Monthly Archives: February 2022

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is an incredibly valuable asset for businesses as we stride towards a more technologically reliant business world. It allows employees to free up their time of mundane and repetitive tasks, by automating them. Once employees have more free time from these tasks, they are able to utilize their time into more value producing actions. Furthermore, studies have shown that automation can improve the mental health of employees by removing the aspects of their jobs that they really do not enjoy.

Despite this, is it worthwhile starting a career as an RPA Developer in 2022? Let’s consider some points which you may want to take on board when considering whether this is the right career path for you:

Demand of RPA

There is a general perception that RPA can cause job losses as it replaces human work. In reality, this isn’t true and will infact create jobs going forward as demand for RPA grows. We foresee the demand for experts and RPA developers skyrocketing in the coming years as it is further adopted.

Currently due to the demand of RPA developers, the average developer is earning around $105,000 in the US and £45,000 in the UK. The salaries that an RPA developer can demand will likely increase as the benefits from RPA grow and the demand for bringing in entire RPA based teams increases over time.

What Role would you consider?

There are a variety of roles within the area of RPA which you could establish your career in. Firstly, there is a primary RPA developer who will create the core automation processes within an RPA platform. Then, you could be a process designer for a business who creates/designs the plan of action for the developer to follow. Alternatively, many businesses will soon require a project manager to go through the process of projects being automated, and handhold the processes from start to finish.

Clearly there is a variety of potential careers within the area of Robotic Process Automation.

Putting your knowledge into practice

There is a very wide variety of benefits an RPA developer can bring to the table. Furtheremore, they can bring these benefits to a wide variety of industries. This means that a career in RPA provides a broad spectrum of options for developers. This means that you have the ability to cherry pick the industries which interest you the most. Whether that be finance, insurance, healthcare or something else. There are a myriad of options out there.

Benefits of a Career in RPA Development

A career in RPA Development allows you to join a growing business area, which provides a stable and growing salary over time. Despite the high salary opportunities, becoming an RPA Developer does not have an overly high understanding threshold. This means that it is quite widely open to many individuals, and there isn’t a high barrier of entry.

RPA as a general statement is quite simple to get to grips with and then obtain a career in it. There are a wide vareity of different jobs and industries you can work in. Many people will really appreciate the variety of choice in this career path.

How to start a career as an RPA Developer?

If you have decided that you wish to have a career as an RPA Developer, the next stage is actually getting a job in the industry of your choosing. The first step is of course to learn the skills necessary to become an RPA Developer. One option here would be to take a few courses on a platform such as Udemy. Secondary to this is deciding on an RPA platform to specialise in. Some of the main options are as follows:

• UiPath
• Automation Anywhere
• BluePrism

You could also look to get a certification in one of these RPA tools as well. This will likely greatly aid your search for a job as an RPA Developer. In order to improve your knowledge in these areas as well, many of the tools provide online contests and hackathons to challenge yourself.

Once you are confident with all of the above, it is time to start looking for roles. To some extent, getting a job is a combination of having the right skill, but also being the right person for the job. More often than not businesses are looking for certain personalities which will get on well with their current employees, and integrate well within the team.

Conclusion

Hopefully you now are now clear on whether it is a good idea to start a career as an RPA Developer in 2022. Furthermore, if you still think that this career path is exactly for you, you will know the plan of action in order to get a job in this area. If you have any further doubts about your career path as an RPA developer, then please feel free to leave a comment and get in contact with us and we can see how we can help.

Something which can lead businesses to shun the idea of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is the belief that you will need to learn to code to use it. The reality is that at best you might need some very limited programming skills. Even without any coding knowledge, you can still utilize RPA to an effective degree.

Do you need to know a coding language to use RPA? RPA does not require any specific coding language skill to be utilized. Some RPA platforms can be combined with a coding language (EG Python) to gain extra benefit. However, the vast majority of an RPA platform can be used without this knowledge.

The whole foundation of RPA has been set up in order to fulfill these main objectives:

• Your average person can learn how to use it
• Coding is not a necessary skill
• Processes can be automated quickly and effectively

Most RPA systems are built on a foundation of just understanding the system that they use, and most importantly, understanding the process of which you are trying to automate. From the ground up these platforms have been built to appeal to a mass market and be easy to use. There are some highly complex tasks that may require the addition of programming languages, but these are likely to be niche requirements.

