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Last month, we introduced the new generation of WorkFusion’s free-to-download robotic process automation product, RPA Express*. Many of its extended capabilities and improvements were made in collaboration with the RPA Express community, as our product team listened carefully to feedback from the 20,000 companies who have downloaded the original version. To introduce the new RPA Express version, we held a webinar, which was attended by a large portion of our growing community of tech-savvy business people and business-savvy tech people. Naturally, they asked great questions. Here are the most popular ones:
What will happen when the free 30-day trial expires?
You will still be able to use RPA Express for free, but we’re giving every user 30 days to try the new features included with our Pro subscription.
RPA Express Pro features include:
- multiple bots on one machine
- multiple processes on the server simultaneously
- remote connections from workstations to the server
- multiple users that will be able to develop and publish bots on the server
Once the trial of these capabilities expires, you will still:
- have one bot on each machine on which RPA Express is installed
- be able to run consecutive business processes on your local machine
- have access to the full functionality of WorkFusion Studio, Control Tower and other RPA Express components on your local machine
What should I take into account when selecting the first process to automate?
When you select your first automation project, there are two main questions you should be able to answer.
1. Is your process streamlined and repetitive?
Your process flow should always be the same, and if there are any variations, there shouldn’t be too many and you should know them in advance and account for them in your process. Once you’ve learned RPA Express, you’ll find it easy to incorporate manual tasks in the process through the WorkSpace feature, but it’s best to start with a simple process that doesn’t require human action.
2. What data does your process use?
Study the data used in the process to understand whether it is digital and structured.
– If the data is digital and structured, your process is probably a good fit for RPA Express.
– If the data is structured but comes in the form of image-based content, like a PDF, you can still use RPA but you will need OCR to digitize your data. RPA Express comes with 1,000 free OCR pages and the Pro subscription provides even more.
– If the data is neither digital nor structured and comes in the form of email messages, PDFs, Word documents or website pages, your process will need cognitive automation, which uses machine learning to find patterns and train bots. Work like this is a great fit for our AI-driven RPA product, Smart Process Automation (SPA).
If I work with non-digital data, is there a way to control how many OCR pages I use?
In RPA Express 2.0, there is. There is an OCR page counter with topical information about the number of available OCR pages in your Platform Monitor.
Is there a ‘shortcut’ in learning how to use RPA Express?
RPA Express is designed for business users. To make it easy for business people to learn how to use new technology, we have set you up for success by giving you access to a lot of resources:
- Take community courses in Automation Academy
- Learn from guides and training videos in Documentation
- Read and ask lots of questions on the Forum
I want to run several business processes at the same time. How can I do it?
With the Pro subscription, you can run multiple bots in RPA Express, which means you can run several processes at the same time and define how many bots will run in each process. By defining the number of bots that each process uses, you can ensure all of them will be run simultaneously.
I want several people to have access to the Control Tower to develop and run bots. Is there a way to make sure they don’t change anything in the settings?
Yes, there is. RPA Express has a user-management system that lets an administrator assign different roles to users, to allow certain people access only to processes but not to settings.
Have a question we didn’t answer? Feel free to ask on the Forum. Besides our own WorkFusion team, there’s an abundance of super-savvy and active RPA Express users who are glad to help fellow bot-builders.
*RPA Express is no longer included in WorkFusion’s product offering.
Also published on Medium.