What is RPA? A revolution in business process automation

What is robotic process automation?Robotic process automation (RPA) is an application of technology, governed by business logic and structured inputs, aimed at automating business processes. Using RPA tools, a company can configure software, or a “robot,” to capture and interpret applications for processing a transaction, manipulating data, triggering responses, and communicating with other digital systems. RPA scenarios range from generating an automatic response to an email, to deploying thousands of bots, each programmed to automate jobs in an ERP system.Many CIOs are turning to RPA to streamline enterprise operations and reduce costs. Businesses can automate mundane rules-based business processes, too, enabling business users to devote more time to serving customers or other higher-value work. Others see RPA as a stopgap en route to the value chain known as intelligent automation (IA), and via machine learning (ML) and AI tools, which can be trained to make judgments about future outputs.[Download our editors’ PDF robotic process automation (RPA) buyer’s guide today!]What are the benefits of RPA?RPA provides organizations with the ability to reduce staffing costs and human error. Intelligent automation specialist Kofax says the principle is simple: Let human employees work on what humans excel at while using robots to handle tasks that get in the way.Bots are typically low-cost and easy to implement, requiring no custom software or deep systems integration. Such characteristics are crucial as organizations pursue growth without adding significant expenditures or friction among workers.When properly configured, software robots can increase a team’s capacity for work by up to 50%, according to Kofax. For example, simple, repetitive tasks such as copying and pasting information between business systems can be massively accelerated when completed using robots. Automating such tasks can also improve accuracy by eliminating opportunities for human error, such as transposing numbers during data entry.Enterprises can also supercharge their automation efforts by injecting RPA with cognitive technologies such as ML, speech recognition, and natural language processing, automating higher-order tasks that in the past required the perceptual and judgment capabilities of humans.Such RPA implementations, in which upward of 15 to 20 steps may be automated, are part of IA.For a deeper look at the benefits of RPA, see Why bots are poised to disrupt the enterprise and Robotic process automation is a killer app for cognitive computing.RPA examplesOrganizations across all industries are leveraging RPA to streamline operations and reduce costs. Here are four examples:Close Brothers augments RPA with document understandingUK-based merchant banking group Close Brothers has been on an RPA journey for more than six years, mostly focused on automating rules-based, structured processes. Now it’s working close with AI-powered RPA platform vendor UiPath to leverage UiPath Document Understanding in the company’s wholesale finance operation.By integrating Document Understanding with RPA, Close Brothers is automating the reconciliation of documents submitted by customers, and enabling automation of the end-to-end payouts process.US Marine Corps retools its fighting force with RPAThe US Marine Corps (USMC) is leveraging RPA as part of a massive digital transformation of the Marine Depot Maintenance Command (MDMC), which is responsible for maintaining, repairing, and calibrating Marine Corps equipment.As part of the effort, the MDMC is using RPA and Microsoft Power Apps to make daily operations more efficient and reduce manual labor.US Med-Equip streamlines hospital bed rentalsHouston-based US Med-Equip, which rents, sells, and services a range of movable medical equipment, has developed a one-click solution to order hospital beds. The solution involved retraining an existing ML model from accounts payable, and adding Microsoft code and RPA. With 93 locations nationwide, US Med-Equip can now deliver rental beds for patients more efficiently. The solution combines RPA and ML with robotic faxing called eFax, Microsoft Power Automate RPA, a Power AI OCR tool, and a retrained Microsoft Azure-based ML model to process the documents involved.Siemens Mobility automates more than 700 processesSince 2017, Munich-based Siemens Mobility has automated more than 700 processes and transformed its business along the way. Most of the work has focused on automating processes involving different software applications, with an emphasis on SAP integration.Today, RPA is a full corporate unit at Siemens Mobility under the CFO. It has adopted a strategy with three primary approaches: the initiative approach (under which the RPA unit provides other business units with a framework, tools, and training to apply automation to their processes), a citizen developer approach (which focuses on supporting individuals in automating their personal processes), and a robotics-as-a-process approach (for developing and managing solutions to automate large, cross-departmental processes dealing with things like financial data, information security, and data protection).What are the top RPA tools?The RPA market consists of a mix of new, purpose-built tools and older tools that have added new features to support automation, some of which were originally business process management (BPM) tools. Some vendors position their tools as “workflow automation” or “work process management.” Overall, research firm IDC forecasts the market for standalone automation will grow to $77.5 billion by 2028, with AI-powered automation growing to $19.9 billion.