Tag: RPA tools

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is not just a “nice-to-have” option anymore. If you want to remain competitive it is an absolute necessity.
As a most promising technology enabler, RPA helps improve speed, quality, and productivity. RPA strengthens the organization, ensuring that it is ready to deal with disruption and change. This blog will discuss how it is making a mark in Finance, Healthcare & IT operations.

What Is RPA?

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is an end-to-end approach that can automate workflows without the intervention of a human being. This approach allows users to configure software that enforces business processes.  RPA software can collect, interpret and orchestrate applications to perform various repetitive tasks.
RPA is a technological breakthrough for industries like finance, healthcare, IT, telecommunications, banking, insurance, retail, property management, and many more. Industries that implement RPA can automate their workflows, infrastructure, and other labor-intensive and time-consuming processes.
RPA is both cost-effective and user-friendly. It is no surprise, industries are racing to unlock value from RPA, including digital labor.
Watch now: How Robotic Process Automation Is Building Better Workplaces

How Is RPA Revolutionizing Industries?

• Increased Accuracy: Bots are less prone to make mistakes or typos than human workers.
• No interruption of workflow: Virtual robots can operate 24/7 without staff initiation.
• Meet strict compliance standards: Configured bots can provide an audit trail for each step and retrace the steps, in case of a process review.
• Work with existing systems: Robots do not need extensive IT resources; they work with the layers of existing applications.
• Improve employee morale and experience: Bots offload manual tasks from employees and enable them to focus on strategic, revenue-producing activities.

These advantages sound good. But, how does this ‘digital worker’ (RPA) streamline business processes? Let’s see.

How Can RPA Streamline Processes?

1. Employee Onboarding

Employee onboarding is a costly and time-consuming process.  Zippia’s research showed that the average cost per hire is $4,425, or 40% of an employee’s base salary. Not just that, it takes about 36 to 42 days to complete the onboarding process.
Fortunately, RPA can reduce both the cost and the time taken to onboard an employee. How can it do that? It can do it by automating all repetitive and rule-based tasks.
For example, a bot can accurately source an applicant 24/7, and without any bias. After which, it can assist in screening resumes and candidates. Further, a bot can handle much of the paperwork that the company needs to fill out.

2. Auditing

Although audit practice has improved over the last 30 years, a massive amount of manual, repetitive, and rule-based tasks still take up much of the auditor’s time.
Examples of these tasks include file organization, the performance of basic audit tests in excel, manual annotations, and many more. These tasks are not only labor-intensive, but they are also prone to error.
RPA offers the ability to connect otherwise unintegrated audit activities. In addition to the obvious time-saving benefits of RPA, there are financial advantages. For instance, PwC estimates that 45% of repetitive work can be automated, and this would save $2 trillion in global workforce costs.
Beyond simple cost savings, automation can enhance an auditor’s ability to do his job. By freeing up an auditor from mundane, repetitive tasks, RPA allows them to focus on the more complex aspects of their job.
By sifting data more accurately than human auditors, RPA can help human auditors to scrutinize whether an accounting treatment or client behavior is reasonable. With such improved efficiency, auditors can make a final determination about optimizing costs.

3. Invoicing

Invoice processing is a crucial business operation. Yet, these tasks are labor-intensive, error-prone, and do not directly generate revenue. RPA is designed to manage such tasks effortlessly and efficiently.
For instance, when invoices come through various channels, they have to be matched to purchase orders, and then most often, they need to be approved by different people for payment.
RPA allows you to automate the purchase order matching process to flag any errors for further scrutiny before submitting the payment. You and also create rules to send invoices to the right people for approval automatically. RPA can automate all the data entry and manual processing involved in accounting and finance.
These are just a few examples that show how RPA can drive faster response and improve business processes.
Now that we understand how RPA streamlines processes, which of the top industries benefit from adopting RPA?
Read Whitepaper: Learn how RPA can bring a difference to your business and give you a competitive edge!

Top Industries That Can Benefit 

Some industries that think automation is a costly effort have witnessed early adopters of RPA outperform the rest of the businesses with an increased ROI. According to Gartner, the RPA market is expected to grow at double-digit rates through 2024.

1. Robotic Process Automation in Finance Sector

Finance sector applications include managing customer accounts, migrating data between accounts, updating loan and mortgage data, and more. Just by defining the rules, Robotic Process Automation can help financial services to meet compliance standards.
RPA technology is accurate. Hence, it significantly reduces risk in the finance sector.  Faster RPA cycles are highly scalable and rapidly deployable.

