Robotic Process Automation, or RPA, is simply a computer software application that allows you to automate tasks and processes by replicating the steps that a human takes to complete these tasks and processes. Creating software robots called a “bot” that integrates within your existing software application systems to automate tasks within a business such as logging into web applications or filling in forms or extracting data from documents. RPA bots utilize the user interface of the machine they are programmed to run on to manipulate applications the same way an employee does. RPA bots can provide a plethora of benefits to businesses, especially since they can work 24/7 with no sleep, decrease the amount of mistakes employee makes when entering manual data, maintain compliance and security standards, and they cost much less than a full time employee.

But what is RPA promising exactly? Businesses today all face the difficulty of keeping up with competition in the digital frontier. We are all navigating a new age of technology that only accelerates with time. RPA is the process of automating simple and repetitive business processes, such as data entry or invoice processing.  Automation of standardized tasks with RPA inherently increases an organization’s efficiency and agility because it unburdens current employees to focus on more value-driven tasks.  There are a number of RPA providers and platforms, each using a combination of screen-scraping software, workflow automation, and – more recently – intelligent automation to ensure automation solutions can be tailored to your business needs. But what is RPA as-a-service? As-a-service offerings for RPA are newer in the field and offers a lot of benefits to companies wanting to quickly realizing process efficiencies with a low entry cost.