Alexis

Extract text from scans and categorise automatically

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Lawyers and accountants will know best the pain of having to scan a lot of paper documents, receiving the scans in the inbox, and then classifying all these documents into their respective folders on the desktop or data management system.

The problem

“We receive client-related paper documents that we have to scan and then classify to add them to the correct client folder in our DMS. With a few documents, this wouldn’t be too much of a hassle. However, we have dozens of clients for which we receive multiple documents every month. This creates a time-consuming admin task that we needed to automate to increase the efficiency and smartness of our operations.”

The Solution

A robot that picks up all scans from the scan folder, classifies them based on the text contained within, and moves the files into the correct client folder they should be stored in.

How it works? ... in 6 Simple Steps

1. You scan the documents and save them into the scan folder

You scan each document into a standalone scanned file, i.e. no bulk scanning of documents is performed. Each scan is saved into a scan folder.

 

2. Robot picks up the scan from the scan folder

The robot picks up all documents in the folder and performs the following steps for each:

 

3. Robots connects to an OCR engine

In order to classify the documents, the robot connects to an OCR engine which reads the document.

 

4. The OCR engine reads the scan

The OCR engine goes through the scan and instantaneously extracts all readable fields within it.

 

5. The OCR engine picks up the list of folder names and looks for a match in the content of the scan

The OCR engine takes a hardcoded list of the folder names, each representing one client. The list of folder names is saved within the client’s environment to which the robot has been given access. The OCR takes the list of names and performs a matching exercise until one of the folder names is found within the scan.

 

6. Robot moves the scan to the folder of the relevant client

Once a match is found, the robot moves the scan into the correct client folder, thus removing the file from the initial scan folder.

 

Job done!!

 

Why bother with automated Data Extraction from scans and Scans Categorisation?

Better organisation

End the stress of having to remember to classify document X, Y, Z. We're human so we do forget and at times we may not even know where to store some files. A pre-configured robot has no stress and knows it all.

Smarter Operations

You can continue doing your scanning, reviewing each file, and moving it manually to the system or database where it needs to be stored. But there's a smarter way so why continue to play the robot??

Save time

A robot is able to extract data from your scans in seconds and perform a matching exercise with such speed and accuracy that it categorises your scans exactly where you want them to be stored.

Ready to automate your scans categorisation?

Let's talk about your scans extraction and categorisation and see how we can automate them best 🙂

Talk to us

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Data enrichment on auto-mode

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Whatever business you are in, it’s inevitable that you have some form of data exchange with third-party companies. This can often result in manual processes taking place to make sure the data shared by or to third parties is complete and enriched with unique IDs, names, or other details. This manual data enrichment is often time-consuming, prone to error, and highly monotonous for the employees tasked with the job. This is where a robot becomes extremely helpful.  

The problem

“We have reports coming from a key client that we need to enrich to include not only our client unique Product IDs but also our internal unique Product IDs. The reason for this is that our internal system can update with the latest information per the report only based on internal IDs, not client IDs. This process used to be done fully manually by members of our team who had to spend a lot of time and focus going between databases and copying and pasting IDs to enrich the reports.”

The Solution

A robot that takes the XML reports shared by the third party, locates an internal database that contains all Product IDs (both internal and external), enriches the reports with the internal Product IDs that correspond to the external Product IDs, and automatically imports the updated report into your internal system! 

How it works? ... in 5 Simple Steps

1. The XML report is added to a folder within your environment

The robot waits until the report it needs to work on is found within a pre-defined folder within your environment. This could be a simple Google Drive, an internal database that our robot is given access to, or any of your systems. In the instance we have worked on, this was added to an FTP server.

 

2. Robot picks up the file from the folder

The robot will pick up the XML from the folder and perform the following steps:

 

3. Robot picks up an Excel table that contains the list of all Product IDs

In order to identify which internal Product ID corresponds to which third-party Product ID, the robot picks up an Excel table, stored and updated directly in the inernal system, that contains all ID pairs, i.e. what internal ID corresponds to what third-party ID. 

 

4. Robot updates the XML to add all corresponding internal IDs

The robot goes through the third-party Product IDs in the XML file and on each row it adds the internal Product ID that corresponds to the respective third-party Product ID, based on the ID pairs information per the Excel table.

 

5. The robot drops the updated XML into the initial folder

Once an internal ID match is found for each third-party ID, the robot drops the updated file back into the folder. Now the internal system automatically picks the file, processes it based on internal IDs, and updates the records with the latest information contained within the XML file.  

 

Job done!!

