Companies are in a constant search for business growth. To be able to climb within your sector, it is necessary that the starting point is within the organization itself.
The marketplace has demanded increasingly automated processes that provide agility and scalability for the business.
In this context, Business Process Management (BPM) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) are the solutions that provide improvements in the operational performance of companies.
Each of these solutions has specific characteristics that should be applied systemically to business processes. In this article, we'll show you the difference between RPA and BPM and how they can help in the business process.
Robotic Process Automation is an application of technology focused on process automation through the use of robots, which are specific software trained for certain tasks.
They are used to perform repetitive and bureaucratic tasks, initially delegated to human collaborators.
The key advantages of the RPA:
- Automate workflows and improve the level of service quality
- Reduce the production cycle, increase the productivity of employees
- Reduce the error rate, improve the quality
- Enable the analysis and audit of the compliance of activity as a whole
- Provide customer data in real-time
- Better use of different resources
One of the advantages of the RPA solution is that it can learn specific activities but can also be trained for other functions when needed. Thus, they are flexible and scalable, i.e. they can be optimized as per the requirement of production.
Business Process Management (BPM) is a methodology focused on combining business process modeling, simulation, control, and monitoring to ensure efficiency and improve results.
This means it is a concept that establishes a reformulation of operations and a new way of managing, always seeking a constant evolution.
This approach integrates multiple systems and platforms of a company. It focuses the organization's efforts to systematize processes and standardize them while bringing together software to optimize communication between them and the flow of information.
The key advantages of the BPM:
- Customer satisfaction
- Reducing bottlenecks
- Concentrating resources on more productive activities
- The well-being of employees, enabling them to solve customers’ problems more quickly thanks to easy access to the right information
Using BPM is an interesting practice for identifying operational bottlenecks and improving everyday activities as it provides valuable and accurate insights.
It is also concerned with the automation of procedures and the elimination of errors and costs.
To implement RPA, the first step is to map business needs and identify what can be automated and what should continue to be done manually. This process must be done carefully so that the RPA really is useful and strategic.
So, the idea is to look for suppliers that fit well With the proposals of business and fulfill the objective set. One must evaluate the benefits and negatives of each solution before actually deciding.
Finally, the deployment phase includes training robots as planned. It also involves monitoring results and monitoring strategy to make sure everything is working as expected.
The RPA in practice
Automation of repetitive processes can occur at:
- The workstation to perform interactions in place of a man but still under his control.
- Servers, without any human intervention.
- In an information system, a software robot can alone connect to different databases to retrieve information and apply control rules to them.
BPM implementation also needs the planning phase, with mapping and analysis of the activities and users involved.
This step is important because, in order to make improvements, you need to know your internal operations and related variables well.
It then involves the simulation of automation flows, relevant reporting, and the actual implementation of small changes.
Then follows the stage of monitoring and control of results with the most important indicators to identify points of improvement.
BPM in practice
A BPM software suite must allow process reengineering centered on their rationalization:
- A thorough review of how a company's processes work
- Identification of areas for improvement and bottlenecks in processes
- Creation, management, and optimization of business processes and applications
BPM contributes to process performance and agility, reducing cycle time, but activities are performed by employees. RPA uses software codes to mechanize the process and increase the efficiency of operations.
BPM involves a longer time to implement at a higher cost as it is much more complex and requires a cultural change in business process management.
It also requires technical knowledge about software tools and on specific subjects such as databases. Unlike RPA Solution, BPM is not just a tool, but a set of software systems and a methodology that encompasses several tools. It is a much broader concept.
RPA is a simpler solution, targeted to specific activities. Training does not involve complexity and specific IT knowledge, so it is accessible to everyone.
With RPA, qualified professionals can develop bots to automate processes based on specific rules and demands. These bots repeat employee activities through integrations with existing IT systems.
In addition, RPA can be implemented quickly whereas, implementation is not fast in BPM and can take several months.
Final words: Which one should you prefer
As we have said, they are complementary tools, they are different in the form and purpose of use. If what you want is a thorough renovation of the entire work cycle, you can opt for the implementation of a BPM, with the changes and the time it takes.
On the contrary, if the idea is to start optimizing a specific process and then continue until automating a complete area, it’s recommended to go for RPA.
You may also like to read:
Top 5 Open Source RPA Tools
RPA vs. AI: Understand the Difference Between the Two
