VIRTUSA RPA-Buyers-guide PDF

RPA Tool Buyer’s Guide Copyright © 2016 Virtusa Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
Evaluation Criteria to Consider

when Selecting a RPA Tool
The chosen RPA tool plays a crucial role in your automation journey, and
can directly impact the outcome of an RPA implementation. Therefore,
tool selection should be carried out after carefully assessing your business
requirements, the technology stack of the applications, and expected
outcomes.
While the above could vary between business and operational units even
within the same organization, one could hardly argue that the common
goal is to achieve quick wins, where the ROI exceeds break-even-point in
the shortest possible time and additional benefits are accrued sooner than
later from the dramatic change in pace and efficiency with which
operations are now handled via RPA.
Ease of Use although it creates an aura of
superficial user-friendliness.
While most automation tools
could provide a variety of features,
some of which are technically
more sophisticated than others,
attempting to work with them may
not be an easy feat. In most cases
programmatic skills to automate
even a basic use case, and the
learning curve could be quite
Can I really afford to invest in an steep and frustrating without
entire army of automation experts further support from the vendor.
to get a job automated? Can I As such, what you essentially
expect these technical experts to require is an automation tool
understand the nuances of the which can easily provide your
business as my SMEs do as of now, domain savvy operational SMEs an
to do a thorough job of the opportunity to get involved in the
automation? automation process with minimal
technical knowhow. A tool that is
flexible enough to accommodate
Some tools provide simple ‘record basic process automation with
and play back’ based automation. built in commands, wizards and
It’s an industry-acknowledged fact GUIs that can be extended for
that the ‘record and playback’ more complex work as and when
approach cannot cater even for required through alternative
medium complexity tasks, mechanisms would be the ideal
bet for any enterprise.
Scalability fewer number than that. Some
tools enable you to start with a
small investment, however when
you need to scale up you may need
to spend a fortune on the
additional bots and plug-ins.
Ask yourself the following. Does it
Given the highly disruptive nature require dedicated automation
of RPA, even the most nimble and environments or can it be adjusted
courageous organizations will on-demand through cloud and
often avoid a big-bang approach virtualization services? What
about execution? Can this tool
preferring to scale based on the
help multiple robots execute
nature of their business,
multiple workflows?
organizational resilience to Simultaneously by adding
change, etc. Under such execution agents for parallel (grid)
circumstances getting tied down execution and support for an array
to a tool/platform which leaves of platforms (operating systems,
minimal room to scale up/down is browsers and devices) with
certainly not advisable. minimal additional expenditure?
Can we start small (pilot) and if it
works well would it be possible to
As such, the recommended course scale-up in a cost effective
of action is to take a good look at manner?
the architecture of the tool and If the answer is yes to most of the
the basic requirements for above, you will probably get your
configuration and deployment. money’s worth when you
Some tool vendors mandates that eventually choose to do a
you buy a certain number of bots company-wide RPA
implementation across various
whereas you may actually need a
BUs.
Reliability RPA tools are relatively new, and
strive to reach the reliability and
efficiency level of Test Automation
tools.
As such, always look at the
reliability and robustness of the
underlying automation framework
upon which the tools is built. While
conducting a detailed POC / pilot,
investing some additional time to
evaluate the tool’s potential to
cater to multiple use cases, under
The last thing you want to do is different conditions and data
invest in an automation tool with volumes, and ability to run a large
no proven record of stability, number of iterations without
leaving you to incur large expenses performance degradation could be
for maintenance and support quite useful in the long run
while the business operations especially as you move from
automated using these tools are automating simple structured
now in a worse predicament than processes across the presentation
when they were initially done layer, to more complex processes
manually. which require integration with
other system APIs for example.
Technology ons from the same vendor or
consider integration mechanisms
Spectrum in the event the existing vendor