Why bother with automated Data Enrichment?

Save time

A robot is able to perform all data enrichment requirements, by navigating to databases, extracting data, copying, and pasting it in seconds. With stellar speed and accuracy!

Strengthen Partnerships

When data flows fast, completely, and correctly, and staff on both sides are not burdened with admin, relationships build and get happier and stronger.

Reduce error

Focusing on a manual task for hours is tiring and boring so the scope for error is huge. A robot doesn't get tired and works with 100% accuracy to enrich all required data round the clock.

Ready to automate your data enrichment?

Let's talk about your data enrichment and see how we can automate it best 🙂

Talk to us

Data enrichment on auto-mode Read More »

Transfer of Assets Excel Automation

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We all love Excel and rely on it heavily. However, it quickly gets messy and time-consuming when the tabs become many and the data becomes abundant and involving of a lot of computations.

The problem

“We used to invest over 400 hours each month filtering Excel data, doing many computations, and copying and pasting information from dynamic and static sources into templates to prepare all transfer assets documents for our clients. It was a highly time-consuming and tedious process, often coming with errors. We needed a change.”

The Solution

A robot that performs all data transformation and data extraction in Excel, collects all static information from online databases, and prepares all transfer assets documents automatically (using preapproved templates) … with speed and 100% accuracy! 

How it works? ... in 6 Simple Steps

1. Robot requests the Transfer Asset Excel file

The robot asks you to provide the file containing all Transfer details for all client entities (.xlsx format). This will start the automated process. No other inputs are required from you. At this point, you are able to continue your activities on your laptop whilst the robot is doing all the required work on the server.

 

2. Extract data from the Transfer Asset Excel file

Next, the robot extracts and collects all the data from the Transfer Asset file. This is also when the robot performs all computations. This ensures that no computations have to be managed further in the process. This operation enables the robot to detect any errors in the dynamic data early in the process.

 

3. Extract the static information for related entities

The robot then collects the remaining static information that is required to complete the transfer assets documents. This data is stored within an online database and contains all required information for each client and its entities.

 

4. Create Word documents for each entity

The robot populates all empty information holders within each document template with the static information (entity name, entity address, etc.) and does the same for all dynamic information from the Transfer Assets Excel file. 

 

5. Email the documents for each entity

The output of the process is a series of Word documents for each entity’s transfer assets. The risk is to have a confusing output from the robot with dozens of files. To mitigate this risk, a separate email is sent with the documents for each entity. Other solutions are also possible for ease of use (i.e. zip).

 

Job done!!

 

Why bother with Excel automation?

Save time

A robot is able to perform all your Excel computations, filtering, data extraction, copying, and pasting in seconds. With complete consistency!

Reduce error

Focusing on a manual task for hours is tiring and boring so the scope for error is huge. A robot doesn't get tired and works with 100% accuracy.

Improve service

With increased efficiency, reduced errors, and more engaged staff, the quality of service and the loyalty of clients go up exponentially.

Ready to start with Excel automation?

Let's talk about your current process and see how we can automate it best 🙂

Talk to us

Transfer of Assets Excel Automation Read More »

Generate Documents Automatically

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You probably have company templates to prepare legal documents, approval of accounts, supplier and customer contracts, and various types of onboarding documents. Still, it takes hours to prepare all required documents manually? This robot does it all automatically. 

The problem

“We used to spend over 200 hours a month manually preparing all of our client documents.  We had to find a better way to manage this process because it was clearly inefficient and frustrating for our staff.”

The Solution

A robot that prepares all company documents automatically for you and your team … in seconds, not minutes! 

How it works? ... in 4 Simple Steps

1. Robot asks you what document you need to prepare

The robot prompts you with a question to select from a dropdown of templates which one you want it to find and use. It uses a preconfigured list of company templates to select the correct template for the type of document with want to create. Your answer here determines the next question.

 

2. Select who to prepare the document for

To prepare the document with the correct information, the robot then asks you whose information to use to prepare the document: employee name (if an HR doc), client name (if a client-related doc), supplier name, etc.

 

3. Robot finds the pre-configured database with all required information

To populate the template, the robot navigates to the database where the required information is stored. This could be an internal database, a good old Excel spreadsheet, your CRM, your ERP, your HR system, or in some cases, even a third-party website. 

 

4. Robot prepares the new document & sends it to you. Job done!

Using the information from the relevant database for the selected template, the robot automatically extracts and inserts all data into the correct information holders within the template and completes the document. 

 

Once complete, the robot saves the new draft for your final review. 