2. Robotic Process Automation in Healthcare 

The pandemic has increased the volume of patients substantially, and healthcare industries are prioritizing efficiency and cost reduction. These two are major benefits of RPA implementation in the healthcare sector.

• Improved quality: RPA implementation automated and simplified entry process, claim process, maintenance of medical records. This enabled healthcare personnel to tackle the large volume of patients, especially those who need individual care and attention.
• More human workforce to care for more patients: RPA implementation replaced the workforce that performs mundane repetitive tasks. Healthcare professionals now have more time to spend on core activities rather than perform mundane tasks.

3. Robotic Process Automation in IT

Today, business operations depend on how well the IT system is managed. Leveraging RPA in IT operations is worthwhile. Consider why:

• Helps manage high volumes of data: Managing high volumes of data from different locations and different departments can be challenging. In contrast, RPA can process large datasets with greater agility, and complete the process faster and with no errors. Moreover, Robotic Process Automation systems can also update changes in the data in real-time.
• Enhances customer experience:  Employees are required to respond to any inquiry adequately and on time. Anything less could push your customers to your competitors. Automating repetitive tasks frees up agents to focus on more customer-related tasks such as pitching in a sale or providing end-to-end product engineering solutions.
• Better patch management: Manually patching IT systems is always a bad idea because it leaves more room for errors and is time-intensive. Implementing RPA can help synchronize the vulnerability database, scan machines for missing patches, and deploy the missing patches. This way automation ensures that the system is always protected.

Read more: Drive business growth with RPA!

How Fingent Can Help Deploy RPA Seamlessly

Successful implementation of Robotic Process Automation depends on a clear understanding of the task at hand. At Fingent we can make the implementation a lot easier. We can help you automate parts of your process or the entire thing.
With automation under one wing and cognitive technologies under the other, Fingent ensures you are in complete control. We can help you discover new, effective automation ideas. As a professional partner, we help you identify your strengths and areas of improvement and then work with you to build an action plan with tactical and strategic solutions.
Fingent also provides both onsite and offsite training and maintenance to ensure you get maximum ROI. Give us a call and let us help you get this rolling.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created an imbalance between the supply and demand of the goods thereby disrupting the supply chain globally. That said, it has also amplified the need for technology tools to manage the supply chain challenges as the possibility of lockdowns in the future can’t be overlooked.
With the increasing demand for autonomous solutions, it is not surprising to see companies investing in supply chain technologies. According to Gartner, by 2023, 50% of the global eCommerce companies will invest in the real-time supply chain, AI, and advanced analytics solutions.

Challenges in the Supply Chain

1. Labor and material shortages

2020-21 witnessed several layoffs and quarantine putting the market in flux globally. Leaders not only face delegation woes but also find staffing key positions within procurement and supply chain ops problematic. Leaders will have to rely on technologies and automation to create cohesion and shift focus to smaller more concentrated procurement teams.
According to the Institute of Supply Chain Management report, every key commodity is either scarce or up in price leading to shortages and complexities to supply chain management. In other words, the material shortage will continue and companies can expect persistent problems through 2022.

2. Rising freight costs

In 2021, trucking and intermodal transport shot to new highs while spot prices doubled across the board: van (+18%), reefer (+25%), flatbed (+27%). Additionally, sea freight price and air freight price skyrocketed as well making it difficult to move freight in any capacity.
Thus, fluctuation in freight price will remain one of the biggest challenges the supply chain industry will have to face in 2022.

3. Port congestion

In the last two years, there have been wait times for ships headed into ports across the world. In October 2021, over 50 container ships were amassed outside Los Angeles and Long Beach to unload cargo from China. That said, gridlock especially at overseas ports creates delays as ships look to obtain cargo. So, bottlenecks at both ends cause additional lead time for import-export operations ultimately disrupting the domestic supply chains.
While port congestion isn’t a new problem, according to The National Customers Brokers & Forwarders Association of America (NCBFAA), 2022 could see historic wait times and supply chain bottlenecks.

4. Problems related to demand forecasting

While the global shutdown in 2020 skewed supplier data to a great extent, 2021 saw some recovery making the data relatively unreliable as a standard for future forecasting. This has resulted in no proper benchmark for supply chain leaders to follow.
As the unprecedented demand grows, meeting it remains a challenge. So, supply chain leaders will have to rely on trending data to predict the year considering the previous benchmarks for everything from inventory to budget and pricing.
Read more: Logistics Management Software – Everything You Need To Know!

