简介

RPA 是什么?

RPA is an application of technology aimed at automating business processes. Using RPA tools, a company can configure software, or a “robot,” to capture and interpret applications for processing a transaction, manipulating data, triggering responses and communicating with other digital systems, according to the Institute for Robotic Process Automation and Artificial Intelligence.

Inclusion of the term “automation” may cause some to confuse RPA with ML and AI. RPA can include ML or AI, but it is governed by set business logic and structured inputs, and its rules don’t deviate, whereas ML and AI technologies can be trained to make judgments about unstructured inputs.

RPA scenarios span a wide spectrum, ranging from something as simple as generating an automatic response to an email to deploying thousands of bots, each programmed to complete a specific task, to automate jobs in an ERP system. Insurers use RPA to pipe policy management data into a claims processing application, rather than having humans type them in from their computers.

Enterprises are looking to RPA to automate legacy business processes because their talent, technology and time resources are constrained, Dave Kuder, a principal with Deloitte Consulting LLP, tells CIO.com. With RPA, CIOs can complete in days or weeks manual processes that previously took months or years, and at a fraction of the cost. “You can imagine why this is gaining a ton of traction right now,” Kuder says.

The RPA market is small but growing. Spending on RPA software will reach $1 billion by 2020, Gartner says, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 41 percent from 2015 through 2020. By that time, 40 percent of large enterprises will have adopted an RPA software tool, up from less than 10 percent today. For many organizations, RPA may prove to be a stop-gap on their way to AI.

RPA 能干什么

Using RPA tools, a company can configure software, or a “robot,” to capture and interpret applications for processing a transaction, manipulating data, triggering responses and communicating with other digital systems, according to the Institute for Robotic Process Automation and Artificial Intelligence.Nov 13, 2017

More CIOs are turning to an emerging technology practice called robotic process automation (RPA) to streamline enterprise operations and reduce costs. With RPA, businesses can automate mundane rules-based business processes, enabling business users to devote more time to higher-value tasks. Others see RPA fitting into a larger context, as they take a more deliberate path to adoption, seeking to understand RPA’s potential to work alongside machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) tools.

Here CIO.com takes a look at what robotic process automation really is, and how CIOs can make the most of RPA in alignment with business goals.

RPA 的用途

Robotic process automation (RPA) is the application of technology that allows employees in a company to configure computer software or a “robot” to capture and interpret existing applications for processing a transaction, manipulating data, triggering responses and communicating with other digital systems.Feb 22, 2017

A lot has been written about Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and organizations are starting to understand what it is, what value it can deliver and to some extent also how to apply it in their organizations.

Any company that uses labor on a large scale for general knowledge process work, where people are performing high-volume, rules driven, highly transactional process functions, will boost their capabilities and save money and time with robotic process automation software.

Just as industrial robots are remaking the manufacturing industry by creating higher production rates and improved quality, RPA “software robots” are revolutionizing the way we think about and administer business processes, IT support processes, workflow processes, remote infrastructure and back-office work. RPA provides dramatic improvements in accuracy and cycle time and increased productivity in transaction processing while it elevates the nature of work by removing people from dull, repetitive tasks.

“Non-Invasively” means without changing the underlying technology to achieve the automation. Process gurus and industry experts won’t deny the fact that automation exists for ages. Cost Savings, Efficiency gain and productivity are all part of the automation for decades.

So, what’s different in Robotic Automation?

Yes, automation exists for ages but what RPA touches - is the most important aspect of any organization – the Human Capital. Technology has advanced to a point where it has become a reality to build a “digital workforce” and replace (replace might be the wrong term) human workforce. I would rather use “augment” human capabilities. It is an interesting option in various scenarios where organizations have yet to replace or assist manual workers. The potential impact on reducing costs and speeding up various manual tasks, therefore, is high.

Most organizations have a vast amount of tasks that are not fully automated for a multitude of reasons. RPA offers potential ways to automate all or stages of manual rule-based process and consistently apply rules in which human makes potential errors or apply inconsistent rules. Or it guides human personnel from one step to another through intelligent decision. This will free up the most valuable capital of the organization and allow to deploy them to “more value added” activities.