cannot support your requirements
in future.
On the other hand, you, shopping

around for a single tool that
supports automation across a
number of channels such as web,
mobile and desktop applications,
web services and database
automation. Essentially, the tool
should be able to do true end-to-
While most commercial tools end automation. Having said that,
specialize in automating certain don’t go for a sledgehammer to
areas, it could become quite crack a nut. So, you shouldn’t be
restrictive at an enterprise level paying for fancy features like AI
given the diversity of operations modules or HCR if you are not
and their unique requirements. going to use them in the near
future. So, a tool that fulfills your
current requirement, but has the
As such, when choosing a tool you ability to cater to your foreseeable
will need to be proactive and future requirements would be
evaluate the potential to get add- beneficial for most enterprises.
Flexibility paying much more for the
customizations than the initial
investment. Hence, you should
identify the customizations to the
tool in the early stages (ideally
during your tool evaluation stage)
and discuss the cost of such
customizations and add-ons with
the vendor. Alternatively, you can
opt for a tool which allows you to
build custom features without
having to pay extra for the vendor.
Also, you should look for a tool

Most likely, none of the tools in
that supports a number of
the industry would be able to fulfil
operating systems for the bots.
your automation requirements.
Some tools support only a specific
Standard features and
Operating System. Not only such
functionalities of a tool are geared
tools mandate procuring
to cater for common
expensive Operating systems and
requirements. When your
infrastructure, also requires
business cases require something
deploying your application related
that cannot be fulfilled using such
RPA on the OS supported by the
off-the-shelf features, you would
tool. This could open a can of
need to work with the vendor for
worms.
customizations. You may end up
Monitoring and various jobs being executed by the
bots to make timely decisions.
ROI So yes, an execution dashboard is a

crucial component of any RPA tool
Dashboards you select. Also, look at the
mechanisms employed to notify
users of manual actions pending on
their end (for partially automated
workflows), prioritize items if
needed, the level of detail provided
on potential errors and ease of
rectifying same via the tool’s
interface itself. A clean, friendly GUI
with drill down facilities for relevant
Once a virtual workforce is deployed features and a “User Inbox”
enterprise-wide, it’s vital to put in generally fall into this category.
place the relevant governance Additionally, it will be great if your
mechanisms to ensure the intended tool helps in providing ROI
benefits are achieved. In that dashboard features out of the box
respect, having solid monitoring and as you will often have to justify your
control mechanisms is paramount investments. If this is not possible,
for business continuity. For ensure the tool provides API access
example, there may be highly critical to these so that you can create your
activities that are allocated to the own custom dashboards. Being able
bots, and if one of them goes down to apply a relevant dollar value up
unexpectedly, it’s very important front and do a ‘what if analysis’
that the right stakeholders are against the selected processes can
automatically notified to provide the easily help you secure buy in from
relevant workaround. Additionally, sponsors too.
many operational managers would
require sufficient visibility on the
Support and processes you intend to apply RPA.
So, discuss various support options
Professional and those costs with the tool
vendor.
Services Most tool vendors provide only
the tool and standard tool related
support. This means, you need to
have your team fully trained on
the tool or hire a third-party
services provider to implement
RPA using the particular tool.
Therefore, inquire about training
related costs from the tool vendor.
Also, you may want to inquire on
the professional service fee (rate
card) from the tool vendor’s
recommended implementation
Generally, most tools offer a range
partners or an independent
of support plans. You should opt
service provider of your choice.
for a plan that provides support
The last thing you would want is to
during your organization’s
end up with a vendor and a service
standard operational hours, and
provider who would put the blame
SLA that are in align with the
on each other’s competency if
business criticality of the
things go wrong.
Sample Evaluation Checklist
This checklist will give you a starting point to perform an extensive
evaluation of an RPA tool / framework. It covers a range of criterion
including technical capability, licensing and support mechanism enabling
an optimal selection process.
This checklist is currently populated with Accello specific data for your
convenience, but can be used as is or contracted/expanded to evaluate
other commercial products in the market.
Criterion Accello RPA Tool 2

