What Is RPA Blue Prism? A beginner’s Guide to Blue Prism

The world is moving towards building new processes. This has fueled the absolute necessity for automation. Every organization, big or small, is aiming to automate its business processes in a way that it complements the manual strategizing and processes remain uninterrupted. Robotic Process Automation is a new-age technological marvel that is being utilized by enterprises to automate their tasks and process. In this RPA Blue Prism article, you will learn all the concepts of the popular RPA tool, Blue Prism and learn how it can be used for automation.

The following are the topics covered in the blog:

• Introduction to Robotic Process Automation
• RPA Tools
  
• What is RPA Blue Prism?
  
• Features of Blue Prism
  
• Blue Prism Components
  
• Benefits of Blue Prism
  
• Case Study of Coca-Cola
  
• Companies Using Blue Prism

So let us get started with the discussion.

Introduction To Robotic Process Automation

Robotic Process Automation is a methodology in which robots perform a set of tasks by following a process, without any human intervention. All of these technologies reduce the manual workforce, by giving them time and harnessing their talents in better ways.

Well, robotic process automation does not include actual robots automating your tasks. But, it is the RPA Tools/Vendors providing you a set of libraries and runtime environments for automating business processes.

Talking about RPA Tools, let me quickly brief you on the market leaders of RPA.

RPA Tools

There are a various number of tools in the RPA market. But, the top trending tools in today’s market are UiPath, Blue Prism & Automation Anywhere. Refer to the below image.

Fig 1: Google Trends of RPA Tools – RPA Blue Prism

As you can see in the above trend, UiPath clearly wins the competition as it offers an easy to use visual designer to practice and automate tasks. But, in case of large automation in the enterprises’ business, Blue Prism takes over UiPath, as it provides various features such as Data Security, Data Abstraction, Analytics and many more.

So, with the note of this let me introduce you to Blue Prism.

What is RPA Blue Prism?

Blue Prism is an RPA Tool which holds the capability of virtual workforce powered by software robots. This helps the enterprises to automate the business operations in an agile and cost-effective manner. The tool is based on Java Programming Language and offers a visual designer with drag and drop functionalities.

Formed in 2001, this tool differs from the other tools in the market, by using a Top-Down approach. Also, Blue Prism offers a visual designer with no recorders, scripts or any intervention.

Features of Blue Prism

The features of RPA Blue Prism are as follows:

Fig 2: Features of Blue Prism – RPA Blue Prism

• Secure & Accurate –  There is no limit to the number of processes which need to be executed in this tool. Blue Prism delivers secure and accurate results to any number of processes that you wish to automate.
• Robust – It provides robust features like load balancing, data encryption, and end-to-end auditing. So, every change is audited and related back to the user related to it.
• Scalable & Resilient – It allows scalability with central management. So, all the processes can be automated as per the need and can be monitored centrally.
• 24*7 Workforce – The tool is designed to work intelligently without a person physically monitoring every action occurring on the screen.
• Analytics – Provides extended features to configure Dashboards so that the session information can be redirected to the Monitoring Systems.
• Data Security and Data Abstraction – As the tool is designed to work autonomously, all the processing is performed and is stored in a data center. This provides a well-defined data abstraction of data and process security.
• Provide Cloud support – Provides working capacity support as per the business requirement. So, users have to just create workers on demand and manage them centrally.
• Execution Intelligence – Robots connect to systems and react dynamically to the responses in the data on multiple environments.

Now, that you know the features of Blue Prism, let me tell you the main components of Blue Prism.

RPA Blue Prism: Blue Prism Components

In this section of the RPA Blue Prism blog, I will introduce you to the various components/essentials of Blue prism.

The four main components of Blue Prism are:

1. Process Diagram
2. Process Studio
3. Object Studio
4. Application Modeller

Process Diagram

Process Diagrams are business workflows, that act as software programs. Since Blue Prism is based on Java, these diagrams utilize core programming concepts and create the operational process flows like flow charts. The diagrams are basically graphical representations of workflows, to create, analyze, modify and scale the business capability.