Robotic process automation (RPA) is not “the” answer to all of an organization’s automation problems, but it is an interesting option in various scenarios where organizations have yet to replace or assist manual workers. The potential impact on reducing costs and speeding up various manual tasks, therefore, is high. Most organizations have a vast amount of tasks that are not fully automated for a multitude of reasons.

Fundamentally an RPA operates by either recording or mapping a task for the software “robot” to follow computer pathways between screens and various data repositories. RPA tools mimic the same “manual” path taken through applications by a human using a combination of user interface (UI) interaction or descriptor technologies.

How RPA is different than BPM

I have recently seen increased attention on organization enhancing their existing BPM (workflow and rules) systems and investments with robotics. For example, integrating robotics into their existing technology and systems to help automate routine desktop work of Customer Service Reps (CSRs) and others.

BPM systems and robotics systems affect two different, but complementary, business problems. Robotics can be brawn of your operations, BPM is the brains. BPM covers both workflow and business rules; it’s an approach leveraging software and services to provide total visibility into your organization. This includes discovering, documenting, automating, and continuously improving business processes to increase efficiency and reduce costs.

The most value for an organization, however, occurs when Robotics and BPM work together within a company’s architecture. A very simple use case from one of banking customer -

Digitizing account opening process with a robot enables the BPM system to process work without the sluggish limitation of human data entry. And integrating robotics into the BPM equation has another “intended” consequence… a new source of valuable data (We will touch base with this aspect in near future about operational data and behavioral data).

Some Use Cases of RPA -

RPA can be considered in situations in which organizations have found that other integration or automation options are perhaps too expensive or too time-consuming (taking months or years). RPA should be considered both in light of other technical options and with some process change management skills. Use cases for RPA include instances when an organization wants to work with structured data to:
Automate an existing manual task or process with minimal process re-engineering.
Reduce or remove head count from batch data input and output tasks or data re keying.
Link to external systems that cannot be connected to through other IT options.
Avoid major system integration projects or specific new major application deployments.
Replace individual “shadow or citizen IT” desktop automation with enterprise wide automation
Key questions you need to answer before considering Robotic Process Automation

How efficient are your processes?

Have you investigated where and why rekeying or collating of data exists? What options are there to automate this activity? Whose time are you paying to save by having people re-key data?
Can you or by when will you have redesigned the process to get someone else to type in some or all of the data, such as the customer, supplier or the employee?
Do your processes have sufficient volume to justify robotic process automation?
Do your processes have the opportunity to run 24/7 or are they limited to office hours, and how does that affect your potential deployment?
Is the data in a structured format, or do you need to convert it to a structured format through other tools?
How much short-term process redesign can you do to simply eliminate rekeying or manual tasks?
Do you have a detailed process flow of the end-to-end activities?
Do you have highly paid knowledge workers spending a lot of time collating data from multiple sources and doing data analysis in Excel that could be automated?
2) How effective are your processes?

If you focused on the end-to-end outcome, for example, improving working capital by lowering freight charges, would your focus change to a project about how freight carriers are selected and procurement policies adhered to, which could potentially save much more than initially focusing on further lowering the cost of administrating freight charges? Answering this question will dictate where you should put your focus for coordinating end-to-end processes
If your goal is to renovate the core applications and deploy bimodal solutions integrating legacy systems with digital technologies, would RPA be a faster, perhaps short-term option to achieve this type of goal? How will removing labor with RPA affect your ability to build business cases for future legacy replacement?
Is your organization full of shadow/gray IT projects that while they might be effective also be in need of coordination to support master data initiatives and the single view of a customer?
Some Key takeaways - RPA can be used for manual rule-based process and consistently apply rules in which human makes potential errors or apply inconsistent rules around structured data, RPA applies automation “Non-Invasively”, BPM systems and robotics systems affect two different, but complementary, business problems.

What’s next beyond RPA? Maybe you’ve seen some discussion online about automation and artificial intelligence (AI) – what’s the difference and how to use them. What’s the deal with AI and Machine Learning right on the heels of RPA? There are some confusion on RPA with AI and Machine Learning and terms are used interchangeably. In my next one, I will talk about that and some of the use cases where AI and Machine Learning can be applied to process automation.

