Some of our readers had requested us to cover robotic process automation (RPA).

Hence, we are here

providing a brief overview of this interesting and important trend in information technology. We will
also examine how natural language processing and machine learning play a role in RPA.

What is robotic process automation?

Robotic process automation (RPA) is defined by the Institute for Robotic Process
Automation (IRPA) as ‘the application of technology allowing 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.’
In other words, it involves automating certain tasks or processes that manipulate data. While the
definition of RPA as defined by IRPA is very broad and uses the word ‘robot’, real life RPA has
nothing to do with robots. Though the term ‘robotic process automation’ conjures up visions of an
army of robots doing some human tasks, such as moving things or carrying out some other such
physical labour, RPA does not have anything to do with robots themselves. It is a form of automation
where intelligent software processes take over certain tasks that have typically been performed by
human beings.

The readers may now be wondering how this is different from normal software processes involved in
desktop automation, which typically do many tasks such as generating bar charts from data, or
performing accounting calculations in Excel spreadsheets, typically performed by defining custom
macros. Well, the difference comes from the fact that such simple automation scripts fail when there
is a decision to be made and when there are a set of complicated steps to follow in order to achieve a
task. Typically, desktop automation is limited to defining functions or macros that operate within an
application. Let us consider an example from the financial services, namely, the accounts payable
process. This is a critical function in all organisations. It includes reconciling the statements
submitted by the vendors against the statements of the internal buying departments of an
organisation. An organisation can buy goods and services from outside vendors. The purchase
process is typically carried out by means of purchase orders. When the goods and services are
received, the buying departments create the ‘received’ reports. The vendors or sellers of these goods
and services then submit invoices for payment by the organisation. The reconciliation is carried out
by a three-way process between the vendor invoices, received reports and the purchase orders.

While this appears to be a routine task, mismatches between these three data sources can require
human intervention and decision making. A typical mismatch could be where the vendor shows the
invoice as unpaid whereas the internal department system shows the invoice as paid. The accounts
payable process then needs to identify the root cause of the mismatch, and so carries out one of the
following three actions. If it finds that the invoice has already been paid, it needs to send the payment
details to the vendor. If it has been processed and marked as not paid, it needs to provide the reasons
for non-payment to the vendor. Or if the invoice has not been received, it should send a notification
to the vendor to send a duplicate invoice. This is a repetitive task and needs decision-making based
on the type of mismatch found. Hence, this task is typically done by humans.

Given the repetitiveness of the task and the need for decision-making, this is an ideal task for RPA.
The RPA tool, when deployed, can isolate the mismatches and take the required action. Instead of
having humans perform this repetitive task, using a robotic process automation tool will improve
productivity by over 90 per cent, while achieving the highest accuracy. This is just one simple
example of an RPA tool. Many such instances exist in the organisational workflow. Today, many of
the business processes that were outsourced are getting transformed as a result of RPA. Business
processes can either be front-end operations dealing with customers in call centres, or they can be
back-end processes such as accounts payable, checking the derivatives trades, insurance claims
processing, etc.

Automation of front-end operations typically involves chat bots or conversational agents. These
automation processes usually require natural language processing or natural language understanding.
Back-end operations can be either based on structured data or unstructured data. Structured data
operations typically include data operations on various databases. Unstructured data operations
typically include processing of documents, images and multi-modal data. Now, let us take a brief
diversion to understand how natural language processing (NLP) can aid in RPA.

Figure 1: RPA capabilities in three stages

Natural language processing and RPA

According to industry experts, RPA is likely to progress through three stages of innovation. The first
stage consists of dealing with static rules and structured data, with tasks such as data entry and
validation getting automated. Stage 2 of RPA consists of some form of natural language
processing capabilities and performing tasks such as content analytics and process automation.
Stage 3 consists of advanced natural language processing and cognitive capabilities—this deals
with RPA systems capable of human-like decision-making. Figure 1 shows the evolution of RPA
capabilities through these three stages*.

While existing RPA solutions work on the ‘click and automate’ mode when dealing with structured
data, with regard to unstructured text data, RPA has not been exploited fully for intelligent
automation. Existing RPA solutions are ‘action based’ – they understand the actions being performed
on the GUI or on the back-end enterprise systems, be it data entered in a specific field in a form or a
table retrieved from a back-end database. Existing RPA scripts do not interpret the content of the
textual data that arises in the workflow. Knowledge from contextual text artefacts is not used either
in process discovery or in exception management.