 

The robot can also send you the draft directly via email or it can upload it to your CRM, ERP, or HR system. It can even send you a notification to review and approve it. Quite easy & efficient!

 

Why bother automating your documents generation

Save time

It probably takes you 20-30 min to prepare a single document (with all reviews). A robot is able to perform the same task in just 30 seconds

Engage staff

Focusing on a manual task for hours is tiring and boring so your people will happily cheer if you bring in a robot to take over the tedious process.

Increase efficiency

A robot works without rest which means you can finally supercharge the speed of doing business and even reduce the scope for error.

Ready to start generating your docs automatically?

Let's talk about your doc generation process and see how we can automate it best 🙂

Talk to us

Generate Documents Automatically Read More »

open source rpa

Open Source RPA: How to get complete security comfort

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DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE INFOGRAPHIC

Open Source RPA: How to get complete security comfort

Open source RPA is proving to be the ultimate alternative to traditional RPA. With its flexibility, unlimited features, lack of robot licenses, impressive reduction in processing times, and development and deployment done in weeks not months, open source RPA is becoming the preferred solution for many organizations from all industries and sizes. However, on the back of your mind, you’re probably still questing its security just because it’s open source.

 

Download this infographic to learn all of the below in just 1 single page: 

 

  • What is open source RPA?
  • Where does security risk come from?
  • What can you do to mitigate the risk? (Robust Security Checklist Included)
.

Open Source RPA: How to get complete security comfort Read More »

rpa benefits

5 Exciting RPA benefits to scale your business faster and smoother

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DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE INFOGRAPHIC

5 Exciting RPA benefits to scale your business faster and smoother

Scaling your business can be a stressful, faced-paced journey that can quickly overwhelm you when demand grows, expectations get higher, and the need for operational efficiency to deal with increasing customer requests demands resources and solid processes. It is moments like this when buying yourself time to make the right decisions and hire the best new talent becomes crucially important.

 

Download this infographic to learn all of this from just 1 single page: 

 

  • What is RPA?
  • What other scale-ups use RPA for
  • What are the incredible RPA benefits to be missed
.

5 Exciting RPA benefits to scale your business faster and smoother Read More »

What are the benefits of robotic process automation?

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In the digital world of today being adaptable is a vital requirement for each company. The technological advance creates a dynamic environment for both users and software service providers. As such, you constantly have to follow up with the innovations and expand your knowledge to keep on track. Nowadays, it is crucial to understand that one of the major prerequisites for business success is automation. This article will explain in a friendly language the robotic process automation benefits and how your business can take advantage of this modern technology. But first, let’s clarify two fundamental terms:

What is a software robot?

A robot is a machine capable of sensing and interacting with its environment. It’s an automatically operated machine that replaces human effort. However, in this article, we will not talk about physical robots, but we will use the word “robot” to refer to software robots, or “bots”. Software robots are nothing more than pieces of code. They are simple or complex computer programs designed to perform specific actions, such as automating repetitive tasks or simulating human users, among others. Software robotics is gaining popularity in business today, increasing the use of bot programs to automate computer tasks normally performed by people.

What is robotic process automation (RPA)?

Robotic process automation (RPA) is a form of business process automation based on software robots (digital workers). RPA re-creates the way humans interact with software to perform high-volume, repeatable tasks. Its ability to copy the way humans perform computer-based processes has contributed to its popularity compared with automation tools such as application programming interfaces (APIs).

 

RPA uses software agents (bots) to carry out routine clerical tasks without human assistance. It is useful for automating business processes that are rules-based and repetitive. RPA bots can follow a workflow that encompasses multiple steps across multiple applications. However, unlike traditional automation projects that require extensive developer help, RPA projects simply use an organization’s existing applications which makes it far more accessible, even by small and midsize enterprises. 

 

Additionally, when combined with AI and machine learning, RPA can capture more context from the content it is processing, extract entities like names, invoice details, or addresses, and identify data from images, such as automatically estimating accident damage in an insurance claim picture. This can greatly reduce costs and increase efficiency by speeding things up and significantly minimizing errors. In other words, this means delegating repeating processes within your workflows to RPA bots.

For example, an RPA bot can be used to:

  • Complete & Receive forms;
  • Check for completeness;
  • Use external information or proprietary databases to look up missing information;
  • Enter missing data;
  • Copy data between applications or workflows as required;
  • Forward completed, validated forms to its next destination;
  • Calculate and complete numerous tasks;
Now let’s take a look at the advantages of using RPA in business and its usage in different industries.

What is RPA used for?