RPA 的意义何在

Robotic process automation (RPA) is the use of software with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning capabilities to handle high-volume, repeatable tasks that previously required humans to perform.

RPA technology, sometimes called a software robot or bot, mimics a human worker, logging into applications, entering data, calculating and completing tasks, and logging out.

RPA software isn’t part of an organization’s IT infrastructure. Instead, it sits on top of it, enabling a company to implement the technology quickly and efficiently – all without changing the existing infrastructure and systems.

The evolution of RPA
Although the term “robotic process automation” can be traced to the early 2000s, it had been developing for a number of years previously.

RPA evolved from three key technologies: screen scraping, workflow automation and artificial intelligence.

Screen scraping is the process of collecting screen display data from a legacy application so that the data can be displayed by a more modern user interface. The advantages of workflow automation software, which eliminates the need for manual data entry and increases order fulfillment rates, include increased speed, efficiency and accuracy. Lastly, artificial intelligence involves the ability of computer systems to perform tasks that normally require human intervention and intelligence.

Benefits of RPA
Robotic process automation technology can help organizations on their digital transformation journeys by:

Enabling better customer service
Ensuring business operations and processes comply with regulations and standards
Allowing processes to be completed much more rapidly
Providing improved efficiency by digitizing and auditing process data
Creating cost savings for manual and repetitive tasks
Enabling employees to be more productive
Applications of RPA
Some of the top applications of RPA include:

Customer service: RPA can help companies offer better customer service by automating contact center tasks, including verifying e-signatures, uploading scanned documents and verifying information for automatic approvals or rejections.
Accounting: Organizations can use RPA for general accounting, operational accounting, transactional reporting and budgeting.
Financial services: Companies in the financial services industry can use RPA for foreign exchange payments, automating account openings and closings, managing audit requests and processing insurance claims.
Healthcare: Medical organizations can use RPA for handling patient records, claims, customer support, account management, billing, reporting and analytics.
Human resources: RPA can automate HR tasks, including onboarding and offboarding, updating employee information and timesheet submission processes.
Supply chain management: RPA can be used for procurement, automating order processing and payments, monitoring inventory levels and tracking shipments.
Differences between RPA and regular automation
What distinguishes RPA from traditional IT automation is the ability of the RPA software to be aware and adapt to changing circumstances, exceptions and new situations. Once RPA software has been trained to capture and interpret the actions of specific processes in existing software applications, it can then manipulate data, trigger responses, initiate new actions and communicate with other systems autonomously.

RPA software is particularly useful for organizations that have many different and complicated systems that need to interact together fluidly.

For instance, if an electronic form from a human resource system is missing a zip code, traditional automation software would flag the form as having an exception and an employee would handle the exception by looking up the correct zip code and entering it on the form. Once the form is complete, the employee might send it on to payroll so the information can be entered into the organization’s payroll system.

With RPA technology, however, software that has the ability to adapt, self-learn and self-correct would handle the exception and interact with the payroll system without human assistance.

Top RPA vendors
Automation Anywhere Inc. provides an enterprise digital workforce platform geared toward procure-to-pay, quote-to-cash, HR, claims processing and other back-office processes.
Blue Prism focuses on providing organizations in regulated industries with more agile virtual workforces, offering desktop-aligned robots that are defined and managed centrally.
EdgeVerve Limited, an Infosys company, helps enterprises modernize customer service, improve business processes and enhance operational productivity.
HelpSystems enables companies to streamline IT and business operations by automating tasks and workflows without the need to write code.
UiPath offers an open platform to help organizations efficiently automate business processes.
Workfusion combines robotics, AI-powered cognitive automation and workforce orchestration to automate enterprise business processes.
What to look for in RPA software
When enterprise leaders look for RPA technologies, they should consider a number of things, including:

