What is RPA or Robotic Process Automation?

by Richard Farrell

The business world is constantly seeking ways to enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and improve accuracy. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) comes as the solution. Often misunderstood or oversimplified, RPA is far more than just “robots”.

In this guide, we’ll break down what RPA is, how it works, and why it matters. You’ll learn about its key benefits, how it connects with AI, what to look for in a solution, and how to get started, with a simple roadmap to help you take the first step.

In this article, we’ll answer the following questions for you:

• What is RPA?
• What are the benefits of Robotic Process Automation?
• How does RPA work?
• What are the different types of RPA?
• Where can you use RPA in business?
• Robotic Process Automation use cases
• RPA versus Artificial Intelligence
• What to look for in an RPA solution
• How to start your RPA journey

What is RPA?

At its heart, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) refers to the use of software robots (or “bots”) to automate digital tasks. These aren’t physical robots, you see in factories; they are software applications that mimic human interactions with digital systems.

Think of an RPA bot as a virtual employee that can log into applications, enter data, calculate figures, extract information, complete transactions, and communicate with other digital systems, all without human intervention, once programmed. You map the process you want to create – including steps, actions and end points – and the software takes care of the rest.

RPA is specifically designed for repetitive, rule-based processes. This means tasks that:

• They are performed frequently
• Follow a clear, defined set of steps
• Involve structured data
• Require interaction with various digital systems (e.g., spreadsheets, web browsers, enterprise software like ERP or CRM).

What are the benefits of robotic process automation?

The adoption of RPA offers a compelling array of benefits that directly contribute to an organisation’s bottom line and operational excellence:

Increased efficiency and speed

RPA bots work 24/7 without breaks or fatigue. They can complete tasks significantly faster, resulting in accelerated process cycles and increased throughput.

Improved accuracy and reduced errors

RPA bots execute tasks, especially repetitive tasks, which can eliminate human error, rework, and associated costs.

Significant cost savings

Increase productivity and reclaim hours for the organisation. Free up the people who would have previously had to do those tasks to concentrate on higher-value initiatives. This translates into a strong return on investment (ROI).

Enhanced compliance and auditability

RPA bots consistently follow predefined rules, ensuring that all processes adhere to regulatory requirements and internal policies. Every action performed by a bot is logged, providing a comprehensive audit trail for compliance purposes.

Scalability

Integration with enterprise applications is a must. The good news is that RPA is also extensible, with the ability to integrate with enterprise applications through APIs, connectors into back-office systems, and the use of AI services such as optical character recognition (OCR). RPA allows data to be handled in and between multiple applications. AI power reduces failures, support and management costs while widening the scope of automation that can be addressed.

Faster digital transformation

RPA acts as a bridge between legacy systems and modern applications. It can automate processes without requiring complex and costly overhauls of existing IT infrastructure, accelerating digital transformation initiatives.

Enhanced customer experience

Faster processing times, fewer errors, and more efficient operations ultimately result in quicker service delivery, more accurate information, and a smoother customer experience.

Happy, motivated staff

Liberate staff from mundane and repetitive tasks to work on more intellectually challenging, fulfilling work.

How does RPA work?

RPA works by mimicking the actions of a human user interacting with a computer system. The process generally involves several key stages:

• Process identification: These tasks are typically high-volume, repetitive, rule-based, and prone to human error.
• Process mapping: Once a process is identified, it needs to be thoroughly documented, step-by-step. This often involves creating flowcharts or detailed written instructions of every click, keystroke, and decision point a human would make.
• Bot development / configuration: An RPA developer or business analyst uses an RPA software platform to “teach” the bot the documented process.
• Testing: Before deployment, the bot undergoes rigorous testing to ensure it accurately and consistently performs the process under various conditions, including handling exceptions or unexpected scenarios.
• Deployment and monitoring: It can run in an attended mode (requiring human intervention or oversight) or an unattended mode (running completely autonomously on a schedule or event trigger). Ongoing monitoring ensures the bot performs as expected and addresses any issues that arise.
• Maintenance and process optimisation: As business processes or underlying applications change, the bot’s programming may need to be updated.

What are the different types of RPA?

RPA solutions can generally be categorised based on how the bots operate and interact with human users:

Attended RPA (Assisted Automation)

These bots work alongside a human user, typically on the user’s desktop. They are triggered by a human to assist with specific parts of a task, often handling repetitive subtasks within a larger process.

Use cases: Ideal for tasks that require human judgment or interaction at specific points, such as customer service operations, where a bot can quickly retrieve customer information while the agent is speaking with the customer.

Unattended RPA (Autonomous Automation)

These bots operate independently, without direct human supervision. They typically run on virtual machines or servers and are scheduled to perform tasks in batches or triggered by specific events.

Use cases: Best suited for high-volume, repetitive, and rule-based tasks that can run entirely in the background, such as invoice processing, data migration, nightly report generation, or large-scale data entry.

