What is RPA?

What is RPA?

In companies and workplaces across various sectors, there are many routine  tasks that are typically carried out by information workers. These tasks are often time-consuming, require high levels of attention, and prone to errors when done manually. RPA, or Robotic Process Automation, is a technological development that enables these tasks to be carried out more efficiently and is often researched by businesses who ask, “What is RPA?” RPA involves the automation of these repetitive tasks, performed by software robots. Unlike human workers, these software robots can execute many repetitive tasks flawlessly in a short period, creating a system and order in the workflow. RPA is widely used in many sectors, and its increasing popularity is an expectation for the future. If we were to define "what is robotic process automation?" in the broadest sense; it can be described as tasks that would be done by an employee being carried out by robots through imitation. By simplifying many processes and speeding them up, RPA provides companies with advantages by automating systems.

What Are the Advantages of RPA?

As the digital transformation gains momentum, many sectors are adopting RPA software to integrate robotic process automation. The numerous advantages of RPA increase its usage across industries. RPA brings about advantages such as savings, efficiency, planning, and digitalization. Here are some of them:

• Robotic process automation completes a job in much less time than usual, resulting in time savings. For example, a system that does a task in seconds that an employee could do in an average of 10 minutes speeds up tasks and saves time.
   
• Robotic process automation prevents employees from constantly doing the same tasks, allowing them to spend time on other tasks. This not only saves time but also increases the productivity of the employee, providing a healthier work environment.
   
• A small mistake made in the digital environment can lead to hard-to-recover consequences. Robotic process automation minimizes the risk of errors that could occur as a result of operations and allows multiple tasks to be done flawlessly at the same time. RPA significantly contributes to reducing error rates and quickly resolving issues, ensuring customer satisfaction.
   
• Another advantage of robotic process automation is that it can work continuously 24/7. This feature ensures tasks are completed quickly and prevents possible disruptions in operations.
   
• Using robotic process automation does not require any system change or infrastructure update, so it can easily be used by companies and integrated into the existing infrastructure. This means it can be used without the need for extra cost and effort.

What Sectors Use RPA?

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can be used in many fields due to the advantages it provides in the process of rapidly digitalizing data and operational workflows for companies. The increasing number of these fields further strengthens the future predictions about the widespread use of RPA. Industrial and manufacturing sectors are among the many areas where RPA is used. In these areas, various RPA applications are used to facilitate operations in the sectors. The banking and finance sector is another area where RPA is implemented. Especially, RPA's accounting applications make its use very common in the sector. RPA's broad application areas include many more sectors, such as insurance, communication and telecommunications, energy, and customer services.

What Applications Can Be Done with RPA?

Robotic process automation is used in many applications across different sectors. These applications are often chosen because they provide various conveniences in sectors. Different sectors, where competition in matters such as cost and efficiency is gaining speed, especially manage to take their place in this race thanks to RPA.

• One of the applications where RPA is used is the management of financial services. In this application, RPA is particularly used for account opening and closing, foreign exchange payments, and insurance transactions. RPA provides an advantage by speeding up the management of financial services, especially during peak periods, such as the end of the month.
   
• Another application of RPA is the provision of supply chain management, an important process for many sectors. In this process, features such as purchasing products, viewing stock levels, automating payments, and being able to monitor the status of shipments at any time are provided by RPA and can be managed uninterruptedly.
   
• In healthcare services, many processes from invoice account management and patient registration procedures to budgeting and reporting applications are managed through RPA. RPA carries great importance for the health sector, a service that must be uninterrupted and error-free.

How Does RPA Work?

In addition to the questions like "What is RPA and what is it used for?", how it works might also be among the curiosities. The operating system of RPA can be summarized based on three basic components. The first of these components is developer tools. With the developer tools component, the tasks to be done with RPA are defined. These definitions include detailed data and descriptions about the job. With these details and descriptions, robots can execute the instructions flawlessly. The second component that forms the operating system of RPA is the robot controller. Robot controllers allow giving specific permissions to users and transmitting RPA codings to robots when necessary. The third component, software robots, undertake the task of performing the instructions given to them as a result of these two components. Software robots complete the operating system of RPA by performing the tasks.

What are the Differences Between RPA and Traditional Automation Solutions?

There are some major differences between traditional automation solutions, a concept older than robotic process automation, and RPA. These differences can be found by questioning the feature "What is the feature of RPA?" and comparing it with the features of traditional automation solutions. The general difference between the two systems can be stated as RPA being more digitally oriented and producing easy solutions. The differences between RPA and traditional automation solutions can be listed as follows:

• Robotic process automation has easier usage characteristics compared to traditional automation solutions. In this way, tasks can be carried out automatically and run systematically.
   
• While integrating the traditional automation system into the systems used by workplaces is troublesome, there is no need for integration for RPA. This allows RPA applications to be used easily.
   
• RPA has more customization compared to traditional automation solutions. Thus, many modifications can be made on applications, and desired features can be loaded.
   
• While traditional automation systems need more intervention from outside, no extra workforce is needed in robotic process automation. RPA, in this way, saves on workforce and provides efficiency.

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