Do you need to know how to code to use RPA?

The short answer is that no, you do not need to know how to code to use RPA.

By having a platform that would require programming knowledge, companies are aware that this would require extra manpower. They would need to hire or outsource the knowledge to programmers to resolve any issues. This is why RPA can be so valuable to a company. Once an employee is comfortable with the system, the vast majority of issues can be resolved in-house by people who do not specialize in any coding languages.

There can be some seriously advanced RPA without the need for any coding at all. Part of the selling point of many RPA platforms is that they can complete advanced tasks without any custom programming whatsoever. One platform worth mentioning is Automation Anywhere, who really push forward the point of the ability to achieve a lot without the need for any programming knowledge.

I have no programming experience – can I use RPA?

Watch the video below for a useful answer:

What is RPA?

RPA stands for Robotic Process Automation, and is a subset of the ‘automation umbrella’. This area of automation focuses entirely on the automation of business processes. In short, RPA is the area of automation which eliminates those repetitive tasks which nobody enjoys doing. From a business management perspective, it increases efficiencies, reduces errors, and in many cases will increase employee morale.

RPA is a bit of a blanket term, and can utilise a variety of technologies. This can include Machine Learning (ML), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and more. All of these technologies are used in order to improve the way we can automate repetitive and mundane processes within a business.

The overall aim of RPA is to have a large impact upon operational efficiency within a company.

We speak often about the general public fear surrounding anything with the ‘automation’ label. However, as we’ve seen quite a lot in the past couple of years, there has been a massive surge in the demand for a new type of worker. An RPA engineer. Businesses are eager to find people who are able to manage and implement these technologies into their businesses.

Businesses which have a heavy focus on repetitive tasks can gain a very quick ROI through the implementation of RPA. Think of processes such as the automation of processing and approving invoices, or repeatedly entering data into spreadsheets. These are the types of tasks in which an RPA engineer would be able to relatively quickly create improvements for the business.

When compared to many other business solutions, RPA is actually quite simplistic to implement. It requires very little major change to the company, and once an engineer has created the process within an RPA tool, it is almost a “plug in and play” setup. Managers can think of it as re-delegating repetitive tasks to a robot, which will allow their human employees to thrive in an area which requires more human focus.

The Core Benefits of RPA

There is the obvious benefit that RPA brings, and that is cost savings. Time is money, and if you can reduce the workload for the team by 10 hours per week, that will compound to a very significant annual saving for the company. However, there are other less obvious benefits as well.

Productivity Increases

Process and worker productivity will increase with the implementation of RPA. It enables businesses to really optimize and improve processes, and utilize their employees in a more productive manner.

Employees who were previously executing these manual tasks will be free to work on other tasks which may produce more return for the company. At the end of the day, the work needs to be done, but if it can be automated, why not free your employees of that burden, and let them focus on more invigorating work?

And what happens when staff feel more excitement and enjoyment from their role? Productivity goes up, and so does…

Staff Morale

Repetition and a lack of autonomy is a surefire way to kill employee morale, productivity and creativity. Automation is often viewed as the enemy in the eyes of employees. However, the actual reality is that it can be a boon to their enjoyment within their career. Studies show that autonomy is one of the key drivers to employee satisfaction in their career. By eliminating the tasks which they “have to do” on a daily basis, it allows them to fill their role with more autonomy and work on more ad-hoc interesting projects.

Error Reduction

Humans make errors. Hence the term “human error”. RPA does not make errors, assuming all the variables that it has been told to do are as expected. A robot in an RPA setup with perform a task exactly as told, without fail. It doesn’t take breaks. It doesn’t get distracted. It doesn’t have family issues, or stress. There are a myriad of outside sources which can impact the performance of a human on a daily basis. These factors do not come into the equation for RPA.

In today’s business environment, a small error could cost a company millions. Therefore, if a process which is essential can be automated with more reliability, it seems like a no brainer that it should use RPA.

