RPA Robotic process automation Robotic process automation

Definitions

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a type of business process automation technology based on the use of software robots and artificial intelligence. The software robot reproduces human actions by interacting with the system interface.

 In traditional systems, a developer creates an action list to automate a task using program interfaces (APIs) or a scripting language. RPA systems develop a list of actions by observing how the user performs this task in the graphical user interface of the application.

Examples of RPA

• Working with tables in Excel, copying and converting data
• Checking information for correctness
• Filling in Bank Customer Screen Forms
• Report generation
• Transfer data from one system to another

Benefits of RPA

• Save humanity from routine and boring tasks
• Enable business to free up human resources by reducing operating costs with a direct positive impact on payback
• The robot works 24\7, does not get tired, does not go on vacation, does not give birth to children
• The behavior of the robot is predictable. Predictable outcome. All steps are in the log.
• Robots have no errors due to the "human factor"
• The robot, as a rule, works faster and performs tasks almost without errors
• Integrate can work with existing systems without changing the IT landscape
• Easily provide 100 complete log of their actions and allow you to flexibly control operating performance

RPA tools are designed to bundle a small fragment of one legacy application with another of the same application. Let's say an employee needs to upload data from one application and upload it to a spreadsheet or another application. Obviously, this procedure takes a lot of time, besides, it is possible that the employee may enter erroneous data. By comparison, RPA tools can "record" this process and copy it. The technology is aimed at automating individual simple tasks. Gartner estimates that it can eliminate data entry errors, speed up processes, and reduce costs. In addition, RPA can link two different applications, even if their vendors have not provided for their integration through the API.

What it gives for business

• Reduce the cost of routine operations
• Fewer process errors, higher quality and faster execution
• Cost-effective business scalability
• Reducing Risk to Business
• Shift employee focus to intelligent tasks

What is usually done with Software Robots:

• Data Extraction (OCR, E-Mail, PDF)
• Data Transfer, Integration
• Data conversion
• Transactions in ERP
• Working with forms
• Writing letters, working with SM\IM
• Data Analysis, Reporting

AI vs RPA

AI:

• Promising technology, insufficient expertise of implementations;
• Real implementation processes require investment, experience, data;
• Training problem identification machines and finding a solution according to algorithms and data, to obtain conclusions similar to the mind of a person, but without his control.

RPA:

• There is no decision mechanism, only following certain rules and algorithms;
• It is not "smart" automation if by "smart" we mean the ability to adapt to previously unknown circumstances;
• All circumstances are encoded by a set of rules and instructions, in the form of scripts or botflow, and only emulate AI, but are not;
• Unlike autonomy, the work of RPA is more like the work of an assistant in a team - someone who can be entrusted with manual, repetitive and low-priority tasks.
  
  

What types of processes can be automated with RPA

• Repeatable, simple, and standardizable actions
• The process is carried out by many employees
• A monotonous process for which an instruction already exists
• Relatively high standardization of incoming data
• Possibility of autonomous execution

How RPA helps automate content management

RPA technology is designed to save people from performing monotonous, repetitive business processes, saving money and increasing efficiency by saving them time to realize more creative tasks. It has proven itself in many areas of business, including content management. RPA becomes a driving force in this direction, simplifying control over the quality of content, and optimizes the process of delivering the desired content to a specific consumer. How does RPA improve content management? Let's look at a few examples^[1]

Quality assurance of content. As you know, content acts as a link between brands and buyers - if the content is trustworthy, this usually applies to the brand. Nothing devalues content as much as poor quality, which can be due to grammatical errors or context incoherence. To address these flaws, you can proofread content with tools like Grammarly. The service automatically detects potential spelling and style errors and is available through the browser extension for Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Edge.

Content marketing. The list of tasks related to effective content marketing is quite long, and most of them can be easily automated. As a rule, automation tools are built into CRM systems, but they can be executed using RPA, which will save you from overpaying the CRM supplier for additional functionality. Among the most routine procedures, marketing distribution of advertising materials by e-mail can be distinguished, which requires continuous construction of an address list and transfer of content to social networks. As for creating lists, BuzzBuilder Pro will help automate it, while Mailchimp will take on the tasks of automating e-mail messaging. Promoting content on social media is another tedious procedure as it involves multiple platforms. It can be automated with tools like Zapier, which centralizes content distribution to all major platforms.

Curating content. Another way RPA improves content management is by curating content. To do this, the method of cultivating content by collecting, systematizing and presenting fragments that are prepared to attract customers is used. All three processes can be automated. Scoop.it is one of a number of tools that can detect content that is relevant to a particular topic or area.

