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New image of artificial intelligence, that is a few words about ChatGPT

Artificial intelligence (AI) has recently been one of the hottest technological trends. It has been the subject of interest, regularly posted by news portals, yet never as popular as in the fourth quarter of 2022. It is all about ChatGPT, that is a software able to answer any question asked by the user. What is it? How to use it? Who can benefit from that and who can lose? Read below for answers. ChatGPT phenomenon – what is it all about? ChatGPT won a million users in only 5 days. To see how enormous this achievement is, let’s just compare it to other leaders. Instagram waited 2.5 months, Facebook 10 months, while Netflix over 3 years to gain so many users! From the technological point of view, AI is not a novelty. Studies on this technology have been conducted for a few dozen years. The world has long been using artificial intelligence on a daily basis. Think about face recognition in mobile phones or adaptation systems in cars. Why ChatGPT is getting so popular? What is ChatGPT? ChatGPT is based on GPT included in the name, that is Generative Pre-trained Transformer. This is a language model, developed by OpenAI, that allows you to automatically generate texts based on input data. It has been ‘trained’ on the basis of a huge collection of data. Thanks to this, it is highly able to forecast words and sentences on the basis of the preceding text. ChatGPT relies on GPT-3 language model, published in 2020. It consists of as many as 175 billion(!) parameters. GPT models learn from an enormous base of online sources. They have indexed: many popular scientific platforms, e.g. Wikipedia; all available resources of texts and books, including academic works, public online platforms and news services; various blogs. Around 45 TB of data in total! It must be emphasized that these data are not imported on an ongoing basis. This means that you cannot get information on current events until they have been reprocessed by ChatGPT. Importantly the first version of GPT model emerged in 2018. This demonstrates how fast such technologies grow and proves that new solutions will emerge faster and faster. The conclusion is that we are just witnessing a new revolution of artificial intelligence. What can you use ChatGPT for? This technology can be used in diverse ways. At present it is most often used to study machine learning and natural language. The Chat GPT model is very flexible. It can be used in various situations that require human communication skills. And this means a big business potential as well! It can be used to do the following: generate answers to users’ questions in customer service systems; create automatic answers for chatbots; write answers while talking to people over the Internet; create contents for PC or mobile application chatbots; automate translations. The output content is impressive as it proves correct in terms of language and natural in terms of sounding. Obviously grammatical mistakes occur – particularly in Polish that is one of the most difficult languages in this respect. Is ChatGPT ready to replace a human interlocutor? A group of scientists from the Faculty of IT and ICT at the Wrocław University of Technology checked ChatGPT under the CLARIN initiative. The team asked AI over 38 thousand questions in 25 categories. Their goal was to check: how the technology could react to sarcasm, if it could construe a broader context of speech, if it was able to comprehend jokes. The results were comparable to the ones applicable to other currently best natural language processing models (the so-called SOTA: state of the art). According to scientists from Wrocław University of Technology, ChatGPT performed a bit worse than other technologies of this sort. The studies also demonstrated that it was very useful for quick information search. However, if you prioritize high-quality conclusions, search results may prove insufficient. The key advantages of ChatGPT proved to be awareness of the context and possibility of customizing answers. On the other hand the chat was unable to catch up in case of sudden change of subject. To summarize, ChatGPT is a huge opportunity. Yet its implementation entails numerous hazards. If used, it may cause users not to feel required to browse through sources of information. The changes that arise from use of advancing technologies also apply to the social sphere. Just have a look at results of using a common GPS navigation or systems that automatically suggest ‘best-matching’ products in online stores. In this context come questions about freedom of choice or human skills. The ones that we abandon – that is using map on one’s own or ability to move in the space and searching for information by ourselves. In spite of this, modern technologies have a big potential and people need to keep reasonable while facing them.   Author: Monika Serafin – Service Delivery Manager   Source: https://www.politykabezpieczenstwa.pl/pl/a/chatgpt-co-to-takiego-jak-z-niego-skorzystac https://www.fxmag.pl/artykul/goracy-temat-inwestowanie-w-sztuczna-inteligencje-sprawdzamy-jakie-spolki-zajmuja-sie-sztuczna-inteligencja-i-na-jakie-elementy-zwracac-uwage-przy-inwestowaniu-w-ai https://pwr.edu.pl/uczelnia/aktualnosci/chatgpt-wywolal-rewolucje-jak-wiele-zmieni-w-naszym-zyciu-12824.html  