Moving RPA systems from the ‘Repetitive Do’ cycle to a ‘Think – Judgement-based on context’
cycle requires incorporating content analytics of textual artefacts that are present in the business
process workflow. For instance, the ‘Repetitive Do’ cycle automation that handles structured data
and static rules is better suited for automating tasks such as claim processing, account data
reconciliation or data consolidation and validation. However, in scenarios where contextual
knowledge and judgement are required, such as in service desk incident resolution, complaint
resolution and management, eligibility processing—all of which involve unstructured text and
considerable exceptions—existing RPA solutions do not fare well, due to lack of intelligent text
processing.

Let us illustrate this with a simple use-case—the business workflow for a customer service desk
ticket resolution system for an ecommerce retailer back-end. The system’s tickets can be raised
through customer chats/emails and can either be responded to in real-time by agents via chat, or
offline over emails. For each problem reported, the information is hidden in unstructured text. Each
complaint needs to be identified for its respective category – such as missing item, delayed delivery,
cancelling of purchase, change of address of the customer, etc. For each specific problem, there is a
sequence of actions involved. All problem tickets have the initial sequence steps of:

a. Authenticating the customer.

b. Processing order details and retrieving them.

c. Verifying the customer address, which is part of the back-end compliance mechanism.

After these steps, the problem resolution consists of a sequence of actions that can be different for
different problems.

d. Identify the problem category.

e. Find the appropriate resolution.

f. Identify the action sequence to resolve the problem.

g. Record the action sequence for resolution.

While steps (a) to (c) are ideal for traditional RPA since they typically deal with structured data
entered through forms, steps (d) to (g) require dealing with unstructured textual content,
understanding contextual knowledge, as well as content analytics and judgement. NLP modules
aid in problem categorization based on unstructured text, knowledge mining of back-office problem
manuals to identify the resolution, parsing previous interactions to mine the action sequence in terms
of extracting the verbs/subject/object from the text, and outputting the necessary action sequence.
Existing RPA solutions can help automate steps (a) to (c), but typically fail when automating steps
(d) to (e). However, by employing natural language processing techniques, RPA tool suites can be
enhanced to automate steps (d) to (e).

Selfnote: Content analytics is the act of applying business intelligence (BI) and
businessanalytics (BA) practices to digital content. Companies use content analytics software to
provide visibility into the amount of content that is being created, the nature of that content and how
it is used.

Content analysis is a technique for systematically describing written, spoken or visual

communication. It provides a quantitative (numerical) description. Many content analyses involve
media - print (newspapers, magazines), television, video, movies, the Internet.

A similar problem emerges in insurance claim validation. Typically, insurance claims contain
unstructured data like supporting documents that need to be analysed in case of any potential
violations. Data also needs to be extracted from multiple systems and validated against each other.
Given that it is possible to synthesise a set of rules to cover the validation process, this is a good
candidate for RPA.

So far, we have been talking about existing RPA capabilities in terms of being able to handle static
rule-based tasks which are repetitive and whose decision-making can be condensed into a form of if-
then statements. How can RPA deal with more complex decision-making scenarios? How can it learn
to handle exceptions in a workflow like humans do? Who are the leading vendors in RPA? We will
cover these topics in next month’s column.

If you have any favourite programming questions/software topics that you would like to discuss on
this forum, please send them to me, along with your solutions and feedback,
at sandyasm_AT_yahoo_DOT_com.

