Boosting RPA Security: Concerns, Solutions, and Best Practices

The use of robotic process automation (RPA) allows businesses to reduce the risk of errors in human work, thereby providing top-notch, highly accurate work. It can record, analyze and optimize all the activities of a live robotic process, and allows you to carefully monitor business processes. Let us see what are the major security risks and ways to prevent them. 

RPA Security Concerns

There are 4 major areas of potential security concern when implementing an RPA solution. They are mostly associated with cyber security risks. They are explained below; 

Misuse of Privileged access 

This term applies to the internal systems and databases of any organization and is mostly related to accounts that are privileged – like the accounts with greater access to an organization’s confidential data. This may include the accounts of IT team members or employees’ accounts working on sensitive data, like system administrators’ and financial managers’. Privileged access to RPA bots can be misused and involves the same risk associated with human-made access abuse. The best examples include:  

  • Attackers can use the special access to an RPA bot to infiltrate the system and sneak sensitive business data. 
  • The vulnerability of bots increases with privileged access and this vulnerability can be taken as an advantage by attackers to interfere with important business activities associated with clients, orders, or transactions. 

System Vulnerabilities 

Simply put, vulnerabilities refer to damage to an information system that gives cyber attackers unauthorized access to the system and to carry out malicious activities. Any unwise behavior of an employee, including visiting a restricted or malicious website is one way in which vulnerabilities can peak in. In such cases, the website is a source of threat that creates a risk. Weak passwords, uploading malicious files, SQL injection are examples of vulnerabilities. When it comes to vulnerabilities, there are two key risk factors: 

  • Damage to the backend of the RPA software may allow cyber attackers to infiltrate the corporate network. 
  • When transferring data, most modern RPA systems today use encryption, but there are minimal security-level RPA tools that can cause sensitive data leaks during the transfer of data that are not encrypted. 

System outrage 

System Outage (or idle time) refers to the time during which a system/network can no longer carry out its primary function. There are many reasons behind a system outage. Some of them include errors from the side of human workers, obsolete hardware, minor or major bugs in server OS, integration problems. The risk scenarios include; 

  • The functioning of the RPA bot can be disrupted by unforeseen network failures, which leads to less productivity.  
  • Fast sequencing of bot operations can result in system failure or interruption. 

Disclosure of confidential information 

Every organization has its own confidential data which has a commercial value and is not to be seen or known by the public. The financial statements, marketing strategies, future projects, etc., are part of confidential data and any unauthorized disclosure of such data can invite drastic consequences in the company. Sometimes sending a normal email to a friend from the corporate mail address can also be taken as disclosure of company data. 

  • In Robotic Process Automation, the risk scenario arises when there occurs an accident involving the disclosure of confidential information such as payment or credit card leaks into the web as a result of intentional or inappropriate training of RPA bots. 

How to prevent security risks in RPA? 

So far, we have discussed security issues that may arise while implementing Robotic Process Automation. Now it is time to discuss the various steps to prevent RPA security risks.  

Conduct regular audits and periodic risk assessments 

Enforce proper regulations to monitor the performance of RPA bots and ensure that all bots function in accordance with the set rules. Periodic risk assessment is necessary to track the possibilities of new risks, mitigate, and review security risks in the RPA, to check if any restrictions have been lifted, and to determine if any RPA bot needs to be avoided. 

Control access to the RPA environment 

Companies need to pay attention to how they allow access to analysts operating in RPA environments. For example, avoid using personal IDs and it is better to use generic IDs instead. You may be the authorized official but that doesn’t guarantee safety to your personal data neither in the RPA environment nor in any other technology. 

Follow strict governance 

It is very important to define rules and regulations in order to maintain security in RPA solutions. Without proper governance, RPA cannot ensure the security it is supposed to offer. Detailed criteria, development criteria, and business justification are some features that fall under an excellent governance framework.  

Ensure continuity of the process 

Create a transparent business continuity plan that specifies the backup procedures and data sources required to carry out every task. It is the responsibility of an internal audit team to check and review the documents in the business continuity plan to see if there is any information, like how to restart each process/activity even after failure.   

Use a password vault 

RPA teams can save passwords in single password storage or vault without creating any security leaks.   

Encryption 

While internal security risks can be minimized by role-based encryption, external threats or attacks to the company can be protected using encryption. High-level encryption protocols have been used to defend the management details stored in the credential archive. 

Wrap Up 

With automation comes various types of risk, especially while trying to access cloud-based data. The greater risk lies in handing over the access to an unattended bot than allowing humans access because the security risk will be proportionately higher in a bot chat functions full time. When it comes to challenging such security risks, RPA’s zero-touch environment allows eliminating other risks or errors caused by human workers in business operations. RPA environment is free from prejudices or deviation, all of which replaces the human activity that is error-prone. For this reason, RPA ensures stable work with low risk. 

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Robotic Process Automation in BPO

There is no doubt that Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solutions have taken a better position in almost all core systems of various industries and organizations. Still, even after the successful implementation of RPA, there exist a common misbelief that robotic process automation may lead to the replacement of business process outsourcing as companies start automating their business processes within. It is already a fact that RPA is just another technological advancement that BPO vendors provide along with their other services. Outsourcing business processes automation with a BPO vendor is considered as another way to integrate the benefits of BPO and RPA. Some of the major points why RPA integration is relevant for BPO are mentioned below: 

  • Less operating costs 
  • Higher operational efficiency 
  • Great quality output and fewer errors 
  • Better employee and customer experiences 

What is Business Process Outsourcing? 