Process Studio

Process Studio is the area in which the Process Diagrams are created. This component of Blue Prism offers features such as business logic, object call, control loops, and variables. Each process created has the Main Page which gets executed first.

Object Studio

Almost all the enterprises need to have communication with external applications to automate tasks. Since it cannot happen in Process Studio, Object Studio is used. Object Studio is the area where Visual Business Objects(VBO) are created.  These objects are nothing but diagrammatical programs interacting with external applications which perform operations.

One Business Object provides an interface with only one external application. Also, let me tell you that each Object Studio, does not have a Main Page, but it does have two default pages organized as a flat group.

Application Modeller

Application Modeller is the functionality to create application models with Object Studio. This exposes the UI Elements of a target application to Blue Prism program.

Benefits of Blue Prism

Blue Prism offers the following benefits:

• Better Service Quality: As end-to-end auditing is performed by the Digital workforce, this tool offers a better service quality.
• High Accuracy: This tool performs tasks in such a way that outcomes are produced with high accuracy and low errors.
• Scalable: Provides a scalable approach, as this tool is not based on scripts or recorders, but is based on intelligent Digital Workforce performing tasks.
• Quick Deployment of Services: The services can be easily deployed as it can automate the application’s controls, irrespective of their onscreen position.
• Flexible Workforce: The Digital Workforce is designed in such a way that it doesn’t need rest. It can work 24*7 without taking a break and give the same results with high accuracy.
• Statistics: This tool offers dashboards so that you can analyze the data, the process’s session and much more.

Case Study of Coca-Cola

Coca-Cola is one the world’s largest beverage company.  This company has more than 500 brands in 200 countries with 1.9 billion products by 200 million customers daily.

Company Objectives

The company objectives are as follows:

• Execute HR processes and strategies smoothly
• Perform HR operational processes with constant improvement
• Resolve employee queries with good quality

To address these goals, the company started using Blue Prism to automate processes within the finance division. After that, they ventured into using Blue Prism for other divisions such as HR.

Their first step was to identify the relevant processes for automation. The main criteria they considered were the process volume, the frequency of process and the workforce required for the process. Finally, 150 processes were identified which had to be automated.

Problems Faced By The Company

Before Coca-Cola started using Blue Prism, the HR services team had to audit 8 different sets of data. This took time, as the company was running reports, auditing them and then formatting them to analyze exceptions.

Solution

Coca-Cola obviously started using Blue Prism’s Digital Workforce to audit in SAP. All their processes were divided into multiple SAP systems to save time and drive focus on the resulting data. The reports generated by these automated processes then come to the respective teams to handle exceptions manually. Also, the reports could be tracked without the need for the extra manual workforce to track them.

Business Impact

The company started delivering better operational efficiencies with the production capacity to be extended from 8 hours/day to 24 hours.

The other business impacts are listed below:

• No additional headcount
• End to end auditing performed
• Improvement of customer experience with high human interaction

Companies using Blue Prism

There are many companies which use Blue Prism to automate their operations. For your knowledge, below are some of the top-hyper growth companies which use Blue Prism.

Fig 3: Companies Using Blue Prism – RPA Blue Prism

So folks! That’s an end to this blog. If you wish to give a jump start, to your career as an RPA Developer, then starting learning RPA and it’s various Tools.

We at Edureka, offer RPA Certification Program. Edureka is a trusted online learning company with a network of more than 250,000 satisfied learners spread across the globe. This training will help you gain deep knowledge in Robotic Process Automation and hands-on experience in UiPath.

Also, If you are looking to pursue a career in Automation? You should check for our RPA Developer Course Masters Program. The training courses include live instructor-led training, industry Use cases, and hands-on live projects. This training program will help you become confident in RPA and will help you get the job you’ve always wanted.

Got a question for us? Please mention it in the comments section of this RPA Blue Prism blog and we will get back to you.