Robotic Process Automation Training

What is Robotic Process Automation?
Robotic Process Automation (RPA), allows automation of the human tasks
that are done on a computer, thereby reducing the time for the task to be
done, reducing or eliminating the effort required by a human being, reducing
the costs associated with the execution of the task and increasing the quality
of the work done.
Since RPA applies to any industry sector that has human interacting with the
computer, the potential impact of RPA is HUGE. RPA is done rapidly,
 sometimes within days and starts saving money from the day 1. Companies
worldwide are looking at RPA as a technology which can help them achieve
compliance and do much more with less resources
Some (but not limited to) of the sectors where RPA can be implemented
 BPO Non-Voice sector
 Business Support Services like Finance, HR, Admin, Sales, Marketing, etc.
 Data Analytics will see a lower but sure impact
 All areas where compliance and reporting are major needs
 IT will face a lot of impact as IT itself is the enabler of automation
 BFSI will see a major impact (the department focused on cost reduction)
 Insurance is already on the way towards automation
 SAP users will see a lot of automation and major impact on people
RPA is used by companies to cut down time and effort (and thereby reducing
cost) while improving quality of work. Therefore, people who are suitable for
RPA are the people who can look at the Business Process in detail with a
critical eye and visualize what can be done better. It helps to know the tools
and their capabilities. RPA needs a lot of detailing to understand the process
operations that are performed subconsciously by a human being. Attention to
detail and questioning techniques come into picture here to extract lot of
information from the current user to be able to define the operation correctly
and completely.
Some of the Robotic Process Automation Vendors:
Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, Contextor, EdgeVerve
Systems, Kofax, Kryon Systems, NICE, Pegasystems, Redwood
Software, Softomotive, UiPath, WorkFusion

Next Space is one of the best Robotic Process Automation Training institutes,
we provide experiential learning where you work on building a real project
while in training and can use the learning from the very next day.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) – What Why How All You Need
to Know
What is Robotic Process Automation:
I have been researching and reading about Robotic Process Automation since 2014. In
this post I’m going to explain all my understanding and researches about RPA in a
layman’s language. So that anybody who reads this post will get a clear understanding
about RPA.
Robotic Process Automation or RPA (now a days for everything there is an acronym)
is simple words means:

“robots are going to do the tasks which are now performed by humans”.

Don’t worry not literally as in the below pic

Let me now go in detail:

 When I say robots are going to do the human tasks that doesn’t mean physical
robots are going to sit infront of the computer and do the tasks, it means a
software application that will replicate the actions or tasks exactly the way
how a human does.
 RPA will automate low value clerical activities performed by humans. Most
importantly RPA is only for clerical process automation and not for all human
activities.
Now this would have suddenly rang a bell – humans are going to lose jobs!??

Answer is Not Exactly!

Of course there will be some changes in the way how we have been working so far.
RPA is going to open up new opportunities for human workers. Robotic Process
Automation is a way of Artificial Intelligent workers performing the tasks.
We should be smart enough to identify those new opportunities and prepare
ourselves to grab it as and when it arises (Infact now is that right time).

Why to automate repetitive tasks/process:

When a job gets monotonous people lose interest but not robots!, then why do
humans have to do those monotonous, low value adding, repetitive jobs?

Humans can do much better interesting jobs!

When something is delivered without interest, chance more for errors. In case of
robots there is no such complications as robots doesn’t have interests unlike humans.

Industrial experts substantiate the automation for below reasons:

1. To avoid human errors and to reduce human efforts.

2. To saves time and improve productivity, accuracy and consistency.
3. Enhance the business analytics and easy standardization of workflow.
4. To have a frictionless delivery of tasks.
5. Complete Audit trail for any kind of compliance purposes.
6. Cost reduction.

What is Audit Trail?

1. a system that traces the detailed transactions relating to any item in an accounting
record.
2. Paper or 'electronic' trail that gives a step by step documented history of a transaction.
It enables an examiner to trace the financial data from general ledger to the source
document (invoice, receipt, voucher, etc.). The presence of a reliable and easy to follow
audit trail is an indicator of good internal controls instituted by a firm, and forms the
basis of objectivity.
 Read more: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/audit-trail.html

Source: www.automationanywhere.com

Two examples from the past:

Ok! now think it in this way, when computers were introduced
there were objections from many group of people around world. People were saying
“computers are going to take away the human jobs” but was it so??
One of the biggest revolutions that has ever happened in the history was ‘Books to
Computers’. Now I don’t have to explain anything more about the billions of
opportunities computers created. How computers have changed the word!
People who were smart and fast enough to adapt to computers grabbed the
opportunities while others were busy protesting.
Opportunities didn’t stop there, it was keep following form then.
I would want to take one more simple example from the past:
Microsoft Excel has been a fantabulous application and it’s a bread and butter for
millions of people around the world. But in excel also people does monotonous, low
value adding, repetitive jobs, so whats next??
Some people were smart enough even there too, found opportunity for automation and
simplification. They learned more about Excel formulas, Macros, VBA etc. and
grabbed those opportunities.
They got paid well and grew in their career (me too have the similar experience)
while others were still struggling with untidy monotonous jobs in Excel.
So what I’m trying to make you understand is Robotic Process
Automation is one such golden opportunity!
Now lets come out of that era of Excel Formulas, Macros and VBA, world has gone
further from there!
For example who likes to sit and process 100s of invoices everyday throughout their
life?? No-one right!! So what next??