Content monitoring. One of the most important tasks of CRM is to collect and evaluate the audience's response to content, which is explained by the desire of marketers to assess its effectiveness and, accordingly, improve or get rid of it. Consumer response tracking can be automated with an RPA tool such as Sentiment. Its tasks include tracking brand mention by keyword on social media and other sources.

Intelligent Process Automation (IPA)

• Document recognition technologies: (1) refusal of manual input, increase in speed (2) retrieval of information (3) fast filling in during registration
• Voice Analytics: (1) Customer Identification by Voice (2) Voice to Text to Save History
• Analyst Video: Scanning a micromimics to reveal the intent to cheat when taking out a loan
• Collector robot: (1) analyzes the borrower data (2) the dialog robot communicates with the borrower (3) records and analyzes the conversation (4) determines the wording maximizing the probability of debt repayment
• Biometrics: Remote client authentication system. Technologies for face, voice, fingerprint, hand geometry, iris, palm scanners
• ChatBots, voice assistants: (1) processes lexical data in the process of communicating with a person (2) forms logically correct answers (3) searches and distributes information (4) Application: (1) stock market consultant (2) 1st support line
• Emotional Analytics: (1) During a conversation with the operator, recognizes emotions at the voice and semantic levels (2) calculates the service satisfaction index
• HR robot: (1) looks for a summary of the required profile (2) sends the candidate an invitation to meet with the recruiter, and the recruiter a summary of the candidate

Characteristics of operations

• monotonous, regularly, frequently repeated. With increasing intensity, a person is prone to make mistakes + saving on PHY
• follow a strict process: (1) excluding a person from making a decision (2) whose rules are strictly defined Remarks
• cannot cover all processes for economic, technical reasons

Russian RPA Systems Market

Main article: Russian market of RPA systems

Catalog of solutions and projects for implementing RPA systems

Main article: RPA - Robotic Process Automation

Development differences on UiPath and Kofax RPA RPA platforms

The article examines differences in platforms UiPath Kofax RPA and from the developer's point of view: convenience, disadvantages and features. The description is broken down by the main characteristics of the platforms. Read more here.

2023: Global RPA Systems Market Size Up 22.1% Year over Year to Reach $3.2 Billion

In 2023, the global business process automation (RPA) technology market reached $3.2 billion. The indicator of the previous year, when expenses in this area were estimated at $2.6 billion, was exceeded by 22.1%. Such data are provided in a study by Gartner, the results of which TAdviser got acquainted with in early November 2024.

By RPA, analysts mean the use of intelligent software to carry out resource-intensive and repetitive tasks that usually take up a lot of time for people. RPA systems form a list of actions, observing how the user performs a task in the graphical interface of the application, and then perform automation, repeating operations in the desired order. Thus, organizations have the opportunity to improve productivity, optimize processes and reduce costs.

One of the drivers of the industry in question is the introduction of artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies. Enterprises prefer RPA solutions with complex features integrated with AI tools. This helps to further increase the efficiency of operations. Intelligent automation technologies empower RPA robots so they can learn more complex tasks and use cases on their own. Intelligent automation combines various technologies such as natural language processing (NLP), generative AI, and optical character recognition (OCR) to optimize business processes. Such tools allow companies to reduce the time spent on monotonous tasks and reduce the number of errors caused by human factors. As a result, businesses save money, reduce resource costs, and improve their overall operations.

Leading industry players are investing heavily in R&D to strengthen their competitive position and expand their product mix. Among the main applications of RPA are manufacturing, logistics, IT and telecommunications. Among the significant market participants are named:

• Broadcom;
• Samsung;
• Huawei Technologies;
• LG;
• Foxconn Technology Group;
• Fanuc;
• ABB;
• Seiko Epson;
• Nachi Robotic System;
• Nice Systems;
• Pegasystems;
• Redwood Software;
• Yaskawa Electric;
• Denso Wave Incorporation;
• Kuka Robotics.

In 2023, the global RPA market posted a growth rate of 22.1%, above the 13.2% average in the Application Infrastructure and Middleware (AIM) software segment. Costs in the global market for corporate-class software as a whole at the end of 2023 showed an increase of about 11.1%, - noted in the materials of Gartner.