General Applicability
IT process automation Yes
Business process automation Yes
Cross-channel (frond end, services, database) / Multi- Yes - Accello can seamlessly
paradigm (web, mobile, thick client etc.) process switch between channels /
automation paradigms
Partial / User assisted automation (such as the ones that Yes
mandate conscious decision-making / human
intervention like approvals)
Processes that involve web based applications (such as Yes
web scraping, and filling in forms)
Processes that involve services and APIs Yes
Processes that involve thick client applications / Yes
terminals / SSH
Writing to / Reading from databases Yes
Processes that involve mobile applications Yes
User interactions with operating systems such as File / Yes
Folder operations
Email Operations - send / read content and attachments Yes
Extracting structured data from various sources such as Yes
PDF, Excel, Documents, Web sites etc.
Creating reports by extracting/merging data from Yes
multiple sources
Processes that can require actions based on simple rules Yes
/ decisions
Processes that can require cognitive / AI based decision- Cognitive / AI modules are a
making separate product line, but
can be integrated with
Accello. The feasibility of
Cognitive/AI automation
will be confirmed upon
analyzing the exact business
case. Some cases may
require a third-party
commercial add-on
Tasks that need to be formed at pre-defined times or Yes
intervals
Text recognition from scanned documents and images Yes
Applications with non-English locale automation Yes
<Include additional criteria as required>
User Friendliness and Ease of Adoption
Required level of programming knowledge Almost No. Accello is a zero
code automation solution.
However, if you'd like to
extend Accello by creating
custom commands, then
you'd require programming
knowledge.
Infrastructure cost for hosting / installing Accello Low. Provides both on-
premises and cloud based
hosting. You can use
physical machines or VMs.
Accello bots can run on a
number of operating
systems.
Ease of installation and configuration Easy. The Accello team does
the installation and
configuration for you.
User friendliness Accello provides a simple,
intuitive UI including a
visual flow-chart like
workflow builder
Required effort for learning the tool Low. End users can learn
the tool within less than 8
hours. Accello provides live
training over the web for its
customers.
Feasibility of migration to a different tool Yes - provides a universal
markup file. An interpreter
needs to be written for the
specific target tool.
Ease of getting an evaluation version Yes - Provides a 30-day valid
evaluation license to the
cloud based sandbox. Also,
provides recorded training
and live support during the
evaluation period for
potential clients.
Designer (IDE) Features
Record and playback No
Ability to model scripts using workflow builder Yes. Provides a visual flow-
chart like workflow builder
Automation Framework Yes. Inbuilt
Ability to create scripts without coding Yes. Zero code
Ability to create custom commands Yes. Supports calling
external Java, SH and Bat,
and using the methods in
those as custom commands
Regular Expression Support Yes
Reusable Business Processes Yes
Reusable Data Tables Yes
Reusable UI Objects Yes
Object recognition techniques XPATH / CSS / Attribute
Level / Image based
Method of Object recognition Provides Object Spy.
Doesn’t require technical
know-how of OR
techniques such as XPATH
Object Repository Yes. Centralized
Support for complex variables / data types Yes
Support for modelling data and web schema Yes
Inbuilt Triggers Yes (Mail, File Operations,
User Actions)
Ability to create custom triggers Yes
Inbuilt notifications Yes
Ability to define custom notifications Yes
Ability to run SQL / PLSQL Yes
Ability to run MDX queries Yes
Ability to use functions from standard scripting languages Yes - JavaScript
Executor Features
Ability to schedule execution Yes - through Jenkins
Event Trigger based execution Yes - inbuilt / user defined
Notifications/Alerts in case of failures Yes
Ability to invoke through command line Yes
Ability to select specific bots for execution Yes