Business process outsourcing (BPO) is a subdivision of outsourcing that includes giving out certain functions and responsibilities on a contract to an external service provider (third-party vendor. BPO is generally classified into 2; 

  • Back-office outsourcing consists of business activities inside the company, such as human resources, finance, and accounting. 
  • Front office outsourcing consists of various services offered to customers like call center facilities. 

Reasons for using RPA for Business Process Outsourcing 

There are many underlying reasons why Robotic Process Automation is used for Business Process Outsourcing. Well, let us say that these reasons are actually the benefits of using RPA for BPO. They are explained below one by one: 

Improves business productivity 

RPA’s latest and advanced data processing capabilities in Business Process Outsourcing enable decision-makers to activate important statistics and make instant decisions to increase the response of customers to new promotions. It also enables businesses to innovate and maintain their strategies to adapt to changing market forces, trends, and customer needs. Automation of back-end operations, sophisticated security features, analytics, audits, and administration help improve business productivity.  

Low cost 

Organizations can minimize operational expenses when they outsource certain operations and processes from third-party providers by taking advantage of cost-efficiency and rapid Return on Investment (ROI). This lifts the costs of investment on huge IT infrastructure, hiring more workers, training, and managing them to carry on those processes and operations. Almost 25% – 80% of operating costs are reduced with Robotic Process Automation. 

Enhance security and control 

Security is a major concern especially when your organization is outsourcing processes and activities from an external third-party provider. RPA maintains compliance by accurately managing sensitive and strategic data with 100% accuracy. They are predictable and easy to track or monitor as well. Leading data security solutions, including encryption, can be used to prevent specific vulnerabilities. RPA also sets up quick response security controls, restricts unauthorized access to any file or data, and detects security vulnerabilities, risks, and loopholes before an issue arises.  

Better workforce management 

BPO relies heavily on a manual workforce for day-to-day operations and monitoring systems. The introduction of Robotic Process Automation in BPO facilitates immediate possibilities of better employee management and employee frustration reduction programs. A 24/7 engagement model can be created using bots in the workplace in the absence of human workers. It enables businesses to expand globally and meet the cross-border requirements of a variety of clients. Business resources can be increased or decreased depending on the on-seasonal and off-season activities.  

Heavy data exchange 

Performance-scaling is vital in BPO and it relies mainly on data-based information. The usability and integrity of data enable businesses to seize opportunities and obtain statistics. There are high possibilities of errors in manual data exchange and heavy traffic, which slows down whole processes. Since there is no requirement for a proportional infrastructure upgrade, solutions based on the RPA scale are easily accessible at a low cost. In fact, the introduction of RPA software means that capacity improves while reducing resource consumption. 

Modernized solution 

Different and flexible solutions are always better for maintaining existing customers and gaining new customers. Technology is something that keeps attracting customers because of the convenience it offers. Deployment with the latest trends like RPA and other technological advances in the BPO sector will enable companies to stay on the verge of innovation and find different positions and rankings in business processes. 

Processes supported by RPA in BPO 

Here are some of the important processes in Business Process Outsourcing, which has the backing of Robotic Process Automation. 

File and data manipulation 

Relevant data files and reports can be retrieved from file storage, evaluated, copied, deleted, or formatted within minutes, either separately or as a whole. RPA supports the efficient working of spreadsheet processing RPA solutions, timely updation of data, and mining platforms in the Business Process Outsourcing Sector.  

Data entry and validation 

Automated conversion of speech into texts and voice-to-data conversions can be performed while on a call with customers. The efficacy of Robotic Process Automation in data management is visible in the examples of keyword analyzers that eliminate keyword stuffing and predictive data tools. With an RPA tool in the right place, it is easy to combine, validate, and convert customer feedback and forms to essential standards. Evaluation notifications help businesses to automatically correct errors during data entry or gather accurate information. 

Reconciliation 

RPA facilitates automated ticketing systems that are capable of handling consumer complaints, system inconsistencies, and downtime. Implementing RPA solutions in main systems paves way for efficient and priceless reconciliation tasks. RPA bots in BPO and monitoring systems can mitigate risk through dynamic coordination at each operational level. 

Wrap Up 

Since BPO offers more operational flexibility, companies are mostly attracted to BPO. By giving out specific functions and business processes for outsourcing, companies can give more time and resources to key areas such as customer relations and product leadership, which eventually result in more gains compared to other competing businesses in the industry. BPO also helps businesses access advanced technological innovations. BPO vendors and companies are continuously adopting the latest technologies and practices to improve business processes.  

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9 Real-World Examples of RPA Automated Systems

Why RPA? Because there is no other better option for completely automating repetitive and tedious tasks.  Due to the continuous pressure to improve efficiency and minimize costs, various enterprises have already turned to robotic process automation services, considering it as an effective solution. Let us talk more about RPA and some of its major examples that are in practice. 

What is RPA? 

The term Robotic Process Automation (RPA) brings the image of physical robots performing labor-intensive activities, like cleaning a house, lifting heavy objects, doing every work as a human worker. But when it comes to reality, the picture is quite different. What needs to be understood is that word ‘robot’ in RPA does not indicate a physical robot but a virtual system that helps to automate repetitive manual computing or business process tasks. 

