PROS AND CONS OF RPA

Blog: AuraQuantic Blog

In today’s
reality we are continually extending the use of digital technologies. In this
context, companies and organizations around the world are tackling their own
digital transformation process and making use of RPA (Robotic Process
Automation) tools with the aim of becoming more competitive. In this article we
want to explore RPA and analyze the pros and cons of its implementation.

RPA tools allow you to automate tasks, so they are carried out faster and more efficiently than if they were done by one person. These are tools that offer solutions to execute repetitive activities that can be very time consuming, lowering operating costs and minimizing human error.

In short,
Robotic Process Automation is helping companies to increase their capacities
and be more productive. However, implementing this technology, in many cases,
involves rethinking the processes and analyzing what specific tasks an RPA can
solve and the drawbacks it has.

Robotic Process Automation is helping companies increase their capabilities and become more productive

WHAT IS RPA?

In the
article RPA: Robotic Process
Automation – What It Is and How It Can Help Us, we can read the
definition of this type of software and learn about its main features:

“Robotic
Process Automation is technology aimed at using software to reduce human
intervention in IT applications, especially for use in repetitive tasks which
hardly vary in each iteration.”

In
technological terms, we can highlight that these are tools based on Artificial
Intelligence principles and, in many cases, incorporate elements such as OCR
and artificial vision, which enable the robot to move around the screens in its
software applications as a human would.

RPA INTEGRATION IN THE COMPANY

Robotic
process automation is relatively easy and quick to implement, but you need an integration
plan to guarantee success. First of all, we have to consider that an RPA is
designed to automate specific tasks and not to tackle end-to-end processes.

RPA can
imitate human behavior when it is repetitive, but is unable to solve tasks that
involve knowledge, understanding or ideas. It is especially efficient at
performing tasks such as moving through an application, copying and pasting
content, opening emails and attachments, doing checklists, identification
processes, moving files and folders, or integrating with other software using
the screens. It can perform these tasks the same way a person would, without
touching the system’s business logic or the data access layer.

RPA can imitate human behavior when using IT and office applications.

A robot can
reproduce human behavior, although it lacks the human ability to adapt to
change. Therefore, if we modify a process, a robot will be inefficient when
trying to solve its tasks and would generate a much greater problem than if a
person were performing those tasks.

But even when
the process is not modified, it is wise to monitor the robot’s activities.
Unlike a human, a robot does not know when something goes wrong, and some
errors could go unnoticed and require some human control.

On the
other hand, it should be noted that a robot is very useful for performing integrations
with legacy systems that do not have web technology or APIs to connect. Although,
whenever possible, we should opt for these technologies since they offer better
performance and more security guarantees than an RPA.

FUTURE VISION PROS AND
CONS OF RPA

Despite the
limitations, RPA technology is an essential tool to execute our digital
transformation plan. As we mentioned earlier, RPA is capable of handling
specific tasks, but is not intended to handle processes. Therefore, it seems
logical to think that in conjunction with other more specialized tools, it can
drive better performance.

In the
following video we can see some examples of how to combine technologies to
manage processes. In this case, a low-code tool like AuraPortal can manage a
process, making use of Blue Prism RPA to perform certain tasks in the workflow.

As we can
see, to modernize a company’s processes we may need to combine several tools.
It is essential to know the functionalities of each of the tools we use and to
think about what they can contribute separately to the general process.

In other
words, we can use a low-code tool to design and execute the process, which
includes integration with a robot to execute tasks with many repetitions; or
use a connection with some Artificial Intelligence software to solve tasks that
involve some cognitive ability. By coordinating the work of people and new
technologies, we can achieve effective processes which are in constant
evolution.

CONCLUSIONS

After analyzing
the pros and cons of RPA, we can conclude that it is undoubtedly a very useful
solution that will enable us to carry out certain tasks in a more efficient way
than a human could. Humans are clearly at a disadvantage compared to robots
when it comes to executing tedious and repetitive tasks, but we are much better
at innovating. Therefore, the logical thing is that we leave the routine tasks
to the machines to give people time to focus on what they are best at: creating
innovating and adding a human touch.

Only
organizations that are capable of developing processes that distribute work
between machines and people in a logical and balanced way will be able to
guarantee success.

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