RPA is going to be that change. Robots will do those kind of jobs exactly the way
how a human does.

That’s why I was saying don’t worry it’s not you and me going to lose the job; it’s a
bell ringing for people who are tired of doing monotonous clerical jobs. Its time for
them to prepare themselves for the new opportunities.

So now you might be thinking what are those new opportunities that I’m keep saying
and how to find those opportunities.

Before we get to discuss about the opportunities that RPA going to create, its required
to clearly understand –

How Robotic Process Automation works!

First let me say the good news – RPA is Code Free! Hurrah! Yes RPA doesn’t need a
single piece of code or need any programming skills to automate a process.
Then how does RPA work? – RPA works using Demonstrative Steps.
As I mentioned above it’s a way of Artificial Intelligent or rather virtual workers
performing the activities as exactly as human does.
Lets take a business process example, when a new joiner comes in the team how
he/she gets trained to perform a task, the same way these virtual workers also need to
be trained step by step.

Who are the best people to train the new joiner? ofcourse not the IT engineers!

Its the SMEs and Process Experts.

Similarly the best people to train the RPA robots also are the Business operations
people. The subject matter experts and the process experts.

And the best part with virtual workers are Once trained then lifetime permanent
worker, no attrition unlike human workers
Below is an example of how Robotic Process Automation works in an Order
Management Process.
Source: www.uipath.com
Process experts with no programming skill can become RPA experts in few weeks. As
per studies, few weeks of training on RPA tools can make operations people to
independently automate process.
List of Robotic Process Automation Tools

Below are some of the leading Robotic Process Automation vendors providing the
RPA tools to automate the processes.

1. Blue Prism
The term Robotic Process Automation was invented by Blue Prism, that itself proves
they are the pioneers in Robotic Process Automation software development. Blue
Prism has been recognized by the American IT research and advisory
company Gartner, Inc. They already have more than 100 customers around the world
and partnered with biggest giants like NHS, Accenture, Hexaware, Hewlett Packard
Enterprise, Capgemini, IBM etc.
 Blue Prism

Highly recommended to download the Free Brochure on Blue Prism product

overview.
2. UiPath
They are one of the most leading RPA vendors in the industry, already providing
robotic process automation solutions to companies like SAP, EY, J.P.Morgan,
Deloitte, Accenture, Capgemini, BBC etc.

Below are 3 Robotic Process Automation products provided by UiPath:

 UiPath Studio
 Front Office and Back Office – UiPath Robots
 UiPath Orchestrator
Contact UiPath for Trial
3. AUTOMATION ANYWHERE– Go be great.
Automation Anywhere is another top RPA vendors providing powerful and user-
friendly robotic process automation tools to automate tasks of any complexity. They
are partnered with companies like EMC2, KPMG, Deloitte, Accenture, Genpact,
Infosys etc.

Below is the robotic process automation product by Automation Anywhere:

 Automation Anywhere Enterprise

Contact Automation Anywhere for Demo
4. Softomotive
Softomotive is one of the leading Robotic Process Automation providers offers sharp
business solutions, premium support and professional services that organisations need
to get the most out of their enterprise automation. They been trusted by more than
6,000 companies worldwide, (Intel, IBM, SIEMENS, Accenture, Vodafone, pwc,
Adobe, Xerox, Cognizant etc).
Softmotive has been operating for more than 10 years in the software automation
market, and they offers the most reliable and scaleable automation solutions, bridging
the gap between best-of-breed technology and continuous innovation to deliver true
business transformation.

They are the same Company created the most powerful and easy to use Desktop
Automation Solution – WinAutomation, for individuals and small teams.
Revolutionizing the automation market since 2005.
Softomotive has developed a Robotic Process Automation Product exclusively for
enterprises, which will dramatically reduce the operational costs, increase efficiency,
improve productivity and accelerate performance. These software robots are name as:

 ProcessRobot
Schedule your live ProcessRobot product demo
5. Pega
Pegasystems is a software company develop strategic applications for sales,
marketing, services and operations. They have a wide variety of products designed for
different industries like Financial Services, Insurance, Healthcare, Communications,
and Government etc.