Parallel Execution support - single business process on Yes
multiple bots
Parallel Execution support - multiple business processes Yes
on multiple bots
Data provided for issue identification and Provides detailed logs,
troubleshooting video recording of the
execution, and screenshots
on error
Ability to commission / decommission bots Yes
Reports and Dashboards Yes - Provides a number of
useful reports and a web
(desktop and mobile) based
dashboard.
Life span of data Persistent. Everything
(Scripts, Objects Data, Logs
etc.) is stored in an internal
database
Web Application Automation
Support for multiple browser types Yes - IE, FF, Chrome, Safari
Headless execution Yes
Support for Flex, Silverlight, Applets No
Support for iframes and pop ups Yes
Oracle Forms Yes. Requires a third party
commercial add-on
SAP - Web Yes. Requires a third party
commercial add-on
SharePoint Yes
Pega PRPC Yes
Support for Citrix No
Thick Client Automation
REST Yes
SOAP Yes
Custom APIs Yes - will be confirmed
upon a feasibility
assessment
MQ Yes - ActiveMQ
Database Automation
Support for SQL DBMS Yes. Readily supports
MySQL, Microsoft SQL, and
Oracle.
Support can be extended to
any database that supports
JDBC
Support for Non-SQL DBMS Yes. Readily supports the
Orient database
Support for DW Yes on SSAS
Mobile Applications Automation
Supported application types Native, Web, Hybrid
Supported OS Android, iOS
Widely Used Data Sources Automation (Excel, PDF etc.)
Excel - ability to import existing master datasheets
Excel - ability to run macros Yes
Excel - ability to compare formulae and results Yes
Excel - ability to insert formulae to Excel sheets Yes
PDF - ability to identify word/line/table data/logo Yes
accurately
PDF - ability to read tabular data Yes
PDR - ability to capture relative positions Yes (using XPATH)
Intelligent Character Recognition Automation
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) -Ability to recognize Yes
numbers
OCR - Ability to recognize the English alphabet Yes
Optical Character Recognition - Non-English Certain languages are
supported. May require a
commercial add-on
Handwritten Character Recognition (HCR) - Ability to Yes
recognize numbers
Handwritten Character Recognition - Ability to recognize Requires a commercial add-
the English alphabet on
Handwritten Character Recognition - Non-English Certain languages are
supported. Requires a
commercial add-on
Security and Auditability
Ability to encrypt data Yes
Ability to mask sensitive information - front end Yes
Ability to mask sensitive information - logs Yes - encrypted fields will
not be displayed in the logs
Automatic Backup Processes Yes
Detailed Application Log Yes - provides verbose
logging
Script Execution log Yes
User role management Yes - 3 user roles (Admin,
Designer, Guest)
Revision history of scripts Yes
Ability to roll back scripts Yes
Scalability and Availability
Disaster Recovery site support Yes
Automatic Backup Processes Yes
Ability to add the bot as required Yes
Ability to decommission the bot Yes
Support
Standard support hours ET 9.00 AM - 6.00 PM
IST 9.00 AM - 6.00 PM
Support Plan Options Provides flexible support
plans to suit the client's
requirements (Platinum,
Gold, Standard)
Help / Support materials Online User Guide,
Online training videos and
sample projects, User
Forum
Training Plans Free - Live Training Over
Web - Free
On-premises training - Paid
Licensing
License Plans Offers attractive Annual
Subscription based License
Plans including,
Enterprise License
Agreement (ELA) bundled
with RPA service offering
Starter Plan for small

enterprises
Professional Services
RPA Consultancy Provides both onsite and
offshore RPA consultancy.
Also, offers RPA design and
implementation, execution
and monitoring.

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RPA Tool Buyer’s Guide Copyright © 2016 Virtusa Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

Evaluation Criteria to Consider

Spectrum in the event the existing vendor

On the other hand, you, shopping

Also, you should look for a tool

ROI So yes, an execution dashboard is a

Criterion Accello RPA Tool 2

Starter Plan for small

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