Enterprise automation means performing a continuous review of an organization’s processes to achieve optimal performance while searching for manual processes that can be automated.
For the sake of terminology clarification, robotic process automation (RPA) and business process automation (BPA) are technologies one can use in enterprise automation. BPA focuses on streamlining complete processes and workflows across the organization, while RPA is responsible for automating individual tasks.
Here is what these concepts mean:
UiPath, a prominent RPA vendor,
defines enterprise robotic process automation (RPA) as a software technology that makes it easy to build, deploy, and manage software robots that emulate human actions when interacting with digital systems. Software robots can do things like figuring out what’s on the screen, completing the right keystrokes, navigating systems, identifying and extracting data, and performing a wide range of defined actions.
Gartner defines business process automation (BPA) as the automation of complex business processes and functions beyond conventional data manipulation and record-keeping activities, usually through the use of advanced technologies. BPA focuses on “run the business” as opposed to “count the business” types of automation efforts and often deals with event-driven, mission-critical, core processes.