Organizations worldwide are leveraging major advances in technology, including RPA and AI, to succeed in the new digital era. With an exponential growth in digital capabilities, it’s only a matter of time when organizations will integrate these emerging technologies into their systems, creating a new standard. All in all, automation holds enormous promise for various industry verticals, helping organizations achieve significant benefits, delivering value, and stepping up their game.
Although process automation is not new, this blog post aims to explain the acronyms – RPA and BPA.
What is Robotic Process Automation?
Robotic Process Automation refers to a software or application that helps automate specific business processes that are repetitive and rule-based. Large organizations require human workers to spend time answering queries, maintaining data records, etc. that are manually intensive and time-consuming. With RPA bots, employees can bid goodbye to mundane clerical tasks, focusing on higher-value work, thereby adding value to the organization.
Advantages of RPA solutions:
What is Business Process Automation?
Business process automation automates entire workflows, focusing on end-to-end processes, thus improving an organization’s efficiency. It goes beyond automating individual tasks to optimizing entire processes by implementing advanced software systems that integrate all existing applications.
Advantages of BPA:
RPA vs. BPA – explained
Let’s dive a little deeper to understand the difference between these two approaches.
RPA | BPA |
Software robots automate rule-based tasks in a specific process by mimicking user interactions | An end-to-end automation solution, it streamlines processes across an organization |
Can operate within existing software/applications, without disrupting existing business processes | Requires overhaul of existing systems to automate entire workflows |
Used for: website scraping, copying and pasting, document generation, opening emails, order processing, and shipping notifications, etc. | Used for: back-office processes, invoicing, document management, decision making |
Requires repetitive tasks that follow simple business rules | Requires in-depth analysis of business processes and inefficiencies |
Accesses existing user interface on desktops, replicates user behavior, record information, and store data for later use | Extracts information from diversified systems that require APIs, IT support, database access |
Conclusion
Did you know that half of today’s work activities could be automated by 2055? 1 Various industries such as banking, telecommunications, healthcare, and manufacturing, among others, are taking advantage of the benefits of automation — RPA tools and Business Process Automation —to usher in a transformative change.
Automation helps businesses kick-start their digital transformation journey, setting the foundation for sustained growth and revenue in the long run. With the rise in the adoption of RPA, far-sighted leaders are realizing the potential impact of breakthrough technologies to streamline processes, transforming business in unpredictable ways.