Scalability: Organizations shouldn’t select RPA software that requires them to deploy software robots to desktops or virtualized environments. They should look for RPA platforms that can be centrally managed and scale massively.
Speed: Enterprises should be able to design and test new robotic processes in a few hours or less, as well as optimize the bots to work quickly.
Reliability: As companies launch robots to automate hundreds or even thousands of tasks, they should look for tools with built-in monitoring and analytics that enable them to monitor the health of their systems.
Simplicity: Organizations should look for products that are simple enough that any employee in the business can build and use them to handle various kinds of work, including collecting data and turning content into information that enables leaders to make the best business decisions.
Intelligence: The best RPA tools can support simple task-based activities, read and write to any data source, and take advantage of more advanced learning to further improve automation.
Enterprise-class: Companies should look for tools that are built from the ground up for enterprise-grade scalability, reliability and manageability.
C-level decision-making around RPA
Though automation software is expected to replace up to 140 million full-time employees worldwide by 2025, many high-quality jobs will be created for those who maintain and improve RPA software.

When software robots do replace people in the enterprise, C-level executives need to be responsible for ensuring that business outcomes are achieved and new governance policies are met.

Robotic process automation technology also requires that the CTO/CIO take more of a leadership role and assume accountability for the business outcomes and the risks of deploying RPA tools.

Additionally, the COO, CIO and chief human resources officer, as well as the relevant C-level executive who owns the process being automated, should all work toward ensuring the availability of an enterprise-grade, secure platform for controlling and operating bots across systems.

Where the robotic process automation market is heading
A Global Market Insights Inc. report expects the RPA market to reach $5 billion by 2024. The increased adoption of RPA technologies by organizations to enhance their capabilities and performance and boost cost savings will reportedly drive the growth of the robotic process automation market most during that time.

RPA与自动化测试工具、爬虫工具、按键精灵的异同

RPA 和BPM 啥关系

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-difference-between-a-BPM-and-an-RPA

Both BPM (Business Process Management) and RPA (Robotic Process Automation) have specific benefits that aid enterprises, teams, employees and their customers. But both are distinct.

BPM:

Aims to improve existing business processes to align with corporate goals. For instance, a company may implement BPM because customers are complaining. They’re not receiving adequate help in a timely manner. BPM addresses where the problem areas are — dated technology? System errors? Duplicate processes absorbing employee time? — and provides solutions.
Assesses and monitors current processes for adaptable optimization. What the stakeholders may realize is there are several areas of concern within the processes both for employees and customers. We can map out (process modeling: you can read more about this here from my company) the processes and begin a plan of action to move the as-is scenario (current processes) towards the to-be scenario (optimized processes to counteract existing complications).
Continuously improves processes to reach new and updated needs. When one problem area is corrected with BPM, it’s a smart bet to have other processes, departments, and critical areas of success be monitored and optimized too. The point is to strengthen a company’s internal structure by fully understanding their processes and using the correct tools for the job.
Now onto RPA…

RPA:

Uses bots. RPA is a software, enhanced with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. Its job is to handle repeatable tasks automatically.
Frees hands. Employees are often forced to deal with repetitive tasks. Whether that means inputting data or monitoring that data — it falls into their hands. Truthfully, their cognitive input is best suited in areas that require a human touch (so to speak). RPA is introduced to oversee those repetitive tasks with efficiency, providing successful solutions each time.
Is software. RPA is automated robotic software. It doesn’t optimize processes (on its own) by outlining areas of interest or concern. But it does help in this area.
A powerful tool along side BPM. You’ll most likely find a process or two that would benefit (workers) if it were to be automated. Especially while moving from the as-is to the to-be solution, outlined with BPM. That’s where RPA comes in.
So, BPM corrects, develops, and maintains the strength of internal corporations. And RPA is the automated friend that can free up time, hands, and streamline work efficiency. Basically, they’re buddies with similar interests but differing strengths.

I work in this BPM software area. The advantages of RPA are being realized consistently. If you have the time (and the curiosity), there’s more about the combined power of RPA with BPM at my company website here. (Hint: it has to do with a recent collaboration between IBM BPM).

In my opinion, BPM and RPA compliment each other very nicely. They both automate processes but at different levels of process hierarchy.

As shown in the diagram below a BPM software would normally be used to automate Level 3 and Level 4 processes in the hierarchy (e.g. Order Management process), while RPA would automate Level 5 processes (activities, standard operating procedures e.g. Ship Order activity).

