RPA - A revolution in Business Process Automation

Robotic process automation (or RPA or RPAAI) is an emerging form of business process automation technology based on the notion of software robots or artificial intelligence (AI) workers. Every sunrise sector requires a focussed roadmap and people with a deep understanding of the opportunities and challenges to place it on the fast track.

RPA tools have strong technical similarities to graphical user interface testing tools. These tools also automate interactions with the GUI, and often do so by repeating a set of demonstration actions performed by a user. RPA tools differ from such systems including features that allow data to be handled in and between multiple applications, for instance while receiving an email containing an invoice, extracting the data, and then typing that into a book-keeping system. The data manipulation aspect is not something one would normally find in a testing tool.

There are eight technologies, identified in a survey by NASSCOM which are part of the “Future Skills” platform. It includes Robotic Process Automation or RPA alongside AI, Virtual Reality, Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data Analytics, 3D Printing, Cloud Computing, Social, and Mobile as part of the Future Skills Platform. With this, RPA is emerging as the most affordable and flexible option for organizations to position themselves for long-term success.

The global market for RPA Software and Services is expected to grow to $1.2 billion by 2021 at a compounded annual growth rate of 36%, from $271 million in 2016. The rise of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) as a technological enabler has been exponential and has become a pre-requisite for improving business performance. The potential market size of RPA is expected to touch over to $6.5 trillion by 2024. However today, RPA deployment is still a buzzword.

Once an organization is ready to explore and deploy RPA in its business processes, it is very important to move forward with a stage-wise execution approach. As per the requirements, it is vital to align the approach to either DevOps or Agile methodology. The methodology needs to cater to all aspects of discovery, analysis, design, implementation and support that are crucial to RPA deployment in any process.

The early adopters of RPA is increasing in India, they have been typically from the banking and financial services, telecom and the healthcare sectors. Going forward, Indian companies are expected to see large-scale adoption of RPA.