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Technological trends – what to expect in 2023

In the IT industry, a new year sounds pretty interesting. The importance of automation, artificial intelligence and big data analysis as well as new hacker protection methods is on the increase. Following the Gartner Institute’s estimations, global expenses on IT will rise by over 5%, i.e. 4.6 trillion dollars, in 2023. The value of IT market in Poland will be 56.6 million zlotys, with a nearly 10-million increase until 2026. According to the Deloitte’s report, new technological trends will dominate the months to come and will soon have a considerable influence on development of companies. The following three aspects will drive the aforesaid growth: technology management, digital security and platform modernization. TECHNOLOGICAL TREND NO. 1 – METAVERSE, that is when enterprise start using AR and VR capabilities Metaverse is a virtual world that can be used via AR application and VR headset. So far such experiences have been limited to the entertainment. However this technology has enormous potential. It is estimated that until 2026 around 25% of consumers will have spent in virtual reality about one hour a day. At present only 30% of companies use this technology and have ready-made products and services. Interestingly METAVERSE is becoming more and more frequently used for business. Some enterprises have already started taking advantage of ‘unlimited virtual reality’ in order to build business models. Current trends show that the Internet will soon turn to be a great place to interact with customers. Thanks to such an approach, it will be possible to rebuild commitment and customer loyalty as well as test new ideas. TECHNOLOGICAL TREND NO. 2 – ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, that is how to place unconditional trust in artificial intelligence Enterprises that use AI (artificial intelligence) successfully make themselves and their instruments trustworthy. And this is what gives them a competitive edge. Artificial intelligence-based algorithms can perform tasks similar to humans’. Thanks to this, they are allowed to take decisions that go beyond simple business rules, relying on machine learning and artificial intelligence. The companies that intend to develop and expand the impact of the artificial intelligence in their businesses need to know the significance of trust in AI. It is as important as the number or force of algorithms. For this reason customers will choose technologies that prove credible. If this criterion is not met, they will not be willing to use them. TECHNOLOGICAL TREND NO. 3 – CLOUD, that is how to control chaos over clouds Presently many enterprises already use cloud solutions and their use potential is getting bigger and bigger. Sadly numerous businesses feel overwhelmed by the number of cloud applications. The solution to this problem may be a multicloud. Following the assumption of this technology, it is all about optimizing complexity of cloud environments and cloud management merger based on one control panel. It provides many cloud platforms with an access to common services. Cybersecurity is important with regard to using this instrument. In view of the risk, not all data can be managed under multicloud. TECHNOLOGICAL TREND NO. 4 – PEOPLE, that is how important IT personnel flexibility is A rapid technological development also entails huge challenges to people and their skills. Engineering qualifications quickly become outdated. Organizations are not able to hire new employees who have specific skills applicable to every technological shift. This is why experienced managers opt for flexible team members who can quickly adapt to changes and expand their competences. Thanks to this, modern companies are capable of shaping, supporting and retaining the best specialists. Such entities provide themselves with a permanent access to professionals by offering attractive terms of employment and a well-thought-out organizational structure. It is based not only on IT capabilities, but also interpersonal skills. This allows employees to flexibly develop in the field of new technologies inside the company. TECHNOLOGICAL TREND NO. 5 – DECENTRALIZATION OF ARCHITECTURE AND ECOSYSTEMS, that is blockchain technology Blockchain is a list of records interconnected to one another with the use of cryptography that is used in applications, business models, systems, IT architecture, supply chains and cybersecurity. The systems that are based on this technology have become crucial in creating and monetizing digital assets. They are also adopted in building digital trust. A rising awareness of the potential of this technology derives from comprehensive understanding of its role in fostering the credibility rise. This solution brings invaluable benefits to a growing group of businesses. TECHNOLOGICAL TREND NO. 6 – SYSTEM MODERNIZATION, that is how mainframe is gathering momentum In view of fast-changing technologies, it is no longer profitable to get rid of outdated and rarely used systems. Therefore companies are eager to modernize them and combine with new technologies. The mainframe technology is a guarantee of a few-dozen years’ support to the existing software. Thanks to this, it allows operation of some IT solutions that date back to the previous century. A large group of businesses hold that unquestionable advantages of the mainframe technology cannot be overestimated. Single mainframe servers prove best-efficient on the market. Moreover they assure flexible scalablity, high availability (HA) and uninterrupted operation in case of major failures (DR). It must be noted that the mainframe technology is continually subject to improvements. As you can see, current technological trends place a big emphasis on automation and system integration on one hand, and security on the other. In effect it seems profitable to follow them in the long term.   Author: Monika Serafin – Service Delivery Manager   Source: https://www.rp.pl/analizy-rzeczpospolitej/art37619441-technologiczne-trendy-na-2023-r Jakie będą trendy technologiczne w 2023 roku? https://www2.deloitte.com/pl/pl/pages/technology/articles/trendy-technologiczne-tech-trends-raport.html https://www.computerworld.pl/news/10-trendow-technologicznych-na-2023-r-prognoza-Gartnera,441848.html

