What is the ultimate goal of the enterprises? Achieve high productivity with minimum resources! At ground level, this goal can never be achieved without automating the tasks.;

When an enterprise automates a simple ‘parts ordering’ task,; it reduces dependency on the workforce by more than 80%, increases task accuracy by more than 90% and speeds up the process by 3X. Meaning, that enterprise achieves high productivity with minimum resources - the goal!;

However, automating a task requires a hand-picked approach, technologies as well as expertise. Things get complicated when you wish to automate a whole process.;

In this blog, I will share everything about our expertise - automation - especially, intelligent process automation.;;

Get to Know Major Terminologies of Automation;

There are major 3 terminologies of automation which you should know about.;

Business Process Automation vs Robotic Process Automation;

;	Business Process Automation	Robotic Process Automation
Technology	It is holistic technology. It aims to use components of software technology such as business analytics and workflow engines to streamline the business processes for maximum outcome and accuracy.;	It is software technology. It uses software bots to automate a task or process.;
Automation Goal;	It completely re-engineers the workflows by eliminating the bottlenecks to achieve organization-wide automation goals.;;	It automates rule-based tasks that have fixed input and output.;
Complexity	It requires a longer-term effort of dedicated technical resources and business experts.	Software bots can be created and deployed with minimal efforts. It still depends on the process or task you choose to automate.;
ROI	It takes more time to achieve your productivity and efficiency goals at the organization-level.;	You will get quick ROI as a single automated task or process impacts your productivity and efficiency goals at the task-level very quickly.;;

What is Intelligent Process Automation?;;

Intelligent process automation (IPA) is taking both RPA and business process automation to the next level with the help of cutting edge technologies such as cloud, AI, ML, computer vision. IPA builds a dynamic technology environment to automate the process with variable input and output. IPA works on robotic process automation and AI technologies.

In other words, intelligent process automation leverages the technologies and utilizes greater intelligence to make decisions by itself. For instance, if a user gives the wrong command, IPA corrects it, unlike RPA which shows the error.;

Intelligent Process Automation Benefits;

According to the McKinsey report,; companies that have automated 50-70% of tasks experienced 20 – 35% annual run-rate cost efficiencies. The following are other benefits of IPA.;

• Collaborative Work Environment of Humans and Robots;

Unlike RPA which only performs fixed tasks with fixed input and output, IPA creates the collaborative work environment of humans and robots at the enterprise-level. With IPA, robots, humans and systems coordinate and achieve much higher productivity with fewer errors.;;

• Less-Burdened Staff;

Intelligent process automation supports the business process automation goals on a large scale. Meaning, it helps enterprises eliminate the bottlenecks of major complex processes and streamline workflows at organization-level which ultimately frees up the staff from repeating work.;

• Highest-Ever Accuracy;

With intelligent automation, you can achieve highest-ever accuracy as IPA is designed and developed in such a way that it can decide on several factors by itself and improve over time which reduces the scope of errors. This is why all self-driving cars are working on IPA technology.;

• Agility;

IPA does not only speed up the business process but gives you the ultimate freedom to make agile changes to the process without affecting the automation solution you have deployed. This is indeed the great benefit of IPA in a very fragile market scenario and trend.;

How to Automate a Manual Process?;

Step 1: Identify the repetitive and time-consuming processes;

The first step to automate a process is nothing but the identification of manual processes! Using parameters such as resources it requires, the time it takes, and your desired output, you need to discover the repetitive manual processes which are eating up your resources most.;

Step 2: Decide on the automation approach;

Once you identify the repetitive processes, you need to decide on the automation approach. There are mainly two automation approaches - non-intelligent automation and intelligent automation.;

• If the process has fixed input and output, you need to choose non-intelligent automation. For instance, the invoicing process has fixed input and output.

• If the process has variable input and output, you need to choose intelligent automation. For instance, the medical diagnosis process has variable input and output.

Step 3: Lead the automation;

According to the automation approach you select, hire an automation partner, apply automation to the process and run it for the first time. You should run it for the first time with defined requirements, goals, and proper solution design.;

When you are running the automated process for the first time, you need to monitor and record the performance and the outcome. You also need to ask for feedback from stakeholders.;

Step 4: Outstretch the automation;

This is called the step-up phase. In this phase, you need to optimize the newly deployed software robot and keep monitoring its performance and outcome. Meanwhile, it is also important to identify other repetitive processes and automate it using the same way you automate the first process. However, the success of the step-up phase largely depends on the success of the first automated process.;

Step 5: Methodize the new work environment;

Remember, you are no longer running your business with the same manual processes. This means that you need to methodize your new automated work environment to capitalize on it.;

By focusing more on these 3 major requirements of the new automated work environment, you can convert a manual process into the automated process in a rewarding way.;

• Creating a disaster recovery plan

• Creating a business continuity plan

• Promoting process improvement with six sigma

Are You Planning to Achieve High Productivity by Automating the Processes?;

Which Business Processes Can Be Automated?;

Our UiPath developers have identified and even automated many processes in top industries such as healthcare, real estate and manufacturing.;