Even though they automate different levels of process, they can still work together in harmony.

Example

Consider a basic version of the order management process. You have automated the process using a BPMS, but it lacks integration with let’s say the shipping vendor’s system.

In order to complete the Ship Order activity shown in the process above, you will need to work on multiple systems. Here is a quick list of different tasks that you might need to perform.

Login to order management system
Search and open order details
Login to the shipping vendor’s system
Copy and paste all the required data from order management system to shipping system
Ship the order and copy tracking number from shipping system back into order management system
Log out and close the shipping system
Mark order as shipped in order management system
Log out and close the order management system
If you get one or two orders a day, these tasks might not be a big deal, but if this is happening 100 times a day, then you are spending a considerable amount of time on non-value add work.

Approach

If you have similar situations in your organization, where processes have been automated using a BPMS but due to lack of integrations have resulted in swivel chair activities, then RPA tools can help you.

A swivel chair activity means that a user has to perform tasks in multiple systems in order to complete a single activity of a process. In the order management process example, Ship Order was a swivel chair activity.

The idea behind Process-Diven RPA approach is that your process keeps running inside a BPMS without any major modifications. You automate non-value add swivel chair activities by using the digital workforce (bots) provided by the RPA tool. Referring to the earlier example of order management process, once your process reaches the Ship Order activity, instead of a human doing all the tasks, a trained bot can perform all the tasks.

This approach can help you (in a way) integrate with systems that might not have been possible otherwise and more importantly free up your human resources, who can work on value-add work instead.

References

How To Make BPMS And RPA Work Together - Part 1
How To Make BPMS And RPA Work Together - Part 2

For more information about BPM and RPA, check this link out:

Business Process Management vs. Robotic Process Automation: How to Choose

算不算应用场景

“If a file is not updated for more than 3 days, the system will automatically send out alert by email”, do you consider this process as RPA? My understand for the current stage of RPA is “mimicking the behavior between human and computer interface”

书籍

Check out these trilogy of authoritative books written by renowned experts Dr. Leslie P. Willcocks and Dr. Mary C. Lacity:

Service Automation: Robots and the Future of Work
Robotic Process Automation and Risk Mitigation: The Definitive Guide
Robotic Process and Cognitive Automation: The Next Phrase
Dr. Willcocks is Professor in Technology Work and Globalization at the Department of Management at London School of Economics and Political Science. He also heads the LSE’s Outsourcing Unit research centre.

Dr. Lacity is Curators’ Distinguished Professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and a Visiting Scholar at MIT CISR.

Spoilers alert

The first book, Service Automation, distils a year of empirical learning about service automation. The findings were based on survey, in-depth client case studies, and interviews with various industry stakeholders.

Some of the key content covered include:

Different types of automation
Empirical evidence of business benefits
Numerous in-depth case studies
Thirty key lessons on deploying service automation in workplace
Predictions and critique on the Future of Work
The second book, Robotic Process Automation and Risk Mitigation, is a sequel to the first one. In this book, the authors pioneered the concept of a “triple win” from RPA – a win for shareholders, customers and employees.

The book acknowledges that automation is fraught with risks that need to be mitigated. In response, the book introduces a framework of thirty key risk mitigation practices that all organizations will find useful, regardless of which stage of the RPA journey they are in.

The third book, Robotic Process and Cognitive Automation, was published earlier this year. Given the buzz around Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, and the shift away from Robotic Process Automation towards Intelligent Automation, this is one book that we should all pick up.

11 (mostly free) resources to kick-start your Robotic Process Automation journey

RPA 101

In this Age of Automation, it pays to be prepared for disruptive technologies like RPA. Check out these top 11 resources to gain a head start over your peers now.

Robotic Process Automation or RPA has been making the headlines of late.

Just this past week, PwC released a report titled Will robots really steal our jobs?

According to the researchers, they have identified three waves of automation that might unfold over the next twenty years. The three waves are:

Wave 1 (to early 2020s): Algorithmic
Wave 2 (to late 2020s): Augmentation
Wave 3 (to mid-2030s): Autonomic

The interesting thing to note is that the percentage of existing jobs at potential risk of automation varies according to the wave we are in, from a low of three percent in Wave 1 to a high of thirty percent in Wave 3.