Robotic Process Automation software is an advanced tool of technology that makes it easy to develop, deploy, and control software bots that mimic human activities and communicate with digital systems and software. In general, it is similar to a bot doing such works at a very higher rate when compared to a manual workforce. Software bots are designed in a way to perform faster and more consistently than humans, without having to stand up and stretch or sip a coffee. They are even capable of logging in to apps, entering data, opening emails and attachments, counting tasks, finishing tasks, and then logging out. 

Real-World Examples of RPA  

Website Scrapping 

Today, RPA software has been used extensively to extract data and content from websites.  RPA bots are regularly used to extract data from top websites, trading websites, objects, and other sites with known data. It is easy to fetch this data and analyze it later. Some of the important advantages of web scrapping with RPA include: 

  • It automates mass download tasks. 
  • Fast and easy to set up. 
  • Fewer errors and low cost. 
  • No team is required to maintain scraping. 

Call center operations 

With the help of RPA technology, it is easy to assist customer requests received through call centers:  typical queries raised by customers and solutions can be passed to agents through a dashboard. When a problem escalates to customer service agents (human workers), RPA helps to combine every relevant information associated with a customer on a single screen, thereby enabling agents to have all the information required from multiple systems to ideal and faultless service. 

Compliance reporting 

With the expansion of your business, monitoring compliance may reach a challenging stage at some point. For instance, when an employee attempts to install unauthorized software, you may not be able to monitor them due to lack of time. Fortunately, Robotic Process Automation ensures that all employees are functioning as per the compliance requirements. 

Customer order processing 

A similar cycle is followed from beginning to end, whenever a customer places an order, only with some variations. Managing those tasks manually by your employees can be tedious and time-consuming, which can create more errors in the process. RPA solutions can be programmed to manage customer order processing in order to reduce the error from the side of human workers, improve Return on Investment, lower costs, and improve customer satisfaction and experience. 

Employee onboarding 

The RPA assists in automating the onboarding process of employees by enrolling their names, scheduling meetings, induction classes, and sending them automated messages and emails regarding their responsibilities. RPA provides the best solution to ensure that the onboarding of each employee is in accordance with the regular and pre-set process and that they receive all the relevant information to work with company guidelines. 

Credit card applications 

RPA bots are the backstage performers of most of the credit card application processes. They are programmed to manage every stage of the process, from collecting information and documents, conducting credit and background checks, making the final decision on whether the applicant is eligible to receive credit, and issuing an original card. 

Scheduling systems 

With RPA technology, online health care appointment scheduling can be improved. RPA bots can collect every information regarding the patient such as insurance details, appointment request, location preferences, etc. to make the process of appointment scheduling hustle-free and efficient. 

Claims administration 

Claim processing and input are two reasons why RPA is employed in health care and insurance. RPA devices are capable of performing this faster than humans and with fewer errors. RPA technology can also identify non-compliant exceptions to ultimately protect you from unnecessary payments. 

Data transfer from one system to another 

It is not uncommon for businesses to lose critical information because their systems are not backed up. Most of the time restoring the backed-up e-information may take longer as they are busy with other activities. RPA solutions can easily handle both of these processes, ensuring worry less up and restoring the same information promptly. A simple RPA solution saves time while increasing transparency. This can minimize delays caused by manual processes and eliminate the risk of human errors. 

Fraudulent account closing 

It is important to constantly monitor businesses providing financial services and take appropriate action if any suspicious activity is found. For instance, it is necessary to monitor all activities that take place in order to find anything suspicious while dealing with people financially. Doing this on your own is not only a viable option it also puts your business at risk. This is where RPA can help as it detects and stop irregularities and close linked accounts in seconds. 

Wrap Up 

Robotic Process Automation enables companies from different industries to complete various tasks. RPA-based solutions offer multiple benefits to businesses in a variety of ways. They are capable of providing the necessary requirements to your company to take your business to the next level in no time. As you can read in this article, there are many areas where they can help. You will find examples of RPA use cases and how it transforms the functioning of many processes. 

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RPA in Real Estate: Applications and Use Cases

What is RPA in real estate? 

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in real estate is actually an opportunity to make your real estate agency slimmer and more efficient by improving client-servicing, avoiding tedious or boring routines from the workday, and enhancing listing quality. Among many other processes, real estate businesses also consist of various tasks related to data processing such as managing documents, inventory, and accounting, which are time-consuming and rule-based processes. Such tasks can lessen the efficiency of employees and the productivity of businesses.  

RPA services and other automation technologies to the real estate field enable them to automate onerous and manual tasks which allow employees to give more attention and focus to activities that are very significant and provide more value to the company. To put it simply, Robotic Process Automation paves the way for real estate businesses to grow, flourish, and reach heights. 

What are the advantages of implementing RPA in real estate? 

As we have discussed the importance and role of RPA in real estate, it is time to talk about the advantages offered by RPA when incorporated in the real estate business. Here are some advantages: 

Improves productivity in the office 

RPA software that assists the agents allows each person to perform more tasks in a single working day. It facilitates recovering complex data easily for quick display or manipulation. 

Relieves agents to concentrate on work 

RPA enables the agents to concentrate on increasing client outreach and finishing tasks that are of high value to the company, as the bots perform important tasks in the background. 

Create savings and pay for itself 

RPA facilitates automation of a huge share of computer-based tasks which need to be performed by a business agent, thus bringing a strong Return on Investment to the company. Moreover, RPA paves the way to minimize the cost of labor and salary savings.  