The advantage with Pega’s robotic process automation tool is that, they already have
industry leading BPM (Business Process Modeling) platforms and recently acquired
OpenSpan RPA software company. Which makes Pega a complete solution,
enterprises no longer have to choose between automation vs. digital transformation.
 Robotic Automation & Intelligence
Request a Demo
6. KOFAX from Lexmark
Kofax is a leading software company owns the trademark for “First Mile” of customer
engagement.
They have a Robotic Process Automation and Web Data Integration product called
Kofax Kapow. Which is highly scalable and flexible to provide any kind of robotic
automation and artificial intelligence capabilities.

 Kofax Kapow
Request a Trial
7. NICE
NICE is a leading RPA solutions providers in the industry having solid 6 customer
success stories. Their Free ebook on Robotic Process Automation Case Studies and
RPA Infographics provides more insights about the company and RPA.

 NICE
Get in Touch with NICE
8. G1ANT
Another pretty straight forward and a new Robotic Process Automation vendor who
operates on 3 simple steps automation.

Performance audit, Work automation and Technology Transformation.

 G1ANT
Watch how G1ANT robot works
9. Novayre Solutions
Novayre Solutions is a Spanish software company specialized in software
development, integration and automation. They have been providing business
intelligence and automation solutions since 2008. Novayre Solutions developed a
Robotic Process Automation with a unique name called Jidōka, which means
“automation with a human touch” in Japanese. The whole idea behind this RPA tool is
to replicate the human behavior using computer applications.
 Jidōka
Request a Jidōka demo
Now that we know some of the leading Robotic Process Automation vendors, the next
step is to decide which tool to choose. Its a hard decision! since all most all the RPA
vendors are providing the similar automation solution.

Robotic Process Automation Tool selection Checklist:

1. Technology
First and foremost is the technology in which RPA tool has been built, like Microsift
.NET, IBM Mainframe, Java, web etc. The tool has to be platform independent,
considering many of the organizations perform their day to day tasks outside the local
desktop using Citrix or Virtual machines etc. So the automation solution should be
able to support any application and platform.

2. Interface
Next most important feature is the RPA tool’s user interface. A complex user interface
will delay the process of implementation and increase the learning curve and
adaptability. A more user friendly interface like drag and drop, auto capture, image
recognition etc. would be better.

3. Management
It is important to know how effectively and easily the robots can be managed
considering these robots are going to be replacing your human workforce. There
should be a high level of visibility and control in terms of process monitoring, process
change, development, re-use etc.

4. Security
I would say security is one of the most important factor to be considered. How safe
are the robots when compared to the humans? After all robots/RPA tools are also a
piece of software, so how much more security controls can be implemented, test the
code rigidly and lock it up, the better. Automation solutions that supports the
compliance process (like HIPPA – For Healthcare industry, SOX – Financial
Sector, PCI DSS – Credit card related organization etc.) are some of the factors to be
considered in terms of security.
Different Robotics Process Automation Jobs
Robotics Process Automation jobs cab be broadly classify into 3 major categories.

1. RPA Developers/Architects
2. Robotic Process Automation Consultants/Specialists
3. RPA Leads/Managers
You can find more relevant RPA jobs and job descriptions here
There are many more topics related to RPA are on the way to be published, like the
ones below.

Subscribe to my Newsletter and be the first one to get notified, as soon as its
published.
1. Different Robotic Process Automation Job Opportunities
2. Best institutes providing trainings on RPA tools.
3. RPA related books review.
4. The Ultimate Guide to RPA. etc.
Let me conclude this RPA section in simple words “Give robots’ job to robots and
humans’ jobs to humans”
Please let me know what are other topics you would like to know about Robotic
Process Automation in the comments section below. I’m more than happy to answer
it!
https://www.automationanywhere.com/?r=google&w=RPA&kw=Robotic%20Process%20Automation&
match=p&network=g&place=&gclid=CjwKEAjwjPXIBRDhwICRg-
DbgHISJADP6QXpsgMejIFvndwf1l1kVatpho7gDwZwJY1ilxqBINaGShoCSoLw_wcB

http://www.blueprism.com/

http://opensourceforu.com/2017/03/robotic-process-automation/

https://www.automationanywhere.com/robotic-process-automation

http://irpaai.com/
http://www.infoworld.com/article/2898108/robotics/robotic-process-automation-new-it-job-killer.html

http://www.infoworld.com/article/2898108/robotics/robotic-process-automation-new-it-job-
killer.html?nsdr=true&page=2

How robotic process automation

threatens workers today
IT workers are concerned about how implementing robotic automation will
add to their workload right now more than they are worried about someday
losing their jobs to robots
By Stephanie Overby
CIO | JAN 6, 2016
IT professionals may or may not believe that robotic process automation (RPA) is a threat to
their long-term livelihoods, but they're not crazy about what it might do to their near-term
workloads.

