3 minute read
If your organization is seeking to enhance process efficiency and accelerate workflows, you might want to consider integrating ServiceNow’s Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solution. This blog post will provide insights on how to begin with ServiceNow’s RPA offering.
What is RPA?
Robotic Process Automation is a form of Business Process Automation where “bots” are deployed as a substitute for Humans in routine, error-prone, and high-volume manual processes.
Types of RPA bots?
- Unattended Robot (RPA)
- Robotic Process Automation robots are suitable for processes that are completely rule driven and do not require any human action e.g., AR/AP, On/Off boarding.
- Attended Robot (RDA)
- Robotic Desktop Automation robots are suitable for automations where human action cannot be avoided e.g., call center environment.
Benefits
Here are some of the examples of How your company can benefit from RPA.
RPA Applications
The RPA Hub platform consists of four applications:
Robotic Process Automation Hub (RPA Hub)
It allows for the integration of the ServiceNow platform with applications that lack API support. This feature facilitates the deployment, supervision, and administration of attended and unattended automations. With RPA Hub, developers can design and archive automation packages, adjust settings for attended and unattended robots, oversee task queues, securely store application credentials, and receive real-time notifications for any issues that arise.
RPA Desktop Design Studio
It is a Windows native application that is used by RPA developers to design or configure automation workflows.
Unattended Robot
It is a software agent that you install on a Windows machine (Install on Window virtual machine or VDIs (Virtual Desktop Interface)). Unattended Robot can execute unattended automations without requiring any human intervention.
Attended Robot
It is a software agent that you install on a Windows machine (Install on Window user desktop). Attended Robot can execute attended automations that require human intervention.
How to Activate Robotic Process Automation Hub (RPA Hub)?
Plugin: RPA HUB (sn_rpa_fdn)
Once you have installed the plugin, you can proceed to download RPA Desktop Design Studio and choose between attended or unattended robot based on your requirements using the Download module.
You can also follow the guided setup which has the step-by-step instructions on how to proceed further after installing the plugin.
Important Components to keep in mind about RPA Hub
Packages
A package is a collection of resource files, which includes the robot file necessary for automation execution. The robot file is generated using the RPA Desktop Design Studio and contains the automation logic that the robot will execute.
Bot
A bot is a software agent that executes a bot process created in the RPA Desktop Design Studio.
Bot Process
A bot process is a specific configuration of the robot. It involves assigning and scheduling a package to be executed by the software agent. Additional details such as business applications, credential sets, local parameters, attended users, or groups can also be added to the bot process.
Queues/Work Queue
A dedicated table from where robots pick up work items, process, and update status.
Some of the new Features of RPA in Utah
- Universal Recorder
- Universal App Connector
- Simplified movement of RPA Hub components across instances
- Support for MFA (Multi Factor Authentication)
- Robot Calendar
Check out our TechNow Utah episode here to know more about it.
Parting words
I hope you are as, if not more, excited as I am about ServiceNow RPA. We recently did a Creator Toolbox livestream covering some of the basics of RPA, you can check it here on our ServiceNow Developer Program Channel. To see additional content coming out about the Utah release, please visit our Content Calendar here.
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