Robotic Process Automation – RPA for everyone?

In the era of popular Robotic Process Automation technology and the demand for RPA developers’ competences, many programmers are considering a career as an RPA developer. Today, thanks to intuitive automation software, representatives of the business sector who want to improve processes at their company can also start their adventure with RPA tools.

The idea behind RPA environments is as follows: even a user with limited technical and programming knowledge should be able to automate processes. The following skills will be useful in the robotization of processes:

• analytical thinking,
• business experience, knowledge of the processes,
• knowledge of business process modeling or the basics of business analysis may be helpful,
• the basics of programming (e.g. C#, .NET) and knowledge of VBA, HTML, and CSS will certainly make it easier for a start.

RPA: Blue Prism. What is it?

Blue Prism is comprehensive, integrated RPA software for automating selected business processes. It enables the creation of software robots that take over repetitive, tedious manual tasks, e.g. in back-office departments. Blue Prism is built on the Microsoft .NET Framework and enables the automation of any application built on all kinds of platforms (mainframe, Windows, WPF, Java, web, etc.). The tool provider is one of the leaders in the Gartner rankings. Other popular RPA tools include UI Path, Automation Anywhere and PEGA. Today I will focus on Blue Prism, which I use as an RPA developer.

RPA Blue Prism Environment – the basics

The Blue Prism work environment is divided into two main parts: the process layer and the objects layer. Working with the solution includes designing logic with the use of components that resemble flowcharts used in business processes modelling. Block elements are equivalents of programming structure elements, such as variables of various data types, logical “if” constructions or arrays, which are represented by collections, as well as loops (interactions) used for joining (e.g. individual elements of a collection).

Blue Prism has also a Calculation Stage element for performing and implementing calculations using built-in functions.

The environment handles exceptions in case of unforeseen errors in the application, calculation errors, etc.

Process layer

The process layer is responsible for storing business logic. On the main page of the project, you can create an overview (high level) of the individual steps in the process.

The steps in the process, such as launching the application, downloading data, data calculation, etc., are divided into subpages, which are the equivalent of functions or procedures. Similarly to functions, a subpage can have input parameters and return data.

Interaction with particular elements of the application takes place with the use of objects and actions defined therein.

Object layer

The objects in Blue Prism are not the equivalent of objects from object-oriented programming languages.

One object is dedicated to a single application or function. For example, if we want to automate a web application, we create an object dedicated to it with a set of actions used to interact only with that particular application. Launching an application, clicking on a button or reading text from a text field – all these can be actions.

Blue Prism has a ready-made set of objects for the most commonly used applications, such as Excel, Outlook, or operations such as string manipulations, collection manipulations, etc.

To interact with the application, you need to map its elements. They are stored in the Application Modeller tool:

Blue Prism has a number of mapping modes (spy modes) that allow you to interact with almost any application.

If we need additional functionalities that Blue Prism does not have, we can add them using Code Stage – small pieces of code that are also implemented in objects. The Blue Prism environment supports coding in C# and VB.NET. In this case, basic programming knowledge is needed.

Data processing

In order for the input data to be processed, it must be stored somewhere – Blue Prism has a queue structure for this purpose. Queued data is stored in the so-called items. For example, an invoice number, a sales order number, etc. can be an item. Each item, depending on its processing stage, has a different status.

• Pending – if the item is to be processed,
• Completed – if it has been processed,
• Exception – if a business or system exception occurred during processing.

Robot deployment

Once the development stage is completed, the time comes for release, meaning the transfer (export) of all necessary components allowing the robot to operate from the development environment to production. A separate component, the Release Manager, is used to create releases in the Blue Prism environment. The release is placed in the production environment and run on virtual machines (VDI).

Blue Prism – certification for RPA developers

Blue Prism offers various training and certification paths depending on the specialization. For developers, having the following certificates will be valuable:

• BluePrism Developer
• BluePrism Professional Developer

Summary

Nowadays RPA solutions are used not only by global organizations from the “Fortune 500” rankings but also by all those companies that want to improve processes and unburden employees from carrying out repetitive tasks. RPA tools such as Blue Prism have a low entry threshold, and the business logic designed in them can also be presented to business representatives.

Does it really mean that anyone can automate processes? It is definitely worthwhile so that as many programmers as possible become interested in the RPA developer career and the opportunities offered by this dynamically developing technological trend.

The support of RPA specialists in the organization not only means development services, but also maintenance and the adaptation of the robot to any changes in the production environment.

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1. 1. What is RPA?
2. 2. From a simple macro to business process automation
3. 3. What will working with RPA look like?
4. 4. Use of RPA solutions
5. 5. Implementation of process automation
6. 6. Benefits of implementation
7. 7. Business Process Automation – problems
8. 8. Who will benefit most from RPA tools?
9. 9. Post implementation stage

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What is RPA (Robotic Process Automation)?