Hybrid RPA

This approach combines elements of both attended and unattended RPA. A process might begin with an unattended bot, then pass a task to an attended bot for human intervention, and subsequently return to an unattended bot to complete the remaining steps.

Use cases: Complex end-to-end processes that involve both highly repetitive steps and stages requiring human judgment, validation, or interaction.

Where can you use RPA in business

The beauty of RPA lies in its broad applicability across virtually all industries and business functions. Common business functions for RPA adoptions:

• Finance & Accounting
• Utility Provider
• Customer Service
• Information Technology (IT)
• Sales & Marketing
• Healthcare
• Insurance, Banking & Financial Services.

Robotic process automation use cases

To understand the real impact of this technology, it helps to look at actual examples of robotic process automation in action. These use cases show how RPA can streamline workflows, reduce manual effort, and improve accuracy across different industries and departments.

Case 1: Invoice processing

• Challenge: Manual entry of invoice data into accounting systems is tedious, error-prone, and time-consuming.
• RPA solution: Bots can automatically read incoming invoices (even from different formats using OCR), extract relevant data (vendor, amount, date, line items), validate it against purchase orders, and enter it into the ERP or accounting system. They can also flag discrepancies for human review.

Case 2: Customer onboarding

• Challenge: Onboarding new customers often involves collecting data from various sources, verifying information, and entering it into multiple systems (CRM, billing, support).
• RPA solution: A bot can initiate the onboarding process, retrieve customer data, perform background checks (e.g., credit checks, KYC), populate different systems, and send automated welcome emails or notifications to internal teams.

Case 3: Claims processing (Insurance)

• Challenge: Processing insurance claims involves reviewing forms, verifying policy details, checking against rules, and initiating payments.
• RPA solution: Bots can receive claim forms, extract information, cross-reference policy details, apply predefined rules for approval or rejection, and update the claims management system, flagging complex cases for human adjusters.

RPA versus artificial intelligence

While often discussed together, it’s crucial to understand that RPA and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are distinct technologies, though they are increasingly converging to create more powerful automation solutions.

What to look for in an RPA solution

Choosing the right RPA solution is a critical decision that can significantly impact your automation journey. While specific needs vary, here are key considerations, keeping in mind how a robust platform like our own solution aims to excel:

1. Ease of use (low-code/no-code capabilities)

Your business should look for a platform that empowers both business users and IT professionals, with Intuitive drag-and-drop interfaces, visual workflow designers and pre-built components that significantly accelerate development.

Netcall provides a solution that prioritises a highly intuitive, low-code interface, enabling rapid development and deployment. Our visual bot builder reduces the need for extensive coding expertise, allowing your business analysts to actively participate in automation.

2. Scalability and performance

Consider the ability to scale your automation efforts from a few bots to hundreds or thousands across the enterprise, handling high volumes of transactions efficiently without performance degradation.

Engineered for enterprise-grade scalability, our platform is built on a robust architecture designed to manage a large fleet of bots and handle increasing workloads seamlessly, ensuring consistent performance even under peak demand.

3. Security and compliance:

Robust security features, including role-based access control, encryption of sensitive data, secure credential management, and comprehensive audit trails to meet compliance requirements (eg, GDPR, HIPAA are important as well.

4. Integration capabilities:

You should look for the ability to seamlessly integrate with your existing IT ecosystem – ERP systems (SAP, Oracle), CRM (Salesforce), legacy applications, web portals and various APIs.

5. Management and orchestration:

A centralised control panel for deploying, scheduling, monitoring, and managing your entire bot workforce. Features like exception handling, reporting and analytics are crucial.

6. Support and community:

Strong customer support, comprehensive documentation, training resources and an active user community for troubleshooting and best practices are other vital aspects.

At Netcall, we pride ourselves on providing exceptional customer support, extensive knowledge bases and a thriving community portal, ensuring you have the resources and assistance you need throughout your RPA journey.

How to start your RPA journey

Embarking on an RPA journey can seem daunting, but with a structured approach, it can lead to significant success.

• Educate yourself and your team: Start by understanding what RPA is (and isn’t) and its potential benefits. Share this knowledge across key stakeholders.
• Identify the right processes for automation: Conduct process discovery workshops to map out current “as-is” processes in detail.
• Build a business case: Quantify the potential benefits (cost savings, error reduction, time savings, improved compliance) for your chosen pilot processes. This will help secure executive buy-in and funding.
• Choose the right RPA solution: Based on your identified needs and business case, evaluate RPA platforms. Look for ease of use, scalability, security, integration, and cognitive capabilities.
• Start small with a pilot project: Implement RPA for one or two carefully selected processes. This allows you to learn, refine your approach, and demonstrate quick wins.
• Scale and expand: Once your pilot is successful, leverage the learnings and momentum to identify and automate more complex processes. Continuously monitor bot performance and identify new opportunities for automation.
• Foster a culture of automation: Involve employees in identifying and improving processes.

Ready to take the next step?

Our team can help you design and launch a tailored RPA strategy, from first pilot to full-scale automation. Get in touch to start your journey with the right foundation.