Automation technologies are encouraging a lot of advancements across various industries. Automation at different workplaces provides the advantages of improving productivity and quality while reducing errors and waste, increasing safety, and adding flexibility to business operations. One of the most widely adopted automation capability is Robotic Process Automation or RPA.

RPA is all about training the software robot to do new iterative tasks without changing the system involved. It simulates human work of logging into applications, entering tonnes of data, sending emails, and doing other repetitive tasks.

Here are some of the most significant sector-wise use cases of RPA.

Sales and Marketing

RPA enables one to store customer information in an organized and accessible manner. Automatic classification of different categories of data, as well as easy company-wide data visualization, can save one time versus manually entering this information. The technology also enables the use of optical character recognition technology to read information from different sources and automatically enter it into your CRM system without losing accuracy. RPA can automate sales order tasks on an end-to-end basis, such as entering sales orders and creating their respective invoices. It can also automatically process invoices from different formats into consolidated data into a single database system. Not only can RPA automate the data input but it can process different levels of decision making and check for distinct errors.

Customer Relationship Management

Maintaining an accurate database of customer information is critical for cultivating, nurturing, and retaining customer relationships. Often in business, CRM databases are one of the most cross-functional tools across departments, which makes them more prone to human error. Automating your CRM system through an RPA integration, such as Salesforce, takes the manual human tasks out of the equation, eliminating errors that strain customer relationships. Robotic Process Automation makes customer case management easy within your CRM system. You can automate the input of customer data such as quotes, notes, and order/shipment tracking, which frees up time for account managers and sales teams. Contract management is also a candidate for automation within a CRM system. Document expiration dates can be tracked with RPA bots, and automatically trigger notifications to parties involved in the sales cycle.

Technology Sector

Almost all customer service or tech support departments have internal tools with advanced functionality. They rely on service reps to use those tools and serve internal or external customers. Especially if those tools are in legacy systems, it is difficult to expose them directly to customers or employees without training. However, RPA offers a solution. RPA can enable single-click installations of complex systems with interdependent components. RPA tools evolved from testing tools that mimic user interactions. While tests can be built into the software, it is important to test from a user perspective. Such tests are time-consuming when performed manually. However, they can be lightning-fast when they are automated. Common test scenarios are automated with RPA tools and these tests are run after every version, ensuring that new bugs are not introduced to the code. Obviously, more creative manual tests are required based on the specific feature developed in each new version. However, automated testing with RPA tools can facilitate testing and improve software quality. Since these tests tend to be simple, no-code RPA solutions are ideal in such scenarios.

Finance

Many companies have invoice portals that streamline e-invoicing, but onboarding new suppliers is still a manual process. Launch a robot that vets new suppliers with a complete report on credit scores, tax data, etc. Organizations often work with suppliers via portals that don't have a well-defined integration. Rather than allocating a staff member to log in and out and copy and paste data, leverage a robot to connect to all of your portals and automatically gather or post information either at pre-set times or as part of a defined workflow.

Moreover, if you work with a number of suppliers to source a specific product with fluctuating prices, track changes, and best pricing automatically with a robot. Robots can even sneak into the web code to extract catalog pricing. Also, vetting suppliers' credentials on a periodic basis to ensure they meet your threshold is a highly manual task that's easy to put off for another day. Charge a robot with this job, and it will deliver a full report on time, every time. For some invoices, vendor contract data must be validated to ensure compliance with contract terms. Some organizations already have this function automated, but if not, mind that gap with a robot.

Human Resources

RPA software can gather and review candidate resumes and profiles and assess those against job requirements to create a shortlist. Companies can define rules and requirements to guide which resumes and profiles are selected. Once a candidate is selected for a job, RPA software can use information about the job and the candidate to create a personalized offer letter. Once the letter is approved by the appropriate parties, the system sends the offer electronically to the candidate. Upon receipt of an acceptance, the software can then begin the process of onboarding.

After a candidate has accepted an offer, RPA software can then trigger the process of onboarding. This can include creating and sending out onboarding documents, such as work eligibility, tax forms, benefit enrollments, instructions for the first day and company policies, etc. It can also provision system access and user accounts, as well as equipment and office space

Banking

As banks deal with multiple queries ranging from bank frauds to account enquiry, loan enquiry, and so on; it becomes difficult for the customer service team to address them within less turnaround time. RPA helps in resolving the low priority queries, freeing up the customer service team to focus on high priority queries requiring human intelligence.

With so many compliance rules, it becomes an arduous task for the banks to comply with each of them. RPA makes it easier for banks to adhere to the rules. According to a 2016 survey by Accenture, 73% of the surveyed compliance officers believed that RPA could be a key enabler in compliance within the next three years. RPA helps in increasing productivity by functioning 24/7 with fewer FTEs, improving the quality of the compliance process, and increases employee satisfaction by eliminating monotonous tasks and engaging the employees in tasks requiring human intelligence.
with the help of RPA, banks are now able to speed up the process of dispatching the credit cards. It takes just a few hours for RPA software to gather documents of the customer, make credit checks and background checks, and make a decision based on set parameters on whether the customer is eligible for a credit card or not. The entire process has been streamlined perfectly by using RPA.

Retail

The increasing use of customer-oriented retail practices especially in e-commerce adds up the tasks like product returns to the various retail processes. Processing returns manually can be a really time-consuming task. Product returns are a cost to the company and if their processing is done manually, it may further increase the costs. RPA effectively manages the returns and does all the required changes needed in altering the inventory database and customers' billing.

Retail is essentially a human-driven industry and customer interaction is one thing that needs to be done manually. But with the use of RPA, managing the workflow and other HR processes can be facilitated more productively. Whether it is assigning shifts, measuring time and attendance, auditing sales, payroll and leave management, or assessing employee performance, everything becomes easier with Robotic Process Automation.

The biggest benefit RPA provides here is that past actions can be repetitively performed in the future without manual effort. If the retailer tweaks strategies based on analysis, then RPA will help in measuring the effectiveness of new strategies.

Healthcare

RPA across the healthcare industry helps in streamlining front-office support. Software robots can efficiently respond to patient requests faster, allowing the patient flow to work in favor of both the patient and the clinic. Automation technologies can also enhance data confidentiality. Data transfers during automated processes are always confidential, eliminating any human errors by design.

RPA enables superior system compatibility because automation software as the one designed by UiPath is a process, it does not interfere with healthcare legacy systems and applications. This means it can run successfully without the need for additional investments in changing the system. Automation also enables better cost management. A software robot's cost is a fraction of that of a human employee. For repetitive tasks that are prone to errors, RPA can provide significant savings that can be reinvested, thus providing the opportunity for better patient care.

RPA use cases in healthcare offer valuable insight into why it's worth passing on some repetitive tasks, like entering patients' blood test results into specific files and then consistently updating those files, to software robots.