Robotics Process Automation is one of the driving forces in automating a wide variety of back-end processes. According to McKinsey Future of Work study about half of the activities carried out by workers can be automated using technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Robotics Process Automation and Chatbots based on technologies available today.
Oracle R12, being one of the largest ERP applications in the world, you find surprisingly little information about Robotics Process Automation (RPA) for Oracle R12 eBusiness Suite. Compare this to SAP, where UiPath together with SAP has built specific features to support ERP process automation. Many organizations are automating a variety of processes in terms of data entry, content migration, master data maintenance and others using UiPath on SAP. We have clearly not seen the same level of activity for automation in the Oracle R12 world.
UiPath has entered in to a partnership with Oracle for RPA but unfortunately this primarily relates to Oracle Cloud, which, due to different front-end technology is much easier to implement than the true workhorse in large organizations, R12.
Given the different technologies used in Oracle R12 compared to Oracle ERP Cloud process automation represents a bigger technical challenge primarily because of Java Applets for particularly key data entry forms.
Oracle eBusiness Suite R12 global transaction volumes still far exceeds the number of transactions processed in Oracle Cloud. Oracle ERP Cloud is being implemented by many but smaller organizations whereas larger organizations are very slow to transition out of R12 in to Cloud ERP. Oracle already has committed support for R12 up to 2030, which is very likely to extend. These organizations cannot wait until 2030+ to automate ERP related processes.
Symprio, being a partner with both UiPath as well as Oracle, have been working to solve the challenges for Oracle R12 process automation using UiPath. The opportunities to automate ERP processes using RPA are tremendous given the large transaction volumes processed in Oracle R12. Some of the key challenges we have focused on includes dynamic elements in java applet forms, inconsistent error/warning messages, drop-down selections, wait times and others. We tried multiple RPA software solutions and landed on UiPath as the best solution for robotic process automation on Oracle R12.
- UiPath’s java extension
- Computer Vision technology
- Ease of use: Allowing ERP non-technical people to set up UiPath processes on Oracle R12
In addition, we have also built out a form-field library with thousands of error/warning messages and handlers for different forms in EBS and continue to expand this library as we tackle more and more of the forms in Oracle R12. This library will be made available as a REST API call which the UiPath robots can use. We can also add the instance specific attributes such as Oracle Flex Fields and Personalizations to this API handle client specific non-standard processes.
Demo: Oracle Accounts Payable invoice entry
In this particular simple demo we are entering PO-Match invoices to Oracle Accounts Payable using UiPath, demonstrating how errors and warning messages are handled. We have excluded the Computer Vision/OCR steps for invoice automation, as the purpose of this video is to demonstrate error handling and data entry using UiPath on Oracle R12.
In this particular flow we either fully complete an invoice (successfully validated) or, in case of any failure, we record the cause of the error and delete the transaction. This to avoid ending up with partially successful transactions. Once root cause is resolved the transaction will then be sent back to the robot to get processed.
Additional details in our blog post on UiPath RPA on Oracle EBS R12 Accounts Payables
Error handling is key to success
Implementing an assisted “happy flow” is nearly as simple as executing a DataLoader script, which anyone who has worked in Oracle space should be very familiar with. To enable a reliable and autonomous robotic process automation, robust detection and error handling is key. We would estimate that when developing a typical automation project 85% of the effort is on error handling, 15% on the “happy flow”.
This approach can be used for pretty much any Oracle form and can also be useful when implementing automated regression test scripts or support automation processes.
Enabling Support Automation using UiPath
Application support is often repetitive in nature and ripe for automation. We are also starting to use UiPath robots to automate Oracle support. By including dynamic queries on the Oracle database, these support robots can detect problem transactions, analyze and find the root cause, as well as resolve the particular issue. Instead of waiting for tickets to be raised by end users or manual efforts by the support team these types of support robots can result in significant reductions in tickets coupled with better satisfaction from the business.
By also incorporating artificial intelligent solutions or chatbots to communicate with people for clarifications and additional information the level of support automation can further increase.
Symprio, based in San Jose, California with offices in Singapore, Malaysia and India focus on Oracle R12 & Cloud, UiPath automation, Computer Vision document processing and AI-enabled chatbots.
To learn more, drop us a note at contact@symprio.com or visit us at www.symprio.com