“Business automation platforms are at a pivotal juncture,” says Maureen Fleming, program VP of Worldwide Intelligent Process Automation research at IDC. “As AI and automation converge to support agentic automation, market leadership is not just about streamlining work, it’s about reimagining it. The future belongs to those successful in reimagining what their customers can build and deliver with agentic workflows, rather than focusing on incremental improvements that produce only incremental benefits.”Some of the top RPA tools vendors, according to Datamation, include:AppianAutomation AnywhereAutomationEdgeIBMMicrosoftPegaSAPSS&C Blue PrismUiPathFor a closer look at these vendors’ RPA offerings, see Top 21 RPA tools today.What are the criteria for choosing RPA tools?There are 10 key factors to consider when choosing RPA tools:Ease of bot setupLow-code capabilitiesAttended vs. unattendedML capabilitiesException handling and human reviewIntegration with enterprise applicationsOrchestration and administrationCloud botsProcess and task discovery and miningScalabilityFor a more in-depth look at these selection criteria, see How to choose RPA software: 10 key factors to consider.What are the top RPA certifications?As organizations increasingly adopt RPA, they also need individuals with expertise in RPA tools and implementations. Certifications can validate knowledge and proficiency in RPA tools and platforms, and many of the most popular RPA certifications are offered by vendors including:Appian Certified Lead DeveloperAutomation Anywhere Certified Advanced RPA Professional (AARPA)Blue Prism Developer Certification (BPDC)Microsoft Certified: Power Automate RPA Developer AssociateUiPath Certified Professional (UCP)10 tips for effective RPAImplementing RPA can be challenging, given both the potential complexity of legacy business processes and the level of change management that can be required for RPA to succeed. The following tips can help your organization on its way.1. Set and manage expectationsQuick wins are possible with RPA, but propelling RPA to run at scale is a different animal. Many RPA hiccups stem from poor expectations management. Bold claims about RPA from vendors and implementation consultants haven’t helped. That’s why it’s crucial for CIOs to go in with a cautiously optimistic mindset.2. Consider business impactRPA is often touted as a mechanism to bolster ROI or reduce costs, but it can also be used to improve customer experience. For example, enterprises such as airlines employ thousands of customer service agents, yet customers are still waiting in queues to have their calls fielded. A chatbot could help alleviate some of that wait.3. Involve IT early and oftenCOOs were some of the earliest adopters of RPA. In many cases, they bought RPA and hit a wall during implementation, prompting them to ask for IT’s help (and forgiveness). Now citizen developers without technical expertise are using cloud software to implement RPA in their business units, and often the CIO has to step in and block them. Business leaders must involve IT from the outset to ensure they get the resources they require.4. Poor design, change management can wreak havocMany implementations fail because design and change are poorly managed, says Sanjay Srivastava, chief digital officer of Genpact. In the rush to get something deployed, some companies overlook communication exchanges between the various bots, which can break a business process. “Before you implement, you must think about the operating model design,” Srivastava says. “You need to map out how you expect the various bots to work together.” Alternatively, some CIOs will neglect to negotiate the changes new operations will have on an organization’s business processes. CIOs must plan for this well in advance to avoid business disruption.5. Don’t fall down the data rabbit holeA bank deploying thousands of bots to automate manual data entry or to monitor software operations generates a ton of data. This can lure CIOs and their business peers into an unfortunate scenario where they look to leverage the data. Srivastava says it’s not uncommon for companies to run ML on the data their bots generate, then throw a chatbot on the front to enable users to query the data more easily. Suddenly, the RPA project has become an ML project that hasn’t been properly scoped as an ML project. “The puck keeps moving,” Srivastava says, and CIOs struggle to catch up to it. He recommends CIOs consider RPA as a long-term arc, rather than as piecemeal projects that evolve into something unwieldy.6. Project governance is paramountAnother problem that pops up in RPA is the failure to plan for certain roadblocks, Srivastava says. An employee at a Genpact client changed the company’s password policy, but no one programmed the bots to adjust, resulting in lost data. CIOs must constantly check for chokepoints where their RPA solution can bog down, or, at least, install a monitoring and alert system to watch for hiccups impacting performance. “You can’t just set them free and let them run around,” Srivastava says. “You need command and control.”7. Control maintains complianceThere are lot of governance challenges related to instantiating a single bot, let alone thousands. One Deloitte client spent several meetings trying to determine whether its bot was male or female, a valid gender question, but one that must take into account human resources, ethics, and other areas of compliance for the business.8. Build an RPA center of excellenceThe most successful RPA implementations include a center of excellence staffed by people responsible for making efficiency programs a success within the organization. Not every enterprise, however, has the budget for this. The RPA center of excellence develops business cases, calculating potential cost optimization and ROI, and measures progress against those goals.9. Don’t forget the impact on peopleWooed by shiny new solutions, some organizations are so focused on implementation that they neglect to loop in HR, which can create some nightmare scenarios for employees who find their daily processes and workflows disrupted.10. Put RPA into your whole development lifecycleCIOs must automate the entire development lifecycle or they may kill their bots during a big launch. Simply put, Srivastava says that implementing RPA requires an intelligent automation ethos that must be part of the long-term journey for enterprises. “Automation needs to get to an answer — all of the ifs, thens, and whats — to complete business processes faster, with better quality and at scale,” he says.More on robotic process automation:How to choose RPA software: 10 key factors to considerTop 16 RPA tools todayRPA is poised for a big business break-out8 keys to a successful RPA implementation5 reasons RPA deployments failWhy RPA implementations fail7 RPA training and certification courses

