Leveraging emerging technology, two Army offices have come up with to automate processes and drastically cut the time it takes to generate reports.
The Army Research Laboratory and the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Financial Information Management have deployed the first automation for an interface error monitoring process using Robotic Process Automation, or RPA.
RPA-enabled Access OnLine iDocs Monitoring cut the processing time for report generation from 2 hours to 5 minutes, marking “a major milestone in the Army's efforts to automate time-consuming processes," Vincent Deright of ARL's Management, Manpower and Budget Branch, said in a April 15 statement.
"Deploying this automation helps pave the way for broader adoption and implementation of RPA across the Army enterprise," he added.
The Automated Research Capability and Assistance Bot, or ARCAB, will be beneficial to any routine process, said Swami Bandaru of ARL's Resource Management Division.
"ARCAB saves a lot of time and resources for the Army by eliminating human errors in the process," Bandaru said. "Being the first, it demonstrates the viability and paves way for future automations."