IBM Robotic Process Automation overview

IBM Robotic Process Automation is a hybrid-architecture tool that feature technologies to automatize recurring processes by replacing highly repetitive tasks to help workers spend their time in tasks that require more cognitive thinking.

It provides capabilities such as the following:

  • Recorder that watches your inputs and converts them to commands actions across various applications such as Windows™, Java™, and SAP™.
  • Support to run scripts like JavaScript, Windows™ script, and R script.
  • Ability to schedule bots, call them through the API, or launch them on demand.
  • Low-code authoring application to develop bots in a graphical interface by dragging commands into your script, or by coding with the authoring scripting language.
  • Options of deployment like on premises, container-based, or on the cloud with the SaaS offering.
  • Concurrent bot execution to increase scalability and run multiple bots on the same virtual host.

Where you can use it

Use IBM RPA to automatize tasks that are simple, consistent, and repeatable, where scenarios range from opening a file to scanning and recognizing text in images. The following list shows some scenarios where you can automatize processes:

  • Insurance claims tasks
  • Data collection and reporting
  • Regulations and compliance
  • Vehicle checks and reporting
  • Medical claims tasks
  • Order management

Learn more about how you can use IBM RPA through industry use cases:

What are the platform main components

IBM RPA's architecture revolves around a client and a server. The following image shows the main components for the server and client sides of IBM RPA.

High-level architecture for server and client side of IBM RPA.

For further details in the followings components, see Architecture.

Server-side

The server-side is responsible for the implementation of specific resources and services for the platform. The following list details its main components:

  • API Server
    The business logic of IBM RPA Control Center and brain-trust of managing the IBM RPA Control Center, enabling functions like scheduling and managing robots.

  • Cloud services
    IBM RPA might connect to cloud services such as Google™ Drive, Microsoft™ OneDrive, and Dropbox™ by configuring the handle in IBM RPA Control Center.

  • OCR
    IBM RPA uses ABBY as an OCR provider endpoint to provide optical character recognition features on the product.

  • Antivirus
    IBM RPA uses the open source ClamAV antivirus.

  • Watson NLP
    The Natural Language Processor provide by IBM. You can configure it on IBM RPA Control Center as the default Natural Language Processing provider for your scripts.

  • Database
    IBM RPA uses Microsoft™ SQL Server as database provider. It stores internal data related to the product workloads.

  • IBM RPA Control Center
    A web application that where you manage IBM RPA resources that are bound to your tenant, like scripts, computers, and credentials. For more information, see IBM RPA Control Center.

  • System Queue Provider
    The system queue provider enqueue events that the IBM RPA server must handle. Each offering supports different message queue providers like Azure Storage Queue, IBM Message Queue, Microsoft Message Queuing (MSMQ), and alternatively, IBM WebSphere MQ.

Client-side

The client-side contains the applications that are part of IBM RPA. The following list details its main components:

  • IBM RPA Launcher
    The IBM RPA Launcher is a client-side component for manually starting bots on your computer. This component loads the settings that are created in IBM RPA Control Center. For more information, see IBM RPA Launcher

  • IBM RPA Vault
    The IBM RPA Vault encrypts credentials that are used by bots. For more information, see IBM RPA Vault.

  • Bot Agent
    The Bot Agent is a local client-side component of IBM RPA installed as a Windows™ service. Its primary responsibility is to manage the activities and settings of the host computer by communicating with the IBM RPA server.

  • Bot Runtime
    The Bot Runtime is the runtime environment that runs scripts. When a Bot Runtime interprets a script and runs its commands, the bot is running. The Bot Runtime is a component available in all IBM RPA offerings.

  • IBM RPA Studio
    The IBM RPA Studio is the client's authoring application for building IBM RPA scripts. You can use some features offline, and some other features require integration with the server. For more information, see IBM RPA Studio.