Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
With RPA, a software robot (bot) takes over the activities of an employee. However, not all tasks are suitable. The task should be repetitive, manual, time-consuming or error-prone, so that a software robot can perform it faster and with a lower error rate than a human. Bots imitate the actions of human employees so that they can devote themselves to higher-value tasks.
The big advantage of RPA is that bots work with the same user interface as humans, allowing you to work in multiple IT systems simultaneously. This means that no development-intensive interfaces need to be built. This is of particular importance today, as employees often have to operate several programmes and exchange data manually between the programmes due to the historically grown IT landscapes in companies.
It should be noted that bots have no intelligence, so they cannot make intelligent decisions. They are therefore only suitable for rule-based processes. If more complex processes are also to be covered, RPA must be extended by methods of artificial intelligence. -> Intelligent Process Automation (IPA)
A robot operates a smartphone© Designed by Freepik, www.freepik.com, a_href_httpswww_freepik_comvectorstechnologytechnology_vector_created_by_freepik_-_www_freepik_coma
Prerequisites for use
- Well structured process with little variance
- Structured data available
- Human discretion may not be necessary, as the robot is supposed to make the decisions
- Little creative activity in the process if artificial intelligence methods are not used
- Particularly suitable: standardised forms, automatic reply emails
- Deviations from the process should be as rare as possible
At the beginning, you should start by automating a simple process step and then successively add further process steps. Many RPA technologies can be implemented with low-code or no-code.
A guide can be found at Digitalradar Münsterland:
https://www.digitalradar-muensterland.de/rpa-zur-automatisierung-von-prozessen-einfuehren/
Application examples
- Automated payroll accounting
- Creation of supplier profiles
- Creation of key figures and reports
- Invoice verification and posting
- Automatic transfer of data to third parties
- ...
Software
Mateo RPA by viadee
With mateo RPA you can easily and quickly automate highly repetitive, rule-based processes or routine tasks that are often annoying for humans due to many repetitions.
https://www.viadee.de/loesungen/rpa-robotic-process-automation/roboter
Zapier
No-code platform for very easy creation of automations under a wide range of programmes
https://zapier.com/
More: UI-Path, Automation Anywhere, Blueprism