Robotic Process Automation Projects - Nandan Mullakara - E-Book

Robotic Process Automation Projects E-Book

Nandan Mullakara

0,0
39,40 €

-100%
Sammeln Sie Punkte in unserem Gutscheinprogramm und kaufen Sie E-Books und Hörbücher mit bis zu 100% Rabatt.

Mehr erfahren.
Beschreibung

Learn RPA by building business solutions such as ERP and CRM automation, software robots, and intelligent process automation from scratch

Key Features



  • Use popular RPA tools Automation Anywhere A2019 and UiPath, for real-world task automation
  • Build automation solutions for domains such as System Administration, Finance, HR, Supply Chain, and Customer Relations
  • Extend your RPA capabilities by implementing Intelligent process automation with APIs and AI

Book Description



Robotic Process automation helps businesses to automate monotonous tasks that can be performed by machines.

This project-based guide will help you progress through easy to more advanced RPA projects. You'll learn the principles of RPA and how to architect solutions to meet the demands of business automation, along with exploring the most popular RPA tools - UiPath and Automation Anywhere. In the first part, you'll learn how to use UiPath by building a simple helpdesk ticket system. You'll then automate CRM systems by integrating Excel data with UiPath. After this, the book will guide you through building an AI-based social media moderator using Google Cloud Vision API. In the second part, you'll learn about Automation Anywhere's latest Cloud RPA platform (A2019) by creating projects such as an automated ERP administration system, an AI bot for order and invoice processing, and an automated emergency notification system for employees. Later, you'll get hands-on with advanced RPA tasks such as invoking APIs, before covering complex concepts such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning in automation to take your understanding of RPA to the next level.

By the end of the book, you'll have a solid foundation in RPA with experience in building real-world projects.

What you will learn



  • Explore RPA principles, techniques, and tools using an example-driven approach
  • Understand the basics of UiPath by building a helpdesk ticket generation system
  • Automate read and write operations from Excel in a CRM system using UiPath
  • Build an AI-based social media moderator platform using Google Cloud Vision API with UiPath
  • Explore how to use Automation Anywhere by building a simple sales order processing system
  • Build an automated employee emergency reporting system using Automation Anywhere
  • Test your knowledge of building an automated workflow through fun exercises

Who this book is for



This RPA book is for enterprise application developers, software developers, business analysts, or any professional who wants to implement RPA across various domains of the business. The book assumes some understanding of enterprise systems. Computer programming experience will also be beneficial.

Das E-Book können Sie in Legimi-Apps oder einer beliebigen App lesen, die das folgende Format unterstützen:

EPUB

Seitenzahl: 273

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Bewertungen
0,0
0
0
0
0
0
Mehr Informationen
Mehr Informationen
Legimi prüft nicht, ob Rezensionen von Nutzern stammen, die den betreffenden Titel tatsächlich gekauft oder gelesen/gehört haben. Wir entfernen aber gefälschte Rezensionen.



Robotic Process Automation Projects

 

 
 
 
 
Build real-world RPA solutions using UiPath and Automation Anywhere

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nandan Mullakara
Arun Kumar Asokan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BIRMINGHAM - MUMBAI

Robotic Process Automation Projects

Copyright © 2020 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors, nor Packt Publishing or its dealers and distributors, will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to have been caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

 

Commissioning Editor: Pavan RamchandaniAcquisition Editor: Heramb BhavsarContent Development Editor: Divya VijayanSenior Editor: Mohammed Yusuf ImaratwaleTechnical Editor:Deepesh PatelCopy Editor: Safis EditingProject Coordinator:Kinjal BariProofreader: Safis EditingIndexer:Tejal Daruwale SoniProduction Designer:Joshua Misquitta

First published: May 2020

Production reference: 1220520

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd. Livery Place 35 Livery Street Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-83921-735-7

www.packt.com

To everyone out there striving to make work more fun!  

To my mother, Vijayalakshmi, and to the memory of my father, Vasudevan, for their unconditional love and support.