While this adjustment is completely different for those who rely on the last two to three years trailing data to estimate demand forecasting, it is a challenge that requires forethought.
Here are five technologies that will help advance your business in 2022.

1. Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

According to Deloitte, RPA will see strong growth in the next five years specifically in the supply chain operations that include lower-value, potentially dangerous, or high-risk tasks. Robotic technology applications include trains and trucks, automated vehicles like drones, last-mile deliveries, and storage and retrieval systems (ASRS).
The use of RPA can achieve the following objectives:

• Improve productivity and efficiency
• Reduce re-work and risk rates
• Increase employee safety
• Perform repetitive and mundane tasks so humans can work more useful tasks
• Increase revenue by improving order fulfillment and delivery speed

New pricing structures are helping companies consider investing in automation. That said, the RaaS (Robotic and a Service)-type model allows providers to lease units through a monthly service contract instead of customers paying a huge capital up-front.

2. Cloud computing and AI

As supply chains generate big data, cloud-based AI can be used to turn that data into insights. Cloud computing along with AI has transformed the way the supply chain operates and in near future its abilities will only grow in complexity.
Cloud and AI systems can use past trends and market indicators to achieve the following processes;

• Powering automation process
• Informing supplier selection
• Providing real-time information on shipments
• Analyzing carrier performance
• Streamlining supplier onboarding and automating supplier management
• Anticipating trends in operational issues
• Augmenting customer support

Read more: How to accelerate your business growth with Robotic Process Automation

3. IoT

Asset tracking through IoT will help save time and money and assist data-driven decision-making.
Through GPS tracking of shipments and monitoring parcel conditions, IoT devices have improved quality management in the supply chain. RFID chips, mobile sensors, and smart devices can track and authenticate products, humidity, light levels, measure temperature, handling, movement, speed, and other environmental factors of shipments.
Additionally, IoT facilitates new fleet management solutions development which helps improve workflows and customer satisfaction. Also, IoT in the future will reduce the total cost of ownership and make the entire supply chain industry more connected, driven by legislation and customer demand.
Adoption of IoT will also improve security and decrease the probability of piracy, disruption of refrigeration, and container damage.

4. Blockchain

Emerging technology in the supply chain industry, blockchain’s decentralized digital ledger can help improve transparency for customers. This will enable them to track the whole journey of a product before arrival. Additionally, blockchain can increase transparency in audits and improve security by revealing any attempted fraud. Blockchain can help increase the level of trust and make digital payments more secure.
Blockchain systems can also save time and money due to better coordination of documents and eliminate the need for physical paperwork.

5. Transportation Management System (TMS)

All of the above-mentioned technologies need to be organized and managed from a single point. That is where TMS applications complications come into the picture.
TMS is used to manage carriers, and help convert paper-based documentation into a digital format. It will reduce freight costs, track deliveries in real-time, and increase transparency which will eventually improve customer service. Simply put, TMS will help make all the separate elements work as a single system.
TL Nika Logistics is a prime example of successful TMS adoption.

Final thoughts!

There’s no denying that technological innovation is propelling supply chain management solutions. If you are looking to embark on this technical journey, Fingent is the right partner for you. We understand the latest advancements in supply chain technology and help organizations adopt these emerging solutions while gradually replacing legacy systems to help navigate better in this competitive business landscape.
Connect with us today!

As digitalization is gaining a lot of significance, many enterprises are turning to emerging technologies such as Robotic Process Automation(RPA) to streamline their operations and reduce costs. RPA automates mundane processes allowing organizations to devote more time to serving customers or other important work.

According to Gartner, Inc. , Global RPA software is projected to reach $1.89 billion in 2021, an increase of 19.5% from 2020. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the RPA market is estimated to grow two times by 2024.

Read more: How to accelerate your business growth with Robotic Process Automation

What is RPA?

In simple terms, RPA is an application in which a software bot leverages a combination of automation, computer vision, and machine learning technologies to automate repetitive and high-volume tasks.

RPA solutions are best suited for processes that are labor-intensive, repetitive, and have predictable interactions with IT applications. Typically, these processes may be too small in value to be automated via IT transformation. RPA tools help improve the efficiency and effectiveness of such processes without changing the existing infrastructure.

RPA software bots can perform various business processes by mimicking how humans interact with applications through a user interface and simple rules to make decisions. As a result, robots can complete the entire end-to-end process with very little human interaction.