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Error management – the most important and difficult stage of automation

Robots, just like us, not always do keep an eye on our surroundings. The difference between them and us is that a robot has to anticipate all potential failures and has to be prepared (with help from a developer, of course), for the upcoming problems. I used to learn that error management is a key factor of an automation project, like 80% of it. I fully agree. Besides, when an error handling is a missing part, then I – a robot, may not work as requested. The crucial points are the interactions with humans. When input data is not extracted or downloaded from applications but delivered by a human, which means this input is prepared manually, then there is a high risk that the robot will receive erroneous data or data related to the scenario that is not handled. In that cases, preventive actions have to be introduced. Poka-Yoke From Lean Six Sigma methodology comes an approach called Poka-Yake (in japanize: mistake-proof).  It prevents functionality from incorrect usage of the given tools. For instance, when a robot is to be started by means of a mail sent by an operator, an Excel sheet is prepared as a template for a user to provide input data. Based on a control XLSX file, a robot processes a data validation and yet after this, it will run the planned steps. The solution can be designed based on a Visual Basic for Application or data validation procedures. As a result, a user receives an efficient tool that simplifies his work, and at the same time prevents a robot from committing errors. Naturally, it is tended to lead to the situation when erroneous orders will not get the robot at all. When a preliminary data validation is not possible on the operator’s side, then the same verification process must be triggered on the robot’s side. Application environment and the robot’s work The next source of procedure errors is missing control over an environment the robot works in. For instance, the status of the robot station is unknown: Did the process that had been running previously leave behind a mess? Were applications necessary for the run started? Are licenses available for each of the applications in use? Are RAM resources sufficient? We may encounter errors during a process start as well as during running. For the process to start properly, the robot has to have a possibility to prepare a work environment, that is to close all unnecessary applications running both in the robot’s process and in other processes started for the machine robot is working on. It is important to close the applications from the relevant session when we let several sessions on the machine run in parallel. Unfortunately, the Kill option does not distinguish between an application we have just started and an application that was started by another user, so we have to be careful not to let the robot close the functions dedicated to processes different than ours. Ready for every scenario How to recognize an application’s bottleneck. Even if we know the way a given program works well, it does not mean that this program works identically on the client’s side. First of all, you have to work over the process with a business analyst to recognize and name critical points for which there is a risk of failure in the case of manual operations. Knowing these a good developer can define process steps that require special attention. Fortunately, there is a lot of different tools to manage such scenarios that can be combined in numerous ways. For instance, for the try-catch structure, we can select more than one action scenario depending on the type of error returned to let some of them be processed once more. So, the error of type Selector Not Found can lead to the conclusion that web application has not started processing yet. Then we have to wait for the next 30 seconds. Whilst the other errors will terminate work on transaction and robot will reach for another task from the queue. XELTO DIGITAL Framework Any long-lasting analysis guarantees that a robot is well prepared for any scenario. That’s why there is very important to build such a robot structure, that can anticipate a different kinds of errors unknown for now that will be handled by default. This default way of treatment can be logging out from the application operation, closing a browser, and process restart with an order next in line. We have already mentioned our Framework – click to recall – that is used in each automation we deliver. One of its key factors is this default error handling. Thanks to these facilities a job can be continued even if an unpredictable scenario arises. Standardized error nomenclature Last but not least issue in error handling is communication. Depending on a given scenario a problem may be temporary or require investigation from an operator or developer. Xelto Digital Framework has a mechanism built in to distinguish between system errors and business errors. Business errors are dispatched to users working with robot whilst system errors are a matter of provider repair actions. An error naming is a very important element introduced to the Framework and helps to organize error handling over the processes in which several robots are involved. This way there is of no importance in which robot a particular error is found – the error meaning and way of handling are what matters and these are the same for all robots. Most important and most difficult At the bottom line, error handling is one of the most difficult and crucial steps in automation design. Automation has to be multilayer starting from input data validation and online connection checking, throughout bottlenecks monitoring to unpredictable scenarios handling. Author: Rafał Korporowicz – Senior RPA Developer