Robotic process automation helps businesses overcome data challenges and inefficiencies by using the power of modern computer programs, thus, focusing on constant and sustainable growth. It is designed to help primarily with office-type functions that often require the ability to do several types of tasks in a specific order. Using RPA tools, a company can configure a robot to capture and interpret applications in order to process a transaction, manipulate data, trigger responses, and communicate with other digital systems.

 

As such, RPA provides organizations with the ability to adapt and respond quickly. What’s more, is that RPA software bots can also use machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence to free up human employees and allow them to concentrate on more complicated tasks rather than routine work.

 

For example, a large commercial bank may use 100 software bots to run 15 processes that handle over 1.5 million requests in one year. Recently, the implementation of RPA in business enterprises has shown dramatic cost savings when compared to traditional non-RPA solutions.

RPA is used in most industries, particularly those that include repetitive tasks such as manufacturing, legal, insurance, banking, finance, accounting, healthcare, human resources, and telecommunications. Indeed, RPA is widely used for procure-to-pay, mortgage and lending processes, customer service and CRM, eCommerce merchandising operations, and data extraction processes, among others. 


Before moving on to the core topic, let’s take a glimpse at the infographic below, showing some examples of RPA applications within different industries.

robotic process automation benefits

What are the robotic process automation benefits

1. Boosted efficiency

One of the key factors for the successful development and scaling of a business is the coefficient of efficiency. Every day you are in a situation in which you compete with yourself and your competitors to be more efficient. Scaling could indeed be a great threat to a growing business unless there are sufficient process efficiencies in place. It goes without saying that if your processes are much more efficient than your competitors’, this gives you a significant competitive advantage. This is where the implementation of RPA  can be of significant importance as it fundamentally streamlines processes and speeds up the execution of manual tasks to substantially improve business efficiency.

2. Increased innovation

Repeated manual work is a genuine obstacle to innovation. It is, without a doubt, the routine that any person inside your organization would find uninspiring and quite dull. Repeated manual work is not only boring by nature. It is often a waste of energy and time for us humans who thrive on creativity, critical thinking, and innovation. Once eliminated, this valuable time and energy could be invested into solving problems, and developing new concepts and innovations. By optimizing processes,people can focus on the creative activities at work which has a significant direct impact on the degree of business innovation. RPA plays a major part in facilitating this positive change.

3. Increased responsiveness

The success of a company always depends on its ability to get the job done on time. Robotic process automation has completely revolutionized the way businesses work. The truth is that nowadays we are blessed to have technology so advanced that companies are able to implement RPA to automate low-value mundane tasks while freeing their employees to focus on value-added activities for their business. This allows businesses to respond quickly to market fluctuations, deliver customer service and support with speed and accuracy, and increase the overall responsiveness of the business.

4. Flawless execution

By letting robots do the “mindless” work you guarantee flawless execution of all repetitive tasks and manual processes. This improves the performance of your company and reduces the chances of errors, or delays. Not only that, but it can also have a direct positive impact on your business agility, and profitability. 

5. Improved customer experience

The most important factor for increasing customer retention is to make sure they feel satisfied with their experience with your business. This can be achieved by better and more personal communication at each phase of the customer journey. RPA helps at all stages of the customer journey and improves the overall experience by letting you serve your clients more quickly, flexibly, and responsively. The final results are faster delivery, improved quality of service, and more efficient support.

6. Happier & more productive team

Last but not least, RPA helps to keep your employees happy and much more productive at work. According to surveys, more than 70% of employees state that they use one extra day a week saved through automation to execute activities that add true value to their organizations. What’s more, is that almost 80% of them say they focus on the more creative aspects of their work which increases overall motivation and staff happiness. This is a clear positive sign that RPA reduces the pressure and prevents staff from burning out.

RPA provides even more significant benefits to your business. Here are some more examples of all you can achieve thanks to RPA:

  • Invest more resources in core business operations;
  • Stimulate employees to learn and take up more strategic functions;
  • Generate major cost savings by automating mundane day-to-day functions;
  • Enhance resilience to match workload peaks and respond to huge demand spikes:
  • Reach accuracy goals with reliable consistency;
  • Improve business data security;
    • Seize opportunities for scale;
RPA is all about automating repetitive and monotonous tasks so that you and your employees can divert your complete attention towards the more fundamental ones.
Robotic process automation empowers humans to play at their core strengths by giving them the time to focus on the most valuable business activities and projects. This makes organizations more profitable, flexible, and adaptable. Not only that, but RPA is also reported to increase employee satisfaction, engagement, and productivity by removing mundane tasks from the day-to-day agendas. It truly is an investment that delivers rapid and multi-dimensional ROI.

