RPA in a Beginner’s Point-of-View

Robotic Process Automation is a concept that can be easily understood if you already had an idea about it, but for someone who has never heard or read about it, it can be a confusing concept. Robots doing the work for me through the configuration of a software? Automated processes that mimic human actions without any human intervention? Is it even possible?

In this now fast-paced world where different technologies and discoveries are made often, yes, it is possible. When I was first properly introduced to RPA, I was one of those – maybe few – people who had never heard a single thing about it. It was weird considering I am in the Information Technology field, but nevertheless, being in that field helped me get familiarized with the concept of RPA easily. But is it needed to be in the field of technology or a huge background in programming in order to understand RPA better? It can help, but I’ve learned that it is not necessary to be proficient in those things to learn RPA. In order to create workflows, all you need to possess is a logical mind and have a broad understanding of the business process you are trying to automate. For example, if you are creating a workflow for financial processes, you must at least have an ideal knowledge of finance. However, does it mean I get to jump into creating complicated workflows as long as I understand the business concepts? As a beginner, it is important to fully understand first what RPA is.

Where to start in RPA?

I started by learning its fundamentals, its target users, its benefits, and the like. Being able to appreciate its benefits without knowing what it can potentially do is difficult. As a result, it is important to learn how it works first. But, how does it actually work? It is a misconception that RPA means no more humans required. It is programmed to do a sequence of tasks with complete accuracy, but it is programmed by whom? Humans. It does what the humans constructed it to do without the need of constant supervision, but when an issue arises, humans still have to interfere since it does not have the capability of decision-making, yet. By slowly learning what it can do, you will start to realize how it can greatly profit its target users. Although, as a beginner, one of my initial questions was who will benefit from this? For now, RPA mainly focuses on automating business processes thus it will significantly help businesses that typically have repeated tasks. For an instance, an Accounting department handling the payroll for a large company. Monthly, they have to produce payslips for all the employees and have it sent to them. This is a sample of a simple yet repetitive task. With the use of an RPA tool, this task can be done in just a matter of minutes – produce a payslip based on the employee’s earnings and deductions for the month, and then have it sent to their email. This is what RPA does best, swiftly executing processes and producing outputs that are consistent and reliable while the employees can focus on more analytic tasks – resulting to multiple tasks completed in a shorter span of time.

After learning RPA’s fundamentals, target users, and some of its benefits, it’s time to use this knowledge on creating your first workflows. Just like anybody who’s new to a hobby or, in this case, a form of business process automation technology, we start with the basics. To create a workflow, you need an RPA tool – in my case, I use RAX EDITOR. As a beginner, the first thing you will notice in any application is the user interface. With RAX EDITOR, it considered the user-friendliness of the interface that will allow either a first-time or an experienced user to easily navigate around the application. Upon scanning the interface, I immediately knew what a specific panel is for, how I will start creating workflows, where will I change an activity’s values if necessary, and so on. Moreover, RAX EDITOR requires minimum coding. I don’t need to have an expertise in programming in order to create workflows thus making this application a recommended RPA tool if you’re just a beginner in RPA. Although it doesn’t mean that RAX EDITOR is not applicable for creating much complicated workflows because it also offers a wide range of activities that can be used for automating almost any business process – making calculations, scraping data from the web and presenting it in a formatted report, moving files and folders, opening emails and attachments, read and write to databases, and the long list of its capabilities goes on and on. So, my last question as a beginner, is this new form of technology here to stay or just another “talk of the month”?

I learned that RPA is still a growing technology and has a spacious room where it can still evolve like what all technologies do, and I don’t have to be an experienced RPA developer to know that. With its benefits that are far too valuable to ignore, RPA is definitely here to stay.