There is only one way an RPA setup can make errors, and rather ironically, that is if the human who set it up made an error. Therefore, the only way an RPA error occurs, is through human error. However, assuming everything has been set up correctly, robots will complete tasks with absolute perfect certainty every single time.

Digital Advantage

In the same way that brick and mortar stores were left in the dust if they didn’t create an online store as well, businesses not utilising automation will also be left behind in the future. By accepting automation and implementing it into your arsenal of business tools, you will leapfrog over the competition who are not using it.

RPA can complete tasks faster and more reliably than any human. Therefore, if there are two businesses who are competitors, and they both have 20 members of staff. Company A also has an RPA setup which is running data and reporting overnight while everyone sleeps. It is clear which company has the competitive advantage here.

Automation can run in the background while staff work their normal roles. It can also run overnight, while nobody is working.

A study by McKinsey showed that 45% of activities at work could/should already be automated using RPA technology.

Top RPA Tools in 2022

UiPath

Automation Anywhere

Pega

Inflectra Rapise

Blue Prism

“RPA-Lite” Tools

The following tools on the list might not be categorised as core-RPA tools. They’re a little more simplified, and for the mass market. Fundamentally, they automate workflows, but an RPA tool such as UiPath will take a much larger scale approach. The following tools may be beneficial for those wishing to dip their toes into RPA, or those who work in a smaller company which does not require the large scale operational benefits of the aforementioned tools.

PowerAutomate

PowerAutomate is a Microsoft solution, which was formerly known as Microsoft Flow. This is included within the Microsoft 365 suite of tools, and therefore is arguably the most accessible tool on this list.

Fundamentally PowerAutomate is a great tool for linking apps together. Whether that be linking Outlook and Excel, or Google Calendar and Twitter.

Some examples of Power Automate processes:

• When you receive an Outlook email attachment, save Outlook email attachments in your OneDrive
• Set up weekly notifications of financial operations and sales insights from a CRM system
• When you make a new file, copy files between Dropbox and SharePoint
• When a new event is scheduled, receive an alert on Outlook or Google Calendar based on Eventbrite events
• When you tweet with a hashtag, instantly save those tweets to a specific SharePoint location.

PowerAutomate is based on a ‘trigger’ framework. You set a trigger point, and then when that is triggered, Power Automate will proceed to complete a series of predetermined tasks.

Integromat

Integromat is similar to Power Automate and Zapier. They are all at their core “drag and drop” solutions for RPA/Workflow Automation. This means that they are all somewhat more accessible and easy to learn than the larger players within the RPA space.

Integromat focus on their functionality of moving data between apps without too much effort, and it has quite an intuitive workflow visual in order to simplify the setup process.

Zapier

Zapier provides the largest number of integrations of the three options mentioned here. It is therefore arguably the best if you have a wide variety of non-Microsoft apps to link together. For example, if you wish to link your CRM to Google Calendar, then Zapier might provide a little bit of a more plug and play approach than the others.

Zapier vs Integromat vs Power Automate

It is arguably not fair to compare the last three offerings on this list, so we will compare them by themselves briefly.

The main difference between them is that Power Automate is a Microsoft system, and therefore does not run on Linux systems (however, it does work on Mac). Conversely Zapier and Integromat are SaaS style businesses, and therefore everything is set up within their cloud based setup. This means they work on every platform.

From a support basis, Zapier and Integromat are superior, and far easier to get in contact with than Microsoft.

This conclusion can probably be summed up as follows: If you want to automate a lot of Microsoft tools (excel, outlook etc) then go with Power Automate. If you wish to go for a cost effective option, then Integromat is what you’re looking for. Then, if you want ultimate versatility and use many different apps and require a large number of integrations, then Zapier is your weapon of choice.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that RPA is changing the way we work on a daily basis. In the future, we will streamline many processes which do not have to be manually actioned on a daily basis.

This shift into the realm of automation will cause an increase of productivity, a reduction in human error, and an increase in human autonomy which will improve team morale.

By putting RPA into your core function, you will make your business work faster, more efficiently, and put yourself at the forefront for future development in technology. Ultimately pipping your competitors to the post.