38% of jobs in USA could potentially be automated by Wave 3 (Source: PwC)

Against this backdrop, we think that it is important for everyone to be prepared for disruptive technologies like RPA.

However, we understand that new technologies can appear very daunting, especially to newcomers or non tech-savvy persons.

Instead of letting you sink in this vast ocean of uncharted waters, we have put together a list of the top eleven resources that can help you get started in your own RPA journey.

And the best part of it?

Most of the resources listed here are free.

Let’s get started then.

1. The RPA Bible: Your Practical & Technical Guide to RPA

This comprehensive 84-page report was published by HfS Research in collaboration with Symphony Ventures.

Accordingly to HfS Research, almost half of the RPA initiatives they studied fall short of their organizations’ expectations.

To avoid these common RPA pitfalls, this report describes an actionable set of eight elements required for successful RPA orchestration. This range from exception handling to security.

Source: HfS Research / Symphony Ventures

Update: Due to “popular demand”, this report is unfortunately no longer made available for free since 1 December 2017.

2. Burned by the bots: Why robotic automation is stumbling

Continuing on the same theme, this insightful blog post by McKinsey discusses why RPA is not the “walk in the park” that many RPA vendors made it out to be.

Though relatively short in length, this blog post is choke full of insights that leaves plenty of food for thought for the reader.

The following is my personal favourite:

“The cultural effects of bots on operators are just being discovered. For example, asking operators to program bots that could take their jobs can understandably create real personnel and morale issues at the front line.”

Make no mistakes. This blog post does not merely scratch the surface, but goes deep into the heart of what’s ailing RPA initiatives.

3. The Forrester Wave™: Robotic Process Automation, Q1 2017

Unsure which is the best Robotic Process Automation tool in the market right now?

Well, listen to the experts.

Forrester has identified twelve most significant RPA software providers and evaluated them based on 28 different criteria.

According to them, Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism and UiPath are the leaders in this market.

Source: Forrester

This report also highlighted that RPA is rapidly gaining interest as many enterprises are facing tremendous pressure to digitize and transform their operations.

And that governance, robotic controls and analytics are the key differentiators between the leaders and laggards in the RPA software space.

You can download a copy of this report free, courtesy of EdgeVerve.

4. UiPath

As mentioned earlier, Forrester ranked UiPath’s technology as a leader in the RPA industry.

A Romanian company founded way back in 2005, UiPath is perhaps most famous within the industry for its Community Edition.

Free, fully featured and extensible, the Community Edition is lending support to UiPath’s drive to democratize RPA.

For those of you who are looking to get your hands dirty, this is the place to go. To learn more, please read How to Get Started in Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in Only 15 Minutes.

UiPath is also one of the pioneers to launch an open online UiPath Academy where users can attend training and get certified. Register for a free account and you can get access to a variety of e-learning courses.

5. WorkFusion

Continuing in the spirit of giving, we have WorkFusion’s RPA Express.

RPA Express is a free, enterprise-grade software that allows you to integrate core systems and automate transactions.

Yes, free as in beer.

And similar to UiPath, WorkFusion has its own Automation Academy. You can sign up for free and gain access to their online courses on RPA and AI.

6. Institute for Robotic Process Automation and Artificial Intelligence (IRPA AI)

Formerly known as Institute for Robotic Process Automation or IRPA, IRPA AI was founded in 2013. As stated in their LinkedIn description, IRPA AI is an independent professional association, and knowledge forum for the buyers, sellers, influencers and analysts of Robotic Process Automation.

Sign up for the free basic membership, and you can gain access to a ton of expert insights, including authoritative commentary, white papers, case studies, interviews and trends.

In addition, they regularly conduct webinars covering a range of key topics related to RPA.

And the best part of it all?

All the webinars are recorded and playable on demand. So you do not have to worry about missing webinars because of schedule conflicts or time zone differences.

7. Shared Services and Outsourcing Network (SSON)

SSON is an online news source for global business services executives and business leaders who leverage technology and best practices to improve operational efficiency.

