Every sector has repetitive, manual processes that can be automated to improve productivity and the real estate industry is no different. There are several data processing tasks in real estate and property management processes such as accounting, inventory, procurement, document management, and so on. 

All of these processes are time-consuming and reduce the productivity of the employees and the business. And by automating them, real estate companies can focus on more important tasks. An automation technology that’s increasingly popular in the industry is Robotic Process Automation (RPA).  For those not familiar with this technology, we’ll like to point out that there are no actual robots involved. Instead, RPA is a piece of software, an advanced one for that matter, that can simplify a lot of processes in the real estate industry and significantly boost productivity. More information and applications of RPA in real estate to lead your business and reduce costs are described thoroughly below.

Let’s begin with a definition of RPA.

What is Robotic Process Automation? 

RPA is all about instructing a computer program to carry out mundane and repetitive tasks. These repetitive tasks tend to be tedious and time-consuming when carried out by humans which results in lower productivity of employees and ultimately that of the business.  Using RPA, however, increases productivity as the software can perform high volumes of tasks with high speed and accuracy.  

RPA is especially useful for processes and tasks that don’t require human intervention. Take for instance that you regularly input tax numbers into a spreadsheet which you use to generate reports with specific search criteria, you can use RPA to automate the process.  “This means the bot will fill in the tax numbers for the run, run the search criteria, and generate the report just like you would do. You just need to teach the software workflow with several steps and applications,” explains Ruban Selvanayagam of Birmingham auction house Property Solvers.

How is RPA Relevant to The Real Estate Industry? 

Real estate agents and realtors are already using the automation power of RPA for data entry, data migration, data extraction, data validation, and data update.  

This has resulted in reduced errors and workload of employees and the entire operation of businesses is faster and more efficient.  

Real estate isn’t the only industry benefiting from the RPA. Other sectors like banking, insurance, telecom industries, financial services, supply chain, and mortgage lenders have already adopted the technology.  

Real estate businesses should also strive to adopt RPA and enjoy its benefits as doing so is cost-effective. RPA can also be embedded within the existing IT structure, so the adoption should be quite straightforward for most businesses.  

Applications of RPA in Real Estate 

There are several processes in the real estate industry that RPA can automate. Here are some of the applications of RPA in real estate: 

1. Tenant Onboarding 

Tenant onboarding is one of the most tedious and crucial processes for real estate businesses, especially those that manage a lot of properties. The experience of a client during the onboarding process can make or break a business as most real estate transactions are referrals. A customer with a bad experience is unlikely to recommend a business, right? 

From carrying out background checks to verifying income, identity, employment, references, and insurance details and providing concise information during lease signing, there’s a lot to achieve with RPA during the onboarding process. Through the power of automation, RPA can make the onboarding process and tenant management, as a whole easier.  Most of the onboarding processes can be easily automated which will make tenant processing quicker. Tenants will also have good experience which is important to running a successful real estate business.   

2. Payment Reminders 

Late payments. Two words real estate companies do not like and for good reasons. Unpaid invoices can make businesses incur huge costs due to loss of operating capital, time and energy spent chasing overdue customers (time is money, after all), paid interest on loans to cover cashflow shortfalls, and so on. However, late payment is something many real estate companies will encounter from one point to another. And chasing unpaid invoices can lead to lower productivity.  

Generally, processing invoices is a paper-intensive task that requires a lot of working hours and has a high scope for errors. RPA offers the opportunity to automate invoice processing by setting up bots to extract key information from purchase orders to create invoices. The invoices generated and processed by bots are of higher quality since the number of human errors in the data and the entire process is reduced. This frees up significant working time and allows employees to focus on more important tasks. Also, clients are billed on time and automated reminders can be sent to those that are yet to clear their invoices.  

3. Portfolio Management 

Many real estate companies invest a lot in static assets and as such, must monitor these assets to ensure they become profitable or generate revenue. This may involve selling or renting out properties. To achieve this, assets are listed on several websites. Sometimes, there may be a need to change some information or the status of the asset. For example, if a property has been rented or sold out or if the asking price has changed.  

Any of these changes will have to be effected everywhere the property is listed and this can become very tedious for those with large holdings. By using bots through the power of RPA, the process of editing property information across several platforms can be automated.  

Also, real estate businesses collate information about assets from different sources for intensive analysis and insights. Data may be collected from email applications, internal spreadsheets, investment management IT systems, and external websites. Instead of workers manually collecting information from these sources, bots can be trained to do so resulting in fewer errors, reduced workload, and improved performance of employees.   

4. NAV Calculation  

One of the best ways to calculate the value of a Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) is to calculate the Net Asset Value (NAV). NAV is calculated by subtracting outstanding debt, the cost of planned expenses, and the cost of any fixed expenses from the total value of an asset.  

