Why You Need a SAP RPA Solution

A RPA solution has been hyped for being quite the rock-star – a cure-all for improving manual processes – when utilized properly.

After all, automating repetitive and structured processes sounds like a game-changer, doesn’t it?

Well, in theory, it is. But in reality, many organizations’ experience with robotic process automation (RPA) has not been positive.

According to industry research, organizations that underestimate the complexity of a RPA solution, the potential misuse, and the amount of coordination needed among various business and IT functions are experiencing significant issues and/or high failure rates in deploying and scaling a RPA solution in their business.

In many cases, businesses are using generic RPA tools, when they should be employing an SAP-specific RPA solution. These SAP RPA tools are must-have in your portfolio – let’s explore more of the “why”, and how Precisely can help you get started.

No “one-size-fits-all” solution

First, let’s put the RPA landscape at large into perspective: it’s not all doom and gloom. The reality is that RPA has been mix of success and disappointment.

Companies seeing the greatest success with RPA have dedicated, centralized teams taking a holistic approach to process automation. They examine both the processes to be automated and the expected business outcomes to develop their automation roadmaps. They then choose the best toolset for automating particular processes.

These companies also understand there are no one-size-fits-all RPA solutions – a portfolio approach is better. As one of our customers recently said, “We have Blue Prism and Precisely, and we choose the best tool on a case-by-case business.”

Now, let’s return to those previously mentioned “generic” RPA tools – a source of difficulty and disappointment for companies.

Despite being “no-code” solutions, most “bots” require a high degree of programming and can be unreliable when applied to complex SAP processes. Most of these challenges surround GUI recording and screen-scraping, where even minor changes to the operating environment can cause the bot to fail.

With IT teams stretched to their limits, unexpected issues can require significant IT involvement to resolve.

Automating with the right SAP RPA tool

SAP RPA solutions, on the other hand, are built for SAP processes. These solutions allow non-technical staff members to record through the SAP GUI, while the actual execution of the bot is at the application layer. This offers significant benefits in terms of reliability and speed, with up to a 400% performance gain compared to executing through the SAP GUI.

SAP RPA solutions also enable business users to quickly intervene if data errors are detected, using familiar tools such as Microsoft Excel for data management. The result of being business-focused is often faster implementation, lower deployment costs, and a higher ROI than experienced with generic RPA tools.

RPA is nothing new

RPA may be a relatively new term, but companies like Precisely have been automating SAP processes for over 15 years. Data gathered from thousands of our customers shows the average processing time saved by simply eliminating manual data entry via the SAP GUI is as high as 91% and 89% (for SAP transaction code FB01 and XD02, respectively).

For effective RPA implementation:

• Watch the marketplace. Learn from the successes, disappointments, and failures
• Choose the right tool for the process you’re automating
• Understand the strengths and limitations of the tools in your portfolio
• Choose an SAP RPA tool when automating SAP processes

Precisely offers SAP-specific automation solutions as part of a comprehensive SAP data management platform.

Read our eBook Best Practices for SAP Automation and learn about the questions to ask and best practices to follow at each step of your journey to ensure you get both faster processes and better data.

Author’s note: this blog post about SAP RPA solutions has been adapted from an article originally published in SAPInsiderOnline.com.