Derek Toone, managing director at outsourcing consultancy Alsbridge, reports seeing push-back
from IT groups based not on a fear of job loss, but rather on the belief that RPA represents an
additional, burdensome project that will stretch resources, create extra work and disrupt the
enterprise.

[ Also on InfoWorld: How machine learning ate Microsoft. | Get a digest of the day's top tech stories
in the InfoWorld Daily newsletter. ]

"We've seen this concern raised in RPA implementations on which we're advising," Toone says.
"Roadblocks have been raised in a variety of areas, including enterprise architecture constraints,
IT security concerns and a perceived need to overhaul IT change management procedures.

However, such objections are off-base, according to Toone. "The impacts to an IT team are
minimal when automating business processes," he says. In order to implement such automation,
IT must first set up virtual services on which the robots will run and then provision robot access
to test and develop environments. Then, IT must provision logical access for the robots,
following the same policies and procedures that would apply to human users.

[ Related: IT pros don't fear rise of the robots ]

Once the RPA solution is up and running, IT collaborates with the RPA team on disaster
recovery and business continuity procedures as needed, and provides visibility into any changes
in IT systems that may require the RPA team to retrain the robots. Bandwidth, storage and
compute capacity requirements are typically unaffected, and existing change management
protocols are still applicable. "None of these activities require a significant level of IT
resources," says Toone.

FUD and robotic process automation

It's typical fear, uncertainty and doubt behind these workload worries -- and that's something that
IT leaders can alleviate. "Education on RPA that is very specific to the tools under consideration
-- what they are and what they aren't -- will go a long way," says Toone. "The RPA tools on the
market are not one-size-fits-all and nomenclature varies between different companies. Once an
understanding and comfort level with the solution being considered is achieved, most IT teams
can see the promise they hold and are enthusiastic to help their businesses achieve it."

IT workers, like other professions, may be impacted further down the line once RPA is used to
successfully automate IT-related processes and tasks. "Basically, any rules-based process that is
repetitive and involves structured digital data lends itself to being cost-effectively automated,"
Toone says. "As a result, RPA will redefine a lot of roles and require new skills and training. For
IT, there will be a lot of focus on managing the interfaces between automated functions and
human activity."

RPA can actually represent an opportunity for IT departments to further raise their profiles, says
Toone, by helping the business identify the enterprise tasks suited for automation, develop
interfaces across systems and applications to integrate and expand automation, and by
demonstrating leadership to users by embracing automation tools.

This story, "How robotic process automation threatens workers today" was originally published
by CIO.

What exactly is robotic process automation?

At its core, RPA is “robotic” software that organizations configure to capture and interpret the
actions of existing applications employed in various business processes. Once RPA software has
been trained to understand specific processes, it can then automatically process transactions,
manipulate data, trigger responses, and communicate with other systems as necessary. The
technology is designed to reduce or eliminate the need for people to perform high-volume IT
support, workflow, remote infrastructure, and back-office processes, such as those found in
finance, accounting, supply chain management, customer service, and human resources.

RPA software is composed of multiple components. First, for collection, they employ a variety
of tools for grabbing digital data, which can include screen scrapping, digital image recognition,
or the ability to access a server or be linked to a website. They also make use of rules engines
similar to those found in business process management tools.

“This is the basic requirement, that it works at the graphical user interface layer and doesn't need
much, if any, IT support,” says Cathy Tornbohm, vice president BPO (business process
outsourcing) research at Gartner. “RPA tools can be built from combining tools that perform the
various elements of these tasks.”

On the one hand, RPA promises huge cost savings and the elimination of tedious tasks for IT
infrastructure workers. On the other hand, it threatens the very survival of many of the jobs held
by those same infrastructure workers.

This time around, automation is after more than manual data-entry positions.