NAV calculation is tedious and monotonous at best for large companies with several assets. But by using RPA, NAV calculations can be easily done with minimal errors, and employees can focus on more important tasks like NAV validation and providing their insights on other aspects of the business.   

This improves employee morale and productivity in the real estate industry.  

5. Bank and Account Reconciliation 

Reconciliation is an important financial process in the real estate business. Bank statements need to match with the business ledger dollar for dollar, and cent for cent. If they don’t tally, then there is an issue somewhere. Reconciliation can be done weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly depending on the size of the business.  

The process, which is generally tedious, can be simplified through RPA.  RPA can extract different bank statements and put them in a single folder for reconciliation with a business ledger. And this can save the real estate business precious time.  

Benefits of RPA for Real Estate Businesses

The benefits of RPA in the real estate industry can be easily deduced from all that has been discussed above. They include: 

1. Significant savings in working hours 

The several hours previously spent on high-volume and repetitive tasks by employees are freed up when the process is automated. This results in lesser workloads and allows employees to focus on more critical aspects of the business.  

2. Increased Productivity 

Bots can run 24/7. There is no overtime and no increased cost. They do not need rest.  

3. Increased Accuracy 

Not only are repetitive and manual processes time-consuming, but they are also highly prone to errors. RPA eliminates the human errors associated with tedious and repetitive tasks thanks to the power of automation.  

4. Process Transparency 

RPA can create transparency for many real estate businesses as there’s a single track record of activities. The real estate processes become more transparent by way of providing a detailed report on how the RPA has been working. It also provides an audit trail so that you can see what, when and how much work is done. This makes it easy to account for and trace any activity thereby increasing transparency in the business.  

Challenges of RPA in Real Estate 

Despite the benefits RPA has to offer real estate businesses, there are a number of challenges to the adoption of the technology compared to other traditional real estate software available today on the market. The main challenge for leaders and forward-thinking executives is the adoption of the change. Organizations need someone to lead the adoption of innovations and RPA. 

Also, there is the problem of which process to automate with RPA. Many organizations automate the wrong process or even attempt to automate the entire process.  

Comidor Solution

Real estate companies need senior leadership committed to transforming the business with the power of RPA. These types of leaders tend to have a great appetite for improved productivity and efficiency in business processes. To avoid the pitfall of automation the wrong process, companies can consider automating one or two of the most recurring tasks and scale up from there. We’re not saying that you should automate everything from the get-go. The first step is to identify one or two tasks that are time-consuming, repetitive, and frustrating for your team. Automating these tasks will give you a quick win, and make it easier for your team to focus on more important projects. Once you’ve got automation down pat, the next step is to automate end-to-end all of your core processes. This will allow you to manage all of your day-to-day business operations, reduce costs and boost business productivity.

The best software solution powered by RPA features is the one that provides comprehensive training and support. Our platform is not just a place for automation, but also a place for knowledge and experience. We have a team of experts that are ready to help you get started and take your business to the next level through intelligent automation. Contact us today and get started with Comidor.

Businesses around the world are constantly evolving. Thanks to research and technological advancements, they can embrace different systems and technologies to improve business performance. The supply chain industry that involves the distribution of goods and services to consumers, has now adopted the use of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to automate repetitive work. This enables human labor to perform other tasks that require critical thinking and decision-making.

RPA makes the supply chain processes more efficient. RPA addresses tangled technological elements in supply chain management. With RPA, any changes in the shipping schedules are delivered with efficiency. Therefore, no delays will pop up in the way. Whenever your business must take care of client needs or maybe implement data consolidation or automation, you can also rely on RPA.
If your organization decides to utilize RPA, it will not fail to realize how efficient its supply chain becomes. Unfortunately, a lot of supply chain companies are not convinced about the importance of using RPA in their processes, which is why we will share some benefits of RPA in supply chain management and also 5 top supply chain management RPA use cases.

Understanding RPA

RPA stands for Robotic Process Automation. Mainly, people use RPA to automate repetitive, difficult, and time-consuming tasks. For example, they use RPA to perform tasks such as data entry in a supply chain business. A worker no longer has to do manually this repetitive task.

RPA is also ideal for tasks and processes that do not require any special knowledge. It is almost the same as cognitive automation, whereby AI agents perform tasks just like a human after understanding how a human thinks. The main difference between RPA and AI is that with RPA, human skills are needed to set rules, and manage the bots. Yet, with cognitive automation, humans are replaced, or the number required is minimized since AI uses algorithms and data to understand human functions.