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ACCOUNTS PAYABLE – Ed Robotovsky – the digital specialist

Working in this department is mainly the registration and processing of financial transactions related to procurement and suppliers. This includes checking the correctness of the entered data, which in turn ensures timely payment for the purchased goods. This means that it is an important stage in the process of smooth cash flow in the company. Let’s take one of the most important positions in this department, that is, the Data Entry Specialist who updates the system based on incoming invoices. Can the user input activities for incoming vendor invoices be automated? Of course. “What’s in it for me?” Let us try briefly to answer this potentially obvious question. What is the expected result and what prompts companies to introduce as much automation as possible in this area without the risk of reducing jobs currently occupied by people and with the potential return on investment in the form of many savings? The key aspect here is the efficient assistance (with an emphasis on the ‘assistance’ word) of the robot in the most erroneous activities, which can be significantly accelerated and which bring the greatest savings for the company. The AP area is a wide field for automation on many levels; complex automation or by means of the so-called building blocks, with various levels of advancement and robot independence. If the automation includes receiving e-mails, reading, and then registering invoice data in the system, we are talking about saving time and eliminating errors resulting from a large amount of processed data. If the automation concerns the validation of invoices and accounting documents received via e-mail, it includes verification of e-mail senders, the correctness of attachments (e.g., lack of attachments); it can introduce such elements as sorting and archiving documents in appropriate registers or printing. The robot can enter data of accounting documents into any ERP system, and it does it quickly and flawlessly. What is the role of a man? From the executive, it goes into the decision-making one. It is the human being who makes the right decisions based on the data provided to the robot. Decides what to do with incorrect document formats or incorrect (not expected) data. It is the human who finally approves the reports on the robot’s operation and validates the data in the system. Additional robot-user communication tools, coupled with the robot’s operation, in the form of mobile or desktop applications, constitute a decision management panel and undoubtedly facilitate the user’s actions. Therefore, one can speak here of a constant increase in the level of user satisfaction when his tasks evolve in the direction from uniform data registration operations to analysis and making substantive decisions. Author: Monika Stawicka – Business Analyst

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Withholding Tax – How are voicebots helpful? (II)

