Robotic Process Automation (RPA) capabilities to solve legacy systems integration challenges

Technological solutions are evolving at a very fast pace. This phenomenon leaves many enterprises facing huge issues with outdated software systems. Thus, when trying to keep up with new technologies many firms find it challenging to integrate the business-critical legacy systems with the new, faster, tailored, state-of-the-art solution.

As a result, the deployment and integration of new systems become a burden instead of a solution. However, there are many different approaches to remediate this issue.

• Manually

First, some businesses might consider training employees on how to manually transfer the data from one system to another. But this kind of repetitive task does not bring any value to the business. In fact, this task is very time-consuming, prone to errors, and increases the workload of your employees.

• API Integration

Secondly, one would claim that an API integration would be a perfect solution. However, this approach is better fitted for well-defined scenarios with frequent large transactions. Most importantly, both systems must support this kind of integration. Unfortunately, this is not always the case with many legacy systems. Additionally, it involves a high level of technical complexity carrying a much higher deployment cost offering less flexibility.

• RPA

Thirdly, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has demonstrated to be a great approach to integrate different systems either the legacy or state-of-the-art ones. It removes the issue of monotonous, manual and repetitive tasks done by your employees. Compared to the two previous approaches, the flexibility and robustness of RPA help to embrace change whilst keeping the cost of deployment and complexity low.

The RPA technological landscape has evolved hugely over the past years. Robots are now capable of performing more than just trivial actions. It integrates AI technologies to track and respond to unexpected changes. They have the native capability of integrating with a wide range of other applications. Additionally, the deployment of robots can be done seamlessly using cloud portals that will take care of the execution plan, exception handling, and security. It uses queues, schedulers, and triggers that respond to system changes and users’ inputs to start robots execution.

In conclusion, the integration of legacy and new software systems will always be challenging. Nonetheless, it is important to understand the scope and particularities of every integration context keeping in mind that there is not a “one size fits all” solution. But RPA can undoubtedly be a great solution from which companies will reap the benefits of robustness, flexibility, and low costs.

AMO uses both Uipath and Nintex as RPA providers. Get in touch with our team if you need any assistance with the integration of your legacy systems.