Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is used to automate repetitive, rule-based, and structured tasks. RPA bots follow user-defined workflows, helping to reduce the workload on employees who perform routine, monotonous, and repetitive activities.
Examples include tasks in personnel master data management, absence management, onboarding, and IT support. Banks use RPA, for example, for the due diligence review of loans, invoice processing, and customer verification. Sales organizations can use RPA for the automated creation of quotations. Form processing can also be accelerated through RPA. These digital software bots execute predefined processes and interact with the graphical user interface in much the same way as human users.
The use of RPA software generally leads to significant savings, as automation increases both efficiency and productivity. At the same time, it helps ensure process compliance and reduce the cost of individual processes. Have you already identified the most suitable processes for automation in your company or organization? The next step is to find the right tool—one that offers the optimal functionality for implementing your automation solution.
Criteria for Selecting RPA Software
There is a wide range of RPA software available on the market. The tools offered by individual vendors differ in several respects, including functionality, deployment model (on-premises, RaaS, etc.), and supported file formats. At the same time, most RPA solutions share core capabilities, such as tools for creating software bots and plug-ins for integrating with enterprise systems.
To choose the right RPA tool, you need to keep your company’s goals and requirements firmly in view. That means identifying as precisely as possible which processes are to be automated with RPA before the selection process even begins. As with virtually any software selection, your team should create a detailed requirements specification and also take interfaces, plug-ins for third-party systems, policies, and similar factors into account.
1. Implementation – Integration of Third-Party Systems
One of the most important factors when selecting an RPA tool is how well it can be implemented within your existing system landscape. Software bots are of little value if they cannot retrieve the information they need from your business applications. This often requires drivers, plug-ins, and login credentials for the relevant databases, HR systems, accounting systems, and more. You should therefore check whether the RPA tool you are considering offers the necessary integration capabilities.
2. User-Friendliness 
Another important criterion when selecting RPA tools is user-friendliness. You should choose a tool that is easy to use and provides solid support for basic automation processes. Ideally, bots should be set up using low-code methods. Low-code development typically combines drag-and-drop timelines, a toolbox of actions, property forms, and the occasional use of code snippets. At the same time, the tool should offer different user roles so that developers can also write conventional code when needed.
3. Handling Exceptions
RPA software should include a reliable process for handling exceptions. Such exceptions may arise, for example, when calculating the probability of loan defaults. At certain thresholds, the tool should be able to route cases to an employee for review. In other situations, errors that occur may also require human assessment. If you want to automate processes that are particularly prone to errors, the tool should be equipped with effective exception-handling capabilities.
4. Scalability – Cloud Bots 
Scalability is another important aspect of RPA tools. A larger number of bots should be able to work together to execute many instances of a process. As RPA implementation expands across the company, scalability issues can easily arise, especially with unattended bots. A cloud-based implementation, for example in the form of Robots-as-a-Service, often makes it easier to provide additional bots on demand. Whereas early RPA tools ran exclusively on user desktops and company servers, bots are now also frequently deployed on virtual cloud machines or as cloud-native bots.
5. Process Discovery and Execution Speed 
RPA software should ideally be designed to identify processes suitable for automation on its own. Determining and prioritizing processes for automation is often the most time-consuming part of implementation. The better the software can detect processes based on system logs, the faster automation can be introduced. When evaluating solutions, you should therefore check whether the RPA tool improves speed through faster task execution and more efficient mapping processes.
Despite all the automation supported by the tool itself, including process discovery, it remains essential to ensure that employees have the necessary expertise and skills to decide where the tool should not be used.
6. Control and Administration 
When selecting an RPA tool, it is especially important to pay attention to the control center for the software bots. The tool should provide clear visibility into pending actions as well as effective monitoring and control mechanisms. To configure the bots, login credentials are required, for example for databases and other systems, and these should ideally be stored in secure repositories. Unattended bots must be set up and managed in such a way that they can be triggered by predefined events and forward exceptions to human users when necessary.
7. Vendor Support 
When making your selection, pay close attention to the vendor’s support services and, above all, to its experience and reliability. You should choose a vendor that provides dependable support both during implementation and throughout ongoing operation. Good support includes not only assistance with technical issues, but also services such as user training and certification. Ask the vendor which services are offered during and after implementation of the RPA tool.
In addition to support and experience, you should also consider the vendor’s long-term stability. Has the vendor been active in the market for several years? Are there reference projects in your industry? Scripts cannot easily be migrated to another RPA tool. If you choose an RPA vendor with a cloud platform and implement the software, there is a risk that, in the event of the vendor’s insolvency, your automated processes could come to a standstill.
8. Operating Costs 
Costs are always an important criterion. Total costs depend on a wide range of factors, including the licensing and pricing models for the RPA tool, as well as implementation, maintenance, and support costs. Since software products can come with very different licensing models, it is important to have all available options clearly explained. If you plan to start small with RPA and scale up over time, evaluating costs in line with your RPA roadmap is absolutely essential.
Further criteria and suggestions for questions to ask vendors of RPA software can be found in the SoftGuide software tips.
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