Benefits of RPA include;

• Improved accuracy
• Flexibility and scalability
• Speeds up the processing time
• Better employee morale
• Reduces manual and repetitive tasks
• Enables better customer care
• As per Forrester, projects see a 15-month payback, 229% ROI on average

Key business challenges RPA helps address are;

• Login automatically into a system as a user
• Helps navigate around the software, using menus and shortcut keys just like a human moving the mouse or typing on the keyboard
• Interpret labels to read values from the screen. If the screen content or web page is dynamic, RPA can help find the right value on the screen.
• Read values and data from PDF reports automatically and add them to data tables.
• Inputs values into a capture screen automatically by mimicking the user’s actions. However, it can process it several times over with different values for each pass.
• Read emails and messages to understand the information they contain. For example, is the sender placing an order, making a booking, looking for information, or sending an invoice? Based on the intent, RPA will trigger the process with the message.
• Help trigger a process in a system by logging in as a user and clicking buttons.
• Collate different pieces of information and identify the next best action in the process.

Read more: How Can Businesses Overcome The Barriers To RPA Adoption?

Who is using RPA?

RPA can be leveraged by any business, especially if it involves repetitive tasks such as banking, healthcare, finance, insurance, and telecommunications. For example, RPA can be used in finance to automate governance, reconcile accounts, or process invoices. Additionally, RPA can help automate processes such as data entry, predictive maintenance, and after-sales service support in the supply chain.

Telecommunication companies utilize RPA solutions to organize new services and all the related billing systems for new accounts. RPA also helps these companies pull data from multiple systems when old equipment outages or predicts problems.

Regardless of the industry, RPA benefits the larger organizations and small and mid-size companies with its ability to streamline business processes and improve efficiency.

Should you invest in RPA?

The pandemic has caused a sudden surge in RPA as businesses are turning to cost-effective solutions to fill the workforce gap due to a shortage of employees. But again, if there is a lack of data or the process is obsolete, opting for RPA may not be a wise decision.

With the RPA market evolving, it is becoming affordable for even small and mid-size businesses who want to stay ahead of their competitors. According to the Grand View Research report, in 2019, the large enterprise segment accounted for over 67% of the global RPA while the BFSI led the market in terms of application with over 29% share of the global revenue. However, from 2020-2027, it is estimated that SMEs will witness the highest CAGR, with the pharma and healthcare sectors leading the way application-wise.

While RPA can fill the gaps in the current system and benefit the organization as a whole, companies that have large volumes of data and time-consuming business processes with well-defined rule-based steps are ideal candidates for RPA implementation.

Once the decision-makers finalize the processes that need automation, assessing ROI for individual processes is essential to quantify the benefits. A successful deployment takes one-two month, and the ROI is approximately three-twelve months.

Read more: An Extensive Whitepaper on How RPA Can Bring a Difference to Your Business

Things to consider before implementing RPA

1. Third-party integration

You will have to redesign the existing Robotic Process Automation processes and ensure they are compliant with third-party tools. It improves the scope of what RPA can achieve for a business process. For example, ERP and CRM integration is something that you must consider.

2. Cost-effective

For RPA to become a cost-effective solution, an organization needs to know which tasks are suitable for automation. Ideally, mundane and repetitive labor-intensive tasks need to be automated to impact a direct bearing on the costs of the RPA deployed. As bots work more efficiently than humans, it results in better productivity, fewer errors, and cost less. All this impacts productivity in a significant way making RPA a worthy investment.

3. Training time

For a smooth roll-out of implementing the RPA system, organizations will have to set aside time to train their employees. Therefore, you will have to be certain about the time required, especially if you plan to implement RPA across functions.

4. Deployment speed

Typically, the speed at which an organization deploys an RPA software depends on how soon it wants to reap its benefits. While some businesses cannot wait to take advantage of the RPA system, others are skeptical about their roll-out plans. In most cases, businesses that wish to implement an RPA system adapt to save costs as quickly as possible.

How can Fingent help?

If you’re looking to improve profitability, productivity, and compliance with Robotic Process Automation, contact our experts today. Our experts will not just help you strategize an automation process but also get the most out of your investment by identifying the best time to introduce RPA into your business.

What Is Robotic Process Automation?

Robotic Process Automation is the process of applying automation to perform tedious business tasks of the workforce, such as data manipulation, response triggering, transaction processing, and other redundant tasks. According to a recent study by Snaplogic, 90% of the workforce are burdened with redundant tasks. This not only reduces their productivity but also consumes significant amounts of time with which they could perform higher-value tasks.