To my wife, Anjali, for being my loving partner throughout our life journey.

– Nandan Mullakara

To my loving wife, Harini, and my beautiful daughter, Nakshatra, for supporting me in completing this book in the most difficult and uncertain period of my life.

To my parents, Asokan and Selvi, for their love, support, prayers, and inspiration throughout my life.

To all the brave souls fighting the COVID-19 virus head-on, risking their lives for others.

– Arun Kumar Asokan

Contributors

About the authors

Nandan Mullakara is the CEO of Innomatiq, an automation consulting firm that is helping organizations to discover, develop, and deploy automation with Robotic Process Automation (RPA) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

He was most recently the head of RPA consultancy at Fujitsu America, where he helped enable the Fujitsu Digital Workforce offering. He blogs on RPA and technology at nandan.info.

I want to thank my wife, Anjali, and son, Adarsh, for their cooperation and support while I wrote the book. A special thanks to five-year-old Ashish, without whose love and encouragement the book could have been completed a bit earlier. 

Arun Kumar Asokan is an Assistant Vice President (AVP) at EXL Service. He is an intelligent automation consultant and business process management professional. Currently, he is helping clients design and operate RPA Centers of Excellence (CoEs) and build AI and Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) capabilities. He has previously worked for different digital consulting groups in HCL, Infosys, and Wipro, helping clients in different parts of the world. In addition to this, Arun promotes RPA and AI technologies by educating junior RPA developers with demo videos and thought leadership articles.

I would like to first and foremost thank my parents, Mr Asokan and Mrs Selvi, for their unquestionable support for all my life decisions, and my lovely wife, Harini, and daughter, Nakshatra, for their continued support, patience, and encouragement throughout the long process of writing this book. Thanks to my friends and colleagues who shaped my professional career, to all the people out there fighting COVID-19, and to God Almighty for this opportunity and allowing me to complete this book.

About the reviewer

Rameshwar Balanagu is an experienced enterprise architect leading intelligent automation practice and is an active speaker about and supporter of the use of automation to enable rapid digital transformation.

He has led in various roles in enterprise architecture, analytics, and intelligent automation. He has worked in various areas, such as databases, middleware, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Software as a Service (SaaS), Business Intelligence (BI), cybersecurity, and more. He also runs the sixth-largest intelligent automation meetup in the US.

In his spare time, he likes to teach and blog, and he loves playing badminton and ping-pong.

 

 

 

 

Packt is searching for authors like you

If you're interested in becoming an author for Packt, please visit authors.packtpub.com and apply today. We have worked with thousands of developers and tech professionals, just like you, to help them share their insight with the global tech community. You can make a general application, apply for a specific hot topic that we are recruiting an author for, or submit your own idea.

 

Packt.com

Subscribe to our online digital library for full access to over 7,000 books and videos, as well as industry leading tools to help you plan your personal development and advance your career. For more information, please visit our website.

Why subscribe?

Spend less time learning and more time coding with practical eBooks and Videos from over 4,000 industry professionals

Improve your learning with Skill Plans built especially for you

Get a free eBook or video every month

Fully searchable for easy access to vital information

Copy and paste, print, and bookmark content

Did you know that Packt offers eBook versions of every book published, with PDF and ePub files available? You can upgrade to the eBook version at www.packt.com and as a print book customer, you are entitled to a discount on the eBook copy. Get in touch with us at [email protected] for more details.

At www.packt.com, you can also read a collection of free technical articles, sign up for a range of free newsletters, and receive exclusive discounts and offers on Packt books and eBooks. 

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright and Credits

Robotic Process Automation Projects

Dedication

Contributors

About the authors

About the reviewer

Packt is searching for authors like you

About Packt

Why subscribe?

Preface

Who this book is for

What this book covers

To get the most out of this book

Download the example code files

Code in Action

Conventions used

Get in touch

Reviews

Getting Started with Robotic Process Automation

Technical requirements

What is RPA? 

