricing trends.

A global communications leader realized the following benefits after deploying RPA bots to automate time-intensive tasks:
  • 25% improvement in cycle times across several critical processes
  • Increased capacity, with more than 80 FTEs freed up by automating routine work
  • Eliminated the need to hire temporary workers to manage fluctuations in workload

3. RPA in Finance and Accounting

The finance and accounting sector has been at the forefront of adopting RPA, with automation solutions now deeply integrated into its processes. These organizations leverage RPA to reduce human error, accelerate workflows, and ensure compliance with regulatory standards.

RPA applications in finance and accounting cover a wide range of functions, such as:

1. Financial Planning

RPA plays a key role in streamlining financial planning by eliminating repetitive tasks and improving the accuracy of decision-making. Automated systems handle time-consuming activities like data entry, file management, and cross-referencing between systems, freeing up valuable time for professionals to focus on strategic analysis and more impactful work.

2. Invoice Processing

RPA bots simplify the entire invoice processing cycle by automating tasks like data extraction, error reconciliation, and document verification. These bots can handle invoices from various sources and formats, performing end-to-end processing from receipt to payment in a fraction of the time, reducing the risk of errors and minimizing the need for manual intervention.

3. Balance Sheets and P&L Statements

RPA automates the preparation of financial statements, enhancing and replacing outdated tools and manual processes. This technology reduces the workload for accounting teams by efficiently generating daily statements, ensuring their completeness, and verifying balance accuracy.

4. Accounting Reconciliation

RPA simplifies financial reconciliation by cross-checking and aligning records from various sources. Bots can extract and compare data from bank statements, invoices, bills, and other documents against internal records, all while maintaining exceptional data quality and consistency.

5. Auditing

Leveraging AI, RPA streamlines the collection of audit evidence and inputs, standardizing information from diverse sources and formats.

"When processing 100 invoices a day, fatigue can lead to errors. For example, after a long day, a person might accidentally book $46,996 instead of $46,969. However, with RPA, the bot remains consistent, working with the same efficiency and accuracy from start to finish." — Bradley Niedzielski, Audit & Assurance Partner at Deloitte

4. RPA in banking

In the banking sector, where repetitive tasks like form filling, document gathering, and detail verification are common, robotic process automation (RPA) has revolutionized operations. RPA delivers significant efficiency and cost reductions across various functions, from customer service and onboarding to fraud detection.

One of the most obvious use cases for automation in banking is data entry. Instead of spending valuable hours on manual data input, review, and verification, bankers can shift their focus to higher-value tasks, allowing bots to handle the routine work. While automating these simple processes may seem minor, the impact is immense. It drives substantial cost savings and accelerates service delivery. For example, a client who implemented an attended bot for loan submission form filling achieved an astounding 300,000% ROI and reduced processing time from minutes to just six seconds!

RPA's potential in banking extends beyond simple tasks. Leading financial institutions automate complex processes like application reviews, credit checks, and account openings and closures. Intelligent automation also plays a key role in fraud detection, helping banks set rules to monitor trading thresholds, alerting brokers of potential breaches, and flagging suspicious accounts for further investigation by security teams.

5. RPA in Insurance

The insurance industry often grapples with large volumes of data, which can result in lengthy claims processing times and a diminished customer experience. Hyper-automation offers an effective solution to address these challenges.

RPA accelerates and streamlines claims processing at every stage—from data collection and validation to decision-making and payout. This is achieved by:

Eliminating manual inputs – RPA bots can automate a wide range of tasks that were once handled manually, including data collection, validation, and entry.

Integrating data from multiple sources – With added capabilities like OCR and NLP, intelligent bots extract and interpret data from diverse channels, converting it into a consistent, human-readable format.

Reducing clerical errors – Always available and consistent, RPA bots help insurers maintain clean, organized data, free from the mistakes that manual work often entails.

Streamlining claims adjudication – Bots improve adjudication speed and accuracy by eliminating inconsistencies and automating routine tasks.

Seamless legacy system integration – RPA enhances the performance of legacy software, allowing insurers to improve operations without replacing or disrupting their existing systems.

By leveraging automation, insurers can significantly cut down on claims processing times, enhance accuracy, save thousands of FTEs annually, boost customer satisfaction, and ensure better regulatory compliance. Additionally, bot operation rules can be updated in line with the latest legal requirements, ensuring continuous governance. This is particularly valuable for companies operating across multiple countries and jurisdictions.

