

Ask HN: What is business process automation? - haliax

It seems like visual AppleScript for business / apps that aren't scriptable...but there can't be an entire industry built on that, can there?
======
inerte
Sure it can, my team is working on a process automation which involves
replacing manual SAP form filling with a some virtual machines doing it 24/7.

Currently some person receives an Excel file and alt+tabs frantically to SAP,
taking ~9 minutes to fill its several forms. We'll replace this "process" with
a XML file and a bot, which does everything in ~1 minute.

It's easier, cheaper, faster and less riskier than asking SAP to have some
type of API or access to its DB.

Welcome to enterprise IT :)

~~~
rlpb
> It's easier, cheaper, faster and less riskier than asking SAP to have some
> type of API or access to its DB.

Less riskier? Really? I'd be worried about accidentally ending up making
changes on a completely unrelated screen, or accidentally hitting "delete"
instead of "modify" or something like that after some ordering somewhere
changes. Or perhaps some unescaped data ends up manipulating the GUI instead
of being entered in as data (eg. a tab).

At least with an API data is parameterized (cf. bobby tables) and the
operations that you are doing are fixed.

~~~
inerte
I think I could have expanded on that.

The "riskier" part is about DB access. In most environment, the powers that be
will not allow you to touch it (correctly), doing INSERTS/DELETES/ETC. So you
can pass through the risk management gate a form-filler robot, while if you
ask for direct DB access you'll hear a "no".

Anyway, even if you read me associating risk+API, I said "it's less riskier
than _asking SAP_ for an API". If your project depends on SAP doing anything,
you have a high risk of not happening :p

------
_delirium
A lot of it really is just that, though as you get complicated interactions
and a mess of "if this, then do this, otherwise first look this up then do
that based on what you find", it starts to look a little more like expert-
system-style AI, which is fairly involved (how do you capture that knowledge
from experts, how do you encode it, how do you check for errors or unexpected
situations, how can you update/maintain the process knowledge, etc.?).

For example, here's IBM's heavyweight entry:
<http://www-01.ibm.com/software/integration/wps/>

~~~
haliax
Do you know of any good texts/articles/case studies on the subject? This
sounds pretty interesting.

------
andymoe
Think of a bunch of people using <your favorite app> in a way that makes you
cringe. They doing it this way over and over without thinking about the
problem they are trying to solve. "It's always been done this way..." You
cringe enough and figure out the actual problem they are trying to solve and
make it so when you watch them work you cringe just a little bit less. You
could be the IT guy for a small business, at a bank or a consultant for a
large financial software firm. The idea is basically the same. Rinse and
repeat and most of all Enjoy... </jaded>

------
fragmede
Why not? There's an entire industry built on using humans instead of doing
said scripting. What do you think a 'temp' does?

