Is Robotic Process Automation (RPA) really anybody’s cup of tea?
A reveal on some unknown considerations before applying this popular software tech for business process Automation.

Robotic process automation’s (RPA) biggest attraction element is its advertised ease of use. The target pool for this software technology’s success are functions like HR, Finance, etc., simply because such support functions are considered not too technically savvy. Thereby making perfect candidates to trial a tool meant for anyone who wants to jump on the "automation" bandwagon and explore bringing some productivity gain by reducing manual, repetitive tasks. Based on my usage of this technology, I’ve presented my take on its simplicity and potential caveats to be aware of for those exploring its implementation.

The what and when
There is a lot of online material available to elaborate on this tech’s functionality, its potential use cases, and implementation methods for newbies (the amount of marketing done for the tech’s adoption is VERY impressive!). My digest, in a nutshell, is that it is an automation tool that assumes the form of a "software bot." It can simply be that extra pair of hands to take up the role of doing mundane and repetitive tasks performing actions based on predefined logic. Taking away that "dirty, boring" work that sucks out a human’s creativity.
Reflect on your daily work if you perform tasks that fit into the above description. Let’s consider an example – say you’re tasked to perform some actions on a webpage, at a frequent cadence. Your typical attempt to accomplish this task involves referring to documents from your stakeholders and reflecting updates from those documents to the webpage. And you are repeating the same steps every time you receive new updates from your stakeholders. Let’s see how RPA can help in this example scenario next.

The how
As with any project management, the solution work starts with mapping out the detailed sequence of steps from beginning to end, breaking down the task to the solution.
One of RPA’s much raved about features is its ability to record on-screen activity as per a user’s action. Let me share with you, based on my experience, that while this feature works well when we are dealing with actions on just one application (like a browser, for example), once you start jumping from one application to another, it gets rather complex to capture your multi-app actions. And at the end of the recording, re-running the recorded workflow to test mostly results in errors, and you end up with an incomplete automation flow.
The solution that I can vouch from experience around such a situation is to pick and choose the appropriate activities (as it is called on UiPath, a UI to construct your RPA solution) that perform the required action. On UiPath, the RPA solution is constructed as a flowchart building one action(/activity) after another from the first to last step. To build the RPA workflow for our example scenario above, recording the actions on one application simultaneously, like just on the webpage, is definitely a possible approach. At the end of the recording, UiPath translates those actions into sequential activities to test accurate capture. Then all you have to do is just piece the rest of the puzzle together to break down for the bot to connect the webpage actions with outside webpage actions. Considering carefully that we will be repeating the steps until perhaps all updates are transferred from the document to the webpage and again repeat the same sequence of steps for new documents – this in the coding world is the typical use-case for a "loop." Thus, combining in-built convenience unique to the tech with coding basics can exponentially empower you to build powerful and robust Rpa Solutions.

Is RPA the ULTIMATE solution for all automation needs?
The simple answer is No. As I’ve detailed in my previous write-up on the importance of upskilling with programming simply because the number of applications is infinite, I still stand my ground on that. Also, I believe RPA isn’t for everybody as it can have its challenges when branching into complex tasks. That being said, RPA certainly has its advantages when it comes to simple within a single application "record & repeat" style of automation, so its application really depends.
It is reassuring to note that helplines are definitely available for roadblocks while constructing an RPA solution – help/tips can be sought from online communities (hail Google!). Also, given its widespread marketing, RPA would typically offer support networks for large on-premise applications too.
Still, maximizing the tool really boils down to how you can mold it to your needs and business task, applying basic programming knowledge and not just relying on fancy UI tricks. I would certainly encourage trying it out to experience what the technology has to offer. End of the day, it will be another arsenal at your disposal based on the business task on hand.