What is Robotic Process Automation?

Has the time come for virtual employees?

Thanks to Robotic Process Automation (RPA), your next coworker might just be a bot.   
 
But, before you enter panic mode, rest assured that this bot will not be replacing you. If anything, it will be replacing stodgy responsibilities.
  
Today, we will be taking a deeper look into RPA technology, RPA tools in the market and their benefits.  

What is Robotic Process Automation (RPA)?  

For starters, RPA is a software and not an actual C3P0-style robot.

According to the Institute for Robotic Process Automation and Artificial Intelligence (IRPAAI), the Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is the application of technology that allows employees in a company to configure computer software or a “robot” to capture and interpret existing applications for processing a transaction, manipulating data, activating responses and communicating with other digital systems. 

So, in layman’s terms, RPA uses artificial intelligence to go a step beyond when it comes to task automation. Thus, you can have a faster and wider range interactions between different applications. It’s a software configured to emulate the actions of a human being interacting with a digital system. As the Robotic Process Automation company UiPath puts it, “an RPA robot never sleeps and makes zero mistakes.”

How Robotic Process Automation works 

RPA works by imitating or emulating human actions through the use of robots (software technology). Tasks like copying and pasting, data extraction and processing, file manipulation, and many others can be automated, providing huge benefits for organizations. It saves time and ensures a higher level of accuracy than when done by hand.  

Who benefits from RPA?   

RPA is meant to take on dull back-office chores, so it is ideal for companies with high volume of customer enquiries and substantial transactional processes, delivering error-free results, saving plenty of time and resources. Such is the case of financial services, banks, insurance companies, and people handling databases, to name a few. RPA is also a strong trend for FinTechs, which rely heavily on efficient processes and innovation.

Unlike us, a bot can log into multiple applications simultaneously, adding new levels of service excellence, quality and productivity while reducing operation costs. With this, a bot ensures compliance of data and greater accuracy by removing the possibility of human error, providing better security of information.

But far from replacing the human factor, a bot actually elevates the nature of their jobs, relieving people from dull and repetitive tasks, allowing them to focus on projects with more added value.  As a result, RPA has found a home within many industries, especially for tech companies, banks and financial service providers.

How does Ria Money Transfer use RPA?  

As you can imagine, we receive a high volume of bank deposits from our agents on a daily basis at Ria Money Transfer.  
 
In the olden days, each agent’s bank statements had to be processed manually to be matched up with the information available in our system. The process involved a lot of ink and paper, and of course, time.   
 
Now, all we have to do is download the bank statements periodically and feed them to our RPA system. The bot – designed to ensure the process’ traceability – checks off perfect matches and flags transactions that require reviewing.  

Currently, in Europe, 65-75% of our agent deposits are processed automatically.  This implementation has enabled us to respond to our continuous improvement and innovation reducing risks and having a more granular monitoring process.  With this, our employees can allocate more of their time to invest in agents and customer engagement, focusing on developing more impactful work, making Ria more efficient and valuable to the benefit of our customers. 

And speaking of benefits to our customers, the Ria Money Transfer app offers a safe, fast and reliable option for your international money transfer needs. Download the latest version for iOS and Android today to get started!