Conclusion:

The benefits of RPA make it clear that this technology has an essential role in business. As discussed above, the implementation of RPA improves the efficiency, reliability, and speed of your business thanks to the automation of tasks and processes previously performed by humans. It’s already transforming businesses around the world, giving them the competitive advantage they need to get ahead in their sector. And now it’s your time.

How can you take advantage of RPA?

The good news is there is no need to reinvent the wheel. We are here to help. Our team is dedicated to providing holistic RPA business solutions to companies. Each day we work with clients from all over the world to scale and implement RPA. They’ve already become convinced of the power of automation and included it in their strategies for long-term success. You can also take advantage of our expertise and start your RPA journey by booking a free consultation slot with one of our experts. Brainstorm with us to figure out which processes, functions, and departments within your business structure can and should be automated. We’d love to help you benefit from robotic processes automation in the era of digital transformation.
Sources & references:

1. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/robotic-process-automation-rpa.asp/

2. TechTarget. https://www.techtarget.com/searchcio/definition/RPA/

3. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotic_process_automation/

4. GeeksforGeeks. https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/artificial-intelligence-in-robotics/

5. Techopedia. https://www.techopedia.com/definition/32099/automation/

What are the benefits of robotic process automation? Read More »

support ukraine

Capto volunteers automation robots to support Ukraine aid initiatives

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Help us help where automation can speed access to aid

Our reactiveness and our ability as a worldwide society to respond and offer help as quickly as possible to the people of Ukraine have never been more important in modern history.

 

Like most of Europe, our hearts sunk the moment we heard about the unprovoked and needless invasion into Ukraine. We got shocked, startled, horrified. But as a society, we also got united and are getting stronger and stronger together.

 

We truly believe that each and every single one of us, both personally and professionally, has a crucial role to play in helping Ukrainians through this sudden nightmare, not only those still at home but also those who’ve now left to call a neighboring country their new home. We believe that when many small and large efforts come together, they truly have the power to impact lives, build roofs above heads, put food back on empty tables, and place a smile on saddened faces. And that is truly incredible!

 

As a team, we thought quite a lot about how we can help the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and the initiatives and organisations that are currently being created. As such, we decided that for an undefined period of time, we will volunteer our automation robots in support of non-profit projects that have as their purpose to help Ukraine and its people during this horrifying time. Our goal as a team is to speed up processes that are currently done manually which can be automated to increase the speed of response, availability of information, and access to help.

 

We feel grateful to have connected with two organisations already but in times of urgency, the world needs an equally urgent reaction, so we want to extend our support to more organisations and initiatives across Europe so that help can be offered and accepted by as many people as possible and as quickly as possible too.
 

So how exactly can we help? 

 

To help as quickly as possible, we are including below a few examples of the activities our robots can do already. This means that with very limited further development if any, we can get a robot to fuel speed in a matter of hours or just a few days:

 

  • Automate form completion using data from Excel (or another data source) 
  • Database check & sending of outcome emails
  • Enrich and transfer data between databases or systems
  • Website page scraping & consolidation into a database 
  • Download of online documents & send via email
  • Auto-Generation of documents
  • Automatic sending of emails/ notifications
  • Automated download of email attachments & consolidation

The above are just a few examples so please if you are working on a Ukraine aid project and think you could speed up the operations by automating a certain task or process, please do reach out to us to consult and receive one or a few of our robots (completely free).

 

For a bit more context on the sources where information could come from, please see the list of formats supported below:

 

  • Web platforms
  • Email exchange (IMAP)
  • Word 
  • Excel
  • Text file
  • XML
  • API

The above are scenarios we can react to pretty quickly but please note that we can help with many other scenarios, and formats too. It’s just that it’ll take us a few days.

 

If you are working on a non-profit Ukraine support initiative or you know of a project that would benefit from automation to speed things up and increase access to help, please get in touch with us on helpukraine@wearecapto.com or LinkedIn, or kindly share our details with your relevant contacts.

 

From our entire team at Capto we wish the people of Ukraine and everyone who has opened their hearts, thoughts, and homes for Ukrainians to keep strong, have faith, and stay united.

 

All Together We Can!

 

Capto Team 💙💛

Capto volunteers automation robots to support Ukraine aid initiatives Read More »

coding language on screen

What is open source RPA: Ultimate Comparison with traditional RPA

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What is open source RPA?

