Here are some common things asked by our customers on 85 meetings so far.
What is RPA?
Robotic process automation (RPA) is a software technology that makes it easy to build, deploy, and manage software robots that emulate human actions interacting with digital systems and software. (Source: UiPath)
What can RPA bots do?
RPA bots can be programmed to perform most of the tasks similar to people like identifying, extracting data, reading texts, navigating through various menu, manipulate data and many other. It can mimic human activities and complete processes based on the rules and business logic created.
Is it true that RPA bots are consistent in completing tasks?
Yes. Software robots function based on the set of business rules built for every specific task targeted for automation, so the processes carried out are consistent and there is no room for error since RPA bots follow the business logic and don’t create new ones.
Is AI and RPA the same?
No. Though both technologies make a significant impact on the business process, these are two different things. Any program that involves AI is built with the idea of allowing the software system to make decisions by learning various models and methods - rule-based systems, decision trees, artificial neural networks, etc.
On the other hand, RPA bots are driven by a set of business logic created by end users and follows various workflows to complete a process.
Can I use RPA or AI?
Depending on the business process or the use case you are interested, one should start the automation journey and build out the process map and create workflows and add AI to these workflows if RPA cannot handle it to meet the expected outcome. So, depending on the business case, an analyst should assess and make the right recommendation.
Which tasks can be automated using RPA?
A simple way to identify the process for automation is to look for the business processes that meet the following criteria.
a) Highly repetitive
b) More volume
c) Manual and time consuming
Any task that satisfies these are a good candidate for RPA automation. In order to implement RPA bots, one need to make sure the process identified for automation is well-defined and rule based.
Some examples in ARM – Loading of accounts, E-filing with court systems, Emailing model validation notices, Invoice processing and others.
Some examples for CPA – Tax processing – data entry in tax software, Categorizing transactions for bookkeeping, Payroll processing, etc
Is it an off the shelf product or a customized bot?
Every RPA bot is tailor-made for your specific need by carefully considering your process and the underlying systems that the bot is expected to interact with.
How long does it take to build an RPA robot?
Depending on the complexity of the process, some might take 6-8 weeks, and few might even take more than 20 weeks.
What tools or resources do I need to begin?
To start with you don’t need to have any specific tools at your end. StayAhead will bring in all the necessary tools including the license for the platform (UiPath, Automation Anywhere, etc) required to build, test, deploy and run the robot. You need to have a physical or virtual machine for the StayAhead developers to access and build the robots.
Where do you build and deploy the RPA robots?
Almost every robot is built and configured within your environment in the physical or virtual machine provided. RPA bots can be deployed and run from both physical and virtual environments and even from the cloud infrastructure depending on your preference, internal IT policy and governance.
How about the maintenance of RPA bots?
All development, maintenance and constant monitoring of every single RPA robot is part of the engagement with StayAhead.
What is the pricing structure or model?
StayAhead has multiple pricing structures that fit the need of the business including RPA as a service (RPAaS) and onetime pricing.
If you have a question, we didn't address yet, please send it across to rpa@thestayahead.com and we will make sure to answer you right away.
Happy Automating!!