Transcription
RoboticProcessAutomationNICE Special Editionby NICE RPA team withSteve KaelbleThese materials are 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.
Robotic Process Automation For Dummies , NICE Special EditionPublished by: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., The Atrium, Southern GateChichester, West Sussex, www.wiley.com 2018 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Chichester, West SussexRegistered OfficeJohn Wiley & Sons, Ltd., The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UnitedKingdomAll rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system ortransmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,scanning or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988,without the prior written permission of the Publisher. For information about how to apply forpermission to reuse the copyright material in this book, please see our website: http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.Trademarks: Wiley, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, The Dummies Way, Dummies.com,Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks ofJohn Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries, and may notbe used without written permission. OpenText and the OpenText logo are registered trademarksof OpenText. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons,Ltd., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: WHILE THE PUBLISHER AND AUTHOR HAVEUSED THEIR BEST EFFORTS IN PREPARING THIS BOOK, THEY MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS ORWARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OFTHIS BOOK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITYOR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. IT IS SOLD ON THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THEPUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING PROFESSIONAL SERVICES AND NEITHER THEPUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. IFPROFESSIONAL ADVICE OR OTHER EXPERT ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF ACOMPETENT PROFESSIONAL SHOULD BE SOUGHT.For general information on our other products and services, or how to create a custom ForDummies book for your business or organization, please contact our Business DevelopmentDepartment in the U.S. at 877-409-4177, contact info@dummies.biz, or visit www.wiley.com/go/custompub. For information about licensing the For Dummies brand for products or services,contact BrandedRights&Licenses@Wiley.com.ISBN: 978-1-119-45774-9 (pbk); ISBN: 978-1-119-45773-2 (ebk)Printed in Great Britain10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1Publisher’s AcknowledgmentsWe’re proud of this book and of the people who worked on it. For details onhow to create a custom For Dummies book for your business or organization,contact info@dummies.biz or visit www.wiley.com/go/custompub. Fordetails on licensing the For Dummies brand for products or services, contactBrandedRights&Licenses@Wiley.com.Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:Project Editor: Carrie A. BurchfieldAcquisitions Editor: Katie MohrEditorial Manager: Rev MengleBusiness DevelopmentRepresentative: Frazer HossackProduction Editor: Siddique ShaikThese materials are 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.
Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION. 1About This Book. 1Foolish Assumptions. 2Icons Used in This Book. 2Beyond the Book. 3CHAPTER 1:What Is Robotic Process Automation?. 5Meet Your New Robot. 5Areas Ripe for Automation. 7Seeking an RPA Solution. 9Seeing the Value in RPA. 10Stay in Control. 11CHAPTER 2:Automating Processes On andOff the Desktop. 13Analyzing Desktop Activities. 13Automation on the Desktop. 14Attended and Unattended Automation — Better Together. 16CHAPTER 3:Getting Started with RPA. 17DIY or Hire It Out?. 17The virtues of hiring it out. 18Okay, how about DIY?. 18Launch and learn. 19Building Your Team. 19What Makes a Great Automation Candidate?. 20Where to Begin?. 21Change Is Difficult. 23Keep on Improving. 24CHAPTER 4:Building Best Practice Automations. 25Automations Design 101. 25Recorder versus Design-Based?. 28Change Management. 29Bumps in the Road. 31Business Insights Powered by Analytics. 33Table of ContentsiiiThese materials are 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.
