Process automation has matured into a significant solution over the past decade. Enterprises seeking efficiency have embraced custom workflows to streamline how they conduct business. Yet there are limits to what tasks this technology has been able to automate. Process automation can become ineffective or limited when the business process:

• Involves a repetitive but necessary manual process (such as invoice processing)
• Requires integrating disparate legacy systems (which have no simple technology solution path)
• Requires manual oversight and review but are repetitive and inefficient
• Does not scale
• Is too expensive/too difficult/doesn’t bring enough ROI to justify automation

Enter Robotic Process Automation!

If an employee can use their computer to perform the tasks in a process by keyboard and mouse today, there is a good chance it can be automated using RPA. As an example, assume a company has a problem in its logistics chain and customers did not receive expected products. A logistical service manager seeking resolution may be required to perform many steps including:

• Log into the main ERP system to get the details of the order
• Log into the order system and determine what was ordered
• Log into the processing system to determine the order was correctly captured
• Log into the packaging system to ensure that the right volume made it to the shipper
• Log into the shipper’s system to ensure that the package was delivered on time and intact

A robot can do all of that and more. Integrating disparate systems which require manual checking not only reduces the risk of error, but significantly reduces time to decision making. Ultimately, the user will have to make the determination as to what happened and what went wrong, but the retrieval of the data can be automated. Most importantly, the service representative now has more time to spend reassuring the client while the remedy may take less time to deliver.