About robotic process automation
Gartner® defines robotic process automation (RPA) as: “...a productivity tool that allows a user to configure one or more scripts (which some vendors refer to as “bots”) to activate specific keystrokes in an automated fashion. ...bots can be used to mimic or emulate selected tasks (transaction steps) within an overall business or IT process. ...The scripts can overlay on one or more software applications.”
At Beeline, we recognize that some clients may want to overlay Beeline Enterprise with an RPA to get the data they need. You may be one of those clients.
You may be considering deploying an RPA because your internal systems don’t support integrations or modern application communication methods, such as APIs.
Rest assured. We’re here to help.
Beeline recommendations
Before you deploy an RPA in your Enterprise Production environment, a Make a Change ticket is required. A product team and our Security team will review and approve the scope of your RPA.
We review and approve RPA deployments on a case-by-case basis. We want to help you succeed and get the data you need with minimal risks and costs.
This article covers things to consider before you decide to deploy and manage an RPA.
Understand the risks
RPAs rely on a fixed, static underlying user interface (UI). Because we continually evolve and improve our Enterprise offering, overlaying an RPA on your Enterprise site can be risky. In addition, Beeline supplier access agreements prohibit third parties, such as suppliers and MSPs, from using bots to scrape your system.
When we roll out an enhancement to Enterprise that includes configuration or UI changes, your RPA may break or a defect may occur.
We can help troubleshoot issues, but you must correct issues and bear the costs and productivity loss associated with updating your RPA.
RPAs also usually perform data-intensive tasks every few seconds, which can impact the performance of the underlying UI. To prevent defects, we’ll turn off Enterprise access to RPAs that adversely affect Enterprise system performance.
Note: RPA-related issues will not drive changes to Enterprise.
Discover Enterprise standard APIs
Rather than rely on an RPA, which might produce unreliable results, use Beeline Enterprise standard APIs to precisely synchronize data between Enterprise and your internal systems.
Using Enterprise APIs, you can quickly and efficiently retrieve outbound data from Enterprise. Next, you can review the data and make informed decisions about your business processes. Then, use Enterprise inbound services to perform tasks and synchronize data easily.
For example, you can synchronize assignment data in your internal system using Worker Management Services to retrieve information directly from Enterprise. Next, you can review dates and contingent talent details to identify assignments that must be extended or terminated. Then, you can use the corresponding Assignment Extend, Amend or Terminate inbound service to automatically update the assignment in Enterprise.
Beeline’s suite of APIs is available on the Beeline Developers portal: EU Developers or US Developers.
Explore Visual Approval Workflows
Use the Visual Approval Workflows feature to analyze your workflows.
Fully understanding your current processes can help you assess whether developing and implementing an RPA outweighs the risk of bypassing a human. You may find it doesn’t, which can save you time and effort.
Employ Reporting-as-a-Service (RaaS)
Design reports to extract the data you want, schedule a JSON-format data export and deliver the data to an RPA to update your internal system. For example, a scheduled report on assignments pending termination in the next three days could be set up as a scheduled data set delivered in JSON form that’s used by an RPA to update your internal system.
Building reports and exporting data in JSON format reduces your reliance on the Enterprise UI, decreases your need to maintain an RPA, and saves time and money. Plus, it simplifies automating interactions between Enterprise and your internal systems, giving you flexibility and adaptability.
Create a user for your bot
Set up your RPA as an Enterprise user with an email address. That way, the RPA can access hyperlinks in Enterprise-generated notifications to execute workflow tasks and approvals.