RPA versus Hyper Automation
RPA versus
Hyper Automation
The Gartner’s
Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2022 report
says that technology trends will deliver solutions and capabilities to boost
growth, digitalization, and efficiency as force multipliers of innovation.
Essentially, the
proliferation of automation has caused the shift from repetitive, rule-based,
process-focused, legacy systems to more data-focused processes that generate
high-value insights. The adoption of Robotic Process Automation(RPA) and
Hyperautomation has been gaining significant traction in driving digital transformation
and supporting new delivery models. Organizations are now merging, acquiring,
and divesting at record levels to help with their transformation strategy and
gain access to these modern automation technologies so they can be more ‘intelligence-driven’.
What is Robotic Process
Automation (RPA)?
Gartner has defined Robotics Process
Automation as
‘a noninvasive integration technology used to automate routine, repetitive,
and predictable tasks through orchestrated UI interactions that emulate human
actions’. With two distinct classes - Assisted and Unassisted, RPA is a combination
of automation tools with several Machine Learning(ML) and packaged software
layers on which Hyperautomation is built.
Assisted RPA deploys Bots to the desktop portals or workstations for
executing complex and repetitive activities. Assisted technologies increase the
users’ accuracy and response time to mitigate operational inefficiencies. High-risk
tasks involving complicated decision-making are often handled by assisted RPA.
Unassisted RPA eliminates user intervention and input and automates all
back-office workflows such as resource allocation, prioritization of tasks, and
channeling of resources to deliver the highest levels of efficiency in business
processes.
Use cases of RPA
In the context of
digital transformation and improved performance workflows, RPA is useful in the
following application areas:
Quote-to-cash
automation, where sales operations
are completely automated to enable rapid customer service, eliminate anomalies
in prices, and standardize processes such as invoice payments and cash flows.
Procure-to-pay
transaction automation, where
invoice generation and procurement best practices are followed to enable a
single touchpoint for all transactions.
Customer onboarding,
where the customer onboarding processes are automated using cognitive automation capabilities to deliver a seamless end-user experience to
customers in B2C businesses.
The enormous potential
of RPA is also realized in other business areas such as data updates, data
validation, and Optical Character Recognition (OCR)-based pattern recognition technologies
for extracting data from multiple formats.
What is Hyperautomation?
Gartner has endorsed Hyperautomation as one of the top ten technologies to
watch for.
Hyperautomation is often seen as a ‘superset’ of RPA and drives higher-level
functioning from task automation to intelligent orchestration enabling
predictive insights, guided recommendations, processing mining, and adaptive
decision-making.
Hyperautomation is a blend of emerging technologies and tools such
as Artificial Intelligence (AI), ML, RPA, Intelligent Process Automation
(IPA), and other decision management systems. Often touted as the ‘ultimate
automation toolbox,’ Hyperautomation uses AI to calibrate
cognitive functioning for transcending the confines of legacy process automation
and individual processes.
Use cases of Hyperautomation
Hyperautomation can be
leveraged through two types of processes – document-based and digitally-based.
Document-based processes
use ML models that extract and validate machine-readable data from documents.
The validated machine-readable data is transferred to the next record system,
which is triggered by incoming documents or emails.
Digitally-based
processes use structured data for easier automation of internal business
functions across industries such as insurance and banking.
Hyperautomation is beneficial
to the following digitally-based process areas of finance, sales, marketing,
and customer services:
Accounts
payable processes, that are automated to
minimize errors and processing time through ML and OCR
technologies to RPA.
Travel
and Expense (T&E) processes and expense policies, that involve manual and repetitive tasks can
be automated through hyper automation.
Order
management processes, that involves automating
the retrieval of customer-specific order data and customer query actions.
How do RPA and
Hyperautomation differ?
The fundamental
difference between RPA and Hyperautomation is in the area of cross-functional collaboration.
Hyperautomation breaks inter-functional barriers and uses intelligence to
determine the best strategy for automation.
RPA has eliminated the
need for complex coding to drive automation through simplified execution
workflows. However, it is limited to the automation of predefined and
repetitive tasks. Hyper-automation transcends the limitations of RPA by
facilitating adaptable, intelligent, predictive processes that optimize
decision-making and help maximize ROI.
Some of the leading-edge
Hyperautomation software solutions that help organizations automate and
orchestrate their key process workflows are RPA, iBPMS, UiPath, Automation
Anywhere, and Blue Prism. Eagle INSIGHT can be easily integrated and deployed with any of these RPA
solutions, with on-prem and Cloud variants.
Automation redefines the Future of Work
In an increasingly
competitive landscape, technologies such as RPA and Hyperautomation are being
seen as business catalysts for driving transformation in the automation space. Business leaders are
seeking ways to scale, adapt, accelerate, and deliver growth in their digital
transformation journey through a new level of enterprise-wide automation to processes, data, and people.
At Cloudgate, we believe that though the beginning of your
automation journey may seem daunting, determining the components and tools that
will help build the framework of automation and align with the overall
organizational objective is key.