With new regulations on due diligence in withholding tax, many Polish companies will have to face new challenges. These regulations are intended to enhance the detection of possible irregularities, increase the recoverability of withholding tax (WHT), and generally improve the control in this area. The withholding tax rate is 19% or 20%, so to avoid such high amounts, one can for example exercise due diligence. Due diligence in withholding tax refers to the appropriate verification of the counterparty in various aspects (including, but not limited to, the nature and scale of its business activities). Possibilities of automation Many of the tedious and time-consuming tasks can be delegated to a virtual workforce. The entire subject focuses largely on getting information out of the counterparty itself by interviewing the him, obtaining relevant documents from the counterparty, and carrying out online research (including, but not limited to, downloading data from publicly available registers). Once all the necessary data has been collected, it should be compared in order to verify that the data possessed by the company is in line with the information collected during the verification. However, the clause on the verification of the telephone number provided by the counterparty may attract particular attention. Actually, the RPA is unable to call the customer and verify that it has got through the corrrect company, right? Right – the RPA does not offer this functionality for the time being, but other technology, that is the title voicebots, comes to help. A new era of communication with robots A voicebot, as the name implies, is a program used to communicate with users through voice channels. A lot of people have probably already come into contact with such software (e.g. products like Siri or Alexa). When you call many companies, you are often referred directly to a voicebot, which informs you, for example, that the call is recorded and tells you to select the relevant number depending on the matter you are calling about. More precisely, technology has already become very popular and we deal with it almost every day, so I think it is worth learning how it works and what benefits it can bring about. First of all, to be able to communicate with a human, the virtual assistant needs a comprehensive knowledge base that it can use. During a conversation, the bot converts a human utterance into text (speech to text, STT) and matches it to a predefined context, so that it can choose the right answer or perform the appropriate action. Of course, the more information stored in this knowledge base, the more effective the bot is and the more natural the conversation is. For example, if someone asks about the status of their order, the bot will identify the key words (e.g., status, order, fulfilment) and match one of the defined answers from the knowledge base, e.g., “Please provide your order number”. At this point, it should be noted that it is common practice that suitable scenarios are created for a bot to result in the achievement of a specific goal, and here too a dependency between the number of scenarios and the effectiveness will apply. In the above example, the scenario could be as follows: the bot recognises the intent of a person (checking the order status), asks them for the correct number (if not provided before), and then checks the order in the system, provides the relevant information to the person, and asks if it can help with anything else. In addition to the knowledge base containing the key words, speech contexts and scenarios, the voicebot must also have some elements of artificial intelligence. The most important component seems to be the natural language processing (NLP) engine, which allows human speech to be processed and spoken words to be recognised. However, the NLP itself is a subject for a separate article, and I will only mention that there are many such engines (which are more or less efficient) and they are offered by manufacturers such as Amazon or Google. In addition, the NLP engine can be supported by the above-mentioned STT or ASR (automatic speed recognition). Voicebots – possible applications and benefits One of the unusual applications for a voicebot is undoubtedly the verification of a counterparty’s telephone number. The example of scenario would be as follows: the voicebot calls the provided telephone number and checks to see if the telephone is received at all. If this happens, the called person is informed of the purpose of the call and asked to confirm that the appropriate place has been reached. The conversation is then transcribed and sent as a text to the RPA, which attaches the output to the final report. With this solution, the entire verification process can be performed automatically and the human only receives the final report. As regards the areas where voicebots are used most often, the broadly defined customer service is strongly at the top of the range. This solution is very good for solving simple problems, such as the above quoted order status check, complaint lodging, etc. In such cases, the consultant can be fully replaced by a bot, and thus the process can be automated and the cost of the service reduced. In addition, the customer service time is reduced, which may affect overall service satisfaction. Of course, voicebot technology is not perfect, and it is not possible to completely replace human work at the time being. Coming back to the order status check example once again, the customer may not know their order number and such a path has not been programmed for the bot. If this is the case, the caller should be routed to the consultant to provide more details to resolve the case. Maksymilian Sobol – RPA Developer Source: Nowe zasady podatku u źródła – EY, Voicebot: co to jest chatbot głosowy?

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Part 13. SAP – and nothing else needs to be added

