Workflow or RPA? Why not both!

Cake or ice cream? Dogs or cats? Coffee or tea? It’s often deceptively easy to make these kinds of contentious choices. But what if you really like both options? Sometimes, the best decision is not to choose at all, and experience the best that each option has to offer—like when comparing Workflow and Robotic Process Automation (RPA).

Workflow is the foundation

Workflow continues to be the foundation of process automation and an essential key to digital transformation, providing the engine to route content, execute business logic and assist users in making decisions by surfacing related content. With Workflow, organizations can automate menial, low-value work, and users are able to focus on tasks that take better advantage of their time and expertise. However, there may still be some simple, repetitive tasks that require human interaction to complete, like gathering information from a public website, sharing data with a legacy system that is difficult to integrate with, and more. This is where RPA comes in.

How RPA expedites workflow

RPA creates an indispensable extension of Workflow, filling in these automation gaps by re-creating the mouse movements and clicks of a user. With RPA, a bot can complete this once “un-automatable” work faster and more accurately than a person ever could. The data and documents collected by the bot can then be leveraged later in the business process. Used in tandem, and when backed by the capabilities of a leading content services platform, Workflow and RPA can each focus on their strengths to ensure optimal value for the organization.

Best-in-class intelligent automation solutions don’t rely on just a single tool. They use the right tools for the job. With the combination of Workflow and RPA, organizations have everything they need to provide true end-to-end process automation, including the added capabilities of content services. No need to choose—this is truly a case of being able to have your cake (and ice cream) and eat it too.