From a geographical point of view, the leader in the global RPA market is North America: here the corresponding systems are actively implemented in the public sector. In addition, RPA funds are in demand in the field of small and medium-sized enterprises, where they are used to improve business functions, such as detailed purchasing, data entry and accounting finance/. Europe holds the second largest share due to the demand for RPA among manufacturing companies that use these solutions to automate small projects and scale operations. At the same time, the Asia-Pacific region is showing the highest growth rates, which is due to the active implementation of RPA in industries such as IT, pharmaceuticals, health care telecommunications, manufacturing and retail.^[2][3]

2019

RPA spending in the world increased to $1.55 billion - ResearchAndMarkets

The volume of the global technology market for robotic automation of processes in 2019 reached $1.55 billion, according to research company ResearchAndMarkets. Analysts did not compare with 2018, but noted that the cost of such solutions is growing rapidly due to several factors.

Experts call the introduction of artificial intelligence and cloud computing in the small and medium-sized business segment, whose representatives are looking for new technologies to improve operational efficiency, one of the main drivers of growth.

RPA market reaches $1.55 billion in 2019

The increase in the number of offers in the market is also affected, especially for SaaS, IaaS and PaaS solutions used for customer relationship management.

In addition, the demand for RPA is spurred by ERP systems, cloud and OpenSource resources, network and financial technologies, as well as the ability to train software robots to perform new tasks.

According to experts, the increasing trend towards cloud solutions and the increasing adoption of robotic solutions in various industries will provide new opportunities for providing robotic automation of processes.

The introduction of software robots to manage routine work, which is carried out by temporary or seasonal employees, as well as during peak periods (for example, when launching new products or mastering new business areas), should further spur the growth of the RPA market, the study said.

Automation in marketing and sales, according to analysts, can provide at least 12.2% reduction in operating marketing costs and 14.5% increase in sales productivity.

Manufacturers of RPA solutions are constantly expanding the range of offerings, adding new features in areas such as automation of product lifecycle management, workflow and account management, and automation of SLA agreement management. These innovations attract new markets that are looking for even more functional and secure technologies.

IT and telecommunications companies are actively switching to automating business processes based on software robots and artificial intelligence, which see in these tools opportunities to reduce operating costs and improve the quality of customer service.

Experts call the introduction of artificial intelligence and cloud computing in the small and medium-sized business segment one of the main drivers of RPA market growth

As for the regions, most of the RPA projects in 2019 fell on North America. Her leadership is associated with an increased interest in automation technologies from various industries, including healthcare, electronics, retail, education, services and the public sector. Such companies and organizations are striving for a digital transformation of business processes, the basis of which is Intelligent Automation. It uses a computer to simulate the intelligent functions of employees. Intelligent Automation combines Software Process Robotization (RPA) technologies with artificial intelligence tools and big data analytics.

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and an uncertain economic future, the search for solutions that ensure high business performance, effective support for remote work of employees and an operational response of business processes to any difficult situations become relevant for each organization. It is such solutions that can provide Intelligent Automation technologies, and therefore their demand, already very high, will inevitably grow in the near future.

However, the productive use of intelligent automation is hampered by a very important factor - the lack of qualified specialists who own these technologies and are able to put them at the service of their company.^[4]

RPA market reaches $1 billion

The volume of the global market for software for robotic process automation (RPA) in 2019 reached $1 billion, which is almost twice as much as a year ago, according to the research company Wikibon ( data released on February 17, 2020).

Demand for RPA solutions is growing rapidly. In 2020, this market is expected to grow by 90%, and in the next two years - by 84% and 71%, respectively.

RPA Market Leaders and Sales Forecast, Wikibon Data

According to analysts, software for robotic process automation by the beginning of 2020 is one of the most sensational technologies, which is gaining popularity due to the fact that large companies are striving to accelerate their business processes by automating everyday office tasks.

The strong interest around RPA is largely due to the huge cash infusion in this market. Thus, the two largest manufacturers of such solutions - Automation Anywhere and UiPath - raised $1 billion and were valued by investors at $14 billion.

According to SiliconANGLE, at first glance, the RPA market seems overvalued, since the total market value of the leading vendors in 2019 turned out to be 17 times more than the market volume. But over time, this figure will decline (in 2025 it may become 5.4-fold), as well as the implementation of RPA programs. Dave Vellante, a senior analyst at Wikibon research agency , believes that by 2025 the market will begin to bring profit to players, at least to large manufacturers. By this time, annual sales of RPA products will reach $75 billion.

According to experts, the future of the RPA market will depend on its ability to break down into more solutions with deeper business integration. Vendors can "bridge the abyss" and provide useful systems with a small amount of code for those skilled in the art who can refine technologies for specific needs.