Enhance customer engagement 

RPA makes it easy to communicate with clients while maintaining the personal side of the real estate service. It also helps in recovering the client data quickly and to send reminders automatically.  

Maintains the flow of real estate business 

Since RPA bots do not make errors or take vacations during work, the results obtained from the real estate business will be consistent. There are still many possibilities and use cases of RPA that need to be discovered to automate the whole business process.  

Use Cases of RPA in the Real Estate industry 

Robotic Process Automation can automate multiple processes in the real estate industry. Some of the common use cases of RPA in real estate are discussed below: 

Tenant onboarding 

The onboarding procedure of a tenant involves many numbers of manual tasks that can be time-consuming and can end up as a bad experience for clients. RPA bots can be programmed according to the needs of real estate businesses – to extricate and process information to manage rule-based processes which are a part of the tenet admission process. The main uses of RPA in this process include: 

  • Generating new tenant application 
  • Checking the criminal background  
  • Verifying the job, income, and reference 
  • Accepting or rejecting tenant. 

Payment reminder 

Delayed payments are a recurring, troubling, and annoying side of real estate management and this is something that every real estate company agrees to. Here RPA bots come with an added advantage and take away the tension through automation. The bots are capable of sending automated reminders to clients regarding the rent payment. It is a brilliant option for businesses planning to automate rental payment reminders to go for RPA bots as it can verify payments made by tenants and send automated reminders to non-paying tenants. 

Portfolio management 

The process or technology of managing resources in the real estate business to increase and maintain the value of the property is called portfolio management. Real estate businesses can simply attain this by selling or owning the portfolio components of each individual and handling various resources. Robotic process automation makes it easy for agents to identify rented or sold properties from their business network. Additionally, businesses can even upload data on numerous sites, giving better visibility and reach to their properties. 

Client management 

Clients are the assets of a real estate company and therefore it is very important to satisfy the requirements of clients. RPA bots are capable of comparing thousands of properties in Multiple Listing Systems (MLS) in order to find the perfect property considering the client-defined attributes. This not only makes the process smoother but also saves time for the agent.  

Wrap up 

Real estate businesses are continuously looking for methods to increase efficacy, reduce costs, and improve the timing of each process. Implementing Robotic Process Automation in the real estate industry is the simplest way to attain these goals. RPA bots can facilitate companies to automate monotonous and mundane tasks that require a huge number of human resources, time, and money.  

As mentioned above, the real estate business can enjoy many benefits and advantages by deploying RPA technology. For beginners, implementing RPA bots can enhance the performance of many processes because they can be finished very speedily in a digital atmosphere. When using RPA bots, precision in data entry and many other tasks will improve as the number of distractions or errors will be null. 

Keeping aside all the benefits and advantages offered by Robotic Process Automation in the real estate business, the most significant advantage of adopting RPA technology is that it saves time for employees and staff who have to spend their quality time on time-consuming tasks. This indicates that the employees can be shifted to any other important areas of your business that require more concentration and human creativity.   

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Challenges in RPA Implementation and How to Overcome Them

Have you ever thought of a robot that could finish all the pile of work around you? This is exactly what ClaySys offers you through our RPA services. The current world technology has grown to the point where robots can mimic humans, performing many tasks that need to be done manually. Software bots are the best solution to this problem as there is a lot of tedious work across various industries, that uses a lot of human resources, time, and cost. By automating such tedious tasks, human workers can spend time on tasks that are actually in need of human intelligence and creativity. In this article, we are going to discuss the main challenges in Robotic Process Automation and the solutions to overcome those challenges. 

What is Robotic Process Automation? 

Robotics Process Automation (RPA) is the software technology that uses automation technologies to perform tasks at a lower cost, with higher efficiency, and on a larger scale than human workers. These software bots can mimic human activities and automate repetitive tasks that are said to be performed by humans only. RPA Bots, thus enable manual workers to focus more on tasks that need to be performed with intelligence, and manpower than the tedious jobs. Automation of tasks not only takes away the weight of such boring and time-consuming activities but also assists in speeding up the process with no or few manual workers. Keeping aside all these, the most interesting part is that the use of RPA bots is not confined to any particular industry as it can be applied across multiple industries for many benefits, uses, and accelerating growth of each sector in the company. 

Challenges in RPA 

For every coin, there are two sides. Likewise, Robotic Process Automation has its benefits as well as challenges. It is important to know the problems that a newly adopted technology may face in the long run. Here we are going to discuss some of the major challenges that a company may face while deploying RPA.  

Availability of skilled resources

Deployment of Robotic Process Automation in any industry is a very special and critical task, and strong team leadership is needed to guide the team until the successful completion of the RPA deployment task. In the current RPA market, there is an inadequacy of skilled resources. Gathering resources at the beginning of a new project and replenishing when a major resource runs out is the biggest threat to the successful completion of any project. Moreover, good coordination and involvement of employees at every level of the organization during the automation process are very important. Coordination between each employee not only helps to complete the task more accurately but also enables the organization to generate a system that syncs with RPA. If the IT team is made a part of the process while building the infrastructure, it will reduce risk and ensure safety standards. 

