
Welcome back to our series on Business Process Automation. In this installment, we explore how Robotic Process Automation (RPA) complements ordinary business process automation within Business Process Management Systems (BPMS).
Integrating Robotic and Business Process Automation
Business process automation involves building workflows that consist of human and machine tasks. RPA takes this further by automating routine human tasks and introducing additional machine tasks, especially in cases where APIs are unavailable. However, a key piece of advice is to avoid building a single robot for the entire business process. Instead, tasks should be divided among multiple robots for efficiency and simplicity.
How RPA Works in BPMS
When RPA is combined with BPMS, the workflow at the top level remains within the BPMS. Beneath this, several robots execute specific scripts. Let us illustrate this with an example:
Imagine a business process involving meeting minutes with a customer. This process includes:
- Entering meeting data (human task)
- Creating the customer in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system (a complex task with a sub-workflow)
- Sending the meeting minutes via email (automated task)
- Controlling the execution of all tasks (human task)
Sub-Workflow: “Create Customer”
The “Create Customer” subprocess is broken down into four RPA tasks:
- Check if the customer exists: A robot accesses the CRM system to look up the customer entered in the top-level workflow. If the customer exists, the process ends here.
- Check if the company exists: If the customer does not exist, the robot verifies if the company exists in the system.
- Create the company: If the company does not exist, the robot creates it in the system.
- Create the customer: Finally, the robot creates the new customer associated with the company.
In this example, we see three categories of tasks:
- Human tasks
- Automated tasks using APIs
- RPA tasks interacting with user interfaces
Types of Robotic Process Automation
RPA can be classified into two types:
- Attended RPA: The user starts and monitors a macro execution.
- Unattended RPA: The robot operates autonomously without human intervention.
In this series, we focus primarily on unattended RPA due to its scalability and efficiency in automating repetitive tasks.
Why Simplicity Matters in RPA Tasks
Tasks assigned to robots should be as simple as possible because user interfaces are designed for humans, not robots. Unlike APIs, which have defined input and output parameters, user interfaces can be unpredictable. For example, pop-ups asking to save passwords or accept cookies might confuse a robot and cause task failures.
To mitigate these risks, RPA tasks should be narrowly defined and tested thoroughly.