“Automation” is one of the most powerful tools and game-changers for enterprises. Increasing productivity. Minimizing the cost, boosting the efficiency, reducing the manpower, and managing the time, all at once in a few seconds! Hence rightly said “In 30 years, a robot will likely be on the cover of Time magazine as the best CEO, Machines will do what human beings are incapable of doing. Machines will partner and cooperate with humans, rather than become mankind’s biggest enemy.” — Jack Ma, Alibaba founder, and chairman.
So now let’s talk about the most used tools ie: Robotic Process Automation (RPA) & Business Process Automation (BPA) the most in-demand and successful technologies for enterprises to achieve endless goals to give the maximum to customers. And, increasing customer satisfaction and harmony between employees while reducing operational costs. So what exactly do RPA and BPA perform? Are they worth it? or are they similar?
What’s RPA?
We have all read and known throughout our life that we can train machines or robots in whatever way we want. they‘ll just do what humans have trained them for. Not less, not more, just exactly what you have trained them for. So, similarly, we can say that RPA ( robotic process automation) is software robots that perform the human tasks for which we give them training. It’s rule-based automation, for example, it can be getting the daily insights, copy-paste data, filtering out emails, storing any kind of information. Basically, you can get your own personal virtual assistants who reduce workload and manpower and perform repetitive tasks that aren’t complicated but hectic hence consume employee time. We, humans, get bored of daily tasks and hectic schedules but this software is never off the table, instead, it finishes the task before the deadline and with utmost efficiency
Do you Remember the bots who pop out of nowhere in the bottom right corner on almost all kinds of websites asking “ do you need any help ?” well that’s also an example of RPA. Similarly, They can easily log into the systems of yours and extract the data, bringing out the result you want like the invoice number, name, or exact info you want. RPA in short is mimicking our actions which we humans take hours to perform.
Thousands of enterprises are stepping up, be it small or big, are stepping forward and accepting RPA and implementing it in their business. As a result RPA market is expanding at a fast rate.be it an industry of Banking, BPO’s, Government, Health Care, RPA, Logistics, ECommerce, Manufacturing, Travel and, many more have implemented RPA to streamline processes, reduce time and increase productivity. Hence employees get more time to perform those tasks that require human intervention such as creativity, emotional intelligence and customer service, etc.
What’s BPA?
BPA (Business process automation) does the same work but in a more holistic and detailed way, it’s an end-to-end process. It aims at the entire business process and automates it from scratch, and gives the final output. It isn’t focused on a surface level unlike RPA or it is not restricted to one single department but it looks out for the whole organization and brings them all together. It puts attention on all departments of organizations. Hence bring out customer satisfaction.
Well, we can also say the sole purpose of BPA is to filter out the biggest problems the company is facing. And solve it. So that workflow is smooth in the company and employees are in a happy place to work with.
For example, hiring new employees may seem like a long process, involving multiple tasks. Accepting employee information forms, setting up orientation meets, arranging training sessions, storing the bank accounts information, collecting relevant documents, and assigning mentors and many other things basically can be a long process involved. It may also require multiple people to execute this kinda task. Hence in this case BPA steps in. it also does all process-related communication within the workflow to make execution easier and faster. Some very common automated processes in enterprises are tasks like sales orders, invoicing, procurement, product launches, help desk support, etc.
So are they similar?
Both RPA and BPA function through automation and have similar functions and motives. But the process of both differs. Well obviously RPA handles specific and individual tasks with the software robots to streamline, and on the other hand, BPA dives deep into the system and takes authority to filter out the entire business process and automate it from scratch, from the start to finish.
RPA is commonly used in procurement automation, it runs without human intervention and the irony is it focuses on more time-consuming and repetitive tasks for which humans may bang their heads on the system for months if they do on their own. Tasks like filtering emails, submitting forms, etc… On the contrary, BPA overhauls existing systems with its own software and implements its own system. It doesn’t believe in adjusting or compromising within the framework or system, instead, it brings out the cause of the problem and solves it on the ground level itself. The entire business process efficiency stems from the BPA.
Well, we can’t deny the fact that they both are an important part of digital transformation. Enterprises are realizing the importance of both tools. Plus, studies say that RPA has become the more popular of the two, however don’t conclude that BPA is any less. In fact, RPA and BPA are just two different paths to reach the same goal.
Both RPA and BPA bring out efficiency and productivity throughout an organization by automating processes. You just need to find out which technology (or combinations of technologies) is suitable for your organization.
If your enterprise has critical automation needs and requires a thorough analytical assessment, then BPA is the best call for you. And If you’re clear and want specific tasks oriented and looking to optimize the existing system or just continue operations till the time you can do a major automation fix, use RPA.