A quick definition

Benefits of RPA

Types of RPA

Attended automation

Unattended automation

Our RPA tools – UiPath and Automation Anywhere

UiPath 

UiPath Studio

UiPath Orchestrator

UiPath Robot

UiPath – an integrated view

Automation Anywhere

Enterprise Control Room

Build

Manage

Analyze

IQ Bot

Our projects 

Installation and setup

Installing UiPath

UiPath Studio and Robot

Configuring Automation Anywhere

Registration and setup

Installing the bot agent and verifying the setup

Summary

Help Desk Ticket Generation

Technical requirements

Project overview

Project detail

Project groundwork

Creating project folders

Creating an Excel sheet with ticket data

Registering and logging in to Zoho Desk

Main workflow

Project setup

Configuring the initial part of the main workflow

Reading from Excel

Exception handling

Invoking the Excel workflow from Main

Creating a support ticket in the Zoho Desk ticketing system

Recording ticket creation activities

Configuring the recorded activities

Validating successful ticket creation

Handling exceptions

Putting it all together

Testing the automation

Project enhancements 

Summary

CRM Automation

Technical requirements

Project overview

Project details

CRM preparation

Setting up the project

Extracting the customer list from CRM

Preparing the browser

Web recording

Data scraping

Using a Catch block for the Get Customer List Sequence

Looking up customer information

Creating a data table

Looping and creating company URLs

Extracting company details from Crunchbase.com

Invoking the RequestCustomerDetails workflow from the Main workflow

Updating the CRM with customer information

Looping through the data table and updating the CRM

Summary

Moderating Social Media Using AI

Technical requirements

Project overview

Project detail

Getting started with the project

Project groundwork

Reading parameters from the configuration file

Passing the configuration parameters to the main workflow

Reading image files from the input folder and creating a list

Reading files in the input folder

Reading and writing the image path list to the ImageDetails Excel file

Handling exceptions for the BuildExcelList workflow

Testing the BuildExcelList workflow

Setting up the Google Cloud Vision API's key and credentials

Setting up the Google Cloud Vision API services

Setting up a credential manager

Reading credentials from Windows Credential Manager

Looping through images and invoking the Google Cloud Vision API

Installing the UiPath GoogleVision package from UiPath Go!

Adding SafeSearch to the main workflow

Updating the image sheet with the API results

Passing the parameters and invoking SafeSearch 

Moving processed images to the Output folder 

Testing the automation 

Summary

Purchase Order Processing with UiPath ReFramework

Technical requirements

Project overview

Robotic Enterprise Framework (ReFramework)

