Automation is transforming businesses worldwide by enhancing efficiency, reducing costs, and improving quality. Two powerful forms of automation that are revolutionizing processes are robotic process automation (RPA) and test automation. Integrating these two solutions creates a robust approach to streamlining operations and delivering exceptional products and services.
Key Takeaway
- RPA and test automation are leading forms of intelligent automation delivering efficiency, speed, quality, and cost benefits.
- Combining RPA and test automation enables end-to-end process automation from discovery through enhancement.
- Integrated automation increases speed to market, enhances quality, reduces risk, and optimizes processes.
- Use cases like customer onboarding, order fulfillment, and reporting benefit from RPA executing processes and test automation validating them.
- Critical implementation capabilities include seamless integration, unified visibility and control, broad connectivity, codeless automation, AI, and analytics.
- An integrated automation platform like Worksoft's provides the capabilities to maximize the benefits of combined RPA and test automation.
The Rise of Intelligent Automation
Businesses today face mounting pressure to accelerate digital transformation. To remain competitive, companies must find ways to eliminate tedious manual work, improve agility, and boost productivity. Intelligent automation delivers on these demands by applying technology to mimic human actions and complete rules-based processes quickly and consistently. RPA and test automation are leading forms of intelligent automation gaining rapid adoption. Let's examine the capabilities and value of each.
The Capabilities and Benefits of RPA
RPA utilizes software bots to automate repetitive, manual tasks. Bots can interact with any system or application through the UI to input and extract data, complete forms, update records, and more. RPA bots follow predefined business rules and processes to perform work precisely and without fatigue.
Key benefits of RPA include:
- Improves efficiency by reducing handling time for high volume, repetitive tasks
- Accelerates process execution for faster delivery of products/services
- Enables 24/7 productivity by allowing bots to work continuously
- Reduces costs associated with manual labor and errors
- Frees staff to focus on higher value strategic work
- Provides fast ROI with an average payback period of less than 12 months
The Importance of Test Automation
Test automation applies software tools to perform testing activities that would otherwise require significant manual effort. Key techniques include API testing, UI testing, unit testing, integration testing, and regression testing.
Advantages of test automation include:
- Performs repetitive test execution rapidly and reliably
- Facilitates continuous testing and deployment
- Enables extensive and comprehensive testing
- Reduces test cycle times from months to weeks or days
- Improves test coverage for superior quality assurance
- Saves cost and resources associated with manual testing
- Frees QA staff to focus on high-level test strategy
Integrating RPA and Test Automation
While RPA and test automation provide value individually, combining them unlocks even greater benefits:
End-to-End Process Automation
Together, RPA and test automation enable end-to-end process automation from initial development through ongoing enhancement. RPA bots can carry out process steps while test automation validates performance at each stage.
Improved Time-to-Market
With RPA executing processes rapidly and test automation validating releases quickly, products and services can launch faster. Bots and automated testing compress cycle times while ensuring quality.
Enhanced Quality
RPA improves process consistency while test automation provides more comprehensive validation. This combination boosts quality for products, transactions, reporting, and more.
Optimized Processes
RPA reveals process inefficiencies like bottlenecks or redundancy. Test automation provides fast feedback on process changes. Together they facilitate continuous process optimization.
Increased Agility
With automated processes and testing, organizations can respond rapidly to shifting demands. New products, updates, and integrations can deploy quickly and reliably.
Reduced Risk
End-to-end automation minimizes the risk of errors and defects. Bots perform work consistently while automated testing validates functionality thoroughly.
Key Use Cases for Integrated Automation
Many scenarios benefit from aligning RPA and test automation. Here are some top examples:
Customer Onboarding
Automating the customer onboarding process with RPA accelerates completion of application forms, data entry, documentation, underwriting checks, and account setup. Test automation validates the end-to-end process as well as releases and enhancements.
Order Fulfillment
RPA bots can pull orders, process payments, select shipping, generate labels, and update inventory. Test automation helps verify correct fulfillment.
Financial Reporting
Bots can compile data, run calculations, populate reports, and distribute documents. Automated testing validates the accuracy of underlying data and results.
HR Administration
RPA automates employee onboarding steps like I-9 verification, benefit enrollment, system provisioning. Test automation helps confirm proper configuration of systems.
Supply Chain Management
Bots can raise purchase orders, schedule deliveries, and reconcile shipments while test automation helps ensure solid integration across supply chain systems.
Critical Capabilities for Implementation Success
Maximizing the benefits of integrated automation requires key capabilities:
Seamless Integration
The RPA and test automation solutions must integrate smoothly via common architecture and data formats to enable continuous processes and testing.
Centralized Control
Managing both automation technologies through a unified control center allows full visibility and orchestration of bots and testing.
Broad Connectivity
The solutions must interface easily with diverse systems from ERPs to CRMs to custom applications to enable end-to-end process execution and validation.
Codeless Automation
RPA and testing solutions that provide codeless automation accelerate deployment and enhance accessibility for business teams without specialized skills.
AI-Powered Automation
Advanced RPA bots and test automation that incorporate AI and machine learning drive greater speed, accuracy, and autonomy in executing processes and tests.
Automated Discovery and Documentation
Automatically discovering processes and creating bots through observation accelerates RPA deployment. Auto-documentation also enhances test creation.
Reporting and Analytics
Robust reporting and analytics provide insights into automation opportunities, ROI, and ongoing optimization.
The Worksoft Automation Platform
Worksoft provides an integrated automation platform with advanced Robotic Process Automation RPA and testing capabilities for end-to-end process discovery, automation, and optimization.
Key elements include:
- Seamless Integration - Worksoft's RPA and test automation share a common object-based architecture for continuous execution and validation.
- Centralized Control - Worksoft's process intelligence and automation studio enable centralized visibility and control from discovery through RPA and testing.
- Broad Connectivity - Worksoft provides 300+ pre-built application connectors and APIs to ensure connectivity.
- Codeless Automation - Worksoft's graphical process definition and test creation enable RPA and test automation without coding.
- AI-Powered Automation - Embedded AI for self-healing scripts, auto-documentation, and more makes automation smarter.
- Discovery and Documentation - Worksoft automatically discovers processes, creates bots, and generates documentation for rapid automation.
- Test Data Management - Workbench test data management and test environment management optimize data use.
- Reporting and Analytics - Advanced dashboards provide real-time insights into discovery, automation ROI, and optimization opportunities.
With Worksoft, organizations can rapidly realize the benefits of integrated automation, from maximized efficiency to accelerated delivery to improved quality and customer experience.
Conclusion
Integrating robotic process automation and test automation enables end-to-end intelligent automation that is transformative for digital speed and quality. From customer onboarding to order fulfillment and beyond, RPA and testing can streamline processes for dramatic efficiency gains, rapid delivery, and exceptional quality. To maximize success, businesses need an integrated automation platform with seamless execution between bots and testing, centralized visibility, broad connectivity, codeless automation, AI, and analytics. With the right solution, integrated RPA and test automation provide a powerful digital transformation engine.