RPA market profit forecast, Wikibon data

This idea of hyperautomatization has been talked about a lot, but it does make sense, "says Vellante. - Companies combining RPA with smart process analysis and machine intelligence that drives process analytics have great potential, provided organizational moments can be addressed. You need to place process data and analytics in the kernel to make decisions and changes.

Initially, RPA systems were positioned as a means of performing simple and monotonous routine operations, for example, entering data into accounting and other systems. Even such a simple application has given businesses great opportunities to optimize business processes and IT systems.

For example, it became possible to relatively easily integrate modern solutions with legacy ones (whose APIs are lost and, accordingly, software integration is difficult); data entry simultaneously into the new system, which is in the stage of pilot operation (and therefore can bring surprises) and into the old one in order to ensure uninterrupted operation, if something goes wrong with the new one, etc.

The pairing of RPA and OCR systems made it possible to complicate the tasks solved by software robots, they became able, for example, to classify electronic correspondence coming to general corporate mail addresses and send it to the correct respondents, sort incoming paper documents, check the correctness of filling out standard forms.

RPA Solution Costs by Segment

Analysts believe that anyone who can get ahead and achieve high speed in the RPA market is likely to have a very bright future. But there is hardly room for everyone as the market is still quite small compared to larger industries such as cloud services.

This is more a market in which the winner takes everything, and the volume here is far from a trillion dollars. This is tens of billions of dollars and, possibly, will be $30 billion. In my opinion, the struggle here is for survival, - said the analyst.

And the winners are likely to be those companies that have already achieved the first results. Indeed, even for big software players like Microsoft and SAP, there is not much room in the RPA market they have entered. The problem is that Microsoft and SAP have a growing understanding of the market and simply test the demand for RPA instead of making it a priority in their business.

By early 2020, companies have to choose from more than 150 products for RPA, all of which vary significantly in  performance requirements, design and approach to mastering. This variety has led to the fact that it is quite difficult for customers to understand the technical nuances.^[5]

According to experts, in 2020 there will be a clearer delineation of RPA products with the division of suppliers into two main categories. The first includes vendors whose products provide rapid mastering of tactical advantages in working environments, and the second - suppliers of strategic solutions for large-scale corporate projects. Given the fact that organizations are working to expand automation projects, a more pronounced differentiation between suppliers will provide the required clarity when choosing RPA solutions, many of which  also have design limitations.

10 laws to successfully promote RPA

The authors of the concept of automation, widely known as robotic process automation RPA, analyzed how attitudes towards it have changed in the 7 years since their inception, and also formulated 10 laws that should be adhered to for the effective application of RPA (more).

Gartner's first magic quadrant

It is the fastest-growing software segment of all it tracks, with annual growth at 63%, according to Gartner. The researchers explain the rapid growth of this still small market (in 2018 its volume was less than $850 million) by the fact that it is an "expensive patchwork of applications and systems."

In July 2019, analytics company Gartner published its first magic quadrant (research) in robotic process automation software.

Experts called the leaders of this market UiPath, Blue Prism and Automation Anywhere. The report indicates that UiPath's leadership was not a surprise, given that shortly before the release of the report, the company raised $568 million and was valued at $7 billion.

Gartner Magic Quadrant in Robotic Process Automation Software

For comparison, Blue Prism Group and Automation Anywhere raised a total of $59 million and $550 million from investors, respectively.

Participants in the magic quadrant were evaluated according to two main criteria: the ability to implement the business and the completeness of the vision. To the second criterion, understanding the market, strategy in the field of sales, product promotion and geographical expansion, as well as the business model and level of innovation.

The completeness of the vision takes into account such things as real opportunities and prospects of products, organization of sales, pricing, market reaction and customer experience.

According to researchers, the volume of the global RPA software market by 2024 will reach $2.4 billion, having almost tripled compared to 2018.

Sales of such software are growing rapidly as it helps companies automate their business processes without the need to replace their outdated computing systems. That is why RPA solutions are popular among banks, insurance and energy companies, which are forced to support a large outdated IT infrastructure.

It has been proven that companies are investing in RPA to expand and support their employees with software robots, rapidly accelerating the digital transformation of their entire business and freeing up time for staff to work more efficiently, said UiPath co-founder and CEO Daniel Dines[6]

Given the immaturity of the RPA market, Gartner decided to give a few caveats. Firstly, it should be borne in mind that RPA is a task automation technology, so it will not replace existing BPM platforms or solutions that are required for continuous processes in the long term. Secondly, the view that RPA will solve all automation problems is wrong. This is just one of the tools in the software suite that needs to be supplemented with an API for integration with other software, application development platforms such as low-code and technology for extracting content such as optical character recognition. And thirdly, despite the fact that RPA is able to bring outdated infrastructure in line with the goals of digital transformation, in the long term it can increase technical debt. The reason is binding to user interfaces used to automate tasks. As a result, RPA can be disrupted by any application updates that are associated with it^[7].