This is going to be a double edged article from us. First of all, there is the mental health benefits of automation which we strongly believe in. However, there is also the side of automation which can have a negative impact due to the perception of it. Workers can feel as though their jobs are at risk with the implementation of automated robots, which in turn can negatively impact mental wellbeing. But what causes this perception?

We believe the main way to obtain the full benefit of automation is through education of the subject. Many people’s perceptions of automation is somewhat negative, and that purely comes from a place of ignorance on the topic.

Automation is increasingly becoming an important topic within the workplace. Robots/Automated machines are becoming more capable, and can complete more complex tasks. This also includes having “human thoughts” in order to make decisions. This is primarily what creates a negative viewpoint towards automation.

The reality is that life is not going to end up like the film iRobot. The world isn’t going to be taken over by automated robots, and neither is your job. The term ‘computerphobia’ was coined in the 90s, from a rapid spread of fear and panic over the technology. Automation is somewhat following the same trend. It is the unknown. It is unique. And people are not being correctly educated on it, and its benefits.

The true reality is that automation will take over significant portions of the ‘boring’ aspects of people’s daily work. These boring aspects are those which are heavily repeatable, and can be improved by a programmable object doing that task again and again. Not everything can be automated, and humans are still required to perform their job. Processes of the work need to be designed by humans. A human needs to make sure the robot is completing the task properly. The list goes on. Humans will never become obsolete in the work place.

Automation’s Impact on Mental Health

Automation impacts humans positively, and negatively. As discussed. Furthermore, some individuals will be impacted by automation more than others, depending on which industry they work in. It may also depend on what type of job you have as to whether automation impacts you more positively or negatively.

For example, those in a more tech focussed line of work are statistically more likely to be accepting of automation. However, shoving automation into a company who still keeps records on paper, and has done everything manually for 100 years might be somewhat more fearful of the technology.

Scientists have put increased focus on the mental/psychological impact of automation on people, as well as what people’s thoughts are on the topic. Primarily the research focusses on how people feel towards the potential of being replaced by robots/automation. One research piece conducted in 2019 which interviewed almost 2,000 people focussed on people’s attitudes towards being replaced. The research concluded that people would generally prefer that if they had to be replaced in their line of work, they would rather be replaced by automation, than another human. This is an interesting finding considering the generally perceived negative attitude towards automation.

A research piece by Canada Life found that 56% of employees feel as though the potential for more automation has impacted their mental health in some way. However, this didn’t specify whether the majority of employees felt it impacted them positively or negatively. However, it was concluded that 34% of individuals within the research piece felt as though automation was pressuring them to feel ‘always on’. The idea here being that as humans we cannot compete with robots, and therefore the natural human reaction is to feel as though our performance is inferior.

In the same Canada Life research piece many employees interviewed were concerned about their job security when it came to automation implementation. 32% of respondents felt as thought their jobs would change due to automation, and a further 32% were concerned of losing their job. Interestingly, 26% felt concern as to whether they would be able to understand the new systems.

Solving the Automation Wellbeing Impact

From our perspective, the individuals who were concerned about knowledge of the new systems have hit the nail on the head. A lot of the concerns and worries about automation come from a place of lack of understanding. It is clear that to some extent the idea of automation is causing a significant amount of distress in individuals, where they’re concerned about their roles and job security.

The solution here is twofold. Firstly, individuals need to be more open to learn about the subject of automation, and willing to understand the potential. Similarly to the introduction of the computer to the mass market, people are now fully accepting of it. Heck, how many people do not own or work with a computer these days? Automation will be the same in the future. Those who accept and learn about it will realise its benefits, and be able to utilise it to benefit themselves the most. Conversely, those who shun automation and continue to be concerned will likely be on the back foot when they finally realise its potential.

Secondly, there’s the fact that management need to do a better job at educating employees on automation. Simply forcing employees into the implementation of an automated process is not going to evoke a positive reaction. Allowing a workforce to understand how something works, as well as why it is going to be implemented will go a long way in resting the nerves of cautious employees. Furthermore, employers should provide security in the roles of these employees by ensuring they understand that automation is a tool to help the individual, and not an enemy. Heck, automation and artificial intelligence can already be used directly with mental health therapy: