Benefits of Robotic Process Automation for Business’ IT
When it comes to your IT services provider, you want to know that they will respond quickly and solve your IT problems so your employees can get back to work. But not every IT need requires the skill of a highly trained engineer. That’s where robotic process automation comes in. There are many benefits of robotic process automation – or “RPA” – in the IT industry.
In this post, we’ll share information about how robotic process automation tools work, as well as the benefits of RPA for managed IT services clients.
But first, hear what our Director of Systems Architecture Linda Kraft and Automation Engineer Corey Brookes have to say about how we use robotic process automation tools here at Atlas Professional Services.
If you want to learn more about RPA and how it is being used in the IT space, keep reading.
What is robotic process automation?
Robotic process automation – or software robotics – uses automation to perform tasks based on a predetermined set of rules. These tools make it easy to build and deploy workflows that automatically trigger actions and next steps. It’s been used in the business world for years to complete tasks such as mining data, processing payroll, managing orders on ecommerce sites and more.
What are the benefits of robotic process automation?
There are many benefits of RPA, particularly in the business world. Organizations who leverage RPA tools can expect to:
- Reduce error. Once a workflow is designed, RPA tools can dramatically increase the accuracy of tasks being performed. Typically, the tasks that RPA tools replace have a high probability of human error (i.e., inputting data incorrectly). Robots are designed to follow rules to a T and can produce much more accurate results.
- Improve efficiency. Unlike humans, robots can work around the clock and complete several tasks at once. This decreases turnaround time for the client or end-user and can improve the efficiency of the organization.
- Improve client satisfaction. The combination of increased accuracy and decreased turnaround times will typically result in improved client satisfaction.
- Enhance employee productivity. RPA tools replace mundane, repetitive tasks, which leaves more time for your employees to focus on high-level tasks.
- Reduce the bottom line. Together, the benefits of RPA can help reduce your organization’s bottom line. RPA tools can slow the need for new hires by reducing the number of tasks that need human intervention.
What robotic process automation tool does Atlas use?
At Atlas Professional Services, we are using Rewst to bring the benefits of RPA to our clients. Rewst is an RPA tool that connects with the tools we are already using and builds flows on visual canvasses – with minimal coding required. It integrates with various software applications and automates tasks that would otherwise have to be done manually by our team of engineers.
Rewst seamlessly integrates with tools such as:
Rewst is the first RPA tool for managed service providers (MSPs) that can create a single workflow in more than one app. For example, when onboarding a new employee, a workflow could include creating a user’s login on your domain, email in Microsoft, and contact record in Atlas’ ticket system.
How does Atlas use Rewst?
Since going live with Rewst, we have been able to automate several processes for our clients and realize the many benefits of RPA.
Quality Assurance
One of our many cybersecurity checks for clients is ensuring that all of their users have multifactor authentication enabled in Microsoft 365. Historically, our engineers would log in to MS 365 on a predetermined schedule and ensure that MFA was enabled on all accounts. Using Rewst, we can automate that process. If the system finds an account does not have MFA enabled, it will create a ticket so our engineers can correct that.
Managing Users
We also took our new user and terminate user steps and have automated those, as well. Now, when a client adds a new employee, there is a process in which we gather their information, and the tool will automatically create a username and temporary password in the necessary applications. When a client terminates an employee, Rewst also automates removing that employee from all applications, regardless of what time of day the termination happens.
DIY Password Reset
In the past, a common ticket we would receive is that a user is trying to log in to Duo on their workstation and they have been locked out of their account. Previously, they would have to call Atlas or put in a support ticket. A tech would then reach out to the user and then unlock their account. Using Rewst, we’ve been able to build out a workflow so they can now unlock themselves. The system can detect that their account is locked and send them an email to unlock it themselves. They simply click a link in the email to unlock the account and they can sign in.
Increased Security
To better protect clients from phishing scams, we are also creating a workflow that will automatically log a user out of all applications if they click on a fraudulent email link. The workflow will also trigger a SentinelOne security scan on their workstation to identify and remediate any ransomware, unknown malware threats and malicious activity.
At Atlas, we have seen the benefits of RPA first-hand. Being able to automate many of our workflows and tasks has resulted in:
- Quicker turnaround time on tickets
- Less room for human error
- Improved security for our clients
Are you looking to work with a managed IT service provider that leverages robotic process automation tools to streamline the client experience? Contact us today for more information.