Let’s look at the processes you can automate in all these industries.;

• The processes you can automate in the healthcare industry;

Who Can Automate?	What Can Automate?
Hospitals Clinics	Appointment scheduling; Appointment reminder;; Patient monitoring Patient monitoring after discharge from hospitals; Insurance management Revenue cycle management; Claim management
Pharmacy Stores	Prescription ordering; Prescription processing Prescription delivery Inventory management; Invoice processing Reporting Sales & purchase order management
LTC Homes Retirement Homes	Resident data management Prescription management,; Invoice management; Sales & purchase order management Concerns management of residents’ family members.;
LTC Pharmacy	Invoice management; Medication incident reporting management Payroll management; prescription management Inventory management Prescription delivery management

• The processes you can automate in the real estate industry;

What Can Automate?	How Can Automate?
Marketing	Lead generation via website forms Open house lead generation Sync leads from all channels Sync your leads to your phone Automate lead routing
Customer/Team Engagement	SMS/email reminders Automate voicemail messages
Management	Property inspection Agent availability Analytics engagement and performance
Financing	Transaction management Notifications Contracts

• The processes you can automate in the manufacturing industry;

What can automate?	How can automate?
Research & Development	Design options evaluating; Fast prototyping;
Procurement	Raw material availability; Fast deliveries; Sales documentation;
Logistics and Distribution	Goods movement tracking; Inventory management;
Customer service	; Customer needs prediction; Automatic update notifications; SMS/email reminders
Production	Jobs assignment; Automatic system failure alert and response; Human-robot collaboration; ;
Operation	Basic paperwork operations Invoicing; Reporting; Payroll;

Are You Looking For Best Automation Consultant For Insightful Consultation?;

The Disadvantages of the Automation You Should Be Aware Of;

Needless to say that intelligent process automation or business process automation is the very purposeful technology to get more outcomes in less time with a limited workforce. However, there are a few disadvantages of automation which you should be aware of.;

• It is a real threat to employment!;

According to the report, the adoption of automation will lead to the displacement of 20 million jobs only in the manufacturing industry by the year 2030.; This is the reason why enterprises seem more fond of creating collaborative work environments of humans and robots rather than deploying robots with an aim to replace humans completely!;

• The initial deployment cost is high!;
  

Though IPA or RPA automates the manual tasks, it requires ‘manual’ work to automate the tasks by deploying IPA or RPA. The team which can deploy such complex automation technologies is equipped with ultimate expertise and so they charge more. The time it requires to deploy automation is also doubling the size of the initial deployment cost. Thus, businesses only having short-term goals do not prefer to try automation!;

• Making automation future-proof is the biggest challenge!;

You are automating the process which you are performing currently. With new technology, market trends or competitors, you may need to change the process in the future. Thus, it is vitally important to have an automation solution that lets you make changes in the process and the automation solution adapts to a new process quickly. This is the only way to keep the total cost of ownership low for automation.;

Best Practices of Intelligent Process Automation

After reading so far, you must have understood that implementing intelligent process automation isn’t as easy as it looks. There are a few best practices you should keep in mind to set up the automation properly and get everything out of automated tasks.;

Before Implementation:;

• Choose processes to be automated wisely;
• Choose an automation approach accurately;
• Keep current and future business goals in mind;
• Clear your expectation with automation;
• Select an intelligent technology partner;
• Leverage the AI and machine learning technology;
• Focus on collaboration;

During Implementation:;

• Test each automated task individually;
• Monitor performance and outcome of each task;
• Redeploy the automation solution until you meet standards;
• Prepare the disaster recovery plan;
• Ask for stakeholders’ feedback;

After Implementation:;

• Keep evaluating the performance
• Keep evaluating disaster recovery plan;
• Keep identifying processes that can be automated;
• Keep asking for feedback;
• Keep increasing the standards;

We Recently Converted 5-Day Long Invoicing Process to 1 Hour Long Process;

Before Automation:;

A pharmacy requires almost 9 people and 5-days for invoicing at the end of every month.;

• Multiple teams performing the same repetitive tasks.;
• To process all monthly invoices, teams run monthly statements in the Kroll PMS Pharmacy system and print it out.;
• They reconcile each invoice manually and scan back invoices that need to be sent to customers via emails.;
• The team repeats the same process for 1000+ customers.;

After Automation:;

• The RPA bot opens Kroll PMS and runs all reports automatically.
• Using OCR, RPA bot extracts the master PDF and creates individual invoice PDFs for each customer.;
• RPA bot saves individual invoice PDFs in a dedicated folder.;
• RPA bot fetches contact details of each customer from their individual; PDFs and sends them invoice email with the attachment of their invoice PDF.;

The Impact We Created:;

• 95% of reduction in workforce needed to process invoices;
• Error-free processes;;
• Highest-ever productivity;;

So, if you have such a requirement, you can instantly talk to an automation consultant by dialling +1 905 635 7574 and get a free consultation. You can even share your requirements related to robotic process automation or intelligent process automation by filling up the following form.