As its name suggests, its key target audience is the global community of shared services and outsourcing professionals.

However, since business processing outsourcing is a key industry being disrupted by RPA, a lot of content on this website is actually related to RPA.

Similar to IRPA AI, you can subscribe for a free membership, and get access to an extensive library of reports, infographics, whitepapers, webinars and online events from the world’s foremost thought leaders.

Of note is their Intelligent Automation World Series, an online event where industry leaders and organizations share case studies and thought leadership presentations that they have pioneered in.

The next iteration is on February 12 to 15, so do register now.

Lastly, while you are still at SSON, go and download the Global Intelligent Automation Market Reports (H1 2017 and H2 2017).

These reports contain such great materials that even RPA consultants can draw reference from.

8. The Artificial intelligence & Intelligent Automation Network (AIIA Network)

AIIA Network is an online community focused on building the intelligent enterprise. Pretty much in the same vein as SSON, which is not surprising since they are both divisions of IQPC.

AIIA Network focuses on the following topics:

Artificial Intelligence
Autonomous vehicles
Big data
Cyber security
Digital disruption
Digital transformation
Intelligent automation
Machine learning
Robotic Process Automation
Robotics

What you should not miss is the AI Network Podcast series. It features in-depth conversations with industry leaders, many of whom work in Fortune 500 organizations and are RPA practitioners themselves.

Sprinkled throughout these podcasts are nuggets of thought-provoking and practical wisdom gleaned through real-life experiences with RPA implementations.

For organizations looking to embark on their RPA journey, these podcasts will definitely help to cut short your own learning curve.

9. Service Automation: Robots and the Future of Work

10. Robotic Process Automation and Risk Mitigation: The Definitive Guide

11. Robotic Process and Cognitive Automation: The Next Phrase

These trilogy of authoritative books is written by renowned experts Dr. Leslie P. Willcocks and Dr. Mary C. Lacity.

Dr. Willcocks is Professor in Technology Work and Globalization at the Department of Management at London School of Economics and Political Science. He also heads the LSE’s Outsourcing Unit research centre.

Dr. Lacity is Curators’ Distinguished Professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and a Visiting Scholar at MIT CISR.

Some of the key content covered include:

Different types of automation
Empirical evidence of business benefits
Numerous in-depth case studies
Thirty key lessons on deploying service automation in workplace
Predictions and critique on the Future of Work

The second book, Robotic Process Automation and Risk Mitigation, is a sequel to the first one. In this book, the authors pioneered the concept of a “triple win” from RPA – a win for shareholders, customers and employees.

The third book, Robotic Process and Cognitive Automation, will be published on 12 February 2018. Given the buzz around Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, and the shift away from Robotic Process Automation towards Intelligent Automation, this is one book that we are all eager awaiting for.

Bonus

As a bonus to our loyal readers, we are giving away two copies of the book Robotic Process Automation and Risk Mitigation: The Definitive Guide.

Simply click on the link below to submit your particulars for this lucky draw. Contest ends on 22 February 2018.

[

](https://goo.gl/forms/sjEgLx4ZvnEPyEHx1)

Good automating.

Are there any other (free) RPA resources which you think should have made it to this list? Please drop us your comments below.

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Is robotic automation like screen scraping or macros?

Many people often make the mistake of referring Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to a glorified macro.

While there are definitely similarities, a RPA software is inherently much more powerful than a simple macro script.

For example, the use of RPA provides the unique ability to integrate multiple, disparate IT systems at the User Interface (UI) level.

Furthermore, most of the enterprise RPA tools place a lot of emphasis on governance, which is not something you get with macros or scripts.

Good automating,

Robotic process automation is more than just a macro, or a shorthand representation for lines of code.

RPA is a dynamic, adaptable tool which goes beyond the inherent disadvantages in macros, such as full reliance on their designer (for solving any problem that may occur on the way), the overabundance of macros in an organisation with no security or management overlay, or the risk of becoming inoperable after software updates.

The flexibility of RPA and its capacity to adapt to a particular scenario makes it far more functional than macros, which can only repeat elementary steps over and over again, somewhat ‘mindlessly’. Another related benefit is that RPA tools are constantly evolving. Consequently, they are more likely to fulfil the requirements of new technologies that businesses might adopt.