Studies have shown that using RPA to process claims can reduce processing time by up to 75%, while significantly lowering error rates.

6. RPA in Customer Service

In every industry, organizations adopt RPA solutions to enhance customer experience, build loyalty, and reduce churn. Intelligent bots often serve as the first point of contact, handling simple queries and easing the workload of support staff. However, their capabilities extend far beyond this.

RPA plays a crucial role in customer onboarding, maintenance, and due diligence. Here are some ways RPA is making an impact:

  • Companies can use RPA to create fully automated customer onboarding processes, including gathering and verifying customer information, forwarding it to the right people and systems, setting up accounts, and providing initial instructions to customers.
  • RPA integrates with CRM systems, offering customer service representatives a unified view of each account. Bots can be programmed to update customer data from various platforms either on-demand or on a scheduled basis.
  • Support teams can leverage bots to instantly retrieve customer records when responding to inquiries, ensuring quick and accurate service.
  • RPA systems can automate customer-facing actions triggered by specific events. This is especially useful for personalized services aimed at maintaining customer engagement, such as sending birthday emails, offering custom promotions after purchases, or prompting renewals before contracts expire.
Studies have shown that RPA speeds up claim processing by an average of 75%, significantly reducing errors.

7. RPA in Real Estate and Property Management

While RPA has become a staple in industries like BPO and finance, it is still emerging in sectors like real estate and property management. Early adopters of robotic process automation (RPA) in this field have the opportunity to establish a competitive edge and capture a larger market share.

The real estate sector is burdened with manual data entry and time-consuming administrative tasks. From property searches and tenant acquisition to maintaining documentation, conducting background checks, inspections, and follow-ups — RPA bots can revolutionize these processes.

For instance, RPA can handle client inquiries, suggest properties to buyers and lenders, schedule home viewings, and manage inspection bookings. Additionally, automation can assist real estate agents with accounting, month-end processing, and corporate accounts receivable. In the highly competitive real estate market, marketing automation helps businesses stand out. Property management firms can also leverage AI-powered bots to engage leads, analyze market trends, and streamline client follow-ups.

Deloitte reports that up to 70% of activities in real estate and property management can be automated, including tasks like payment and receivable management, utility consumption tracking, security access management, and facility scheduling. [Source: Deloitte]

8. RPA in Healthcare

Faced with growing patient volumes, staffing shortages, and rising costs, the healthcare industry presents numerous automation opportunities. The sector manages vast amounts of sensitive data and paperwork, all of which must comply with strict policies and regulations.

RPA offers significant relief to hospitals and healthcare institutions by:

1. Optimizing Front Office Operations

RPA helps manage high volumes of patient transactions, relieving front office staff from time-consuming tasks. Bots assist healthcare teams with scheduling appointments, entering repetitive data, maintaining patient records, managing inventory, billing, and processing claims.

2. Addressing Staffing Shortages

With global projections indicating a shortage of 10 million healthcare specialists by 2030, RPA’s ability to replicate human actions will be crucial in maintaining healthcare quality and access. By taking over mundane, repetitive tasks, RPA reduces the need for additional administrative hires and enables a more strategic approach to long-term HR management.

3. Enhancing Data Security and Quality

RPA automates data transfer between paper records and digital systems, improving data quality and consistency. Bots ensure error-free data entry and reconciliation, reducing inaccuracies. By automating document processing, RPA minimizes the risk of unauthorized data access, while its security features help keep sensitive healthcare data safe.

4. Lowering Operational Costs

Bots offer significant cost savings by reducing the time and resources needed to complete routine tasks. RPA is far more efficient at repetitive work than human staff, leading to considerable financial benefits. For instance, automated claim adjudication costs about $1 per claim, compared to $4 for manual processing. When scaled across numerous medical facilities, these savings can reach millions annually.

9. RPA in Manufacturing

As traditional manufacturing and industrial practices continue to evolve, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is playing a pivotal role in shaping Industry 4.0. In this setting, automation bots are enhancing both back-office operations and C-suite functions, significantly boosting throughput while reducing manufacturing lead times.

RPA solutions are designed to complement the human workforce in factories, optimizing service lines and improving product delivery processes. By automating data capture, entry, and validation, bots accelerate financial workflows and ensure data consistency and accuracy. They also support faster deliveries, automating tasks like address verification, invoice generation, and shipping label creation.

