Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has resulted from the use of multiple technologies to solve business problems. It started by using the humble legacy technologies like screen scraping combined with the Automation workflow software. With the advent of Artificial Intelligence, the cognitive aspects also have started showing up in RPA ( tag rpa ) tools.
Different RPA providers have taken different paths technologically and have evolved into AI unicorns that we see today. All companies have worked with early customers to improve their Digital workforce or bot offerings.
RPA is computer software that automatically performs repetitive tasks. This feature provides businesses with money, time, and customer satisfaction and increases productivity. Regardless of income and size, all businesses prefer RPA systems for digital transformation.
History of Robotic Process Automation:
One of the first steps towards the innovation which would eventually lead to the creation of RPA was Machine Learning (ML). It’s widely credited that the name was first coined in 1959 by Arthur Samuel, a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence who at the time was working for the infamous computer company, IBM. Machine learning started as a scientific endeavor aimed at creating artificial intelligence.
Cognitive RPA allows for better optical character recognition (OCR), natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning to handle semi-structured and unstructured data, expanding the efficiencies of RPA to a wider range of enterprise activities. tag rpa
RPA emerged in the 2000s Blue prism released their first product in 2003, UiPath and Automation anywhere released their automation libraries around the same time.
They were looking at different levers to continue to deliver annual cost savings to their customers. In an effort to continue to reduce costs, RPA started out improving the repetitive processes carried out by these Outsourcing providers.
Different Tools under RPA [ tag rpa ]:
Different RPA providers have taken different paths technologically and have evolved into AI unicorns that we see today. All companies have worked with early customers to improve their Digital workforce or bot offerings.
Blue Prism:
Blue Prism started off to create an outsourced workforce for BPOs.
Blue Prism was focused on creating a Digital workforce from the beginning – they were thinking towards solving the problem of doing things an outsourced robot tag rpa would do including doing the work and scheduling them.
They claim to have coined the term “robotic process automation”. As per Bathgate, “We were doing robotic process automation before it was called robotic process automation..”
Blue Prism ( tag rpa ) is morphing into a technology platform. They have been calling it “Connected RPA”. The aim of the platform is to provide access and foundation for intelligent automation – across multiple industries, companies of all sizes, and across every geography.
Blue Prism robot relies on business objects to interact with applications. A business object acts as an adapter to the user interface of specific applications. Blue Prism is one of the few Object-based RPA tools and therefore does not have a recorder.
UiPath:
UiPath started off by building automation libraries and software development kits. These automation libraries were quite popular and used by companies such as IBM, Google, and Microsoft. These libraries are still embedded in some of their products.
It appears that UiPath then set out to productize these libraries. Initially, their product was not finding much traction. An Indian BPO company that was doing a pilot project to find the best provider of RPA technology discovered them.
Around 2012, tag rpa UiPath (DeskOver) launched the first UiPath Desktop Automation product line that specifically targeted the RPA market. They had just realized the market fit with RPA and started putting its resources into building a platform for training and orchestrating software robots.
Automation Anywhere [ tag rpa ] :
Automation Anywhere started off as Tethys Solutions and was founded in 2003. The name “Tethys” comes from the Greek goddess of water. Their vision was to make business process automation be as ubiquitous as water. Quite a great vision and they seem to be succeeding to a good extent on that.
Mihir and the team were aiming to replace the scripting applications that were manually done within organizations. Their product, Automation Anywhere allowed for the creation of business process automation designed by the user. They focussed on supporting all aspects of end-to-end business processes.
Automation Anywhere still looks quite like the product they released around 2009! The vision is remarkable. Automation Anywhere ( tag rpa ) has also started calling it a platform Automation Anywhere Enterprise. The RPA platform for the future of business process automation.
Their core product works like other RPA with a studio to configure workflows and a “Control Center” to deploy and manage the bots. They also have a product called IQ Bot which is RPA plus AI.
Components of RPA:
Robotic Process Automation includes some essential components that form the RPA platform. These components together help to automate repetitive and rule-based processes.
The core components of Robotic Process Automation are listed below:
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• Recorder
• Development Studio
• Plugin/Extension
• Bot Runner
• Control Center
Recorder:
The recorder is one of the critical components of Robotic Process Automation. It adds an ability to automate web, desktop, and mainframe applications in a natural macro-like way without the need for any programming, coding.
RPA Recorder also includes an option to modify the workflow and add the system actions manually. These actions may consist tag rpa of opening applications, switching to a specific window, working with a clipboard, manipulating Excel files, etc.
Development Studio:
Almost every RPA tool includes Development Studio in its core components. The Development Studio helps to design or develop intelligent process automation workflows. It allows you to get full control over the automation. It also allows you to install activities packages, wizards, recorders, and custom plugins.
Some features of RPA Developer Studio:
• Dashboard with GUI (Graphical User Interface).
• Different types of Recorders.
• Logging and Exception Handling.
• Integration support with OCR (Optical Character Reader).
• Collection of pre-built, drag-and-drop templates.
Plugin/ Extension:
Most of the RPA platforms consist of several plugins and extensions to perform easy development and execution. RPA plugins are the set of programs that can be installed along with the RPA tool.
These plugins handle different types of tasks, such as extracting the data from invoices, manipulating the dates of different databases, or transcribing speech, etc.
RPA plugins are beneficial as they reduce the development efforts, error rates, and implementation time. They can be directly used after they are installed along with the RPA tool.
Bot Runner:
Bot Runners are used for executing the developed software bots. They are the machines on which bots are run or executed. Multiple bots can be assembled parallelly for faster execution. The only requirement to run the bots is Run License.
The bots also report the execution status (i.e., execution logs, pass, or fail, etc.) back to the control center. Once a developer creates a software bot or task and further updates the status on the control room, the control room schedule and executes the bots on the bot runner. The serial of bot execution usually depends on the requirements or priorities.
Control Center:
The control center is the most important component of any RPA tool. It is a web-based platform that is used to control the software bots created by the Bot Creator.
It allows users to schedule, manage, control, and scale the activity of a vast amount of digital workforce. It also offers features such as centralized user management, automation deployment, source control, and a dashboard.
Uses of Robotic Process Automation (RPA):
Below mentioned are some uses of Robotic Process Automation,
• Customer Service.
• Invoice Processing.
• Boost Productivity.
• Employee Onboarding.
• Payroll.
• Storing Information.
• Analytics.
Benefits of RPA in Business:
• Increased Productivity.
• Increased Efficiency.
• Enhanced Accuracy.
• Increased Security.
• Boost in Scalability Opportunities.
• Improved Analytics.
• Enhanced Customer Service.
• Non-disruptive.
Conclusion:
We can conclude that RPA provides operational flexibility using an integrated skilled digital workforce.
The combination of the capable RPA platform with these features enables the enterprise to accelerate the business improvement further and faster than ever before.
Frequently Asked Question:
What is the history of RPA?
When was RPA first introduced?
What is RPA introduction?
What are the components of RPA?
What are the three components of intelligent RPA architecture?
What are Automation Anywhere components?
Hope the article helps you well in understanding RPA.
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