Project detail

Project groundwork

Creating the PO spreadsheet

Setting up Apptivo

Getting started with the project

Purchase order Dispatcher

Purchase order Performer

Init state changes

Updating the InitAllApplications workflow

Invoking the InitAllApplications workflow

Process state changes

Attaching and activating the PO application

Creating the POs

Preparing to input PO data

Inputting the PO data

Handling PO entry errors 

Capturing the PO

Updating the PO in the spreadsheet

Testing the Automation

Summary

Completing an RPA Challenge

Technical requirements

Project details

Project groundwork

Completing the challenge with UiPath

Getting started with the UiPath project

Creating the challenge automation

Reading the RPA challenge Excel data

Inputting data into the RPA challenge forms

Testing the UiPath challenge automation

Recapping the UiPath projects

Automation Anywhere A2019

Completing the challenge with Automation Anywhere

Getting started with the Automation Anywhere control room

Creating the RPA challenge automation bot

Reading the RPA challenge Excel data

Preparing the RPA challenge website for input

Looping through each row and column

Iterating through each column and reading headers

Mapping and inputting the challenge data to the website

Testing the Automation Anywhere challenge automation 

Summary

Sales Order Processing

Technical requirements

Project overview 

Project details

Project groundwork

Creating the Parent bot 

Exception handling 

Opening and reading Excel data

Creating the Child bot for SO processing

Using the recorder to capture SO creation

Filling in customer details for an SO

Filling in item details for an SO

Passing the SO number 

Invoking the Child bot and updating the Excel sheet 

Looping through rows and invoking the Child bot

Updating Excel with the SO number

Moving the Excel file to the Processed folder

Testing the automation

Summary

ERP User Administration

Technical requirements

Project overview 

Project detail

Project groundwork

Creating a user request PDF

Signing up for Saas application 

Opening the Automation Anywhere A2019 control room

Creating the Parent bot

Exception handling 

Extracting user details from PDF

Assigning user data to row variables

Extracting user details with String operations

Validating email addresses with regular expressions

Creating the Child bot for new user creation

Creating a new user in Freshsales

Handling form validation errors

Handling exceptions 

Invoking the Child bot and creating the new user

Moving the PDF to the Processed folder on success

Notifying the user in case of insufficient data

Logging errors and sending email notifications

Triggers

Testing the automation

Summary

Employee Emergency Notifications

Technical requirements

Project overview 

Twilio

Project details

Project groundwork

Creating the employee spreadsheet 

Signing up for Twilio

Opening the Automation Anywhere A2019 Control Room

Creating a Child bot to send messages

Exception handling 

Saving Twilio credentials

Adding variables for the Child bot

Invoking the Twilio REST post method

Returning a response flag to the Parent bot

Unit testing the Child bot

Creating the Parent bot

Initializing Twilio and opening the employee Excel file

Looping through the employee list and sending text messages 

Checking and logging responses from the Child bot

Exception handling in the Parent bot

Testing the automation

Summary

Using AI and RPA for Invoice Processing

Technical requirements

Intelligent document processing

UiPath – Document Understanding

Automation Anywhere – IQ Bot

Project overview 

Project details

Project groundwork

Opening the Automation Anywhere A2019 Control Room

Downloading sample invoices

Creating the IQ Bot learning instance 

Setting up the initial IQ Bot learning instance

Reviewing and updating field mappings

Uploading invoices to IQ Bot 

Downloading structured data from IQ Bot

Checking the automation

Automation Anywhere projects – recap

Summary

Appendix A and B for UiPath

Appendix A – Connecting UiPath Robot to Orchestrator

Getting started

Creating a Standard Robot in Orchestrator

Adding an environment for the Bot

Connecting Orchestrator to the local Robot

Appendix B – Publishing to Orchestrator

Publishing to Orchestrator

Creating a new process

Running the process

Scheduling the process

Appendix: Looking Forward and Next Steps

Future of RPA

Hyperautomation

Future technologies and trends

Artificial intelligence (AI)

Document processing

Conversational AI

Process mining and process discovery

RPA as a service

RPA marketplaces

Conclusion

Other Books You May Enjoy

Leave a review - let other readers know what you think

Preface

RPA is an exciting new technology seen as the first step for using advanced new technologies to automate enterprise processes. We will see how RPA brings advances to automation compared to earlier techniques, which involved scripts and macros. 

In this book, we will carry out a few real-world Robotic Process Automation (RPA) projects.

By the time you complete this book, you will be equipped with the knowledge, techniques, and mindset that you need to work on RPA projects of simple to medium complexity with UiPath and Automation Anywhere, with minimal guidance. 

Who this book is for

This book is for anyone who would like to get started with a few real-world RPA projects. Building these projects is like getting an on-the-job training on Automation. They may seem a bit tough to get through at first, but if you can use the book along with the supporting code, you will have completed some robust projects in the way that they would be executed in enterprises. 

You will benefit from this book if you are any of the following:

An IT professional looking to build your first RPA project

A technology-savvy business professional (perhaps in finance or HR) seeking to explore automation via RPA

An IT or Business line manager, director or executive (any managers or directors in these areas) who would like to understand applied RPA

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Getting Started with Robotic Process Automation, gives you a quick introduction to RPA, its types, and its benefits. We walk you through the installation of UiPath and Automation Anywhere, the tools we will use for our projects. 

Chapter 2, Help Desk Ticket Generation, shows you how to automate helpdesk support tickets using spreadsheets. This is an attended automation, which you can invoke using a shortcut. 

Chapter 3, CRM Automation, demonstrates automating a typical "swivel chair activity" wherein you look up data from one application and use it to update another system. Here, we look up customer information and update that information in our CRM system. 

Chapter 4, Moderating Social Media Using AI, teaches you to use AI to automatically moderate images that are uploaded to social media sites. The automation uses the Google Vision API and sends the administrator a spreadsheet with its moderation recommendations. 

Chapter 5, Purchase Order Processing with UiPath ReFramework, uses the advanced UiPath ReFramework to process purchase orders. We read the purchase orders from a spreadsheet and input them into a purchase order application.

Chapter 6, Completing an RPA Challenge, sees you solving the RPA challenge at rpachallenge.com using both UiPath and Automation Anywhere A2019.

Chapter 7, Sales Order Processing, shows you how to take sales order data from an Excel spreadsheet and create orders on a web-based business application using Automation Anywhere A2019.

Chapter 8, ERP User Administration, sees you building a bot that automates new user creation. The bot looks up user information from a user creation request and creates the user in a SaaS application.

Chapter 9, Employee Emergency Notifications, shows how organizations can be enabled to send notifications to employees in the case of pandemics, hurricanes, floods, and so on. We look up a list of employees and send them a mass text message (SMS).

Chapter 10, Using AI and RPA for Invoice Processing, teaches you to use Automation Anywhere's IQ Bot to convert invoice data from an unstructured format into a structured format that we can use for automation.

To get the most out of this book

Since RPA is a productivity tool, you mainly need the right version of the RPA tools.

In this book, we are using UiPath and Automation Anywhere, so ensure that you have the right version installed. 

You also need access to a few SaaS applications and APIs, as documented in the Technical requirements section of each chapter. 

Here is a summary of the software and hardware used:

Software/hardware covered in the book

OS requirements

UiPath Community Edition, version 19+

Windows 10

Automation Anywhere A2019 Community Edition

Windows 10

 

This book is compatible with the latest version of UiPath at the time of publishing (UiPath 2020.x). 

If you are using the digital version of this book, we advise you to type the code yourself or access the code via the GitHub repository (link available in the next section). Doing so will help you avoid any potential errors related to the copying and pasting of code.

Download the example code files

You can download the example code files for this book from your account at www.packt.com. If you purchased this book elsewhere, you can visit www.packtpub.com/support and register to have the files emailed directly to you.

You can download the code files by following these steps:

Log in or register at

www.packt.com

.

Select the

Support

tab.

Click on

Code Downloads

.

Enter the name of the book in the

Search

box and follow the onscreen instructions.

Once the file is downloaded, please make sure that you unzip or extract the folder using the latest version of:

WinRAR/7-Zip for Windows

Zipeg/iZip/UnRarX for Mac

7-Zip/PeaZip for Linux

The code bundle for the book is also hosted on GitHub at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/Robotic-Process-Automation-Projects. In case there's an update to the code, it will be updated on the existing GitHub repository.

We also have other code bundles from our rich catalog of books and videos available at https://github.com/PacktPublishing/. Check them out!

Code in Action

Code in Action videos for this book can be viewed at https://bit.ly/2Zo0s1u.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "We will start by adding a new Sequence within the Main Sequence."

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "Once you've done that, click on Save and Exit on the Recorder panel."

Warnings or important notes appear like this.
Tips and tricks appear like this.

Get in touch

Feedback from our readers is always welcome.

General feedback: If you have questions about any aspect of this book, mention the book title in the subject of your message and email us at [email protected].

Errata: Although we have taken every care to ensure the accuracy of our content, mistakes do happen. If you have found a mistake in this book, we would be grateful if you would report this to us. Please visit www.packtpub.com/support/errata, selecting your book, clicking on the Errata Submission Form link, and entering the details.

Piracy: If you come across any illegal copies of our works in any form on the Internet, we would be grateful if you would provide us with the location address or website name. Please contact us at [email protected] with a link to the material.

If you are interested in becoming an author: If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, please visit authors.packtpub.com.

Reviews

Please leave a review. Once you have read and used this book, why not leave a review on the site that you purchased it from? Potential readers can then see and use your unbiased opinion to make purchase decisions, we at Packt can understand what you think about our products, and our authors can see your feedback on their book. Thank you!

For more information about Packt, please visit packt.com.

Getting Started with Robotic Process Automation

Hello there! In this book, we will be guiding you through a few real-world Robotic Process Automation (RPA) projects. Thanks for joining us. By the time you complete this book, you will be equipped with knowledge, techniques, and the mindset to work on simple to medium complexity RPA projects with UiPath and Automation Anywhere with minimum guidance. 

RPA is an exciting new technology that is being seen as the first step to using new and advancing technologies to automate enterprise processes. We will learn how RPA brings a level of advancement to automation that is much more evolved than the earlier automation process through its use of scripts, macros, and so on.

RPA is advancing rapidly and is part of a bigger movement to low code and no-code tools. Compared to traditional coding, these tools are easier to use and faster to deploy. Organizations are now using these rapid development tools with emerging technologies such as process mining, artificial intelligence (AI), and analytics to enable end-to-end process automation. We'll take an in-depth look at the future of RPA in the Appendix – Looking Forward and Next Steps.

In this first chapter, we will cover the following topics:

A quick introduction to RPA, its benefits, and the types of RPA

Overview of top RPA platforms 

UiPath and Automation Anywhere

 

Installing and setting up UiPath and Automation Anywhere

Technical requirements

To set up the RPA tools for this chapter, please ensure that you have the following:

A machine that is running

 Windows 7 or

 

above.

At least 

4 GB RAM, though i

deally, your machine should have 8 GB or more.

The Google Chrome and Internet Explorer web browsers installed.

If you have your hardware and software ready, then let's get started!

What is RPA? 

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) excels at automating manual and repetitive tasks. RPA, therefore, gives us a tool that we can use to automate all the unexciting work you may have been doing so you can do some exciting work! With this tool, you have more time to spend on unique human activities such as delighting your team, boss, and customers.

So, let's have a quick look at what exactly RPA is and the amazing benefits that makes it the hot technology that it is today. 

A quick definition

RPA allows software robots to carry out tasks on a computer just like a human would.

The best way to visualize RPA would be to think of someone working on the computer and doing their daily work by clicking through computer screens, sending emails, and so on. Now, what if the computer clicks through, enters the required data, and performs the same work automatically? That is what RPA helps us do.

Here is an example of what RPA can do for you.

Let's say you are responsible for processing invoices in an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). You would log in to your ERP, go to a specific screen, and enter the invoice details one by one. Now, if you'd like to automate this task with RPA, you would configure these task sequences to create a "bot." Once this bot has been deployed, it would carry out the same tasks automatically – it would log in automatically and carry out the tasks without you having to do this repetitive work!

RPA doesn't just automate ERP transactions. As we will see later, throughout our projects, there are many business areas where RPA comes in handy and automates business and IT processes. This results in some great benefits to businesses. Let's have a look at a few of them.

Benefits of RPA

The benefits of RPA are as follows:

Improved productivity:

 More than

 

60% to 90% of the repetitive effort can be removed, with RPA increasing the output for each of your employees.

Rapid results and in-year benefits:

Rapid implementation and results are a key promise of RPA as you can conceive, design, develop, and deploy in weeks, not months or years. 

Low startup costs: 

Each of the bot licenses is less costly compared to other software tools and the bot can perform the work of about two to three

Full Time Equivalent

 (

FTE

)

, ensuring the startup costs are low.

Reduced processing costs: 

The costs of processing are reduced drastically

 as

 the bot costs around one third to one fifth the cost of an employee, depending on location.

Improved quality and accuracy:

Your bots perform assigned work with 100% accuracy, thereby reducing any rework that may have been required.

Improved compliance: 

RPA activities are logged and

 

can be reviewed at any time. This gives you a greater degree of oversight and control over your operations. 

You can gain these benefits using two types of RPA that have emerged so far – one runs on your desktop and the other type runs on a server. 

We will complete projects with both types of RPA in this book. Now, let's take a look at what these types of automation are. 

Types of RPA

We have two kinds of RPA automation that are based on how the RPA tool helps you automate. One of them is like an assistant that you call upon to help you complete the tasks, while the other is a kind of automation that's mostly used for back-office work. What does that mean? Let's find out. 

Attended automation

These are the assistants that run on your computer and help you complete parts of the tasks that you are performing. For example, if you usually copy and paste data from one application to multiple applications, you can invoke an attended RPA to take over just these sets of activities. The control is then returned to you by RPA to carry out the next set of tasks. 

Attended automation solutions are installed on individual workstations. Sometimes, these desktops differ in terms of resolutions, display settings, and even graphics cards. This may lead to failure in terms of automation on a desktop, even though it was working well on another one.

This type of automation is popular with agents at call centers. With this, the long, repetitive processes that an agent does are replaced with single clicks! This greatly reduces the time it takes to train your representatives. Therefore, attended RPA can reduce the average handling times, improving your customer experience.

You would use attended bots for the following reasons:

Tasks that need real-time human-system interaction

To augment your employee's day-to-day work, enabling them to do it faster and better

To help your employees understand and embrace automation

Unattended automation

If you don't need a representative or worker interaction to execute a process, you can usually run the process on a backend server. This is known as unattended automation, which can be used to automate back-office work.

In unattended automation, workflows are self-triggered and run on servers. They usually run to a predetermined schedule and are available 24/7. For example, you can batch your invoices and process them at certain times during the day. The bot would later send you a report, indicating the invoices that could not be processed automatically. You can review the report and only work on the invoices that need your intervention.

These automated tasks can be scheduled or started through control rooms. You can allocate tasks, adjust priorities, manage queues, and intervene, in the case of performance issues, through the control room.

Usually, unattended automation gives you more control over the automation process. It follows your rules to complete a process automatically. You would use unattended automation for the following reasons:

Tasks that are structured and can be fully mapped

To replace entire roles where possible

To gather, sort, analyze, and distribute large amounts of data

You can use both unattended and attended automation either by themselves or together to implement use cases that give your business a distinct advantage. Most of the top tools give you the capability to implement both types of RPA. Let's look at two of them – UiPath and Automation Anywhere – both of which we will be using for our projects. 

Our RPA tools – UiPath and Automation Anywhere

RPA tools help you automate business processes using multiple technologies. It all started with screen scrapping and workflow configurations to automate BPO processes. The emergence of AI technologies has helped the RPA tools include cognitive aspects. RPA, along with AI, is now being called "Intelligent Automation."

UiPath and Automation Anywhere are two of the top RPA platform vendors, as per the rankings from respected analysts such as Forrester and Gartner. They have taken different paths, as we will see, and have evolved into the top RPA platforms that we see today. In this book, we will be using these two platforms for our projects. So, let's understand a bit about them and their makeup before we dive into the projects. 

UiPath 

UiPath is a top RPA platform by many measures. The company is one of the most funded in this space and gives you a sense of what investors consider the best RPA tool in the long run. 

It is quite popular and has a big community. The secret to this is that Uipath made the platform easily accessible quite early. It is also one of the easiest RPA platforms with a comparatively low learning curve. This is why we have selected UiPath as one of the platforms for our projects in this book.

UiPath started as DeskOver in 2005. They first started by building automation libraries and software development kits for companies such as IBM, Google, and Microsoft. These libraries are still part of some of the products from these companies.

UiPath, which was DeskOver at that time, launched the first UiPath Desktop Automation product line around 2012. This product specifically targeted the RPA market. They worked with BPO providers to realize the market fit with RPA. 

Fast forward to today, and UiPath is a top enterprise RPA platform. The UiPath platform helps you develop automation rapidly while being secure and scalable.

The platform has three main components:

UiPath Studio

UiPath Orchestrator

UiPath Robot

Let's check out each of these components.

UiPath Studio