Imagine you are talking to someone who is hearing about RPA for the first time. How would you easily explain what this technology is? 

I will explain the abbreviation RPA: it stands for Robotic Process Automation. To explain in a simple way – you automate what a human does manually.

Where did the huge recent popularity of these solutions come from? What is behind the tremendous speed of its development?

In the case of RPA technology, “virtual employees” are created. How to explain its popularity? It is obvious: savings. Instead of employing dozens of people who carry out the process manually, you can create a software robot that will cost less than a physical employee, will not demand a pay rise, will not go on holiday, will not get sick, and will not quit its job overnight.

From a simple macro to business process automation

How were business processes previously automated?

I have been dealing with automation for over five years now and earlier human work was automated – depending on the application used and its capabilities – by means of various technologies, such as VBA macros or C Sharp applications. However, it took a long time to develop software using such solutions. Later, the maintenance of such tools consisted of finding out what business logic automation had, and it was necessary to analyze the code on which the application ran.

And this is where RPA technology comes in as something new which is easier to maintain and implement…

First of all – when we automate a process, the idea of RPA is that the implementation process is much faster. The second thing is that there are several tools, integrated environments for application maintenance, the advantage of which is that you can see the entire logic of the process. For example, BluePrism is used for design. These are some kind of block diagrams, logical elements. If someone sees them, they can understand the logic of the process at once.

Including a business user? Will a client who wants to see how such a process is built from the inside be able to understand what it is all about?

Yes, you can show the design process to a business user, so that he can see what it looks like. You can show the client the logic of a given process in BluePrism, and how such a robot is built and organized. This allows you to immediately see what is happening in the process. You do not need to analyze the entire application code. That’s why robotics, or RPA solutions, are now considered the next step in automation.

Do “robotics” and “RPA” mean the same? There are so many applications of RPA and so many types: hybrid RPA, supported RPA, unsupported RPA. It is easy to get lost. 

RPA and robotics – it’s the same thing. Robotics is a set of different technologies. It is not one programming language, one technology or one tool. There are number of tools, depending on the client, or on the company that implements such a solution, as well. There are different technologies – more advanced or less advanced, depending on the approach.

What will working with RPA look like?

Should employees be afraid that software robots will replace them and make them redundant? Or maybe that RPA technology will be used as a supporting model for employees?

If a process is being automated, it does not necessarily mean that the need for human employees is completely eliminated. There are some parts of this process that cannot be automated, and there is a need for given employees to perform some manual tasks.

Can you give us an example?

It looks like this: when you create such a robot, it works on virtual machines. Every process that such a robot performs must have some input and output. The role of the employee is to provide some data for processing, e.g. invoices. This data for the robot can be provided in various ways: by e-mail, in the form of an Excel file, or by generating a file. After processing the data, we obtain a specific output. Also, it is in a particular format: an Excel file, processed e-mails, or when we add or update something in the database.

Does using RPA in a company require a great deal of knowledge from such employees?

In fact, the employee is not required to have technical knowledge.

Use of RPA solutions

What interesting uses of RPA have you encountered? Have you participated in any interesting projects?

I used to be part of a project for a bank. I built robots and automated processes to automate work previously performed by 20 people.

One robot replaced 20 people?

I automated one process that was performed manually, but there were nine such robots working simultaneously. When such solutions are designed, you also need to think about scalability, meaning several such robots operating at the same time. In that case, nine operating robots replaced the work of 20 people.

That’s a lot.

It’s not that many! I did not build the solution, but participated in maintenance, where 20 robots operated on 20 machines at the same time – depending on the needs. These robots replaced the work of about 100 people.

Are there any restrictions on the creation of such software robots and the use of RPA or is it a case of “the sky is the limit”?

Infrastructure is a limitation, because a company usually has specific resources, e.g. virtual machines, which can be engaged. So this is a limitation. Often, there are several different automated processes, so you need to plan the usage of resources. When a robotics company is involved, there is an entire robotics department. whether bigger or smaller, and the roles are divided appropriately.

Implementation of process automation

What does the team responsible for implementing RPA technology look like?

There are analysts within the team who analyze given processes in terms of automation possibilities, including what savings it can generate. There are RPA developers who build such robots: designing, programming – just like me. They are involved in the entire design and programming process of these robots. Developers operate in a development environment, then tests are performed to simulate the work of robots in a production environment; next, the robot goes to production and these robots are managed by controllers, who allocate resources. For example, when they see that there is a lot of data to process, they allocate more robots to reduce this amount.

The implementation of the automation of a given process therefore requires the involvement of many people with various competences, who have control over it at every stage, even after implementation.

Exactly. In addition, apart from an analyst, who is usually on the business side, there is one or more Subject Matter Experts (SME). The SME is an expert with complete knowledge of the process, and cooperates closely with developers.

The involvement of many people determines the success of automation, not just the developer – it’s teamwork.