As already mentioned, now the RPA market is at the stage of formation, but large IT companies have already begun to show interest in it. Gartner expects that over time they will acquire small companies, so businesses should refrain from concluding long-term contracts with the latter. Analysts compare the current state of the market to a "shopping tornado" and expect interest in RPA to not yet peak. "RPA tools have multiple capabilities that enable businesses to dock an abundance of legacy systems. They essentially help organizations rediscover the value of data that is deep in it, "the Gartner report said.

Why is RPA becoming the technology of the year?

All companies are faced with the task of improving business efficiency and employee productivity. This problem is solved by new technologies, in particular, solutions for robotic automation of processes. In what areas these developments are applied and what actions can be entrusted to the robot - in the material prepared by experts from ICL Services (iCEL Services).

Main article: Why is RPA becoming the technology of the year?

RPA 2019 Forecast

Workflow automation will change the understanding of the next phase of digital transformation, as this automation provides other benefits to customers stemming from higher quality and reliability of services, faster product launch times, and the creation of attractive offerings. The pace of robotization of RPA (Robotic process automation) workflows is increasing continuously, and, according to Gartner's forecasts, RPA's business will grow by 57% in 2020. There are also a number of other important forecasts that can significantly change the picture of robotization both in the coming 2019 and in the near future.

The report was published by Analytics Insight. Translation and comments for TAdviser prepared by Russian expert Alexander Bader.

1. AI will turn RPA into IPA

Forecast. Increasing application artificial intelligence() AI is already a reality, and this is happening, not least thanks to RPA. AI is becoming increasingly important, and RPA will be more closely aligned to be integrated with AI, leading to a qualitatively different technology - Intelligent Process Automation (IPA). Estimates show that in the coming years, more than 40% of enterprises will create high-tech digital workers based on the application of IPA. The global RPA market is expected to reach $1.7 billion in 2019 and $2.9 billion in 2021.

Comment. Which AI areas will be most in demand in the RPA environment? If we talk about machine learning, then it is already intensively used together with RPA, namely, when extracting data from text information in order to flexibly adjust to changing formats of input documents. The applicability of other AI solutions refers, rather, to the field of deep space exploration. I would like, of course, for AI to recognize the text of the contract itself in order to extract from it, say, the terms of payment for checking the incoming account parsed in RPA. But will it really be possible to see such miracles at least in 2020?

It is also interesting to note the examples on the market when AI requires the involvement of professional RPA funds, as in the case of the acquisition in 2018 by the company SAP software Contextor to work in conjunction with the system. Leonardo Which will undoubtedly draw additional attention to RPA technologies and be an additional incentive for their development.

2. Centralisation will defeat chaos

Forecast. In 2019 and in the coming years, enterprises will intensively use automation centers in order to comprehensively solve the tasks of change and risk management, control, audit, security. These trends will lead to increased requirements for corporate information regulation (IG, Information Governance), as a result of which enterprises will be forced to increase investment in the creation of automation centers based on the principles of unified software.

Comment. Firstly, it is extremely pleasant to see that the good old Soviet terms like "central computing center" turned out to be so relevant in 2019. Even if they are now called Common Service Centers (CSRs). Secondly, the hope of the authors of the forecast that there will be at least one enterprise in Russia, and in the rest of the world too, capable of creating such an ideal, technically and methodologically holistic SSC, is highly doubtful. And, therefore, the forecast that centralization of corporate information processing will be another incentive for expanding the application of RPA is being questioned.

3. RPA license sales to fall and consulting revenues to rise

Forecast. In the coming years, RPA license sales will decline and license sales will not be the main source of profit generation. The increase in the number of RPA manufacturers will lead to an increase in free pilots, which will affect the volume of licenses sold. On the other hand, the revenue of consulting companies is expected to grow, the main sources of which will be process design and documentation, as well as pilot implementations.

Comment. The trend towards the growth of income of consultants at a higher rate than the income of manufacturers is observed not only in the RPA market. It is doubtful, however, that the basis of this will be pilots, free for manufacturers and paid for consultants. Rather, the emerging change in licensing policy will play a role, when the most visionary vendors of software robots, to gain and maintain their market share, offer competitive RPA licenses, as well as free licenses for test and training purposes.