Over and unclear expectations

It is essential to have a plan before going through a new process or procedure and there should be clarity in the final result we are going to after implementing the process. This is the same concept used for RPA deployment. The unclear idea among the employees about the final output of the process can have a huge impact on the project. This is why it is important to give clarity about the entire process and its final outcome to every department involved in the project. This will reduce any kind of confusion on many topics, thus allowing the employees to work with clarity. Sometimes high expectations are relied on the RPA projects even before building the infrastructure. But the results may vary from the expectations once the project is developed and deployed. 

Technical ambiguity

RPA installation is very easy and therefore it is considered to be one of the key features of RPA. Though the installation is easy, for the successful RPA deployment it is important for the technical staff to conduct in-depth research in order to answer and meet technical and functional queries. RPA maintenance is a critical factor and therefore requires a regular protocol to be followed for maintaining RPA, otherwise, it can lead to many problems. 

Picking the wrong RPA

Choice matters! Choosing the right option is one of the commonly found issues an organization may face while implementing an RPA project. The implementation phase is when the organization realizes that they have chosen the wrong RPA tool for their business. They come to know that it is not appropriate for them only when they are unable to meet the requirements of the customer and when the investment outrun their expectation. Therefore, choosing the right tools for RPA implementation should be at the top of the list. 

Disconnected dots

Consider what would be a suitable structure for an RPA Center for Excellence (CoE). As mentioned before, RPA implementation is a crucial task, and the absence of responsibility from the side of any employee can lead to poor performance. In order to best serve the certain objectives of your organization, it is essential that you assign tasks and specify roles, responsibilities, and abilities to the people involved in this automation process. This makes them responsible for their duties and everything will go as planned. 

Infrastructure issues

Issues associated with the infrastructure are one of the main challenges faced while implementing RPA. Lack of appropriate infrastructure not only makes it difficult to bring everyone on board but also can create complications if there is no interconnected system in the organization that performs real-time updates on cloud infrastructure or on-premises. Without proper infrastructure and a centralized infrastructure team, it is difficult to speed up the process of RPA implementation.

Wrap Up 

Robotic Process Automation eliminates obstacles that may arise from the routine running of the business and helps in improving the business processes. Therefore, we can conclude by saying that knowledge about the challenges faced by different projects provides a checklist to prepare for not falling into one of the categories mentioned above.  

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Automating Accounting Processes With RPA

Robotic process automation uses software bots that recognize and emulate communication between human beings and key legacy systems. It uses the web and other applications, to implement the processes. It can automate tasks that are repetitive and requires a lot of manual labor, thus relieving the employees from such boring tasks and enabling them to focus on tasks that require more human attention and intelligence. 

There are numerous transaction processes in the accounting and financial industry that follow similar patterns – repetitive, regular, and time-consuming. As mentioned in the above paragraph, RPA excel at automating such tedious tasks and function in huge transaction values. Above all, these tasks are data sensitive, and a small error can cause significant losses. Utilizing RPA to automate transaction process steps has helped the accounting and finance industry. It enhances the efficiency of the company, especially in the areas of treasury, accounting and reporting, tax and regulation, governance, compliance, and investor relations.  

In this article, we are dealing with major use cases and the benefits of implementing Robotic Process Automation in accounting and finance. Let us start with the benefits of RPA in this area. 

Benefits of RPA in accounting  

Here are some of the main benefits of using Robotic Process Automation in the accounting and financial sector. 

Scalability

In the early times, organizations were forced to bear a certain cost for laborers whenever there was an increase in the workload or when the workers demand it. Nowadays, with proper guidance and a dependable, authentic RPA service provider, organizations are free to automate all processes related to accounting and finance within a few weeks. RPA bots are very much scalable and can be trusted to manage a huge amount of data, and answer a large number of questions in record time. 

Efficiency

The process of accounting involves endless calculations and numbers. Moreover, working on them is a tedious and time-consuming task based on rule-based processes. With the deployment of Robotic Process Automation, financial institutions will be able to speed up the transaction processes along with reliable, efficient, and error-less data.  

Competitive advantage

The significance of having a competitive side cannot be underestimated because corporate culture is advanced and continuously evolving. A slight difference in cost or upgrade determines whether the organization will be able to take benefit from lasting success, or will struggle to sustain its operations. RPA automation in the accounting sector transfers directly into these subtle but significant benefits, with low cost for integration, high accuracy, and easy scalability. 

Innovation in data

Implementing Robotic Process Automation is an added benefit to the financial and accounting industry as it provides in-depth insights into business functions through a clever combination of legacy and new data. Unique integration of data into one system provides excellent reporting and statistics for the growth of the business. 

Address compliance issues

Humans are serious and organized when it comes to work, but at the same time, they can make errors unknowingly or knowingly. In and accounting and finance sectors, digits play a crucial role. Therefore, any slight error even in a single number can invite big trouble; sometimes the entire system can go wrong. But this is not at all happening or possible with RPA bots as their functioning lies on are rule-based tasks. Moreover, RPA software offers top-notch standards and assures financial success.  

Use cases of RPA in accounting 

Accounting is one of the most difficult areas in the finance sector. Deploying an efficient technology like RPA is the only solution to make the entire process stable, accurate, and of high value. Below are some of the major use cases of Robotic Process Automation in accounting.  

Procure to pay

On the basis of pre-set rules, RPA enables smooth and easy collection of invoices from vendors and allocates them to workers automatically. Deploying RPA bots against full-time equivalents (FTE) drastically eliminates the number of manual workforces, and double-checks vendor invoices and payments to eliminate errors. 