As opposed to macros, which are built in individual machines, RPA is installed on a server. This renders it more scalable than macros. It also makes robotic process automation more cost-savvy, since it does not require supplementary training for its users as the number of automations running a process increases.

No, managerial Robotic Automation is a generation on from old technologies like screen scratching or macros.

The major differences are: Robots are universal application orchestrators – any application that can be used by a man can be used by a present day robot, whether mainframe, bespoke application, legacy, web service enabled or even a close 3rd party API hosted service.

Robots assemble procedural knowledge which after some time joins with a shared library that can re-used by some other robot or device.

Applications are “read” by the robot, either through submitted APIs where they exist, through the OS before application appear, or through the screen with respect to the native application. In this last case the modern robot “reads” an application screen in context and in the same way a user does. As part of the robot training it is shown how to read the application’s display much like a user is shown.

For more RPA doubts, refer

http://professional-guru.com/rpa-interview-questions/

How does your RPA tool deal with unstructured data like images, handwritten documents, signatures, etc?

The simple answer is that Robotic Process Automation (RPA) does not handle unstructured data gracefully. Most RPA tools today come bundled with data capture tools (i.e. Optical Character Recognition) that works reasonably well with structured/semi-structured data.

Having said that, the leading RPA tools are increasingly bundling third party cognitive services that can better handle unstructured data. Some examples would include natural language processing, computer vision, sentiment analysis, etc.

When would you choose system integration over RPA?

https://www.quora.com/When-would-you-choose-system-integration-over-RPA

Disclaimer: my views are primarily valid for a large organisation.

Ideally system integration should be chosen every time.

if not ideal then at-least you should know when/how to retire your RPA/RDA programme.

Otherwise you will always end up with many small RPA solutions that you need to support when any of your dependent system change any UI/business logic within. this becomes a quite uphill task if your organisation have over a few hundred applications that are in active development.

I’d recommend to use RPA/RDA for:

proof of concepts
day one delivery of certain MVPs where the system integration is in development and will take few more months to arrive in production
orchestrating across many vendor based systems that are currently marked for replacement and the replacement solution is few months away
adding integration capability to third party systems that your

organisation have no direct code access to, and the vendor has no eager to manage a separate version of their application with the feature set that you have requested.
Most RPA vendors as of today present a more attractive business case looking at Financial ROI, and time to market KPIs. but I have found that over time managing your RPA solutions and not being able to map reactively to functional changes that are happening in your dependent systems add more complexity.

I would prefer system integration if the return on investment (ROI) is better than deploying RPA. But you will find only few projects which will have that scenario. If you are working in local environment and have similar kinds of platforms /software try for system integration.

System Integration will mostly require full access to the back end scripts and the timeline for deployment is most likely higher than RPA. If you are in back office operations, then you may find multiple platforms like legacy, GUI and web based all being used together. This creates complexity to system integration.

On the other hand, RPA softwares are platform agnostic. They could be configured from front end also with any kind of platform. The timeline is lesser and its easy to train or find RPA developers. Thus its a preferable choice to go with RPA.

From my view point systems integration is always the best choice, however there are many limitations that prevent it from being the best path. This is where RPA comes in handy, as it can do the integration cheaper and quicker (in most cases).

Put your self in the shoes of the business why would they spend millions of dollars to get a team together to integrate something over the course of several years when RPA can solve the similar problems in 2–3 months and for a fraction of the cost to integrate. Many times getting systems integrated would involve crossing a political minefield that may not even be cross-able (RPA to the rescue again :) )

Really it all boils down to cost, complexity (level of effort required), and time to implement and RPA solutions typically win in each category majority of the time.

I would suggest the following quick rule of thumb:

(A) When there is no existing API, e.g. for legacy systems

This is straightforward. Use Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to automate mundane, repetitive tasks.
(B) When there is no existing UI

System Integration (SI) is the right choice.
(C) When there is both existing UI and API

Use RPA for lower effort and quicker implementation
Use SI for greater flexibility and visibility
Nevertheless, each individual case is unique, and you need to independently assess the merits of both RPA and SI.

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