Latest IT staffers: Software robots for data entry and process tasks

The next member of your company's IT team might be a robot. Not the kind you'd typically see working on a factory assembly line, but a software tool that performs multiple digital tasks in an automated way. The market for robotic process automation (RPA), in which a software "robot" replicates the actions of humans such as entering data into an enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform, is slowly emerging as organizations look for ways to improve efficiencies and cut costs. Companies can configure RPA software to capture and interpret the actions of their existing applications used in a variety business processes. Once the software has been "trained" to grasp certain processes, it can automatically manipulate data, communicate with other systems, and process transactions as needed.