Before we dive into open source RPA, let’s briefly discuss Robotic process automation (RPA) more generally. RPA is often the first step toward automation for many businesses. Often businesses look no further to automate manual, multistep tasks that typically take a human a long time to complete. However, RPA as a technology is evolving quickly. This means that it can now handle with perfection not only swivel-chair processes but also end-to-end process automation. 

 

RPA has the power to significantly increase the volume of business you attend to. It’s also powerful in fueling innovation and creativity in teams. And sure, it’s also got the potential to reduce costs by 30% to 50%.

 

With the increasing need for automation, the discussion about what type of RPA to implement becomes more and more topical. So here’s a summary of two main categories of RPA on the market today. Open source and closed, or traditional, RPA.

Open source RPA is robotic process automation where software robots are built using an open-source coding program or language that is publicly accessible and often (but not always) free to use. This effectively means that when a developer creates your robot, he/ she writes the code using one of the top open source RPA frameworks or simply python.

 

At Capto, for example, we use mostly python to build our customized robots. This means that we don’t engage with a commercial vendor. This helps us keep pricing low, quality and flexibility high, and security fully in control. 

What is traditional RPA?

Traditional RPA, on the other hand, is what we refer to when we hear expressions such as licensed RPA and commercial RPA. This type of RPA is indeed based on developer licenses and is proprietary. This means that the developer building your bot doesn’t have access to the underlying source code. Developers are effectively left with a drag-and-drop-like interface, or low-code functionality, to build all required bots. 

Differences between open source RPA and traditional RPA

The differences between the two “schools” of RPA are many and all pretty fundamental. To understand them better let’s talk through them one by one:

Development

One of the key differences between open source and traditional RPA is the way the bots are developed. With open source RPA, bots are developed using python or another open source language or framework. This means that the developer has direct access to the source code and can improve it, update it and maintain it directly at all times.

 

With traditional RPA the developer has no direct access to the underlying code. Instead, he/ she uses a drag and drop interface or low code to build the required bots or workflows. This can make it quite hard for developers to build the exact solution desired by the end-user. This is due to the inherent proprietary systems and the reduced flexibility since developers can only use the set of features made available by the vendor. 

Deployment

Open source RPA ensures a very fast, and hands-off deployment. Deployment can be done on your desktop or the cloud depending on the specific requirements. In both cases, however, deployment is done pretty smoothly and with no major bottlenecks.

 

Traditional RPA historically used to offer only on-premise deployment. This was expensive, taking a long time, and was often associated with extensive maintenance efforts to keep up the on-premise servers. Nowadays, however, most traditional RPA providers offer a cloud deployment as well which is expected to reduce the deployment time and make it far easier to complete successfully.

Infrastructure

With open-source RPA you have full control over the infrastructure. What that means is that you decide where to host your bot, on a desktop, on-premise server, or the cloud. If the cloud option is preferred, you then have full control over which server to use.

 

Traditional RPA, on the other hand, is inherently associated with a closed costly infrastructure. Here you also have control over where your bots are hosted. However,  it’s up to the vendor to choose the server provider. This means you have limited control over the overall cost since this is pushed by the vendor. 

Maintenance   

With open source RPA maintenance is required following third-party updates. Say your bot connects to Facebook and Facebook makes a big update to its platform. This will potentially require the developer to make adjustments to the bot to make sure it works smoothly with the new version of Facebook.

 

With traditional RPA, however, maintenance is required not only because of third-party updates but also updates pushed by the vendor. The latter is completely outside of developers’ control. What’s incredibly important to mention here is that the rate of broken bots with traditional RPA has been notoriously high. 

 

The reason for this is mainly due to auto-updates of the vendor systems over which developers have no control. This, coupled with insufficient documentation on the updates, makes the successful maintenance of bots tricky and costly. 

 

Thankfully, this issue is not in scope with open source RPA. This is the case because with most open-source software and languages, python especially, developers have full control over the versions of the frameworks and libraries used in building the bots. Importantly, the version used in creating your robot will not change automatically with future updates, unless your developer decides so. 

Features

With open source RPA the features that your robot can have are virtually limitless. Developers have access to the code. As such he/she can be as creative as he/she wishes to achieve ultimate customization.


With closed RPA, the features that developers can use are vendor specified. This means that developers can only use the features included in the vendor’s set of features. This can become limiting both in terms of the functionality of the robots and the creativity that developers can unleash. 

Scalability

Going hand in hand with the flexibility and control over infrastructure and features, open source RPA allows for fast scalability. Not only that but it’s also the most cost-efficient option on the market today to scale RPA. More on that in the pricing section below. 

