What is RPA?

Robotic process automation (RPA) simply involves using software – known as a ‘robot’ – that is programmed to perform high volume, rules-based repetitive tasks that are normally carried out by people interacting with a computer.

In the same way that manufacturing industries deploy industrial robots to raise productivity and improve quality control, RPA “bots” are now changing how businesses think about their administrative processes, potentially reducing processing time and increasing accuracy.

Common applications include:

Simple applications	Advanced applications
Opening emails and attachments	Following if/then decisions/rules
Logging into web/enterprise applications	Collecting social media statistics
Moving files and folders	Extracting structured data from documents
Copying and pasting	Making calculations
Filling in forms	Connecting to system APIs
Reading and writing to databases	Scraping data from the web

Business benefits of RPA

RPA is increasingly being applied to support businesses across all sectors, but is particularly applicable to the financial sector and to compliance risk management. It can identify and report exceptions and patterns, and is most useful in processes that are high volume, low complexity and currently very manual. 

Bots automate processes by accessing user interfaces in the same way as a human being and they can work across existing and new systems. This means RPA takes a relatively short time to implement and does not require fundamental changes to core technology platforms. 

The main drivers behind RPA adoption are:

• decreased costs and increased profits – robots can work 24/7, help to eliminate manual processes, increase processing efficiency and decrease processing time
• freeing up skilled staff – allowing them to focus on more complex, strategic and value-adding tasks, such as product or service innovations
• providing an alternative to outsourcing and offshoring – processes are less prone to manual error, data is kept in-house, there is less need for ongoing training, and they can provide a higher degree of compliance with internal control frameworks
• improving customer service and experience – for example, by speeding up the rate at which customer enquiries can be processed.

• Read more about the benefits that RPA can bring to your business

The limitations of RPA

RPA bots, which are at the more basic end of robotics technology, may take over low complexity, repetitive jobs. Professor Leslie Willcocks, professor of technology, work and globalisation at the London School of Economics, has spoken about RPA having the ability to "take the robot out of the human". 

Although RPA has the potential to work alongside machine learning and other artificial intelligence tools to help it deal with greater complexity, it is unlikely to replace human analysis and judgment.

Moving forward with RPA

Awareness and deployment of RPA is growing across a wide range of business sectors, although financial services have seen the highest rate of adoption. 

Deloitte’s Annual Global Robotics Survey for 2017 found that 53% of global business respondents had already “embarked on the RPA journey” and a further 19% planned to adopt RPA in the next two years. 

As the volume of data increases, and finance professionals are increasingly asked to do more with fewer resources, RPA potentially offers a tool to improve the quality of information needed to support business decisions, inform strategy and ensure compliance.