With the power of automation, industrial companies are refining key processes across the manufacturing value chain. This leads to cost savings, quicker time-to-market, and access to innovative solutions that provide a competitive advantage.

Here are several areas where RPA bots deliver substantial value in manufacturing:

  • Order Fulfillment – RPA software enhances efficiency throughout the entire order fulfillment process, from order receipt and inventory tracking to stock updates, pick list management, and returns verification.
  • Purchase Orders – Attended bots assist human workers with processing purchase orders by pulling information from both digital and analog sources to populate forms. Unattended RPA, combined with AI, handles more complex tasks, like rerouting purchase orders when needed.
  • Inventory Reports – RPA excels in managing data-heavy, repetitive tasks like inventory management. Bots integrate with warehouse management systems to perform real-time inventory counts and provide on-demand reports about available and missing stock.
  • Bill of Materials (BoM) – RPA helps manufacturers eliminate the need for spreadsheets by automating BoM management. With the help of Natural Language Processing (NLP), automation platforms can standardize data from various sources, keeping the BoM accurate and consistent.

10. RPA in Transport and Logistics

By integrating RPA with other innovative technologies, the transport and logistics sector—heavily dependent on paperwork—can experience transformative improvements. Automation bots can seamlessly extract data from structured and unstructured sources, such as transport documents, emails, notes, and memos, to update shipment schedules in real time.

Another critical application of RPA in logistics is delivery tracking. RPA systems connect with third-party software and applications to retrieve shipment details and automate tracking processes, including pickup, reload, and delivery status. These bots can also be programmed to send automated emails or text messages to inform customers about delivery updates and expected pickup times. This relatively simple and cost-effective solution significantly enhances the customer experience.

While human approval is often required for bot-generated outcomes in logistics, companies can reduce the time spent on specific shipment processes by up to 50% with basic automation.

  • Collecting data from structured and unstructured sources
  • Minimizing manual data entry
  • Processing and dispatching emails
  • Generating and managing invoices
  • Capturing, researching, and closing out loads
  • Automating order processing and payments
  • Scheduling and tracking shipments
  • Auto-generating logistics reports
  • Improving communication with customers

The potential applications of RPA in supply chain management are vast. Dive deeper to explore how automation can streamline key processes in logistics.

11. RPA in Retail and eCommerce

The retail sector is a highly dynamic and competitive space, characterized by constant demand fluctuations, intense competition, and slim profit margins. For businesses caught in relentless price wars, every dollar saved and every process optimized can make a significant difference. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) emerges as a game-changing technology, empowering forward-thinking retailers to enhance productivity, reduce costs, and drive profitability.

By introducing efficiency, accuracy, and speed into retail and eCommerce workflows, RPA solutions help business owners tackle key challenges that hinder growth and impact sales. These challenges include poor product relevance, inaccurate demand forecasting, ineffective audience targeting, inadequate market analysis, and subpar customer service. Automated bots excel at extracting, collecting, and reporting data, providing retailers with actionable insights that inform smarter, faster decision-making.

RPA bots also streamline a variety of retail and eCommerce processes, including inventory management, invoice processing, business operations, and customer relationship management. By minimizing human errors, boosting operational efficiency, and enabling faster adjustments to pricing and demand, RPA equips retailers to seize sales opportunities and stay ahead in the market. Key retail-specific workflows that can be optimized with RPA include:

retail

12. RPA in HR

The human resources (HR) sector, like logistics, is filled with repetitive manual tasks, making it an ideal space for Robotic Process Automation (RPA). By leveraging bots, HR teams can offload time-consuming, tedious processes and instead focus on building meaningful relationships and fostering a positive workplace culture.

A Gallup study highlights the challenge: 85% of employees are disengaged at work, leading to a staggering $7 trillion loss in productivity. [Source: Gallup]

RPA empowers HR departments to create a more human-centered workplace and enhance employee experiences by streamlining key HR functions, including:

1. Talent Acquisition

Automation simplifies the recruitment process, covering everything from sourcing qualified candidates and aggregating resumes to conducting background checks and scheduling interviews.

2. Employee Onboarding and Offboarding

RPA accelerates the onboarding and offboarding experience by automating various transactions. Bots can validate employee data, fill out forms, transfer information to databases, set up training schedules, and even organize team introductions. According to UIPath, robotic automation can speed up onboarding by up to 10x!