Eating into IT jobs

Not long ago, RPA was “a total mystery” to most organizations, but its potential is now grabbing
the attention of IT consulting and advisory firms, outsourcing providers, and enterprises alike,
says Frank Casale, a longtime outsourcing expert and founder of the newly formed Institute for
Robotic Process Automation (IRPA).
“I would say most IT infrastructure support jobs will be eliminated over the next three years.”

-- Frank Casale, founder, Institute for Robotic Process Automation

“This is a flash trend driven by a combination of really powerful process automation software
and artificial intelligence, and following a lot of trial and error” by vendors in the market, Casale
says.

IRPA touts the technology’s potential to significantly reduce risk in regulatory reporting, thanks
to improved analytics and increased data accuracy. But its estimate that RPA could save
companies 20 to 40 percent in labor costs is sure to raise eyebrows, signaling RPA’s clear
potential to wreak havoc on the IT workforce.

“I would say most IT infrastructure support jobs will be eliminated over the next three years,”
Casale says. “I’ve already seen [deployments] where there was 60-plus percent labor
automation.”

This includes jobs related to IT help desks, data center and server support, network support, and
other areas of IT maintenance. While the technology does not currently replace functions such as
application development and maintenance, that’s not to say future RPA technology won’t be able
to handle some of those tasks, Casale says.

If that sounds ambitious or even unlikely, it still underscores the ongoing evolution of
automation toward higher-value jobs.

RPA is most likely to replace data entry and data rekeying or data assembly and formatting tasks,
which are rules-based, Gartner’s Tornbohm says. “Almost any type of computer-related process
which is rules-based [and] which a human performs today could be affected at some point in its
lifecycle, where [RPA] could mimic what a human does,” she says. “It has affected IT in many
ways, often in software testing.”
Earlier advances in automation eliminated “blue collar jobs, ones we cannot even remember
today, like tape changers,” notes Chris Boos, CEO at RPA provider Arago. “RPA moves the
focus of automation up the value chain. At the same time, demand for IT experts is growing for
even higher-value jobs, because most companies are struggling to keep up with high-tech
development, and this is why RPA is a relief to most IT people.”

Robotic process automation in practice

“Our goal with RPA is to be able to take on additional work without the need to add staff.”

-- A.J. Hanna, senior director of operations support, Ascension Health

Health care provider Ascension Health deployed an RPA system from Blue Prism in early 2014
when it needed a way to avoid time-consuming manual processes associated with its move to a
new ERP platform.

“There is work that we refer to as ‘swivel chair’ activities, where we transfer data from one
source into the ERP or one of the support systems,” says A.J. Hanna, senior director of
operations support at Ascension. “Despite the implementation of the standard ERP, there is still a
large volume of local policy variability that has to be addressed.”

The use of RPA didn’t result in the elimination of jobs at the company, but the possibility
“certainly exists” in the future, Hanna says. “The impact to frontline processing staff is the
greatest potential change to our workforce,” he says. “A large part of our focus is trying to find
ways to be able to absorb the additional workload that we know is coming” without having to
add staff.

As the company moves more into the automation of rules-based activities, “We anticipate that it
will provide staffing reduction opportunities,” Hanna says. “Each of these opportunities will
have to be viewed within the context of the known increase in workload volumes that will be
coming in 2015 to determine potential impacts to staffing levels.”
“It hasn't necessarily been about cost reduction, but more about better service and improving
the effectiveness of our people.”

-- Danny Wootton, innovation director, CGI

While Ascension anticipates the potential for staffing reductions, “our goal with RPA is to be
able to take on additional work without the need to add staff,” Hanna says. “Any reductions that
may come from the use of RPA would be handled through normal attrition.”

Another company, IT services provider CGI, less than a year ago began working with three RPA
providers -- Thoughtonomy, Celaton, and Innovise -- for various aspects of process automation.
The two main drivers for the project were to achieve increased efficiency across IT and business
processes, as well as customer service improvements, says Danny Wootton, innovation director
at CGI.

“It hasn't necessarily been about cost reduction, but more about better service and improving the
effectiveness of our people,” Wootton says.

CGI has seen reduced efforts across a range of activities, from simple password resets to more
complex logic-based activities such as payroll and help-desk problem resolution. Like Ascension
Health, the firm at this stage hasn’t seen RPA affect the makeup of the IT workforce. “But it may
well be something we need to think about in the future,” Wootton says.