 

Traditional RPA has made a name for itself when it comes to the scalability of RPA. This is mostly driven by traditional vendors being the only trusted option on the market until recent years when open source RPA started to shake things up.  Scalability with traditional RPA is still perceived as best achieved with traditional vendors. However, that only applies to businesses that can justify the large investment required.  

Resources for developers

When we talk about open source RPA we talk about an active global community of thousands of developers and contributors. The amount of documentation that is available is also impressively extensive and free to access.

 

In comparison, the resources available for developers using traditional RPA are made available from the relevant vendors. As such, they tend to be limited when compared with open source RPA. This is the reason why often when traditional bots break, it takes quite a bit of time to find and resolve the problem. 

Security

With access comes control. With control comes security. Open source RPA ensures robust security since at any point the code can be audited. Also, with access to the underlying source code, developers can see, locate, and fix vulnerabilities in the code as well as any bugs.

 

Traditional RPA is inherently closed. This means that the code making up your robot is not visible to you or your developer at any point. It is only accessible by the RPA vendor. As such, security is based entirely on trust. 

Pricing

Open source is a low-risk low-cost way of getting started with RPA. If you have the development resources on your team, you can build some test robots virtually for free. At Capto we use open source technology and adopt a consumption-based pricing model where the price is determined by the amount of work your bots get through. This means that you are paying for the direct value you receive from your bot 🙂

 

In comparison, traditional RPA adopts license-based pricing. This means that an annual license is required for each robot you need to be deployed. As such, the upfront investment is pretty high and makes scalability a very pricey undertaking. 

 

Important point to make here is that with open source RPA you can now bring as many robots as you need in solving one problem because you don’t pay per robot but per consumption. This compares with having 1 single licensed bot doing everything on its own. Why having just 1 licensed bot doing all the work? Because with traditional RPA you you pay per robot not job done, and the amount is pretty significant so it’s hard to justify the extra cost. 

Company size

Traditionally licensed RPA was created and continues to be used by large organizations that can justify the high cost. We’re talking about large companies with complex processes the automation of which would delivers a high enough ROI to justify the investment into a robot.

 

With open source RPA the discussion about company size and who can afford RPA becomes irrelevant. That is the case because companies of all sizes can start using RPA virtually for free if they have the development skill in the team. If external help is required, the upfront cost tends to be insignificant or in some cases none which means that every company can afford it and start benefiting. 

Conclusion

In summary, these are the main differences between open source and closed traditional RPA. Which type of RPA you go with is inherently a blend between appetite for flexibility, security, cost, and speed. As such, there are no one-size-fits-all solutions as the wider business circumstances and the specific project requirements could weigh the scale in either direction. What we encourage businesses of all sizes to do is consider all options and make decisions based on complete information. Also, if you or anyone of your teams need further information, make sure to consult!

 

Our team at Capto is here to help with any automation-related questions so feel free to leave us a comment or if you want to speak to us directly, you can book a call with one of our experts. And yes, it’s free and without any strings attached. 

What is open source RPA: Ultimate Comparison with traditional RPA Read More »

How RPA helps maximize your ERP investment

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We’ll talk about RPA shortly but first. Investopedia defines Enterprise resource planning (ERP) as the process of integrating the important parts of any business. This is made possible with the help of an ERP software system. These same ERP systems appeared by this name in the 1990s and promised to integrate your business planning, inventory, sales, marketing, finance, human resources, and just about anything into one single place. Pretty powerful, right?! Well, we certainly think so. 

What is RPA?

Before we move on though, it’s important to clear out what we mean by RPA or robotic process automation. According to our partners and friends at Robocorp, it is a type of business process automation that involves software robots. These robots automate manual, multi-step tasks and processes that typically take a lot of time, and energy to complete. It would have been cool to watch if they did, but sadly you wouldn’t find RPA robots walking around your office, shouting “fire” every time they launch an automation. Instead, they’re lines of code that we implement on our desktops, internal servers, or the cloud to perform tasks for us automatically.

 

Why would we do that? Well, because we have far more valuable things to do than enter data, classify emails, scrape data from the web. You get the idea.

Link between RPA and ERP

ERP systems have come a long way to the point where Cloud ERP is not even a new development anymore. However, many legacy systems, critical in the business operations, have lacked the modernization of the ERP space. This has slowly resulted in a lot of manual interlinking required to be made between legacy systems and Cloud ERP. Luckily, RPA is here to help!  