Order to cash

RPA bots can perform audit trials, which allows them to analyze sales quotes, orders on products, and more in detail. This data can be utilized to monitor the orders and invoices of customers, process payments, and optimize customer credits. 

Record to report

Using RPA bots, it is possible to skip manual labor and imitate human interventions to record journal entries. Since RPA copies human interaction with core legacy systems, it also helps to coordinate accounts, manage transactions, and collaborate. Apart from all this, it also keeps a detailed record of audits for regulatory purposes. 

Financial close

Financial close refers to a process that relies on all the previously mentioned processes in order to prepare a report describing the financial condition of the organization. RPA bots enable companies to finish their financial close cycle speedily and precisely by importing spreadsheets from various sources to gain access to every data related to accounting, using reconciliation tools and depositories to compare financial data, identifying issues through monitoring progress in the financial close processes.  

Wrap up 

Robotics Process Automation (RPA) uses software to automate specific types of human activities. RPA makes rapid changes in accounting and finance operations, faster than any other modern technology. It is crucial to develop a detailed plan, form a complete team, and focus on the project in detail when implemented in the finance and accounting department.  

It is no secret that early investment in Robotic Process Automation offers your business a competitive advantage by reshaping the finance and accounting processes. The entire industry can be transformed in a very short period of time with the advent of new competitors.  

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Use Cases of RPA in the Insurance Industry

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is compatible with many insurance processes, especially those that require a physical or manual workforce, like handling applications, registration and processing of claims, and data entry. The insurers are able to take advantage of the constant accuracy of an RPA software bot that performs tasks tirelessly and flawlessly at the required level at a small cost.

Implementing Robotic Process Automation in the insurance sector significantly sets the industry to become more customer-centric and efficient as a whole. There are many insurance companies that have sophisticated systems globally, various languages, regulations – rules, a complete necessity for data security, precision, risk elimination, and efficacy in processing. Hence, RPA bots can focus on certain activities that can essentially change the working of the industry.  

Use Cases of RPA in insurance 

The ability of RPA to unify back-office environments with front-end technologies in order to automate end-to-end lifecycle processes is what makes the technology a perfect fit for the insurance sector. Let us discuss the major areas in the insurance sector where we can implement RPA: 

Claim registration and processing 

Companies are required to collect a lot of information from multiple sources, which create comprehensive data, for the claim processing. Existing claim systems are not functional or flexible enough and have exceeded their practical limits, resulting in immoderate manual processing. This in turn reduces efficiency and flexibility, hence the service gets delayed and adversely affects customer satisfaction. Robotic Process Automation in the insurance industry unifies various information regarding claim processing from different sources. It enables automating various processes including data extraction, difficult error tracking, claims confirmation, and unification of claim-relevant data sources; as a result, the process speeds up and forms a better customer experience. 

Underwriting  

Underwriting needs assessing clients’ risks and exposures and it usually takes more than 2-3 weeks to entangle, analyze and determine the risks involved before coming to a conclusion. Robotic process automation facilitates the automation of a process that involves data gathering from multiple external and internal sites, hence minimizing the time for consumed underwriting. RPA also helps to provide necessary information to various fields in internal systems and to prepare a report or create suggestions while evaluating run losses, therefore automating the underlying process of product underwriting and pricing. 

Regulatory compliance  

The insurance industry adheres to strict regulations in archiving works and generating audit trails. In order to assist the companies to enhance the regulatory process, automation is significant as it eliminates the need to deploy employees to carry out operations to manually impose regulatory compliance. Verifying the details of existing customers, creating regulatory reports, and sending account closure processing notices are just a few of the situations that get automated with RPA implementation. 

Integration with legacy applications 

To handle business processes smoothly, insurance companies are highly dependent on legacy applications. As Enterprise Resource Planning (ERPs) or Business Process Management (BPM) needs incorporation with legacy applications, implementing them can be really challenging. The fact that RPA can adapt to the current workflow of insurance companies means that it can adapt to any type of system available for well-structured RPA implementation. 

Process and business analytics 

A bundle of functional and paper-based processes in insurance companies makes it intricate to monitor and measure performance or find out improvised areas. It is easy to monitor the performance of software bots with the help of automation. Since the audit trial given by RPA also assists regulatory compliance, it supports process improvement as well. Thus, improving claims and response to customer service. 

How to implement RPA in Insurance? 

Execution of Robotic Process Automation technology in the insurance sector can be complex and the impact is multifaceted. Therefore, it needs a well-organized plan and knowledge about the impact on multiple departments in a company. Below given are a few steps required to implement RPA successfully.  

Find the right process 

It is very important to perform a top-down analysis of end-to-end processes to find out the most appropriate opportunities for RPA. At this stage queries regarding the methods (whether it has to be standardized or redesigned) need to be addressed before automation. 

Define vision and strategy 

Set up a perfect strategy or route map for measuring RPA deployment. The main checkpoints for defining a strategy include three steps: 

  • Explaining the flow of the process in steps and stages. 
  • Deciding powerful processes or tools that facilitate dynamic delivery. 
  • Creating the plan for automation by plotting each stage of the process. 

Set up governance and authority 

Making sure that an automation program is run by a C-suite member helps greatly in securing timely checkpoints. Moreover, to keep the business as usual (BAU), coordination must be there between the IT and the operations department. 

Foresee talent impact 

The influence of automation on traditional roles and the assurance of shareholder purchases is inevitable and can never be transferred. A well-organized approach is crucial in enabling the most appropriate way to involve the employees and it is essential to build a promising environment among workers, as an organization. 