Robotic process automation: The

new IT job killer?
Robotic process automation has higher-value IT tasks in its cross-hairs but
could be the best antidote to outsourcing yet
 By Bob Violino
Contributing Writer, InfoWorld | MAR 23, 2015
Page 2 of 2

The silver lining

Experts say RPA doesn’t represent all gloom for tech workers. For one, the technology itself will
provide opportunities because organizations will need people who are skilled in implementing,
managing, and maintaining the programs.

“There is going to be a need for new skill sets in lower and middle management, for people who
are able to work with RPA platforms and understand how to manage them,” IRPA’s Casale says.
He has talked with people who worked in IT support and were displaced by RPA systems who
received training and went on to become experts in process automation.

In addition, companies could move some of the displaced workers into more interesting and
challenging types of jobs -- either in IT or other areas of the business.

“Absolutely will [RPA] free up time to do more important and more demanding jobs in IT,”
Arago’s Boos says. “The demand for experienced IT people is so incredibly high and cannot be
fulfilled by the current supply from universities and other education programs. Especially on the
experience side, moving people up the value chain is most important, and RPA will be a major
enabling factor here.”

Ascension Health has been able to free up some workers to focus on more complex activities,
Hanna says. The company’s goal is to cross-train or up-skill as many operations workers as
might be displaced by the use of RPA, Hanna says. “In some ways, we see the use of RPA as
having a greater potential to retain levels of staffing that you might not have if you outsourced
the entirety of the work to a traditional BPO,” he says.

Because there will always be exceptions that “fall out of the parameters covered by the robot, an
organization might keep the staff where previously they would have been outsourced,” Hanna
says.

CGI has been able to shift some of its IT people to other business activities, Wootton says. “We
see RPA changing the type of activities our people work on, by automating many of the
repetitive tasks, freeing up time for more value add activities [and] ultimately providing our
people more interesting and involving roles,” he says.

Prepare for some turmoil

Regardless of how RPA plays out within organizations, it’s likely the movement will touch on
passions around the possibility of job loss or the need for new skills. Companies will need to
address these challenges in order to make a smooth transition to a more automated IT support
infrastructure.
It certainly won’t be the first time there have been significant shifts in IT workforces within
organizations. “We’ve seen this movie before with the emergence of the Internet, outsourcing,
and with all forms of disruptive technology that have forced the reallocation of jobs,” IRPA’s
Casale says.

But RPA could create turmoil on a fairly large scale as more organizations adopt the technology.
“There are some natural resistances to the implementation of this type of technology, mostly
around the potential impact to people,” Hanna says.

No doubt RPA will continue to touch on passions, given the potential for workforce upheaval.
But those at the front lines of the technology say the sky is not falling for IT professionals.

“In many ways the RPA movement has been more readily embraced than traditional
outsourcing,” says Sean Tinney, global head of innovation and transformation at Sutherland
Global Services, a service provider that has helped companies in a half-dozen industries deploy
RPA.

“An RPA solution opens up more opportunities on or near shore than a traditional sourcing
model, as well as creates new roles both for the sourced and retained organizations, in order to
manage a fundamentally changed environment,” Tinney says. “In our experience, the passion
around RPA has been solely positive and quite often readily embraced.”

What is Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?

At its core, RPA is “robotic” software that you configure to capture and interpret the
actions of existing applications used in your various business processes. Once RPA
software has been “trained”, it can then automatically process transactions, manipulate
data, trigger responses, and communicate with other systems. The technology is
designed to reduce or eliminate the need for people to perform high-volume support,
workflow and back-office processes, such as those found in finance, accounting, supply
chain, customer service, and human resources.

Using RPA Strategically

We have identified specific repetitive processes where robotic software works most
effectively. These use cases include:

 Dual data entry, where information must be input manually – such as into a workflow
process and then your ERP system (sometimes called swivel chair management)
 Straight-through processing, where inputs from different sources (such as sales orders)
need to be integrated in a consistent manner
 Data extraction requests, to keep your reporting systems in synch.
 Routine decision-making, where conditions for your employees are unambiguous, such as
the approval of invoices based on known conditions.
Where should you start?

Once your process that you would like to automate has been identified, the next step is
to determine which software would be most appropriate for you to use. Most vendors
offer some trial or community version. Most solutions can be implemented with little IT
support, however we would recommend you have someone with some experience of
software solutions to help.

Here are some vendors to consider:

 UiPath
 Workfusion
 Automation Anywhere