5 RPA Use Cases in Supply Chain Management

1. Initiating purchase orders

The purchase order process can be part of a bigger procurement project, and it is usually a tedious task for any business. It requires a lot of time and effort to manually process purchase orders. This is where RPA comes into play. RPA has the ability to automate the entire purchase order process from start to finish, save valuable time, eliminate human errors, increase productivity, and make the entire process much more efficient and cost-effective for companies.

RPA Implementation in purchase order processing includes:

• Generating automatically purchase order documents
• Submitting the order for multi-level approvals
• Automating data entry

2. Managing orders

This supply chain RPA use case concerns order processing and management. There are a lot of customers placing wholesale orders from different points, and an efficient cloud platform with RPA capabilities is the right solution for your online business. It will automatically process the orders and keep the necessary data before any shipment or invoicing. If your business is B2B, the order management process in your supply chain should be more detailed to handle the heavy traffic of orders. All in all, any supply chain company or department using RPA will be able to automate many processes without a hurdle.

3. Handling support requests and after-sale services

RPA can fully automate ticket management and after-sale services. Instead of any human intervening, RPA will efficiently perform the needed tasks. RPA technology can support the entire support department, by minimizing ticket processing errors and saving your representatives’ valuable time. This will be important to the business as it will become more competitive.

4. Supply and demand planning

Anticipating and reacting to the supply and demand process can be a daunting task especially if you just rely on human labor. To plan the reaction to the process, you will need to analyze reports and data from all corners of the business. RPA performs all these tasks without any mistakes and without wasting time.

5. Enabling data transmission

This is an essential supply chain management RPA use case. Important shipments must be transported and stored efficiently, safely, and quickly. For this to occur, data transmission must be reliable. If not, the business will incur losses because it cannot act on the correct information. RPA smooths out the functioning of analytics. This is accomplished by providing insights that will help to eliminate any clerical roadblocks such as incorrect data formatting.

What are the Implementation Steps of RPA in Supply Chain Management?

When implementing RPA applications in supply chain management, there are a few steps you have to follow:

1. Define the scope of Robotic Process Automation and its objectives

Each business has short-term and long-term goals. Incorporating RPA in your company will assist you in achieving those objectives and reaping the benefits. The most important is to determine the objectives and how they will be measured in terms of business success or failure. Let’s say your sales team receives new order for a customer. After checking the inventory stock, an RPA bot places the order to an ERP system, speeding up the whole process. Will your company have to look at overall productivity or the technology used? It will be up to you to come up with the right answers.

2. Choose the supply chain processes to automate

Not all supply chain processes may be suitable for RPA in the same way. Supply chain processes can be automated in many ways, but it is important to find the right balance between cost and efficiency.

The first process that you should automate is the inventory management process. This way, you will have a clear overview of what goods you have available and what needs to be ordered.

The second process that you should automate is the order fulfillment process. This way, you can make sure that all orders are fulfilled on time without any problems or delays.

The third process that you should automate is the transportation management process. This way, you will know where your goods are at any time.

3. Pick the best RPA solution for your needs

There are many RPA solutions on the market. However, not all of them are good for your specific needs. It is important that you do your research and find out what RPA solution will best fit your needs. A good starting point for an RPA solution is to look for one that provides you with full scalability and integration capabilities. Another important factor is that the RPA software provides the necessary security features and compliance. Above all, it is critical to start by defining your goals and objectives. In this way, you will be more confident with your options and finally invest in a great solution for your company.

4. Define the processes for managing changes

The first stages of using RPA in your supply chain management are manageable. But as time goes on, the process becomes harder. Managing changes is a difficult task for any organization. It requires a lot of time and effort. How are you going to manage it? Well, with the help of some key steps, you can achieve this in an efficient and effective way. Here are some of the key steps to follow:

1. Keeping a record that will indicate the changes that occurred and the reasons as to why they occurred
2. Responding to change quickly
3. Communicating with stakeholders about the change
4. Focusing on the desired outcome of change

Following these steps for managing change will assist the project team in making decisions and improving the quality of services and products.

5. Establish an excellence center within your company

The final step involves developing an RPA center of excellence. The ultimate goal of an RPA center of excellence is to create a collaborative and supportive environment that helps the organization grow, innovate, and continually improve. The center of excellence should also be able to deliver expertise, think strategically about the future, and position the organization for success. This will assist team members in improving how they perform their tasks and duties. It will help create a standard that every team will follow and also act as a reference point whenever they want to remember matters about RPA.

What are the Benefits of RPA in Supply Chain Management?

RPA use cases in supply chain management provide lots of benefits to businesses. It is the ultimate solution you need to better your business, whether it is online or offline. Those who have used this approach can attest to many advantages. Here are some typical benefits:

1. Boosts productivity in every department

A supply chain manager keeps track of a variety of activities that can be time-consuming to manage. RPA software and applications work faster and reduce the data workload by half, which benefits the business as a whole. Accordingly, reduced workloads by 50% result in increased productivity.