 

RPA replicates human actions without the need for any additional software, IT upgrades, or interruptions. What that means is that RPA has an impressive track record of helping companies become more efficient. This is achieved by automating data flow between systems and freeing up people to invest time into more meaningful activities.

 

This makes ERP automation one of the key processes to automate within your business operations.

How RPA helps you get more out of your ERP investment

How many instances can you point to where your business has invested in a piece of technology or software and paid a significant amount for it. Yet, the adoption of the technology or the utilization of its full capacity has been somewhat disappointing?

 

Wherever the ERP needs to be integrated with bespoke or legacy systems, the use of its full functionality is limited. This is where the use of RPA becomes very powerful.

 

Senzcraft have noted that integrating ERP systems with other systems takes months of effort. That’s especially the case if the integration is with customer or supplier systems. RPA helps to accelerate the process through automated communication between systems.

The world is going on the Cloud! And so are you ... despite any legacy systems

When integration between a Cloud ERP and a legacy system is not available, the data transfer is performed manually. In such cases, RPA bots come in with a bang to transform this manual process through automation.

 

Through successfully implemented RPA businesses achieve greater effectiveness and speed. However, they also get an economical interim solution until a legacy system is upgraded or replaced. 

 

This is particularly important in M&A situations where legacy systems are inherited as part of the merger only to create operational “mayhem” and inefficiency. RPA, and especially open-source RPA, becomes the perfect solution in these scenarios due to its flexibility, affordability, and quick deployment. 

You can go "modern" without the cost, hassle, and time usually required

The upgrade or replacement of a dated system causes disruptions. How severe they are depends on the size of the business, the data stored, and the attitude of staff towards change. This is often caused by a significant amount of time and money spent, staff resistance, and short to long-term loss of full operationality. 

 

Often the risk and unpredictable business consequences that may follow a technological revamp incentivise leaders to delay the system modernization until it is absolutely business-critical.

In these circumstances automation robots allow businesses to benefit from the latest digitalization technologies and developments in process automation.

 

There are already multiple real-life examples of “use cases across diverse functional areas such as order to cash, tax & compliance, logistics that are based on RPA working with client ERP systems. In these cases, value is created through improved automated operations, low cost to scale, and future-ready process design. ROI is often reflected in improved process KPIs in less than 8 weeks”.

It's time to build in a better performance & more flexibility

RPA allows for a significantly improved synchronisation between systems. It ensures faster performance and access to a lot of capabilities that human task performers would take far more time to execute. The scope for error is significantly reduced too. 

 

RPA also brings in an eased access to the benefits of both Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), such as image processing, character recognition, and language recognition capabilities. It’s important to note that otherwise, both AI and ML would not be available unless a direct investment is made into the technologies. 

 

RPA essentially mimics the behavior of ERP users, records their actions as they enter data, access applications/ systems/ databases, perform commands and transfer files and data in-between applications. These are only a few examples of how RPA ensures an improved ERP performance and as such, an optimum version of your ERP which is automated, responsive, and more user-friendly.  

End-to-end process automation

ERPs are incredibly helpful and the benefits of RPA have been proven time and time again. However, the ultimate focus now is not only on the automation of standalone tasks but the streamlining and automation of entire end-to-end processes. RPA adds speed and accuracy to the business architecture and makes possible the connection between different processes which otherwise may be impossible to link smoothly and effectively.

 

Just recently at Capto we had a great example where a client had to connect their ERP with their bank’s access portal via an SFTP server. Whilst the process on the bank side and the process on the client site were well defined and streamlined, they were not connected. This meant that a significant amount of time was spent each week by the client’s team to review the information on the bank’s portal and transfer the data into the ERP. 

 

This is a good example where RPA offers end-to-end automation of the entire process which ensures the automated transfer of data between the bank’s portal and the ERP, thus saving a lot of time for manual review and data transfer. This is a strong example of how powerful RPA is in the automation of entire processes as opposed to disconnected tasks and standalone processes.

Ending note

The implementation and increased utilization of ERP and RPA are here to stay. The ultimate business advantage, however, comes in the combination of ERP and RPA. This results in a smoother, faster, and error-free utilization of the ERP of choice. It also ensures access to the latest technological developments and benefits of both AI and ML. It is the proven shortcut to maximizing your ERP investment without the need for additional applications or IT upgrades of any sort.

 

What’s more is that with open-source RPA there are also no annual robot licenses or high maintenance costs, since the cost is determined based on consumption. This way you only pay for the true value you receive from your hard-working robots 🙂 

 

Better, faster, stronger … cheaper! 

How RPA helps maximize your ERP investment Read More »