What is robotic process automation? Robotic process automation (RPA) is an application of technology, governed by business logic and structured inputs, aimed at automating business processes. Using RPA tools, a company can configure software, or a “robot,” to capture and interpret applications for processing a transaction, manipulating data, triggering responses, and communicating with other digital systems. RPA scenarios range from generating an automatic response to an email, to deploying thousands of bots, each programmed to automate jobs in an .

Many CIOs are turning to RPA to streamline enterprise operations and reduce costs. Businesses can automate mundane rules-based business processes, too, enabling business users to devote more time to serving customers or other higher-value work. Others see RPA as a stopgap en route to the value chain known as , and via machine learning (ML) and AI tools, which can be trained to make judgments about future outputs.

[Download our editors’ PDF today!] What are the benefits of RPA? RPA provides organizations with the ability to reduce staffing costs and human error. Intelligent automation specialist Kofax says the principle is simple: Let human employees work on what humans excel at while using robots to handle tasks that get in the way. Bots are typically low-cost and easy to implement, requiring no custom software or deep systems integration.

Such characteristics are crucial as organizations pursue growth without adding significant expenditures or friction among workers. When properly configured, software robots can increase a team’s capacity for work by up to 50%, according to Kofax. For example, simple, repetitive tasks such as copying and pasting information between business systems can be massively accelerated when completed using robots.

Automating such tasks can also improve accuracy by eliminating opportunities for human error, such as transposing numbers during data entry. Enterprises can also supercharge their automation efforts such as ML, speech recognition, and automating higher-order tasks that in the past required the perceptual and judgment capabilities of humans. Such RPA implementations, in which upward of 15 to 20 steps may be automated, are part of IA.

For a deeper look at the benefits of RPA, see and . RPA examples Organizations across all industries are leveraging RPA to streamline operations and reduce costs. Here are four examples: UK-based merchant banking group Close Brothers has been on an RPA journey for more than six years, mostly focused on automating rules-based, structured processes.

Now it’s working close with AI-powered RPA platform vendor UiPath to leverage UiPath Document Understanding in the company’s wholesale finance operation. By integrating Document Understanding with RPA, Close Brothers is , and enabling automation of the end-to-end payouts process. The US Marine Corps (USMC) is of the Marine Depot Maintenance Command (MDMC), which is responsible for maintaining, repairing, and calibrating Marine Corps equipment.

As part of the effort, the MDMC is using RPA and Microsoft Power Apps to make daily operations more efficient and reduce manual labor. Houston-based US Med-Equip, which rents, sells, and services a range of movable medical equipment, has developed a . The solution involved retraining an existing ML model from accounts payable, and adding Microsoft code and RPA.

With 93 locations nationwide, US Med-Equip can now deliver rental beds for patients more efficiently. The solution combines RPA and ML with robotic faxing called eFax, Microsoft Power Automate RPA, a Power AI OCR tool, and a retrained Microsoft Azure-based ML model to process the documents involved. Since 2017, Munich-based Siemens Mobility has and transformed its business along the way.

Most of the work has focused on automating processes involving different software applications, with an emphasis on SAP integration. Today, RPA is a full corporate unit at Siemens Mobility under the CFO. It has adopted a strategy with three primary approaches: the initiative approach (under which the RPA unit provides other business units with a framework, tools, and training to apply automation to their processes), a citizen developer approach (which focuses on supporting individuals in automating their personal processes), and a robotics-as-a-process approach (for developing and managing solutions to automate large, cross-departmental processes dealing with things like financial data, information security, and data protection).

What are the top RPA tools? The RPA market consists of a mix of new, purpose-built tools and older tools that have added new features to support automation, some of which were originally business process management (BPM) tools. Some vendors position their tools as “workflow automation” or “work process management.” Overall, research firm IDC forecasts the market for standalone automation will grow to $77.

5 billion by 2028, with AI-powered automation growing to $19.9 billion. “Business automation platforms are at a pivotal juncture,” says Maureen Fleming, program VP of Worldwide Intelligent Process Automation research at IDC.

“As AI and automation converge to support agentic automation, market leadership is not just about streamlining work, it’s about reimagining it. The future belongs to those successful in reimagining what their customers can build and deliver with agentic workflows, rather than focusing on incremental improvements that produce only incremental benefits.” Some of the top RPA tools vendors, , include: For a closer look at these vendors’ RPA offerings, see .

What are the criteria for choosing RPA tools? There are 10 key factors to consider when choosing RPA tools: For a more in-depth look at these selection criteria, see . What are the top RPA certifications? As organizations increasingly adopt RPA, they also need individuals with expertise in RPA tools and implementations. Certifications can validate knowledge and proficiency in RPA tools and platforms, and many of the most popular RPA certifications are offered by vendors including: 10 tips for effective RPA Implementing RPA can be challenging, given both the potential complexity of legacy business processes and the level of change management that can be required for RPA to succeed.

The following tips can help your organization on its way. Quick wins are possible with RPA, but propelling RPA to run at scale is a different animal. Many RPA hiccups stem from poor expectations management.

Bold claims about RPA from vendors and implementation consultants haven’t helped. That’s why it’s crucial for CIOs to go in with a cautiously optimistic mindset. RPA is often touted as a mechanism to bolster ROI or reduce costs, but it can also be used to improve customer experience.

For example, enterprises such as airlines employ thousands of customer service agents, yet customers are still waiting in queues to have their calls fielded. A chatbot could help alleviate some of that wait. COOs were some of the earliest adopters of RPA.

In many cases, they bought RPA and hit a wall during implementation, prompting them to ask for IT’s help (and forgiveness). Now without technical expertise are using cloud software to implement RPA in their business units, and often the CIO has to step in and block them. Business leaders must involve IT from the outset to ensure they get the resources they require.

Many implementations fail because design and change are poorly managed, says Sanjay Srivastava, chief digital officer of Genpact. In the rush to get something deployed, some companies overlook communication exchanges between the various bots, which can break a business process. “Before you implement, you must think about the operating model design,” Srivastava says.

“You need to map out how you expect the various bots to work together.” Alternatively, some CIOs will neglect to negotiate the changes new operations will have on an organization’s business processes. CIOs must plan for this well in advance to avoid business disruption.

A bank deploying thousands of bots to automate manual data entry or to monitor software operations generates a ton of data. This can lure CIOs and their business peers into an unfortunate scenario where they look to leverage the data. Srivastava says it’s not uncommon for companies to run ML on the data their bots generate, then throw a chatbot on the front to enable users to query the data more easily.

Suddenly, the RPA project has become an ML project that hasn’t been properly scoped as an ML project. “The puck keeps moving,” Srivastava says, and CIOs struggle to catch up to it. He recommends CIOs consider RPA as a long-term arc, rather than as piecemeal projects that evolve into something unwieldy.

Another problem that pops up in RPA is the failure to plan for certain roadblocks, . An employee at a Genpact client changed the company’s password policy, but no one programmed the bots to adjust, resulting in lost data. CIOs must constantly check for chokepoints where their RPA solution can bog down, or, at least, install a monitoring and alert system to watch for hiccups impacting performance.

“You can’t just set them free and let them run around,” Srivastava says. “You need command and control.” There are lot of governance challenges related to instantiating a single bot, let alone thousands.

One Deloitte client spent several meetings trying to determine whether its bot was male or female, a valid gender question, but one that must take into account human resources, ethics, and other areas of compliance for the business. The most successful RPA implementations include a center of excellence staffed by people responsible for making efficiency programs a success within the organization. Not every enterprise, however, has the budget for this.

The RPA center of excellence develops business cases, calculating potential cost optimization and ROI, and measures progress against those goals. Wooed by shiny new solutions, some organizations are so focused on implementation that they neglect to loop in HR, which can create some nightmare scenarios for employees who find their daily processes and workflows disrupted. CIOs must automate the entire development lifecycle or they may kill their bots during a big launch.

Simply put, Srivastava says that implementing RPA requires an intelligent automation ethos that must be part of the long-term journey for enterprises. “Automation needs to get to an answer — all of the ifs, thens, and whats — to complete business processes faster, with better quality and at scale,” he says..