3. Payroll Automation

Managing payroll becomes significantly easier with RPA. Bots can handle tasks such as transferring data, updating systems, maintaining records, processing payroll change requests, generating reports, and ensuring accurate data entry—saving time and minimizing errors.

4. Vacation and Absence Management

RPA can streamline processes like reconciling vacation balances, recording absences, and tracking employee hours—whether it’s regular, missed, or overtime.

HR departments also utilize RPA solutions to automate tasks such as transferring employee master data, managing compensation claims, calculating salaries and bonuses, and coordinating business travel efficiently.

Robotic Process Automation – Development Process

Getting started with RPA is straightforward, but maximizing its impact and achieving a high return on your investment requires a clear implementation roadmap. Let us guide you through the essential steps for a successful RPA implementation.

1. Identify High-Impact Candidates for Automation

Automating just for the sake of it is ineffective. To achieve meaningful cost savings and productivity improvements, you must target processes that are well-suited for RPA optimization. Choosing the wrong processes to automate can lead to project failure.

Start by mapping out the processes and activities within your business or organization. Focus on tasks that are manual, repetitive, and labor-intensive, governed by straightforward rules. These activities exist in almost every organization. Next, classify these candidates based on their complexity (considering the level of human input and expertise required) and the accessibility of input data (how easily a bot can retrieve the data). To assist with this, we’ve developed a detailed chart to help our clients evaluate and prioritize automation opportunities.

candidates

Automation without purpose is a wasted effort. To achieve meaningful cost savings and productivity improvements, it’s essential to focus on processes that are genuinely ideal for RPA optimization. Choosing poor candidates for automation can jeopardize the success of your project.

Begin by mapping out the processes and activities within your business or department. Prioritize tasks that are manual, repetitive, and labor-intensive, governed by straightforward rules. These types of activities exist in virtually every organization. Once identified, categorize the candidates based on their complexity (determined by the level of human input and expertise required) and the accessibility of input data (how easily the robot can retrieve the necessary information). To assist with this, you can refer to the chart we’ve developed for our clients.

2. Build a Pipeline

After identifying processes for automation and organizing them into categories, the next step is prioritization. Start with quick and simple processes to gain early wins, and leave the more complex ones for later stages. Referring to our chart, begin with the green-labeled processes, and then address the yellow and red ones as you progress.

3. Evaluate Existing Processes

Before implementing automation, thoroughly assess your current workflows. Take this opportunity to pause and analyze the existing setup to ensure optimal outcomes from automation efforts.

Some workflows may require significant adjustments before automation to avoid complicated and time-consuming RPA development. Carefully examine every detail, looking for inefficiencies, missing steps, or unnecessary actions. Consider improvements that could streamline each process and make it easier to automate. If any automation candidates lack proper documentation, this is the perfect time to address those gaps.

4. Set Clear Objectives

For every identified process, outline your specific goals. What do you aim to achieve by optimizing or automating a particular task?

For instance, if your primary objective is to enable employees to focus on strategic, value-driven activities, start by automating repetitive, high-volume tasks. If your goal is to improve customer service, focus on optimizing processes that directly affect client interactions, such as addressing common inquiries or handling document processing. Defining key performance indicators (KPIs) and establishing benchmarks will allow you to assess the success of your RPA implementation more effectively later on.

5. Secure Employee Support

Often overlooked but crucial, gaining employee support is vital for the success of your automation project, especially given the common (and largely unfounded) fear that RPA might replace jobs.

To address these concerns and encourage acceptance of the new technology, ensure that your team understands the goals and benefits of automation. Demonstrating strong ROI and emphasizing business improvements will also help gain management buy-in, showcasing RPA as a company-wide opportunity rather than a tool limited to the tech department.

6. Assemble Your RPA Development Team

Now that you're ready to move forward, it’s time to bring your RPA development team together. Start by creating a pilot project based on your agreed plan and ensure you have the right tools in place. What does “right” mean? It’s the tools that fit your budget, team capabilities, process requirements, and overall business context.

If you lack the necessary resources or need additional expertise, our RPA consultants are here to help. We’re ready to support your implementation and ensure a seamless rollout.

7. Proceed with RPA Implementation

Before diving straight into production, it’s best to begin with a Proof of Concept (PoC). A PoC is quick to deploy and gives you a preview of the final solution, allowing you to fine-tune details before full-scale implementation.

Once your PoC is successful, move on to production deployment and monitor the automation’s performance over time. Keep in mind that automated processes can always be refined and optimized for better results.

