2022: Latest RPA Trends You Need to Know About

Every top company on the globe is investing in RPA going into the future. Robotic process automation will be the backbone structure of new businesses built from the ground up going forward. As more and more tools and technologies become available to us, automation is rapidly taking much of the repetitive tasks from our workforce.

Automation creates many more, higher-paying jobs than it replaces. Jobs that are much more satisfying and fulfilling to the employee, as well. According to Gartner, over 70% of global corporations are investing in RPA for their future. The research firm also announced that they believe that the RPA market will continue to grow at double-digit rates through 2021 and beyond. In that case, should you know what the latest trends are in the market? Let’s find out!

Introducing Intelligent Process Automation (IPA)

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) trends come from the fact that many businesses outside the IT area are discovering the ease of integration with no-code and low-code options. Gartner predicts by 2024, nearly half of all new RPA clients will be outside the tech industry. One trend that is hot on everyone’s IT news email list is the topic of intelligent process automation.

So, what is intelligent process automation or IPA? In definition, IPA is defined as the combined use of various technologies and applications used to automate a more complete, thorough, end-to-end business process. Everything undergoes a bit of evolution, right? Imagine if RPA took on a structured rules-based management system to include IA or machine learning to include the decision-making necessary to complete an entire task.

While we are already there, Gartner is predicting a serious increase. In the next few years, consumers will see more products that will reach their homes and they will be the first human hands to have touched the product. Every step of the product generation, production, inspection, shipment, and delivery would have been handled through automation.

What is the Difference Between IPA and RPA?

RPA and IPA can seem very similar, they both work to automate your workflow and reduce the number of repetitive business tasks. However, there are some real key differences. RPA uses bots to handle task functions that are based on predefined sets of rules. These are routine and computational tasks that are often triggered by an activity, a sale, or other human activity. These RPA bots simply follow instructions and don’t think for themselves.

It can be limiting, to have a system that can only stay within specified guidelines. As you know, life always has a way of throwing a curveball or two, so how does your system handle those? Should it shut down? Does it? Rule-based bots can have melt-downs when faced with tasks in which there are no rules to help them base making a decision.

This is where IPA comes in. IPA has significant added intelligence backed by interactive technologies that can include machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and Natural Language Understanding (NLU). These added technological advances allow the RPA to now make decisions. The bots have expanded capabilities where they are able to discover, learn, think, and decide for themselves.

A Center of Excellence What is it and How to Get One

You may be wondering how this topic fits into RPA, and what a center of excellence could be. A Center of Excellence (CoE) can often be referred to as a capability center or a competency center. As you build your RPAs and IPAs, one thing you do need is seamless fluid interactions through your departments.

A CoE is a group of individuals, usually department leaders or those with specialized skills, who can help disseminate technology, knowledge or interactions within your organization. You can’t expect everyone to be on the same page if there is no communication.

This is not to be confused with decision-making groups that determine the overall direction of the company or inner-department guilds. When building end-to-end automation, every department needs access to a hub of leadership. Its as easy as bringing your top players in for a monthly review to discuss RPA and IPA goals.

Research specialists Garner described it as “concentrating existing expertise and resources in a discipline or capability to attain and sustain world-class performance and value.” In other words, your leadership center drives multiple disciplines and departments to strive for 5-star customer solutions.

Automated Cybersecurity Solutions

Many businesses are moving to use RPA and IPA as one of their options for handling cybersecurity. Automating cybersecurity is becoming a cost-saving measure at a time when there is a rise in data breaches and cyber attacks worldwide.

RPA can be used to automate your cybersecurity measures. It can also eliminate points of human intervention when handling privileged data. RPA can also monitor and notify users when there is a threat of a cyber-attack.

However, using RPA has its own weaknesses. RPA is prone to abuse of bot authorizations. Training your staff to follow protocols and best practices is essential to maintain RPA implementation to attain optimum results. You can mitigate cyber threats using RPA automated cybersecurity solutions.

Discuss Your Ideas with a Specialist for Free

Technology, data security, RPA, IPA, bots, automation—in the end, it is all a lot of swirling bits of data and we wonder where to start. If you are like many CEOs or department managers, you spend a great deal of time reading manuals, business articles, and attending seminars only to find you have no idea how to fit all these ideas into your own unique situation.

It can be hard knowing where to start. At DataCose, we help businesses understand how technology can better automate their workflow, improve their communication process, and create a better customer service plan. We build businesses from the bottom up and the top down. Whether you are just starting out and are looking at building an eCommerce platform and employee portal or you are wanting to reimagine your current business by adding new technologies and automation, we are here for you.

Our software development teams can help with web design, automation, data migration, user design, and integrations. More than that, we can help you make sense of how to implement these technologies into your current business. If you would like to discuss your ideas with a specialist for free, fill out the form below. We will get back to you with a no-obligation consultation.

When you are ready to look at how DataCose can reimagine your business ideas, let’s talk.