2. Reduces costs and generates savings

RPA systems correctly work in completing tasks, hence reducing the chances of errors and the need for human repetition. This in return will enhance the speed at which work is delivered and reduce the cost since the business will not have to employ more team members to perform tasks.

3. Improves customer and user experience

Customers are king in any business, and they determine its success or failure. Hence, they should receive enough attention and the best user experience. Since RPA systems reduce the workload in a business, employees can focus more on customers’ needs and deliver exceptional customer experience.

4. Achieves flexibility and speed in scaling up and down

In business, customer orders might increase at any time. This requires more employees for production to occur. Will you have to employ more temporary workers and spend a lot? Instead, you can just make use of RPA systems that can easily be scaled up and down instantly to handle a large volume of work.

Conclusion

RPA is a great solution in supply chain management, and it enables a business to scale up fast. It handles most of the back-end processes and enhances the efficiency and speed of delivery, giving more time for the team members to concentrate on providing better services to customers.

The Finance and Accounting industry is a veritable warehouse of data. Banks and other financial institutions compile and maintain paperwork that counts for gigabytes of electronic information. For instance, building a specific finance or accounting report requires multiple employees to visit the site where data is stored, make copies, and organize the information into a presentation.

This setup is very inefficient. The process consumes resources that could have been diverted to other important accounting tasks within the organization or the financial department. Fortunately, the digital age has introduced numerous solutions that could help streamline various financial and accounting processes. In other words, finance automation is now a reality.    

How Accounting Automation Can Help the Finance & Accounting Industry 

Automation can improve the efficiency of the following processes in the finance & accounting industry: 

• Accounts Payables

Accounts payable processing deals with humongous amounts of data. The sheer number of invoices alone makes the human user prone to mistakes and inconsistencies. Automation, however, avoids these shortfalls and shortens the processing time of invoice approvals.  

• Source-to-pay 

Automation can significantly shorten the turnaround time for extracting supplier invoices, gathering payment details, and forwarding the money to the vendors themselves. Automated tools are now able to access vendor emails to read invoices and gather other relevant information needed to complete the transactions.   

• Data analysis 

Before automation, employees had to pore through stacks of documents to find and then copy data for their reports. Computers reduced the amount of paperwork, but manpower still had to manually copy and paste information. With automation powered with RPA and other intelligent technologies, however, the software will analyze the data and present it according to the parameters set by the user.  

• Credit risk assessment and management 

Automation helps finance companies accurately measure a prospect’s risk and charge the appropriate interest rates, or deny financing altogether. Credit data can be instantly updated from the credit bureaus, and automated analysis can make instant decisions on approval or rejection. 

It’s interesting to think about how financial and accounting automation can be achieved. There are various methods of automating finance and accounting processes in particular. These technologies are outlined in brief below. 

Technologies used for Accounting Automation

Workflow Automation 

Workflow automation is a great way to improve the efficiency of accounting work. There are many benefits of using workflow automation for accounting. It’s not only about saving you time by automating the most tedious parts of accounting and finance processes, it’s also about saving money, improving accuracy, and generating better results.  

 

When it comes to accounting and finance, the ability to free up resources and allow employees to focus on other tasks plays a crucial role. Normally, massive paperwork and manual entry are required to be done by Accounting professionals. With workflow automation, all these time-consuming tasks are automated, run in the background, thus, freeing up time for users. Capabilities like integration with third-party systems, business logic implementation, workflow controls, and task escalation are only some of the must-have features of workflow automation software.  

Robotic Process Automation 

Scripts, macros, and bots are some of the earliest technologies used in automation since they have helped free up time and improve people’s efficiency and productivity over many years. McKinsey estimates that these early technologies are capable of automating 42% of activities in the finance department. Automation using scripts, macros and bots becomes tricky when the need to interface between multiple applications arises. In this case, there are other methods of creating and using scripts. The bottom line – all processes still take time and tie up manpower. That’s where Robotic Process Automation or RPA comes in. 

RPA is simply software that acts as a middleman between two unrelated systems. RPA, for instance, can extract the invoice data from a PDF file and then upload them directly to another system. For example, in a sales order process, RPA bots replicate human actions, send data, and create an order in the ERP system. 

RPA bots are autonomous and do not rely on a mother program like Excel to work. They can also be used by individuals with virtually no programming knowledge. Most importantly, it takes but a few minutes for a well-trained employee to create the automated process. 

Cognitive Automation 

Artificial Intelligence is the pinnacle of automation technology. AI is a piece of software that follows a preset algorithm but can make intelligent choices, within the predefined limits, involving the inputted data. This capability allows the software to perform a thorough analysis and present the data in a structured manner without errors or inconsistency.  

AI also gives way to intelligent automation. IA combines the analytical capabilities of Artificial Intelligence with the capabilities of Robotic Process Automation. The most notable implementation of IA in the finance industry is the Erica virtual assistant developed by the Bank of America. Erica is capable of analyzing each customer’s banking history and making intelligent recommendations of financial products to the user. 

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning algorithms constitute a great choice when there is a constant flow of data, and the decision-making process is extremely difficult and complex. Such examples include the generation of financial reports, payrolls, procurement process, analysis of employee productivity, new product launch, or predicting future churn rates. 

Summary 

All in all, time and manpower are the two crucial elements of business efficiency. A business process that ties down these two resources can have adverse effects on productivity and performance. Simple as they are, mundane tasks like data management and entry can still consume precious time and personnel. 

Finance and accounting automation enhances business efficiency by shortening the time required to perform these routine tasks. At the same time, automation also ensures that all reports generated continue to be accurate and reliable. This perk allows managers to make timely and sound decisions. Indeed, accounting automation is an asset that every financial or accounting department should not be doing without. 

For businesses facing exponential growth, automation is the ideal solution for meeting increased demands. Fortunately, there are countless software tools available that can lead to the inevitable automation of entire business processes.  

These tools incorporate state-of-the-art technologies such as Robotic Process Automation, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence. Collectively, they lead to the Hyperautomation of businesses. Separately, they achieve specific automation goals.   

So, what exactly is the difference between Robotic Process Automation vs. Machine Learning? And what about Artificial Intelligence vs. Machine Learning? These tools may all come together to achieve Hyperautomation, but what truly makes them unique? We have the answer to all of these questions and more. Read on to learn more about RPA vs. Machine Learning vs. AI.  

What is Robotic Process Automation? 

Ever wished there was a software that could handle all those repetitive tasks on your to-do list? Well, there is! Robotic process automation (RPA) is an automation technology that implements, and manages robots. These robots can complete routine tasks without needing human touch. Anyone in your business can use RPA software to deploy robots that will mimic human actions throughout a business process.  

What is Machine Learning? 

Machine Learning (ML) is all about data and algorithms. Instead of spending time inputting rules for Machine Learning, this technology uses real-time data to predict the next step in the process.  

Using the data available, Machine Learning will create a model of the typical workflow pattern and begin to improve the algorithm based on common relationships and historical data. In a sense, Machine Learning understands how humans act and mimics that method.  

What is Artificial Intelligence? 

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a widely-known technological area. AI is a set of technologies used to help machines understand how humans think. Once these machines understand the human mindset, they are able to complete tasks in place of humans. This technology is widely used in automation software as a way to check routine tasks off a to-do list without needing to spend time in your day doing them yourself.  

Now that we understand what exactly these tools are, we’ll take a look at the similarities and differences between Robotic Process Automation vs. machine learning vs. artificial intelligence.  

RPA vs. Machine Learning vs. AI 

Though these tools sound highly similar, there are key differences between RPA vs. Machine Learning vs. AI that make investing in all three worthwhile.  

Similarities 

To start, let’s discuss the obvious: how they’re similar. All three of these software tools are used to mimic human action in order to complete routine tasks and speed up business processes, especially for small businesses with limited resources.

Combining these tools together can assist a business in achieving intelligent process automation. This automation allows businesses to make progress toward a total digital transformation, in which they rely heavily on technology to complete tasks, finish projects, and keep customers happy.  

Additionally, Machine Learning and AI are closely intertwined. In fact, Machine Learning is actually a subset of AI. Machine Learning uses AI’s process to understand the relationships between tasks and learn on its own how to mimic those tasks.  

Differences 

Though each of these tools is an essential part of automating repetitive tasks, they each serve their own function. The differences between RPA vs. Machine Learning vs. AI are: 

• Rule-based vs. data-based. Both machine learning and AI are driven by data. RPA, on the other hand, requires rules input by humans to function correctly.  
• Programming. Since RPA needs rules to function, it requires human programming to start completing tasks. AI and machine learning will use data and algorithms to understand how to function and, therefore, do not need much human interaction.  
• Process improvement. If your RPA software is not functioning in a way that works for your team, you’ll need to manually change the rules and allow your software time to adjust. With AI and machine learning, the algorithms will automatically update as new data is discovered to better meet your business needs.   

Each tool is able to complete different tasks using its own methods. That’s why it’s essential to integrate all three into your business if your goal is to achieve Hyperautomation.  

Integrate Agile Hyperautomation with Comidor 

The question is not whether you should choose between Robotic Process Automation vs. Machine Learning vs. Artificial Intelligence. Instead, it’s how quickly you can integrate these systems into your business and start automating tasks.  

With Comidor’s array of Hyperautomation tools, you can have your routine tasks completed in a very short time! Comidor offers Business Process Management (BPM) software that, when combined with workflow automation and RPA, ML, and AI, can ensure that your business has all the necessary tools to achieve agile digital transformation.   

Request a demo today to learn more about how Comidor can help you achieve the Hyperautomation your growing business needs to thrive!

Digital transformation has taken over the workforce. Now more than ever, businesses are racing to identify and implement the latest technology.
Among these technological advances is Robotic Process Automation (RPA). This automation solution has become an essential part of increasing productivity, producing accurate results, and more.
Let’s take a closer look at what exactly robotic process automation is and how a variety of industries are using it today.

What is Robotic Process Automation?

Robotic process automation (RPA) has emerged from the need for automation in business. RPA is a software solution that can create and implement robots to complete time-consuming, repetitive tasks. RPA produces accurate, timely results so your team can have more time to foster better client relationships and focus on larger-scale tasks.
RPA can be used across a variety of industries, such as healthcare, marketing, and manufacturing. We’ll break down a few of these robotic process automation use cases below.

Robotic Process Automation Use Cases

So, how can you use RPA in your industry? Read on to learn how these nine industries are utilizing RPA to improve their processes and satisfy clients.

RPA Use Cases in Healthcare

The healthcare industry relies on accuracy, efficiency, and scalability in its daily operations. From patient scheduling to billing and everything in between, the automation of healthcare is increasing patient satisfaction, reducing costs, and improving quality care. RPA can automate critical tasks such as online scheduling, discharge instructions, and data migration, which can save your team time and resources while increasing productivity.

RPA Use Cases in Banking

Banking and financial institutions are investing in RPA to improve trading, compliance, internal controls, customer service levels, and error reduction. From loan processing to report generation, RPA is streamlining routine processes for banking teams. The implementation of RPA allows your team to save time by completing everyday tasks. One RPA use case in banking revolves around account closure. This lengthy process often requires multiple steps that may be completed manually. Speed up the closure process by using RPA to automate the most time-consuming steps.

RPA Use Cases in Finance

RPA can automate repetitive tasks for a finance team, helping them stay focused on sensitive tasks that require a more human touch. The finance industry is using RPA to send invoices, follow up with late payments, and complete other back-end functions such as updating customer data and billing records. These processes can easily be automated with RPA, freeing up time for teams to focus on other priorities. RPA can improve accuracy and efficiency to provide more precise information for tasks such as invoice processing, tax reporting, and accounts receivable.

RPA Use Cases in Human Resources

The human resources (HR) industry handles more than its fair share of time-consuming tasks. With RPA, HR professionals can automate daily tasks such as sending out mass emails, updating data and records, onboarding team members, and managing payroll.
For example, when a new employee is hired, HR is faced with onboarding tasks and paperwork that can take more time than they have in a day. RPA can automate the task of sending out welcome emails, entering new hire information, and adding the new member to payroll. This automation saves HR time to help hires get up to speed on company priorities.

RPA Use Cases in IT Operations

Many IT departments have made the switch to RPA to automate routine tasks that don’t require human attention, allowing them to spend more time on complex projects. Tasks like password resets, user notifications, and software installation or updates can be automated to free up your IT departments’ time.
RPA further helps improve accuracy across your entire organization by standardizing tasks such as creating tickets for customer service requests or submitting expense reports. Gone are the days where your IT specialists are spending time on routine tasks.

RPA Use Cases in Manufacturing

The manufacturing industry has taken to RPA to automate the endless manual tasks that dominate the workday. Previously, manufacturing professionals would spend their days filling out paperwork for inventory management. Now, RPA software can manage invoices and paperwork automatically. Professionals can receive real-time inventory reports and understand what products they have on hand.

RPA Use Cases in Customer Service

Customer service is an essential part of every company. When customer service is not optimized, your company will likely see a negative impact. RPA can assist with routine tasks that take up too much time, allowing employees to focus on fostering better customer relationships.
Bottlenecks can occur when customer service representatives become overwhelmed. This may include customers having longer wait times when in need of assistance. RPA-powered chatbots can assist in answering customer questions in real-time. Customers will no longer need to wait for a representative to have their questions answered.

RPA Use Cases in Retail

Retail companies are using RPA to automate processes for accurate, timely results. From order processing to inventory management, RPA is streamlining daily tasks while saving time and resources.
Tasks such as sales analytics that often require a higher level of time can be automated and improved through RPA. Eliminate manual data entry and receive more accurate reports about your store’s sales using this automation software.

RPA Use Cases in Marketing

The marking industry thrives off of data points. Data is how marketing professionals track the success of their efforts. However, collecting this data can be overly tedious. RPA software can help speed up the process and provide more detailed reports on the progress of campaigns, content, and more. From social media monitoring to performance tracking, RPA can analyze the data and generate reports that inform marketing decisions.

Comidor RPA Software

Now that we’ve reviewed a few robotic process automation use cases, it’s time for your company to implement this software. Comidor’s innovative RPA software can manage your high-volume, repetitive tasks while freeing up your employee’s time. Our software can help your team automate tasks, reduce costs, and all but eliminate human error in the workplace.

In this article, you can explore two RPA application cases of real business problems.

Request a demo today to find out how Comidor RPA can help scale your business!

* Featured image: metamorworks/Shutterstock.com

The incorporation of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) can create wonders in the world of science especially when it comes to technology. This incorporation led to the concept of Intelligent Process Automation commonly known as IPA. In the current digital era, AI has become an emerging trend and this powerful technology has transformed ordinary, time-consuming operations into fully automated processes. This is one of the most important reasons why 43% of businesses have implemented AI in their enterprises. In addition to AI, according to PwC, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) market is expected to reach $8.8B by 2027.

In this article, you can find everything you need to know about AI, RPA, and Intelligent Automation. Let us start with the difference between RPA and AI.

RPA and AI: What’s the Difference?

Robotic Process Automation is a significant technology that has been designed to automate manual work, identify workflow patterns, communicate with digital systems, and eliminate the extra burden off the human worker’s shoulder. RPA also performs the mundane, tedious tasks performed by manual laborers. It is an effective automation tool, however, it automates only predetermined processes without intelligence. This indicates that RPA tools will certainly be stuck when decisions like what and how are needed to interpret the business information.

On the other hand, Artificial Intelligence or AI is a technology based on data and results that mimic human intelligence. It makes scientific decisions based on the inputs provided for it. Moreover, Cognitive automation algorithms help you to organize data according to the selected patterns when there is a large amount of scattered information. AI can improve any kind of automation, decision-making, and perform complex tasks using its intelligent skills.

Why You Should Consider Incorporating AI in RPA?

When it comes to RPA, most of the repetitive and mundane workflows may seem too easy. However, this technology requires the intellectual skills to deal with more complex issues in an advanced or liberal work environment because of the ever-evolving RPA trends. Moreover, once incorporated with AI, RPA facilitates great automation opportunities for organizations. Here are some of the reasons why you should consider deploying an integrated RPA and AI solution:

• It helps in handling large data and results in data-driven and highly automated work processes that will never consume a lot of time like before.
• It can replace human interventions that help control bots and streamline structureless or unstructured data.
• It also allows employees to concentrate more on creative tasks instead of doing tedious, manual, and mundane tasks.

Benefits and use cases of RPA and AI

So far, we have discussed RPA, AI, and the incorporated version – Intelligence Process Automation (IPA). Let us discuss some of the top benefits of combining RPA with AI:

1. End-to-end Automation – The very first and top benefit is the limitless task automation. Though the term automation may give a different idea to different people or processes, it is important to simplify time-consuming or complex business tasks for others. An integrated automation solution operates every function effectively whether it is HR automation, automation in sales and marketing, or customer service automation. RPA and AI can not only efficiently streamline front-end operations, but also streamline back-end business processes such as generation of invoices, document management, and purchase order handling.
2. Reduced errors – There is no other technology that matches the level of perfection RPA and AI offer while minimizing errors. By eliminating human involvement in the execution of business processes, RPA and AI efficiently reduce errors that may show up without automation. If you run an ERP software or send important reports to executives, one single mistake can create big confusion and misinterpretations.
3. Low operational cost – When the errors are less, the operational cost will be reduced to a greater level. RPA and AI increase the productivity and efficacy of businesses which reduces additional costs and saves time. Intelligent automation technology helps in improving business processes in a way that they can be managed without utilizing more resources. This, in turn, minimizes overall business costs and allows employees to dedicate their time and attention to other important tasks required to improve the business.
4. Better customer satisfaction –  AI-enabled chatbots definitely enhance the customer experience. Businesses achieve effective product delivery to the customers in less time. By taking advantage of Natural Language Processing, the hidden emotions in the text of your customers will be comprehended and will be given appropriate answers by your system.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a technology practice many businesses utilize to automate repetitive processes in their business life. Given the volume of data, businesses generate daily, fully manual labor is becoming impossible, especially for small businesses and startups. 

In a data summary published on LinkedIn, Gartner indicated that 72% of organizations plan to invest in RPA in the next two years. Additional findings indicate that 53% of businesses have already started down the RPA journey. These data points indicate that businesses are more than ready to adopt RPA solutions. 

RPA can transform the way you manage your business if you choose to automate the right processes and applications. In doing so, you will be free to focus on more pressing matters and enjoy the fruits of RPA-generated results. Let’s discuss the business processes commonly associated with RPA and how they can help manage your business more efficiently in 2021 and beyond. 

1. Sales Order Processing 

Processing purchase orders, whether you operate as a SaaS company or an online store, is an essential part of servicing your customers and clients. This requires an immense amount of precision on your part, as improperly processed orders can result in wrong or outright missing items for your customers. 

Automating your sales ordering process through RPA would allow you to only work with fully processed orders instead. An RPA solution can automate sales entries and generate invoices for clients, help verify customers’ data and make the database as neat as possible, and save your sales team’s time. In doing so, it would allow you to focus on managing and developing your business rather than manually processing each sale order as it comes. 

2. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Data Processing 

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is an important and quite common process to automate in a business. Using ERP management solutions requires time and patience from your finance, HR, and supply teams. 

However, an RPA solution would mitigate the margin for error in ERP data processing and allow you to have a clear overview of your business’ resources. Logging and validating data and presenting it to you as finished documents can be made possible through RPA, saving you countless hours of manual labor. As a result, your ERP database will always be clean and in compliance with your business’ data standards. 

3. Customer Service 

Customer support services are an essential part of any serious business. However, customer service processes take time and resources, not to mention the upkeep necessary to maintain an entire support department in your business. Using RPA in customer servicing can minimize ticket processing errors, improve your agents’ performance, and make data processing and indexing more efficient. 

This will make your customers happier and lead them to advocate for your brand to their social circles, such as in the case of college students. Students who are short on time may think “I need someone to write my paper instead of me” and reach out to a professional service. With RPA, responding to such queries and directing customers to the right part of your website is quicker, easier, and more intuitive. 

4. Staff Payment Processing 

Paying your staff consistently and on time is extremely important for the sake of employee productivity and morale. Instead of assigning tasks to your HR and accountants to perform these operations every month, using up their time, you can rely on RPA instead. 

RPA can standardize your payment processing and ensure that no staff member is left without income each month. A well-designed RPA software bot will validate each employee’s records to ensure their compliance with company work standards before processing their payments. The same setup can be applied to your staff’s insurance, bonuses, and other payments through various RPA systems designed based on different triggers. 

5. Business Expense Overview 

Similar to your staff’s payments, your business will have expenses and liabilities related to its continued operation. Setting up RPA will allow you to automatically collect invoices and receipts from banks, financial institutions, and companies you work with. 

This will free up your accounting department’s time and allow them to more easily tag and store different invoices. Managing your business’ expenses in this manner is far more straightforward and allows for a better overview of your cash flow in long term. In turn, you will be able to plan your business’ finances, investments, and growth with more concrete information in hand than ever before. 

Determining Whether a Process is Eligible for RPA 

Now that we’ve taken a closer look at some of the processes you can automate using RPA, let’s discuss how to detect such processes yourself. There are several clear indicators of whether a process can and should be automated to help your business and not detract from its performance. 

According to Gartner, 90% of organizations and businesses worldwide will adopt RPA by 2022 as it objectively improves critical business process performances. As such, it’s the right time to adopt RPA in whichever manner is suitable for your business. If a process within your business ticks the following boxes, it may be eligible for RPA and thus make your business much easier to manage.

• The process is stable and mature enough that you can predict the type of data it will generate 
• The process is rule-based, meaning that you know which steps are necessary to complete it successfully 
• The process is repeatable and requires a high volume of repetition, making it time-consuming for your staff 
• The process is not changeable and won’t result in wild data variations as a result of an agile workflow 
• The process can generate readable data which your staff can use, such as in MS Word or PDF form 
• The process is worth automating due to its return-on-investment (ROI) potential compared to manual labor 

Using Comidor RPA to Enhance your Business Automation (Conclusion) 

Robotic Process Automation is challenging without the know-how or the tools to properly automate your business operations. Using Comidor RPA software with access to professional customer support and a UI designed for automation is recommended. Doing so will save you precious time and resources, and allow you to start automating your business processes much faster and more efficiently. 

No two businesses are alike and there are no clear automation rules– depending on your industry and niche, different processes will be eligible for automation. Regardless, once you dip your toes into RPA, going back to a fully manual workflow won’t even cross your mind. 

Author’s bio
Jessica Fender is a copywriter and blogger with a background in marketing and sales. She enjoys sharing her experience with like-minded professionals who aim to provide customers with high-quality services