The role of the developer is not just implementing automation. The developer also usually deals with the maintenance of the implemented solution, adding new functionalities, fixing errors, implementing changes in the process, etc.

Benefits of implementation. Is RPA paying off?

Scalability is often mentioned as the main reason for implementing RPA. At what stage can you determine if the process will be profitable and who comes up with the estimates?

The analyst is the person who assesses whether automation will be profitable. It’s usually a person from inside the company. They examine what measurable benefits it will bring and whether it is at all profitable. You can analyze, for example, how much an employee spends on a given process. Then we can analyze whether e.g. implementation and creation of the robot will bring any measurable benefits. Because you also need to remember that such robots do not come free of charge.

What are the costs associated with RPA?

The company that provides such technology charges a license fee – and this is not a small amount of money. For the BluePrism solution that I am using, it’s around £5000 a month as far as I know. The analyst must therefore take into consideration the costs of the license and analyze whether it is profitable to involve the robot, or whether it is more profitable to leave this process to people. The automation of bigger processes, where a large volume of data will be processed, usually brings measurable benefits.

What are the biggest benefits of using RPA and how are they measured?

The measurable benefits are the financial ones – we automate people’s work. If we design a robot, it processes so-called “items”. Such an item may be some document, an invoice, etc. As an RPA developer, I can estimate that one such invoice is processed by a robot in three minutes, while a human processes it in 15 minutes. Thanks to the integrated environment where you can monitor the time of work of such a robot, it is easy to measure.

And as a developer, what benefits do you see?

The idea of RPA solutions is that everything is integrated, everything is in one place. This works when we as developers work on the automation of a process which uses several different applications. We used to need several technologies, but now we can automate a given process from A to Z using one tool. Most importantly, the implementation time is much faster than when using programming languages.

Business Process Automation – possible problems

What challenges do you face?

Mainly technical problems. Robotics means that a process is automated to process data the same way that a human does it. It also depends on the application used – the automated process may work in a different way than a human does, e.g. extract data from some database or web service. Let me give you an example. We have a process which uses data from three applications, these are often external applications, and it is not always possible to access these databases. If an external company does not provide access to the database, I only have access to the user interface. Legal aspects regulating access to a given application are often a challenge, as well.

How important is the cooperation between a development team and a business?

Often this is actually not a collaboration between the development team and the business, but between the developer and an external company that provides some applications. Often you have to contact the external company’s support team and determine what is possible and what is not. I need to find out how I can get some data, and if the company is willing to provide me with an interface that I can use to optimize the work of the developed robot.

Who will benefit most from RPA tools?

As for industries, in which of them do you see the greatest potential for using RPA technology?

I’ve been doing this for several years and the industry doesn’t really matter. It can be a financial or manufacturing industry, it can be HR or financial departments. The scope of application of robotics is very large. As far as I know, a lot of financial companies are interested in implementing RPA technology. But it is not limited to such companies. Also, manufacturing companies or those from the automotive industry may be interested. In general: larger corporations that want to automate the work of their departments.

What is the key to the success of such a project? According to E&Y research, 30-50% of RPA projects fail.

Sometimes errors at the stage of analyzing given processes are the reason. It is worth remembering, as I have already mentioned, that these robots are not maintenance-free. It’s not that you design a robot and you can forget about it – it doesn’t work that way. Often there are, for example, changes in a given application, so such a robot needs maintenance, or reconstruction. So it also means financial investment for people who are involved. It also can turn out that business expectations are different and we get a reality check.

Which situations do you mean?

I can give an example of an error in terms of analysis. There is a financial process that checks invoices – e.g. it checks if a given invoice has been paid. The robot needs as much time as a human to do it, so for example it takes 3-5 minutes. On the other hand, the business would like this robot to process 20,000 invoices, which is physically impossible due to incorrect business analysis at the initial stage and the underestimation of technical capabilities. Someone did not check what the business expectations and the technical possibilities were, and despite the time commitment and people’s hard work, automation does not bring the expected savings.

Post-implementation stage

Who is responsible for maintaining RPA solutions? Is it the people who were responsible for the implementation or is it the company? Or maybe an external company?

It varies in different companies. The robotics department can be an internal structure and maintenance is carried out by developers and employees of this company. It may also turn out that developers and controllers work in various companies. In the current project I am working on for a client, robotics is handled by the department in the company’s internal structures, and the maintenance of robots by an external company. After development, the robot goes to the production environment and before it is fully functional, it must operate in the so-called ‘hypercare’ period, which lasts one month.

During this time, the robot is adapted to the production environment and errors are eliminated. After the ‘hypercare’ period, the external company takes over the responsibility for the maintenance of the robot. Of course, the developer is still responsible for maintenance in the event of future errors that were not detected at previous stages of implementation, and for the adaptation of the robot to any changes that occur in automated applications.

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