This trend, however, is not as unidirectional as it seems. The practice of implementing robotic processes by the customer's employees will play against it, since, in most cases, understanding the peculiarities of organizing a specific information processing process in a company will be much more important than the competencies of programmers.

4. Autonomous robots will give way to autonomous

Forecast. Non-autonomous robots, i.e., robots that function with the participation of humans, will be used more and more widely in 2019, and will replace autonomous ones, i.e., those that perform their work without operational interaction with humans. According to Guy Kirkwood, the chief evangelist of UiPath, the share of industrially used autonomous robots, previously 70%, will be 54% in 2019, and will then drop to 50%. This forecast is also confirmed by the experience of many industries. Thus, we have a clear signal that customers are ready to implement even more non-autonomous robots.

Comment. Perhaps the forecast is related to some peculiarities of the UiPath system software, which in January 2019 leads in analytical reports and therefore, one way or another, but you have to listen to Mr. Kirkwood's opinion. The surprise of this forecast stems from the fact that RPA, which is absolutely obvious, works most efficiently offline. Therefore, it is possible that here we are actually talking about the expansion of RPA solutions in those areas where it is necessary to use the judgments and qualifications of a person, as, for example, in the tasks of assessing the reliability of a counterparty/client.

Thus, it may be more correct to talk not about narrowing the scope of autonomous robots, but about expanding the functionality of traditional BPM systems by including an RPA component in the processes being implemented.

5. Government agencies will begin to apply RPAs more widely

Forecast. The days when applying RPA was a privilege for global and private companies are over. In the coming years, the number of applications of RPA in public sector bodies will increase. The scope of application will increasingly expand as public authorities see the impact of RPA on the quality and responsiveness of the services they provide to the public.

Comment. RPA has no industry specificity for its application. Only the ability of companies to quickly respond to technological innovations affects. So in this regard, the public sector is no better or worse than any other industry. As for Russia, the mass introduction of robotization in government agencies will have to wait some more time until domestic developments of industrial-level RPA platforms appear.

6. Employee engagement with RPA will increase

Forecast. As companies embrace emerging technologies, so too will the number of employees using RPA in their daily work. This will lead to an increase in the involvement of employees in the digitalization of the processes of their enterprise.

Comment. It is not clear why employees should be involved in robotic processes, since robots without employees will cope with most of the tasks assigned to them. If anything is really needed when expanding the use of RPA, these are convenient means of controlling and monitoring the operation of the robot fleet. And the company will need properly trained and professional employees to identify the processes to be robotized and implement robotization scenarios - with minimal or no external consultants.

7. Focus on unstructured data

Forecast. RPA providers will continue to strengthen unstructured data functionality as extracting information from it provides many benefits. Text arrays, images, email are a gold mine containing important information, and many organizations have a good understanding of how to capitalize on it. This forces RPA providers to implement OCR and AI technologies in their products in order to extract the necessary data from invoices and orders, and then transfer this data for robotic processing. It is believed that this is very effective and radically shortens the return on investment.

Comment. Indeed, the integration of recognition tools into robotic processes significantly increases the value of the target solution for its users. However, RPA along with OCR should not be expected to become a single monolithic solution. RPA manufacturers understand this and approach this issue in different ways. Some use shareware products. Others - license well-proven industrial products, for example, UiPath uses recognition tools from ABBYY. Another approach, the most holistic and economically interesting, is demonstrated by Kofax, which uses its own data recognition and extraction product in its RPA system - Kofax Transformation Module (KTM).

For Russia, the topic with the recognition and extraction of data from incoming invoices, orders, acceptance documents, etc. in the context of RPA is not entirely uninteresting, but definitely not so important, in view of the massive use of inter-corporate legally significant document management. Large Russian companies, for the most part, already use the services of such services as Kontur, Taxcom and others. Thus, they already receive strategically important business information in a structured form. Which, combined with their financial capabilities and obvious readiness for innovation, creates very favorable prerequisites for the implementation of RPA in these companies.

8. Changes await the market there

Forecast. Automation affects staff requirements and employment. Forecasts confidently show that in the medium term, at least half of jobs can be eliminated due to the introduction of automated processes. Nevertheless, the trends identified recently indicate that employees can interact with robots as part of automated processes, and that the digital economy will stimulate the creation of jobs for designers and other specialists in the field of RPA and AI, whose tasks will be to solve business problems, improve user interfaces robots, setting up chatbots, etc.