CHAPTER 5:Setting Up a Center of Excellence. 35What’s a Center of Excellence?. 35Players in the Production. 36The key roles. 37Centralized or otherwise?. 38Putting the E into a CoE. 38Enablement is the answer. 39Adding in on-the-job training. 39Phases of the coached project. 39Getting Certified. 40CHAPTER 6:Getting Smarter throughCognitive Automation. 43Adding Brain Power. 44What AI Brings to the Table. 44Automated customer engagement. 44AI-enhanced process automation. 45Things to do right now with cognitive automation. 46AI and cognitive automation on the horizon. 46Bot Integration. 47Automation Finder. 48Handling Exceptions. 50The Reading Robot. 51Why Do You Need Cognitive Automation?. 52Omni-channel communications. 52Analytics and learning. 52Actions speak loudly. 53CHAPTER 7:Ten Realities to Consider about RPA. 55Automation Is a Wave . . . Better Catch It. 55The Financial Impact Can Be Impressive. 56The Cost of Errors Will Drop. 56Business Practices Will Change. 57Customers Will Notice and Want More. 57Automation Is an Antidote for Boredom. 58Digital Transformation Is within Reach. 58Reduce Your Staffing Headaches. 59The Talent Picture Will Change. 59Your Leaders Will Be Happy. 60ivRobotic Process Automation For Dummies, NICE Special EditionThese materials are 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.
IntroductionYour organization has plugged itself into the digital landscapein all kinds of ways, and it seems like every day there’s anew way to build on that trend. But you might be surprisedto learn just how much of your business is still done the old-fashioned way: manually. Ironically, if your business is likemost, your people are having all kinds of manual interactionswith the digital environment.From your customer-service operation to human resources,finance, legal, and procurement, people are manually looking upinformation in databases, typing in updates, flipping from oneapplication to another, cutting and pasting, sending follow-upemails, making rather mundane decisions — over and over andover again. In many cases, customers are waiting on the other endof the phone while this manual work is going on. And with everymanual process, there’s a chance for human error. Yeah, it beatsworking on paper, but is this really as good as it gets? Definitelynot.These kinds of business process challenges are just what roboticprocess automation (RPA) was made for. Simply put, RPA isthe use of computer software “robots” to handle repetitive, rule-based digital tasks, interacting with applications and information sources the same way humans do now. At its most basiclevel, it’s pretty impressive technology, and it gets more powerfulall the time. The newest advances have robots not only handlingmore complex functions, but also they’re learning to make someof the decisions.About This BookRobotic Process Automation For Dummies, NICE Special Edition, isyour handbook for venturing into the world of RPA. It’s packedwith background on what RPA can do for you and your organization, how it works, and the different kinds of robotic solutionsfor your automation needs. It provides insights into how youcan determine where the best opportunities for automation areand how to approach them. It offers guidance on getting the ball rolling, inviting the right people to the table, getting buy-in fromIntroduction1These materials are 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.
the pertinent players, and establishing a center of excellence tohelp RPA really take root and thrive.The information in this book comes from experts in RPA fromNICE. NICE has both the technology and the expertise to help yourorganization take its first steps down the path toward processautomation, and then build on your early successes with increasingly sophisticated capabilities. This book isn’t an instructionmanual because your situation has its own intricacies that willdetermine the best approach. But we hope it will equip you withthe information you need to ask the right questions and openthe right doors to capabilities you may never have dreamed arepossible.Foolish AssumptionsAs we decided what to include in this book, we made some basicassumptions about you, the reader:»» You’re a business analyst, IT specialist, or automation leadwithin your organization, and part of your job is to makeprocesses work more smoothly and efficiently.»» Your organization includes a significant back office peration, or perhaps a contact center, where there areoprocesses ripe for automation.»» You’d appreciate some basic information on how to makeprocess automation happen, and you don’t have all the timein the world to dive into a thousand-page text.Icons Used in This BookThe whole point of this book is to make it easy to find the information that’s most pertinent to you. With that in mind, we’veincluded icons in the margins of certain key paragraphs. Here’swhat those icons mean.We hope that every single paragraph catches your eye and c apturesyour attention. But if you’re in a hurry, please at least have a lookat the paragraphs marked by this icon. This information gives youkey things to remember about RPA.2Robotic Process Automation For Dummies, NICE Special EditionThese materials are 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use
automation, and then build on your early successes with increas - ingly sophisticated capabilities. This book isn’t an instruction manual because your situation has its own intricacies that will determine the best approach. But we hope it will equip you with the information you need to ask the right questions and open the right doors to capabilities you may never have dreamed are possible .
