Understanding Robotic Process Automation

RPA is simply software that runs on a computer. This software acts like a digital employee. You provide code which instructs the digital employee to execute specific actions with any accessible application (e.g., local, network, web-based, or legacy) or file. Typical interactions include entering and extracting data, inspecting and comparing data, making if…then decisions, running reports, manipulating folders and files, sending and receiving email, and much more. The power in the technology is in its ability to work across a broad set of systems.

Yes! While the concept of RPA has been in place for 20+ years, significant adoption didn’t begin until 2016. In just a few short years, RPA has become a mainstream business discipline. In 2019, Gartner identified RPA as the fastest-growing segment of the global enterprise software market. In late 2020, a research study by Enterprise Technology Research estimated that by the end of 2021, up to 90% of Fortune 500 / Global 2000 companies will have adopted RPA.

Employees of mid-sized companies generally have a positive experience with RPA since RPA automates tasks, not jobs. When routine, tedious, and often error-prone tasks (that few enjoy doing anyway) are automated, your employees have more time to focus on activities that require their judgement, creativity, empathy, communication, and ability to collaborate. Employee engagement and retention often improve as a result.

Automation projects can range from very large to very small. In the case of a large project, we disaggregate the work into a series of smaller tasks that can be automated quickly and deliver incremental value. On average, we’re able to automate a task every two weeks. This rapid and steady cadence enables an automation program to achieve very significant objectives in the first year.

RPA initiatives most often fail due to three primary reasons: a lack of executive sponsorship, limited program governance, and/or a misunderstanding of the talent needed for implementation. For an RPA initiative to be successful, it must have a program leader that is senior enough to cast a vision and get things done. Also required is a central person or team that can both contribute to an RPA project roadmap and monitor the increasingly positive impacts of the initiative on your organization. Lastly, an organization needs the right talent. There’s some hullabaloo that claims that anyone can write RPA code, but in our experience, there are specific skill sets and abilities that are necessary for RPA projects to be successfully implemented end-to-end.