From our experience, we’ve observed that once stakeholders see the positive outcomes of RPA pilot runs, they often generate new ideas for automation. This momentum drives the push to automate more processes in the pipeline. The good news? After automating the first process, subsequent projects typically become much easier to implement.

Tackling RPA Challenges: What to Expect

Implementing RPA isn’t without its challenges. Automating for the sake of automation isn’t a viable strategy. To achieve real cost savings and productivity improvements, it's crucial to identify the right processes for RPA optimization. Failing to choose suitable candidates for automation can lead to project failure.

Understanding RPA Costs

If we’ve helped alleviate your concerns about RPA and sparked your interest in exploring it further, it’s time to address a critical aspect—cost.

To understand the true cost of RPA solutions, it's important to consider three key factors that influence the overall price: the cost of RPA development, integration, and ongoing support.

Let’s get straight to the details.

RPA Programming and Integration Costs

Let’s dive into the costs associated with RPA consulting. In most cases, you’ll rely on an external team to design and deploy your automation robots. The final cost will vary depending on several factors:

  • The type of RPA being developed or integrated
  • The number and complexity of the bots
  • Your current infrastructure and software
  • The training and onboarding required to get your team up to speed with the new tools
  • The expertise and location of the service provider

There can be significant price differences between RPA consultants. For instance, in the USA, expect to pay around $80-$90/hour for high-quality work from an RPA development specialist. In Europe, consultants typically offer lower rates, but prices can vary widely depending on the country.

RPA Support Costs

When evaluating the total cost of RPA, many businesses focus mainly on the initial implementation expenses. However, it's essential to keep in mind another significant cost: maintenance and ongoing support.

RPA bots are essentially software, which means they require regular updates, security patches, and occasional upgrades. If you're considering a large-scale automation rollout, it's wise to opt for a scalable and flexible RPA solution that can easily be adjusted without requiring extensive rework or integration efforts. Ideally, this platform should be user-friendly, minimizing the need for advanced programming skills, and include a broad range of built-in features. This will allow you to implement enhancements with minimal external assistance.

For businesses with existing RPA systems that need improvement or expansion, it's important to recognize that maintaining an internal development team can be more costly than working with an external service provider. A typical US-based RPA developer commands an annual salary between $100K-$150K, meaning the cost of supporting a small internal RPA team could range from $300K-$500K annually. In contrast, outsourcing to a qualified remote RPA expert can cost as little as $50 per hour.

Advantages of RPA as a Service (RPAaaS)

We’d like to highlight the benefits of RPAaaS, or RPA as a Service. This concept refers to deploying automation bots in the cloud rather than on in-house servers. It’s particularly advantageous for smaller businesses lacking extensive IT infrastructure and high-growth companies that need to scale rapidly.

RPAaaS offers the core benefits of traditional server-based robotic process automation, including:

  • Rapid and efficient data processing
  • Data-driven business decisions
  • Shorter time-to-value cycles
  • Improved customer satisfaction and retention
  • Significant reduction in operational costs

These benefits come without the need for hefty upfront investments or managing your own RPA infrastructure. By using the cloud deployment model, you avoid the complexity of setting up servers, buying costly hardware licenses, and dealing with expensive maintenance.

Many RPAaaS solutions offer flexible pay-per-minute or pay-as-you-go pricing, keeping costs low. You only pay for the services you use, so you can avoid unnecessary expenses for unneeded features. Plus, with cloud deployment, you enjoy enterprise-grade security and privacy protections.

Interested in learning more about RPA as a Service? Reach out to us!

Final Thoughts

For newcomers, RPA might feel intimidating, especially with the many misconceptions that surround it—like the fear that automation will lead to job losses. Our goal in this guide has been to demystify robotic process automation by breaking down its core concepts and showcasing its potential.

We truly believe RPA is a game-changer for businesses eager to begin their digital transformation journey without wasting resources on trial and error. Unlike other cutting-edge technologies, RPA, when implemented correctly, is cost-effective and delivers quick results.

To harness the full potential of RPA, we suggest starting with a few key processes. Automate one or two tasks initially, and then gradually expand. Once your first bots are running smoothly, scaling up will be a breeze, and you'll be well-positioned to explore even more advanced forms of intelligent automation.

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TechLead

Emma Collins

Business Process Automation Lead – Oversees automation strategies and ensures seamless implementation.

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