A few terms have quickly become associated with business process automation. Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic process automation (RPA) are just a couple of the most commonly used. While these two terms go hand in hand, they are designed to aid in the digital transformation of any business in different ways.
Today, let’s take a quick look at the most common and effective RPA use cases that highlight the need for this technology.
Table of Contents
What Is RPA?
RPA stands for “robotic process automation.” RPA technology is employed when a business needs to automate some of its most repetitive tasks to free up manpower.
The best RPA software is designed to work across various applications, platforms, and even departments. This software integrates seamlessly with your existing IT infrastructure.
Examples of RPA Use Cases
An RPA application can be used in a number of different ways depending on how the specific software bot is programmed. Here are some of the most common RPA use cases today.
Customer Service
We live in a fast-paced world where customers demand prompt service whenever they engage with your brand. Offering effective solutions and quick responses to any product or service-related queries is a time-consuming task and quite tiring, depending on the organization’s size.
With the RPA application, these functions can be automated and sped up. Automated customer service systems are not only designed to offer real-time responses, but they are also capable of being online at all hours of the day. This means that you can cater to clients around the clock.
RPA bots are capable of segregating queries into different pertinent categories, such as:
- Service department
- Tech department
- Sale department
This effectively ensures that the right department addresses any customer query, which increases brand efficiency.
In short, your customers no longer have to be transferred from one department to another before receiving the appropriate solution. This greatly improves the customer experience in relation to your brand.
Customer Relationship Management
There was a time when every big brand had a Rolodex on which they stored customer information. While this was effective at the time, it only held minimal information, such as the customer’s contact details.
With the right RPA tool, you are capable of storing and easily accessing vital clientele data, such as:
- Contact information
- Sizes of purchase orders
- Purchase history
- Personal information, such as anniversaries and birthdays
All this information can be displayed to sales executives, customer care executives, and any other concerned employee. One of the main reasons using RPA automation is so good is that employees can rely on accurate information, provided the original data was correct. RPA systems minimize the effects of human error.
Invoice Processing
Invoice processing is one of the most repetitive and tiresome tasks in any business, depending on its size. It’s also prone to human error, which often results in delayed, or even worse, erroneous payments. Without timely payments, the business can grind to a halt.
Besides errors and delays, numerous other challenges are associated with invoice processing. These include:
- The need to consolidate data from different departments
- Different formats
- Constant updates
RPA implementation can take most of the headache associated with invoice processing off your plate. The right RPA system automatically processes any invoices as soon as they are received; it reconciles any errors, ensuring that the system is accurate.
The system can also make certain decisions as far as invoice processing is concerned. This minimizes or, in some cases, eliminates the need for human intervention. With the right RPA implementation, you can automate your invoice processing from end to end, from when it’s received to when it’s paid out.
Payroll
Payroll is yet another time-consuming, repetitive task that is not only necessary every month but vital to the success of your business. Because it requires a lot of data entry, usually from different departments, it’s quite prone to human error.
These mistakes can cause delays or inaccurate payments, which can dull employee morale and directly affect the company’s efficiency and productivity.
An RPA bot can accurately verify employee information across different departments, validate timesheets, and load any necessary deductions or bonuses to specific paychecks.
Sales Orders
Without sales, the business might not make much sense. The problem with data entry in processes such as sales orders is that it’s a repetitive task and quite tedious. Employees can spend hours entering this data into the company’s CRM system and ERP only to make a mistake in one entry.
Since different departments use the same databases, this mistake can be replicated across the entire organization. This kind of duplication not only depletes resources but also affects employee morale.
The right RPA robot can automate this process, ensuring that it’s free of human error. Furthermore, RPA applications can maintain the databases and eliminate any duplications, which increases efficiency and employee satisfaction.
Processing HR Information
In most organizations, HR is the most valuable department because human resources are what makes it run.
Therefore, capturing, entering, and processing HR information is vital. It also happens to be quite challenging, thanks to its sensitive nature. The HR department generates a great deal of employee data that must be captured accurately every time.
The right RPA solution can capture this information accurately and organize it to allow the HR department to access it whenever necessary.
It can also sort this data accordingly, giving the HR department all the pertinent employee information, such as:
- Employee history
- Level of training
- Payroll
- Reimbursements
- Bonuses
- Deductions
In short, these bots can handle all the manual processes that would typically take too much time and manpower.
For example, in this case study, the Lenovo IT department used an improved RPA process from Laiye to manage employment records, automate tasks, and eliminate repetitive processes for an HR team that handles over 60,000 staff accounts.
Essentially, the right RPA implementation can help your HR department focus on the “human” aspect of human resources. This can result in better productivity and employee satisfaction and could even make it possible to attract better talent to your organization.
Talent Recruitment
Finding the right kind of employees is a headache for any organization. The issue is that there are often so many qualified applicants available, but they may all be on very different platforms.
Your RPA system can do the manual work of sourcing qualified resumes from different platforms and sorting through the numerous applications to shortlist only the most qualified candidates.
This can streamline the recruitment process considerably and save the HR department time and energy.
For example, with AI-powered talent software like Affinix, companies can use RPA to handle candidate and resume screening, send automated recruitment messages, store and collect candidate information, and improve the overall accuracy of the recruiting process.
By automating vital recruitment processes such as assessing, screening, and onboarding, the HR department can ensure the new talent is a good fit for the company by automating the initial stages and administrative side of recruiting, and focusing on working with potential candidates on a much more personal level.