Comment. The tendency to eliminate jobs due to automation is characteristic, alas, not only for industrial production. The changes will also affect the scope of business information processing, which, in fact, is the main, if not the only, scope of RPA. Thus, released by the Agency for Strategic Initiatives together with the Moscow School of Management Skolkovo Atlas of Professions atlas100.ru predicts that 57 professions will disappear by 2030, however, 186 new ones will appear, in both cases, including workers and intellectual ones.

RPA develops on the principle of nuclear reaction. Globally, demand for RPA professionals is skyrocketing, with job openings growing 15-fold from 2016 to 2018, and a further 100% increase by 2020 is expected, according to findings from research conducted by the Information Services Group. Similar trends are observed in Russia.

9. Investment will be required to create centers of expertise

Forecast. Experts predict that by 2020, more than 40% of enterprises will have automation centers and will invest in expertise centers or centralized coordinating centers. Centers of expertise will be responsible for the analysis of automated technologies and identify from them the most appropriate business tasks facing them, while introducing the best business practices, integration solutions and uniform technical policies.

Comment. In Russia, examination centers are already a very common practice among large companies, and although there are no reliable statistics, in Russia the figure of 40% for such companies is definitely already noticeably exceeded.

Mass implementation of RPA will require serious analytical and design work, and, along with the implementation of ERP and EIM systems, will significantly affect both business organization in general and, in particular, corporate rules for business information processing. Which, in fact, is the content of the digital transformation of the business. It is quite obvious that, without the creation of competence centers on RPA topics, such work will not be able to be successful.

10. Distribution chat boats

Forecast. Interfaces for voice communication will become more common and accessible, and this will mean another wave spreading RPA. In 2019 and the following years, we will witness that products that support voice communication with users will become the industrial norm. The proliferation of chatbots will stimulate the development of cognitive technologies, which, in turn, will actively influence the creation and development of corporate knowledge bases necessary for voice robots to form complete and informative responses to customers.

Comment. Voice robots are already finding their place to provide communications with customers in need of technical support. However, while such interaction can still cause the client, in most cases, only a smile, if not irritation Top^[8]. Well, let's be patient. The first cars and their drivers were also an on-duty reason for ridicule.

All the most interesting things about RPA are just beginning!

2018

Market growth of 63.1% to $846 million. Largest producers

In 2018, global sales of robotic process automation (RPA) software reached $846 million, an increase of 63.1%. Such data on June 24, 2019 led to the analytical company Gartner.

The final market estimate was higher than forecast - in November 2018, revenue of $680 million was expected at the end of 2018.

Gartner Vice President of Research Fabrizio Biscotti attributed the updated higher data to the "need for digital business" and the search for "direct" ways to process data in companies.

Competition in the RPA market is escalating. In 9 out of 10 manufacturers, places in the ranking changed in 2018. The top five accounted for 47% of the sales of the software under consideration. At Kofax (6th place in 2018) and NTT-AT (7th), product sales increased by 256.6% and 480.9%, respectively.

Largest RPA Solution Manufacturers, Gartner Data

The strongest breakthrough was made by UiPath, whose revenues in the RPA market in 2018 jumped 629.5% compared to 2017 (to $114.8 million). UiPath, with a 13.6% stake, climbed from fifth to first in the list of the largest manufacturers of the software in question.

Significant changes in the position of suppliers of products for robotic automation of processes are due to the rather small volume of the market, which retains great growth potential and opportunities for companies.

North America remained the largest distribution region for RPA-class programs, accounting for 51% of demand in 2018. At the same time, its share in the total market decreased by 2 percent compared to 2017.

In second place in terms of spending on RPA solutions is Western Europe with a 23 percent rate. The top 3 was closed by Japan, which recorded sales growth of 124%.

This shows that RPA software attracts companies around the world through a faster implementation cycle compared to other options such as business process management platforms and business process outsourcing, "Biscotti noted.

Robotic process automation is found in all industries, the study says, but most often such software is used by banks, insurance companies, telecommunications and energy companies. These business representatives tend to have many legacy systems, so they choose RPA solutions for feature integration.

The ability to integrate legacy systems is key to RPA projects. Using this technology, organizations can quickly accelerate their digital transformation initiatives while generating revenues from past technology investments, points out Fabrizio Biscotti.

According to Gartner forecasts, in 2019 the volume of the RPA software market will reach $1.3 billion, and in three years the situation on it will change dramatically. The fact is that software giants like IBM, Microsoft and SAP collaborate or buy developers of RPA solutions, paying more and more attention to this segment and attracting their vast customer bases to it.