Wrap Up 

When it comes to the insurance industry, insurers keep facing challenges because of the rapid development of customer demand and high competition. As the insurance industry became increasingly backed by the efficacy of back-office processes, insurers began to adopt Robotic Process Automation to automate rule-based activities, transactions, and routines, in order to rebuild the capability and capital for more intricate and strategic tasks.  

Apart from the ease of using RPA bots, it can also assist insurers to attain higher profits, better compliance, long-term growth in the company, and best customer service while reducing costs and eliminating drop out of customers. Considering the advantages and scalability offered by RPA technology, it is hoped that the insurance sector will increase the implementation of RPA to a higher rate. Robotic process automation is used to promote long-term success prospects and product markets. 

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RPA in Healthcare Industry: Use Cases and Benefits

The healthcare system includes a bundle of onerous tasks like claim management that demand a notable amount of resource allocation. This results in increased operational costs and slower processes. When it comes to hospital or healthcare industries, the doctor is more involved in data management than addressing the patient especially in the middle of unlimited tasks. To maintain the time and effort spent by health care professionals on patient care rather than focusing on other tasks, automating that process is the only solution.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) deploys processes including – appointment scheduling, booking prescriptions, and managing claims by sending invoices – automatically on the computer. This allows employees to unburden themselves and relax from the weight of multiple complex tasks. Healthcare professionals will be able to address the issues of the patients by utilizing the power of automation and RPA, thus speeding up health care processes, making the health care systems efficient, and increasing patient satisfaction. 

Use Cases of RPA in the Healthcare Industry 

We have discussed the importance of Robotic Process Automation in the health sector. Now let’s talk about the applications or use cases of RPA in the healthcare industry. 

Scheduling patient appointments 

The patients will be able to book their appointments with no involvement of hospital staff, with the incorporation of RPA technology in the health sector. The application also helps to enhance customer relationships as patients can quickly schedule appointments as per their convenience, in addition to minimizing the need for resource allocation in appointments scheduling.  

Management of claims 

With the quickly emerging demand for health insurance, claims management has turned to a complicated one as it includes various processes such as inputting, processing, assessing data, and managing appeals. It can be proved that it is efficient and error-free if the whole procedure uses manual or standard software. Obsolete insurance claim procedures can affect hospitals’ cash flow. As per the studies conducted in America, medical insurance is one of the most widely seen insurance frauds in the US. Adopting Robotic Process Automation solutions in healthcare services can enhance the efficacy of intricate insurance claim management processes. 

Regulatory compliance 

Approximately 30-40% of claims to health insurance can be rejected because of non-compliance to regulations. Therefore, another complex task is to provide regulatory compliance for claiming insurance. RPA facilitates healthcare professionals or hospital authorities to monitor and document each process step at every stage of the process in an ordered logbook, thus allowing the company to meet the requirements during external audits. As these processes are managed by RPA bots, it increases the confidentiality of the data. 

Ordering drugs and other hospital stationaries 

There should be enough drugs stock hospitals, but it has been found that there is a shortage of medicines in many hospitals due to a lack of proper stock management. This problem can be easily solved by deploying RPA technology in the distribution, storage, and inventory of medicines and automatically booking the drugs before the stock runs out.  

Enhanced account settlement 

hospitals are required to calculate and evaluate bills for each and every patient during their diagnosis and treatment. It will take a considerable amount of time to process such data manually and yet, 100 percent accuracy is not guaranteed. In addition, it is essential to keep a record of numerous checks, prescriptions, doctor’s fees, charges levied on room/bed, and any other fee for calculating each patient’s bill with accuracy. Manually processing this task can be very complicated for hospital staff and enabling RPA bots not only makes this process easier but also maintains the accuracy of bills based on the expense of tests, medicines, etc. Using RPA software in the healthcare industry will minimize the risk of error and therefore, it speeds up account settlements in the healthcare sector. 

Benefits of using RPA in healthcare 

Now let us move on to the benefits of implementing RPA in health care services. 

Reduced cost 

The cost a hospital has to incur for implementing RPA bots is very less when compared to the costs for paying the employees to do complex manual tasks. As per the study conducted by CAQH, the healthcare industry could save 13.3 billion dollars if automation is brought to administrative tasks. 

Elimination of errors 

RPA bots are trained to apply programmed rules. Humans can make mistakes knowingly or unknowingly but when the bots take the place of humans, they cannot make errors. When there are no errors in the code, then the rule-based tasks will be totally free from errors. 

Increased appointment turnout 

Automation in administrative tasks makes appointment scheduling easier. RPA bots will send reminders to patients about their appointments. Therefore, there are fewer chances of patients missing appointments, so doctors give more care to patients, which directly improves productivity and efficiency.  

Better patient experience 

RPA bots increase the efficiency of front-office support and make it easier for the patient support team to handle questions or doubts from patients. Customer service from health care providers can be increased to a high level with RPA solutions being in the front and back office. 

Improved employee satisfaction 

Hiring your workers for monotonous jobs can adversely affect employee satisfaction, which may result in more employee turnover. This will in turn lead to employees remaining less productive even while hiring and onboarding is in progress. Here RPA bots can come to aid as they reduce the workload on employees and automate tasks that are complex and tedious. 

