Selecting the right robotic process automation (RPA) solutions for your business is crucial. This goes for tools that deploy RPA to specific business processes and platforms that connect them to create an effective RPA ecosystem.
The right automation tool can save valuable employee time, allowing for human intervention in areas where it’s needed while eliminating the potential for staff to make errors while performing a rote task. Similarly, effective RPA process management allows a business to scale its automation efforts over time. This boosts the value RPA brings to an organization by increasing efficiency and providing valuable analysis and context related to current and future use cases.
A strong grasp of the best RPA software on the market and the RPA vendors that provide them positions your company to make informed and rewarding decisions. Keep reading for answers to some common questions about RPA as well as a list of the eight top RPA tools in 2020.
The right RPA tools support effective, relevant, and valuable automation.
How do you decide which RPA tool to use for your company?
Successful RPA implementation requires support from relevant stakeholders, the right digital infrastructure and competencies, and a commitment to improving business processes through workflows like desktop automation and learning bots. Selecting the right RPA solution – one that aligns with your company’s needs and resources – is also vital.
Identifying specific operations that your organization wants to optimize is an important and early step. A clear understanding of the operational goal or process transformation in question means RPA project leaders can augment their initial research and discussions with a list of specific requirements. This makes it significantly easier to narrow down the options and select the right tool for your needs.
Common requirements may include:
- Standardization of unstructured data.
- Bespoke RPA development.
- Evaluation and strategic input on core functionalities.
- Hierarchy of tasks or workflows to convert to automated processes.
Keeping an eye on the potential for future expansion of RPA is another critical factor. Selecting an RPA platform that can support your company’s needs today and in the future, when possible, means less time spent identifying additional solutions, implementing them, and ensuring they can coexist in your company’s digital infrastructure. Plus, you can be confident your RPA vendor today remains your RPA vendor in the years ahead.
Which factors should you consider while selecting RPA software?
In general, RPA software can accomplish a wide variety of tasks that once required human oversight and direct involvement. However, not every solution on the market provides the specific functionality your business requires. The relevance of a given solution in terms of your business’s objectives is among the most important factors to consider. If machine learning or cognitive or intelligent automation is a core need, for example, make sure a potential provider can offer that type of software.
Support and customer service also can’t be overlooked. Automation software means questions of data privacy, admin and integration must be factored in. Will there be a single business user tasked with the pilot or test automation? Is there a particular repetitive task that’s too vital to operations at the moment that it shouldn’t yet be overhauled or transformed? An engaged and supportive partner can help your company work through the implementation process and create the best possible conditions for success with RPA.
The 8 best RPA tools in 2020
Along with these industry leaders, there are several open-source RPA tools to consider. If your business wants to experiment with or implement open-source software before committing to a vendor, review this list assembled by The Enterprisers Project.
Automation Anywhere
Perhaps the most familiar name on the RPA market, Automation Anywhere is a cloud-native, web-based RPA solution that primarily leverages scripts to run RPA on your tech stack. You can create some very complex RPA processes with Automation Anywhere. From simple copy-paste routines to data correction, Automation Anywhere gives you the scalability you need to meet both broad and granular automation demands.
Automation Anywhere promises 70% end-to-end automation within weeks, which is how long it’ll take you to set up virtual workers or bot scripts. It also claims to boost customer experiences by 50%. Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Robotic Process Automation Software puts Automation Anywhere at the top of the list of best RPA tools in 2020.
Blue Prism
One of the oldest players in the RPA space, Blue Prism has seen steady growth in recent years. It’s specifically geared toward end-to-end RPA for Fortune 500 companies. Blue Prism also offers best-in-class unattended robots, which work virtually without human interaction. Not only are its robots incredibly sophisticated, but they also possess deep scripting capabilities for setting up advanced RPA networks.
Blue Prism requires an investment in a robust development framework to facilitate its use throughout your organization. However, Blue Prism has outstanding debugging capabilities and unparalleled scalability to back up that investment.
UiPath
When it comes to ease-of-use, UiPath provides outstanding value. It’s easy-to-install and has UI-based development capabilities. Most importantly, its robust online tutorial section helps you familiarize yourself with the software. UiPath has a top-notch customer support team, according to Gartner’s Quadrant Review, which placed it first among RPA tools in 2020. All things considered, UiPath is ideal for businesses looking for a quick RPA deployment.
FortressIQ
FortressIQ is newer to the market. The primary focus of FortressIQ is “Process Discovery.” It uses an array of intelligent capabilities to identify high-value processes to automate. FortressIQ leans hard on AI to deliver business value.
In a sense, FortressIQ replaces the need for consultants. It features a unique machine learning component that processes and identifies how users interact with applications. Then, it uses that data to identify the best use cases for RPA. FortressIQ calls this “imitation learning.”
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Celonis
Essentially, Celonis is an RPA enabler.
At its heart, RPA identifies user routines and automates them to improve operational efficiency. Celonis is great at identifying the processes to automate. It does this by mining your cloud architecture and employee routines. This gives you context into your systems and helps uncover areas of opportunity and process pain points.
Celonis should ideally be paired with an RPA solution like Shibumi or UiPath.
ABBYY
Like Celonis, ABBYY seeks to help businesses understand what to automate. And, like its competitors, ABBYY takes operational data and uses it to help map processes to automate. There are also some nifty features packaged in ABBYY’s Digital Intelligence for RPA – like creating structured data out of documents and ensuring that your organization complies with privacy regulations.
Microsoft Power Automate
For those businesses that want to stay in the Microsoft ecosystem, Microsoft Power Automate offers a simple, yet effective, RPA solution. The biggest benefit of Microsoft Power Automate is that it’s easy to set up. This means you can immediately tap into your Microsoft ecosystem data, making baseline RPA a breeze.
For larger organizations, solutions like UiPath, FortressIQ, Blue Prism, and Shibumi can help you orchestrate a larger, more effective robotic workforce at scale.
Shibumi
At Shibumi, we believe that full-scale enterprise robotic process automation is the key to unlocking enterprise-wide benefits such as cost savings, time savings, and risk reductions. Shibumi’s RPA Accelerator helps organizations grow their automation programs and achieve a higher ROI. In addition, Shibumi integrates with leading RPA technologies to act as a single conduit for managing an end-to-end automation program.
Above all, Shibumi is a vendor-agnostic and data-driven solution that helps you identify measurable objectives, link those objectives to clear outcomes, and start automation intake and triage based on business and overall KPI impact.
With Shibumi, RPA Center of Excellence leaders can immediately focus their automation efforts on one, easily-accessible platform. That means more automation potential and greater ROI than ever before.
Ready to learn more about Shibumi? Get in touch with us today.