How to Start Your Automation Project

Getting started on your RPA journey is easier than you think when you start with one of these business processes.

Intro

Robotic process automation (RPA) is an exciting way to lighten your workload by handing repetitive manual tasks over to helpful bots. And as companies look for ways to optimize resources and work more efficiently, if you’re not already automating, you’re running behind in more ways than one.

Not sure which tasks on your to-do list you’d like to hand over to RPA bots? Already started with RPA but need to know what to automate next? We’ve gathered a list of great places to start—or continue—your automation project.

Data Entry

Automated Data Scraping with Automate | Processes to Automate

Data Entry

The data you use every day comes from so many places: websites, Excel files, PDFs, CSV reports, databases, emails, and more. If you add up all your data-related tasks, like extracting information for reporting and analysis or manual data entry, you’re probably using up a lot of valuable time. Automated data extraction and transformation capabilities allow you to read, write, and update a wide variety of data sources automatically.

Need to pull information from the body of incoming emails with no pre-determined structure? Turn to Microsoft Outlook automation.

Or, if you have data you need pulled from Microsoft Excel, RPA bots can gather it and input it where you need it so you don't have to manually enter any data. Excel automation streamlines your use of the application by automatically performing tasks like formatting cells, updating values, and running macros. With an RPA solution, you can also integrate Excel tasks in automated processes with other tasks across the enterprise.

Web Browser Automation

Have tasks that require a website visit? Stop spending time clicking through the web and automate your web browser tasks. RPA bots can mimic any of the steps you take to grab information from websites including opening and closing browsers, navigating through pages, and extracting page data so you don’t have to.

Employee Onboarding

Automated User Provisioning | Processes to Automate

Employee Onboarding

Use RPA bots to give HR an assist with many of the tasks they have to repeat for every new employee. With automated user provisioning, an RPA solution integrates with all the different systems and applications necessary for onboarding a new employee. Give your HR team their time back to do what they do best—work with people.

Accounts Payable Processing

Instead of manually keying in AP invoices, let RPA bots process invoices upon arrival and extract and manipulate the data you need along your workflows. When you automate your AP processes, you increase the accuracy and efficiency of your workflows to work smarter, and make sure everyone gets paid on time.

Report Generation

Automated Reports with Automate | Processes to Automate

Report Generation

Using RPA for automatic report generation and distribution, you can spend more time analyzing data instead of collecting it. Pull data from the sources you need—including Excel, SQL, your ERP, and more—to put together intelligent reports. And once compiled, RPA bots can also automatically send your reports across your organization to key stakeholders.

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Terminal Emulation

Supercharge your greenscreen with RPA to go beyond simple screen scraping. RPA bots can extract data files, databases, spreadsheets, or applications and enter it into a terminal session for you. And once the data is pulled from the terminal window, it can be transformed into the necessary format such as CSV files, OpenDocument, or SharePoint.

File Movement and Processing

File Transfer Automation with Automate | Processes to Automate

File Movement and Processing

Having trouble keeping up with file movement? RPA allows you to easily transfer files and move data between systems with accuracy and speed. RPA bots can help do the work for you to read, edit, and scan PDFs and other images and prepare files for transfer.

IT Process Automation

Automated Batch Processing | Processes to Automate

IT Process Automation

Make IT process headaches a thing of the past and let RPA software handle responses to common requests like batch processing and password resets. RPA bots can also help your IT team with event log monitoring to stay one step ahead of problems. And with GUI automation and automated batch processing, RPA bots can further free your IT team to spend more time keeping your systems up and running.