Wrap Up 

The healthcare industry is one of the most incompetent industries, and minimizing such incompetence in the health sector can result in providing quality healthcare that is essential to both industry and public. RPA (Robotic Process Automation) is easy and facilitates fast deployment of solutions that have allowed the healthcare industry to enhance each and every process and procedure from patient registration to claim management. Human activities are time-consuming and error-filled, but defined work processes can be emulated easily with RPA. Using RPA-enabled automation and quick execution plans, health care providers can eliminate expensive and long-term digital conversion plans and obtain quick rewards. 

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RPA Use Cases in Telecommunication Industry

The telecom industry continues to grow, and the 5G promise is a crucial step in transforming the world. Strong networks and continuity of services without interferences are significant to them. Telecom industries are moving towards RPA to fulfill the upcoming tasks in the telecom industry, eliminate costs, improve customer service, increase performance and enhance data quality.

There are a large number of tedious, manual, and rule-based business processes in the telecom industry, including service completion, billing, revenue management, and more. The automation of these tasks can save hours of manual labor. RPA provides the telecom industry with the flexibility and dexterity needed to rise and meet the challenges along its path. In a world where telecom companies are competing with each other to offer the quickest and most affordable services to their clients, RPA is needed for fast growth and large-scale functional processes such as data management, cost control, business acumen, skills acquisition, and development of new services. 

Let us talk more about RPA and its relation with the telecommunication industry. 

Use Cases of RPA in the Telecommunication industry 

The Telecom industry is one of the industries that make use of RPA at a higher level. Below given are some of the major use cases of RPA in the telecom industry. 

Customer onboarding and offboarding

Telecom industries can keep a clear view of their customers and details related to them with the help of automation in the onboarding and off-boarding process. With Robotic Process Automation, it is quite easy to automatically onboard a newly joined and to pick them out easily when they leave. This allows the industry to save time, cost, minimize errors and enable the employees to work on more attractive and high-value tasks. 

Network management

Capacity requirements are one of the most challenging areas for telecom providers to deal with as rich content is continuously being exchanged between applications, instruments, and users. As the level of traffic and complications in the distributed networks increase, telecom network management is becoming difficult for service providers because it involves navigating complex applications, manually retrieving data, and large amounts of customer-related information retrieval to enhance the efficacy of the network infrastructure. Deployment of RPA technology enables telecom providers to make use of automated solutions for monotonous tasks such as event and diagnostic management, thus allowing network engineers to give more attention to complex processes. 

Billing

The RPA tools are capable of automating the billing process, thus helping in maintaining customer billing records, invoicing, and coordination across its myriad channels and departments. This allows industries to carry out the tasks on time without making any mistakes. 

Debt collection

Automation of the back-office operations of debt collection will depend on the efficacy of RPA application in the telecom industry. RPA also allows telecom companies to recognize and gather what they owe to their firm on their due dates. Different stages of the debt collection process including updates regarding payment details, chases, due dates, and payment reconciliation can be automated using a powerful and efficient RPA tool.  This way it allows employees to become productive without having to worry too much about the collection and more concerned about the distribution of services. 

Improve average user revenue

It is very important to keep an eye on the average user revenue/revenue per user as it is one of the major Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in the telecom industry. Telecom companies will be able to recognize sales opportunities by assessing customer data and the eligibility of the customer for multiple sales campaigns using Robotic Process Automation technology even on an ongoing call, which increases closing rates and the average size of the deals. 

Benefits of RPA in Telecom 

Robotic process automation has many advantages that enable the industry to meet its challenges and make their task easier. Here is the list of benefits of using RPA in the telecom industry. 

Scalability

Depending on the needs, the RPA bots can be easily lowered and enlarged. They make changes easily. The workflow generated using RPA for the automation process can be used again and replicated exactly across different business sectors and locations. With RPA scalability can be attained very easily and speedily. 

Cost-saving

RPA deployment costs less than any other business process management software. The software license can be used for multiple processes; thus, it minimizes costs and increases investment returns. RPA can even reduce the cost of processing by around 80%. 

Data flow

The software bots easily emulate human actions like mouse clicks, keystrokes, and communicate with the interface. RPA, therefore, eliminates the gap between data sources and makes the data easier to access. Since RPA is non-aggressive in nature, it is easy to implement in prevailing work. 

Productivity and speed

Robotic Process Automation performs all the mundane and non-strategic tasks, hence releasing the manual laborers from such tasks so that they can fully focus on tasks that actually require human creativity and intelligence. In addition, RPA bots can complete tasks quickly and accurately when compared to human workers and take very little time.  

Customer satisfaction

Since RPA can automate back-office processes, employees can give more attention to client requirements instead of concentrating more on time-consuming back-office tasks. 

Better accuracy

RPA bots are trained in a way to performs tasks accurately with no errors. Unlike human workers who get tired and make mistakes, RPA bots are very stable and accurate. 

Wrap Up 

The implementation of Robotic Process Automation Solutions in telecom is the best approach to tackle various challenges and problems that hinder the development of telecom companies. The flexible and easy deployment of RPA bots facilitates telecom providers to automate advanced operations. This essentially indicates RPA can automate almost every back-office operation and partially automate processes involving human intervention or reasoning.

Overall, RPA seems to be a perfect tool for the telecommunications industry as it grows and expands globally. In the fore coming years, the use cases of RPA in the telecommunications industry will increase exponentially, creating various opportunities for similar technologies to build the necessary automation frameworks. 

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