We are living in a time where information technology is at the core of all business functions. Technological developments have been successful in disrupting business models, replacing traditional ones with new ones. With digitalization, we are witnessing a big change in the way businesses operate. Today, we have coded software programs that are designed to automate business processes. This has helped organisations free their employees from routine rule-based tasks and engage them in more creative work. The tech companies that are developing products in robotic process automation front have so far been successful in solving problems in healthcare, finance and retail sector among many others. With this, new RPA job roles have been created in the recent years which are attracting students who aspire to work in the IT industry. This article tries to shed light on some of these new job roles and how they are contributing to the future.
As Robotic Process Automation, or RPA as it is commonly called, is expanding its roots in the business world, new jobs are getting created across various industries. If you have a smartphone and did online shopping, then chances are there was RPA at one stage or the other which enabled the delivery of your order. Yes, RPA is finding applications in many areas of our daily lives, which we may not even know. RPA can take up any role where data and a set of rules are involved, be it retail, healthcare, banking or any other sector for that matter. The increasing applications of RPA has also paved way for many new job roles.
An RPA process analyst acts as a bridge between the client and the technical team that develops the automation solution. He/she gets a thorough understanding of the process, documents the same and ensures that the technical team is on track as far as the development is concerned. They explore processes to find new opportunities for automation and create Process Definition Documents that form the foundation of RPA solution development process.
Like with every software technology, Robotic Process Automation too has three phases which are development, testing and deployment. Process designers or developers thoroughly understand the business process that needs to be automated and they prepare a design document which will be used for developing the automation solution. They build and test RPA solutions in pre-production environment. They continuously interact with the client and production manager to ensure that the requirements are met. Because of their understanding of the process, the developers can discover various automation opportunities and lead to new RPA initiatives.
In the lifecycle of RPA solutions development, the production manager comes in after the product is developed. He is responsible for ensuring that the solution works fine in the production environment and also informing the development team about the bugs he comes across. He also gives timely and valuable process improvement feedback to process designers during the course. While freshers and professionals with few years of experience can try getting into RPA Analyst and Developer jobs, the roles of RPA Architect and Production Managers demand higher experience.
RPA bigwigs such as Automation Anywhere, Datamatics and UiPath are working continuously towards expanding their solutions to all industries. With the progress technological progress in AI, it will continue to gain traction in the business world. This is expected to have an impact on RPA wherein the solutions may turn more and more sophisticated in the years to come. With RPA taking over routine tasks, the workforce will be left with less tasks per work day and to manage this gap, companies are upskilling and reskilling the workforce to cope-up with the technological changes. Companies such as Wipro and Mahindra have been investing on training their employees in recent times. The aim has been to create the necessary knowledge pool in new-age technologies. As per a report from IAMAI and Ascension Centre for Research Analytics, about 40% to 50% of tasks which involve transactions in IT, BFSI, manufacturing, transportation, packaging, shipping sectors can get automated in the years to come. Therefore, there is no doubt that as RPA solutions takeover more and more routine tasks, the nature of the jobs and therefore the skills required for the new jobs will also change.
Robotic Process Automation industry has great scope for growth in near future. Both education providers and companies including UiPath and Blue Prism are working towards creating the necessary knowledge pool to fulfil the industry demands. iNurture, one of the renowned education enabler in India, offers B.Tech and BCA programs specialising in Robotic Process Automation and Artificial Intelligence through various Universities in India. These programs may open doors to opportunities in new-age careers in Robotic Process Automation in India.
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