The Role Of RPA: Features That Enhance Business Process

Once your enterprise has decided to implement RPA, it is time for you to choose the right robotic process automation solution. 

Traditional RPA software bots are known to handle only a specific task at a given time. When it comes to addressing high volumes, there is a necessity to clone these bots and run them simultaneously. RPA providers usually charge users for each concurrent process. This can become a costly affair for enterprises, especially during volume spikes. Thus, undue extra costs are a key factor to consider while choosing an RPA solution for your business. 

RPA works as a virtual assistant and can handle complex processes starting from performing complicated calculations, data capturing to maintaining records. 

In addition to prioritized work queues, user-friendly features, data analytics, and non-disruptive nature, the following are crucial features that enhance business processes:

• Non-disruptive nature:  An enterprise can easily implement RPA into their workflows without having to disrupt or change the existing structure or risks.
• Data analytics: Gathering critical data from multiple sources, analyzing and storing the data, and creating reports have brought digital transformation to businesses with RPA. This enables accurate forecasts of sales data along with other Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). 
• Prioritization of Internal Work Queues: Every RPA software consists of internal work queues. These work queues are used to extract data derived from various transactions for analysis. The extracted data is then stored on a cloud server and made available for access by the bots.
• User-friendliness: Employees can operate on the robots without any extra RPA knowledge. They only need to learn how the systems work. 
• Scalability: With RPA, it is possible to upscale and downscale various robotic operations. 

Related Reading: Learn more about how Robotic Process Automation is revolutionizing industries.

Types Of Robotic Process Automation Tools

RPA enhances robotic performance in different ways. The three major categories include Working Robots that are commonly used for Data Collection and Project Planning. Monitoring Robots detect faults and breakdowns, whereas Screen Scraping Robots provide data migration tasks for enterprises.

Robotic Process Automation tools come in varying sizes and shapes. Analyzing your business objectives is the most critical factor before deciding to choose a specific RPA tool for your business. A few of the major RPA tools are as follows:

• Attended Or Robotic Desktop Automation Tools

This type of automation always starts with the user via the user’s desktop. The user first launches the RPA code to perform required operations rather than waiting for the workforce to perform. 

• Unattended Automation Tools

This type of automation completes business processes in the background and is used mainly to perform back-end tasks.

• Hybrid Automation Tools

This type of automation combines both attended and unattended automation tools to perform start to end operations.

Related Reading: You might like to read more about ways to empower RPA for enhanced business growth.

How To Choose The Right RPA For Your Business

A clear set of objectives form the primary goal before opting a specific RPA tool for your business. The following are the key factors you need to consider before selecting an RPA tool for your business:

1. Easy-to-use Interface

Simple user experience is a major criterion for choosing the right RPA tool for your business processes. A simple user interface will ensure all employees work efficiently. 

2. Proper Deployment

An RPA tool that can be quickly deployed with the existing technology stack is what is required. 

3. Cost

Replacing tedious tasks performed by the human workforce is largely replaced by the bots. This process of automation saves costs. Employees can focus on their core tasks and spend time and effort on their skills rather than performing redundant and tedious tasks with the help of RPA tools. Purchasing an RPA software tool involves associated costs, such as cost of individual licenses, cost of the software, and other overheads.

4. Scalability

Implementing an effective RPA tool enhances the business processes and leads to the growth of the enterprise. This growth is accompanied by hiring more resources. Thus an RPA tool can enhance the scalability of a business in the long run.

5. Security

Data analytics, compliance, and financial transactions require a highly secure environment. A great RPA software tool ensures a secure solution for all business processes and updates as well.

6. Architecture

The architecture of the RPA depends on where you plan on employing your RPA tool. The deployment and maintenance of an RPA tool depend on factors such as layered design, component reusability, robust delivery, popular language support system, easy accessibility, and so on.

7. Features

Choosing an RPA suite that consists of solid inbuilt features is critical. Flexibility, scope, availability of wizards and GUIs, other extendable commands and supports are some of the features to consider. 

8. Exception Handling Support

A robust RPA solution can detect errors during automation and automatically resolve without human assistance. In other cases where human intervention is required, an effective RPA tool must be able to send error messages.

9. Extended Support

Different vendors offer different support. A dedicated support team is necessary to ensure strong maintenance and support. 

To make the best decision on choosing the right RPA solution for your business and access the full potential of RPA tools, get in touch with our experts today!