How does RPA work and why is it essential for business growth?

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Jeff Prestidge

How does RPA work and why is it essential for business growth?
7:53

Most businesses run on an ERP system that centralises data and standardises processes, but the ERP itself doesn't eliminate manual work. Someone still needs to enter invoices, reconcile bank statements, and generate reports. These tasks follow clear rules, but they're repetitive and time-consuming.

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) automates these manual steps. Software bots replicate the actions a person would take at a computer: logging into systems, extracting data, clicking through screens, and completing transactions. The bot follows predefined rules and doesn't require breaks, doesn't make transcription errors, and can often work faster than a human once properly configured.

When applied to ERP workflows, RPA removes bottlenecks that slow operations and introduce errors. Instead of staff spending hours on data entry or validation, automated processes handle the routine work while people focus on tasks that require judgment or creativity.

How does Robotic Process Automation work?

RPA bots interact with software the same way people do. They log into applications, navigate interfaces, copy information between fields, and execute workflows based on rules. The bot doesn't bypass the system or access databases directly. It works at the user interface level, which means it can automate processes across multiple applications without requiring custom integrations or API development.

The technology handles rule-based, repetitive tasks particularly well. Data entry between ERP and CRM systems, accounts payable invoice posting, sales order creation from emails, bank reconciliations, and report distribution are common starting points. These processes involve consistent, structured data and clear decision rules, making them suitable for automation.

Take invoice processing as an example. A bot can scan incoming supplier emails, extract invoice details from PDFs, validate the data against purchase orders in the ERP, and post approved invoices automatically. Manual processing might take hours each week. An RPA bot completes the same work in minutes.

Robotic Process Automation RPA for business growth

RPA vs artificial intelligence

It’s easy to confuse RPA with artificial intelligence – but they solve different problems. RPA follows clear rules, whereas AI can interpret messy or unstructured data and apply a more holistic view. In practice, the two work best together where RPA can be used to automate a process, then add intelligence where judgment is needed or to translate unstructured data into an acceptable format for automation. Also, remember that if you automate a broken process, you'll just produce errors faster. You need to ensure any implementation of RPA focuses on improving the core processes before automating them.

RPA robotic process automation doesn't eliminate the need for human oversight. Bots can't handle every exception or error scenario, so you should still have standard operating procedures for staff to follow when the bot encounters something it can't process. Human judgment remains necessary, particularly for validation and exception handling.

If you're looking to identify which processes in your business could benefit from automation, our ERP automation services can help.

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Why RPA matters for SMEs

Cloud-based RPA platforms have made automation accessible to smaller businesses. What once required significant infrastructure investment now operates on flexible licensing models with lower upfront costs. SMEs operate under the same market and customer pressures as large enterprises, yet must deliver comparable results with far smaller teams. Process automation RPA allows them to scale operations without proportional increases in headcount.

For one client, they’ve been able to automate over 60% of their supplier invoice and bank transaction processing. As the business grows and enhances the systems that support that growth, these processes have been identified as something that the business must keep automated. The time savings are substantial and enable the team to focus on higher-value work that drives further growth and profit.

The biggest reason businesses turn to RPA is simple — it gives people back their time. Instead of spending hours on manual admin, teams can focus on customers, new ideas, and strategy. Automation also keeps things cleaner and faster behind the scenes, cutting down on errors and delays that slow decisions.

Common applications in ERP systems

Certain workflows are natural fits for automation. Data entry between ERP and CRM for customer updates or order synchronisation, accounts payable invoice posting, sales order creation from email requests, bank reconciliations, and automated report generation all involve high-volume, rules-based work with reasonably consistent data structures.

These aren't necessarily simple to automate, but they typically deliver quick wins. The impact is measurable and the business case is clear.

Industries with high transaction volumes or strict compliance requirements are adopting ERP process automation faster than others. Distribution, manufacturing, and professional services all handle significant data processing that benefits from automation.

Logiq Group are experts in RPA and ERP Automation

Scaling with RPA and ERP automation

Traditional ERP systems provide structure and centralisation, but they often require expensive customisation or manual workarounds when processes change. RPA adds flexibility by automating the tasks that ERP doesn't handle natively: bridging data between systems, automating approvals, managing exceptions. When a business grows, headcount doesn't need to scale at the same rate.

The next evolution combines RPA with AI for intelligent automation. Current RPA bots follow strict rules — if you add in AI capabilities like natural language processing, computer vision, or machine learning, it allows bots to handle unstructured inputs and make more sophisticated decisions.

As the AI scene evolves, document understanding will improve significantly, which will mean even more accuracy when processing invoices, orders and other documents that don't follow fixed formats. We also see customer service automation handling end-to-end service requests rather than just ticket triage or other more entry-level tasks that are currently possible. Predictive workflows will act proactively, flagging issues like late payments before they occur, and ERP data quality will benefit from AI spotting anomalies and RPA fixing them automatically.

Intelligent automation will shift from executing repetitive tasks to orchestrating entire processes with built-in judgment.

Starting your automation journey

For businesses new to automation, it helps to start small. Pick one process that’s repetitive and easy to measure – maybe something your team does every day but wishes they didn’t. Once that first pilot is running, the results usually speak for themselves. You save time, cut down on mistakes, and it quickly becomes obvious where automation can help next.

Automation works best when it is framed as a way to free people for customer work, strategy development, and growth initiatives. The businesses that succeed view automation as a capability for scaling, not a cost-cutting exercise or one-off project.

When integrated with ERP systems, RPA removes manual bottlenecks and allows businesses to scale operations efficiently. The technology is no longer exclusive to large enterprises. SMEs can implement automation quickly and affordably, freeing their teams to focus on work that drives growth.

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