Introduction
In this automation tutorial, we are going to learn different concepts that are associated with the Automation, how it works, and what are its features etc. let’s begin with the essential topics to have a clear understanding.
In the olden days every task has to be performed by humans, sometimes there were tasks which are complex, and repetitive in nature. This kind of complicated and repetitive tasks will consume a lot of time, resources, and are prone to errors. All these complexities gave birth to a technology called ‘Automation’, which eliminates the redundancy process and helps in heading the business to the next level.
What is automation?
Automation is a process of developing technology and its applications to function automatically by eliminating human intervention in performing the complex, rule-based, and repetitive tasks to deliver quality products and services.
Automation is being deployed in different industries such as transport, manufacturing, utilities, defence, operations, facilities, information technology, and a lot more industries. It will enable us to save a lot of time and investment. One can quickly shift their employees from engaging in repetitive tasks to perform creative, and analysis of data which could in return helps in identifying the opportunities and threats.
What is Automation Anywhere?
Automation Anywhere is one of the popular RPA (Robotic Process Automation) vendors with power-packed features and user-friendly tool to automate the complex and rule-based business processes. It has changed the face of all most all industries with its revolutionary technology. Automation Anywhere is equipped with advanced features such as Natural language understanding, the capability to read any unstructured data, etc.
Automation Anywhere allows the organizations in eliminating the mundane tasks that are previously performed by human beings and helps in employing them in creative jobs. Automation Anywhere is a web-based management system and uses the control room to manage the bots employed to automate the tasks. It has the capability to automate end to end business process.
Automation Anywhere Architecture
In this section, we are going to familiar with different components that exist inside Automation Anywhere tool and get to know each of them in detail. Here below listed are three components of Automation Anywhere Architecture.
- Control Room
- Bot Creator
- Bot Runner
Control Room:
It is a web-based central system that controls Automation anywhere platform. It acts as a manager to control all the Bots that have been employed to automate the business process. Apart from managing bots it also has control over below activities which are listed below.
1) User Management :It has the ability to manage user access to various IT resources such as systems, devices, applications, networks, storage systems, SaaS services, etc. User management is essential for organization security and to protect it from hackers.
2) Source Control: Coding for the bots is taken care of by the Control room. So it becomes smooth and manageable to share code Across multiple systems.
3) Dashboard: It gives us the complete performance report of different bots that are working on this platform. It also displays how many bots are working, identifies if any bot fails and the reason for bot failovers etc. Each bot is controlled from the control room.
4) Licence Management: whatever the licence that is purchased will be configured in the control room.
There are actually two types of licenses available in Automation Anywhere
Dev Licence: If you buy this licence you can be able to create a Bot, edit a bot and you can run a bot.
Run Licence: If you opt for this you will be able to run a bot, but you are not permitted to make any kind of changes to it.
Bot Creator:
A bot is a web-based robot designed to take care of the automated tasks with the usage of internet. Developers use desktop applications to create and deploy bots. To create a bot, we require a Dev license. Developers licences are checked with the one which is configured in the control room. If the Authentication is successful, then the code created will be stored in the control room. Users can create individual bots/tasks and are merged and executed once.
Bot Runner:
Its the machine environment where you can run your bots. You have a facility to run multiple bots parallelly on the same machine, all you need is Run license. Bots will report back data such as logs/ fails/ pass etc, to the control room.
Let’s consider some other essential components of Automation Anywhere:
Bot Insights: This tool helps us with the graphical data about how a bot is working and how much time we have saved due to automation.
Bot Farm: It is Integrated with the Automation Anywhere enterprise, it will let you create multiple bots. You can even have a facility to give these bots on a rental basis.
Bot Store: It is the first digital workforce marketplace where you can get a number of pre-built bots which are suitable for any type of business.
It is the first digital workforce marketplace where you can get a number of pre-built bots which are suitable for any type of business.
Types of Automation Anywhere Bots
We have three different types of bots. Let’s discuss them in detail.
- Task Bots
- Meta Bots
- IQBOT
Task bots:
These bots are used to Automate the repetitive and time taking tasks in areas like Claim management, document administration, HR, IT services and lot more. It brings the instant positive changes such as improved productivity, a reduction of cost, time, and eliminates errors.
Meta Bots:
These bots are also termed as Automation building blocks. It is named as “app resilient” because any time an application changes or updated, then minimal changes are enough for the bot itself and it automatically applies to any process that is utilising the bot. Meta bots help in reduce downtime, increase RPA adoption, and controls complex, enterprise-wide automation.
IQBOT:
It’s an advanced self-learning Bot and executes the tasks based on the data it has learned from. IQ Bot delivers advanced automation technology using Cognitive technology. It organizes the unstructured information; meanwhile, it learns from the same data to improve its skills and performance.
It’s an advanced self-learning Bot and executes the tasks based on the data it has learned from. IQ Bot delivers advanced automation technology using Cognitive technology. It organizes the unstructured information; meanwhile, it learns from the same data to improve its skills and performance.
- The feature of automation anywhere.
- Powerful and intelligent business automation tool.
- It is built with Smart automation technology.
- Segregates tasks to multiple computers.
- Acts fast enough to automate complex and repetitive tasks.
- It can be understood very easily.
- Automation Anywhere is built to deliver script less automation.
- The auto-login feature enables scheduling tasks even when the system is locked.
Applications of Automation Anywhere:
Below mentioned are the different industries where Automation Anywhere can be implemented to speed up the process and to get maximum output.
Financial services and banking:
Automation Anywhere boosts the financial sector with its implementation. It can swiftly automate the different processes such as data migrations, data validations, invoice processing reporting, auditing, financial claim processing etc.
Manufacturing:
This is one of the software which is associated with mundane tasks. Automation anywhere automates functions such as inventory management, ERP integration, Excel automation, automation of logistics data, etc.
Healthcare:
Automation Anywhere is implemented in healthcare to reduce administration Bourdain by automates tasks such as patient data processing, medical bill processing, Insurance data automation, insurance claim status and eligibility automation, patient record storage etc.
Marketing:
It automates the process such as report generation of leads and monitors social sentiment.
Government:
It Automates the tasks of the government such as verification forms, integrating legacy systems with new applications, automating daily reports etc.
Use Cases :
Let’s consider a use case of a company called synergy which is a leading energy and retail giant; it is an Australian based company.
In September 2016, Synergies Information and Communication Technology (ICT) decided to automate its billing process by implementing the automation anywhere automation solutions. Synergy engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC), and this internal team had maintained accountability to automate the billing feature effectively. Automation anywhere delivered its efficiency in automating the end to end process and integrated various platforms successfully. This project solution has exceeded the synergies expectations, with its rich command library, shortage learning curve, and ease of deployment.
Synergy has decided to automate the complicated billing process after successful completion of its pilot project. Synergies had three goals: to realise $6,50,000 annual benefits for the year, reduce error rates to less than 5%, reduction of transaction handling time by 20%. All these objectives have dramatically exceeded their expectations. That’s how synergy got successfully implemented automation for eliminating repetitive, time, and money consuming tasks.
Conclusion
We have discussed how Automation can enhance the performance of different industries and take them to the next level. Automation Anywhere is one of the most excellent tools available in the market. As we discussed Its implementation brings a lot of changes in the organization such as improved return on investment and decreased labour work and cost. I hope this tutorial has cleared your doubts and helped in gaining some knowledge. Happy learning!