At the same time, new players are taking the opportunity to tailor traditional RPA capabilities to digital business requirements such as real-time event flow processing and analytics.^[9]

Robotic Process Automation Software Market Soars 63%

The leading players will face growing competition for now, as new entrants continue to enter a market whose rapid evolution blurs the boundaries that distinguish RPA from other automation technologies such as optical character recognition and artificial intelligence, the Gartner analyst believes.

Market growth of 57% to $680 million - Gartner

On November 13, 2018, the analytical company Gartner published the results of a survey of the robotic process automation (RPA) software market. According to preliminary data, in 2018, world spending on such software will amount to $680 million, an increase of 58% compared to the previous year. By 2022, sales will be measured at $2.4 billion, experts predict.

End-user organizations are implementing RPA technology as a quick and easy means of automating tasks that require manual work, says Gartner Vice President Cathy Thornbohm. - Some employees will continue to perform routine tasks that require them to manually cut, paste and modify data. But when RPA tools perform these actions, the error limit is reduced and the data quality is increased.

The market for software for robotic automation of processes in 2018 was estimated at $680 million

Most of all, such software is introduced by banks, insurance companies, telecommunications operators, electric power companies, public gas and water companies. Such customers tend to seek to integrate different elements of their accounting and HR systems and turn to RPA solutions to automate existing manual tasks or processes or to automate the functions of older systems, Thornbom noted.

Gartner believes that by the end of 2018, about 60% of companies with revenue from $1 billion will use RPA tools, and by the end of 2022 this figure will reach 85%. This implementation dynamics, according to Katie Thornbom, will be due to the fall in prices for such software (by 2019 it should fall in price by an average of 10-15%) and business expectations of improving financial performance thanks to such technologies. In particular, companies expect at the expense of RPA to reduce costs, increase the error-free work of people and improve compliance with regulatory and other requirements.

However, Gartner warns that RPA is not a universal technology, and there are times when alternative automation methods can produce higher results. RPA systems are useful if structured data is needed to automate tasks or processes, if you want to automate work with legacy systems and establish communication with external systems that cannot be implemented in other ways.^[10]

At the same time, the functionality of robotic process automation technologies will be continuously improved - already in 2018, developers are actively integrating machine learning  and artificial intelligence technologies into RPA.

1950s: The origins of RPA automation

An integral part of robotization technology is the ability to self-learn and advanced cognitive functions that allow a software humanoid to intelligently choose the right solutions and manage business processes. The first examples of the use of such technologies are associated with the name of Arthur Samuel from IBM. He conducted his research in the development of the basics of artificial intelligence and machine learning in 1952, developing trained computers. The algorithms and basic principles he created were tested on the example of research work on the creation of a computer program for playing checkers^[11] of the^[12]

The software mechanism created by Samuel was based on the search tree for game positions. The scientist did not rely on a simple search for all possible options with the calculation of chains, he understood that this approach was wasteful and could not be applied in practice. Samuel developed a complex polynomial evaluation function, given the current position, the number of checkers on each side, the number of ladies, the presence of "forks," etc. As a result, he came to create a model that did not require excessive calculations. These algorithms became the basis for the further development of the theory of neural networks, and those, in turn, ─ the basis for the creation of robotic systems.

The first artificial neural network "Perceptron" and the first neurocomputer "MARK-1" appeared in 1957 thanks to the work of Frank Rosenblatt. He proposed a mathematical model that mimics the work of the human brain. Perceptron was later called "the embryo of an electronic computer that in the future will be able to walk, speak, see, write, reproduce itself and realize its existence."

The second major wave of developments in robotization occurred in the second half of the 1990s and was associated with the development of automatic content reading technology from the display screen. The new technology was called "scraping," thanks to which information collected automatically from websites or from the program interface was transferred to other documents or used to launch applications. Previously, only a person (operator) could perform such operations.

See also

• How software robots turn into a digital workforce
• Why is RPA becoming the technology of the year?
• Overview of the BPM system in Russia
• BPM Market Statistics
• Directions of development of BPM systems
• Learn more about BPMS
• Business simulation
• Global BPM Market
• BPM (Implementation)
• Where will the evolution of BPM lead?
• Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN)
• Project and Process Management Issues
• Services and Products in BPM Practice
• How to painlessly implement process management in the company
• Corporate/Business/Enterprise Performance Management
• "Russian market VRM 2015-2016." BPM Logic and TAdviser Research
• Development differences on RPA UiPath and Kofax RPA platforms

Notes