The first season of the series about my adventures has just come to an end. So I would like to briefly sum up what happened in the last couple of months. If you followed my footsteps, you know perfectly well that I have turned from a regular robot into a fairly avant-garde Ed Robotowsky. I have been wearing a suit for a while now, my manners are impeccable, and I love to meet new people and join the teams of our Clients. At the end of the first season, I will tell you a secret. In the XELTO DIGITAL team, I am Ed, but, after automating the processes and joining the teams of Our Clients, I get a new name from my new Colleagues and embark on new, even more interesting adventures with each of the teams. If you are curious about the names I received so far, including female ones, follow the second season. In the meantime, let’s find out, for the last time in this season, about mine and Kamil’s opinion on the methods of process automation in the SAP ERP system.  With the Expert’s eye: ERP systems are a regular feature in IT resources of large production companies that we meet in the context of automation of most processes. ERP systems follow business resources, such as cash, raw materials or production capacity, and the status of business liabilities, e.g. orders, purchasing and payroll. The applications comprising the system share these data to create an integrated and constantly updated view of the basic business processes with the use of shared databases kept by the database management system. As a pioneer in creating such software, SAP was and still is the leader on the market. When implemented properly, the SAP ERP system is characterized with highly developed work culture and stability, which makes it a good basis for automation. Suffice it to say that the system itself is designed so as to enable the automation of some actions: it has a built-in register of macros which can be used also in our robots, but let me get back to this later. NOTE: It needs to be remembered that to use all the blessings of automation, we need to first activate it at the server. This happens with the RZ10 transaction where we must edit the appropriate parameters. An unquestionable benefit of automation of the SAP ERP system is a wide range of methods available for the purposes of automation. Robots created with the use of the UiPath may draw upon the whole database of universal actions which usually communicate with the SAP interface without any problems and create very stable and unambiguous selectors. Apart from the default actions, the UiPath additionally prepared the suite of actions dedicated to SAP. These actions support the most frequent actions, such as system login, call for relevant transactions or readout of current message on the status bar, etc. They make the work on automation even more effective, and we do not have to spend time on programming all actions from scratch. Another method I already mentioned is to record scripts with the use of macro register in SAP and to call them out with the code module. In this way, we can perform actions that cannot be performed at the time when we use the interface in a standard way (e.g. checking several columns in the table at once), or we can perform them more effectively. It may also be a kind of workaround when the basic actions do not fulfil their purpose, but this does not happen very often. To sum up: the processes supported by the SAP ERP system are well suited for automation after meeting several other conditions. The way the application works with the UiPath and the stability of created solutions allow us to think that the processes automated in this way will cause no problems in use and will not require much maintenance outlay. Author: Kamil Ga؜wl؜ista – RPA Developer Foto: Freepik

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Part 12. Edward explores the secrets of the LEAN SIX SIGMA philosophy

During the holidays, most of our clients rested taking advantage of the holiday season. Whereas, I had more time to broaden my horizons. Thanks to the kindness of my teammates, I learned a lot about automation and more. My friend Rafał agreed to share his knowledge about the LEAN SIX SIGMA philosophy with me. The Expert’s eye: The people I often talk to ask me if a given process can be automated? To some extent controversially, I always answer yes. Nevertheless, I always add that the more important question is whether the process can be automated in its current form. At this point, the situation is usually already complicated and it appears that automation is only the next step to be taken on the way to a specific destination, but certainly not the first one. It is said that the only constant in life is change. The same applies to processes that are constantly evolving through changes in the environment in which they work. These can be legal, technological, internal structure or customer profile changes. For example: working with paper documents is giving way to their digital counterparts, which has forced the implementation of digital signature tools. This also leads to the deployment of a methodology to address the implementation of Continuous Improvement. One of them is the LEAN SIX SIGMA, which is a combination of the Lean and the Six Sigma concepts which  tries to implement and combine the best solutions from both approaches. It is based on several key issues. Genichi Genbutsu – freely translated as “go and see”. The essence of this approach is that managers should not only spend time behind the desk, but also go and see the causes of a problem situation at its source, i.e. where the specific product is being manufactured. The point is that, in order to solve specific problems, it is first necessary to thoroughly familiarise oneself with each stage of the process, carry out an analysis and draw conclusions. For business process automation this means that managers and directors should also be familiar with the processes performed by their subordinates. This makes it easier for them to identify which processes should be automated first from the perspective of the company strategy. Decisions should be based on the following steps: Set the goal Select the area Visualise the process Observe and ask questions Review the observations Identify the differences between the actual situation and the desired situation Present the results The sequence of these successive events is very similar to the next Lean Six Sigma issue, which is the DMAIC cycle consisting of five phases. DEFINE The Define phase allows you to determine exactly what the problem is and what is necessary to solve it. The goal set like this should be SMART, i.e. specific (S), measurable (M), achievable (A), relevant (R), and time-based (T). MEASURE This allows you to move to the next phase, that is Measure, where we describe how to make observations, and then make appropriate calculations to determine the current process efficiency. ANALYZE This leads directly to the next phase – Analyse. IMROVE At this stage, we already have the basic data available to make a decision, which allows us to implement the necessary changes in the Improve phase. The devised solution should be tested, checked, and finally implemented. To do this, you can use the PDCA cycle and the FMEA. CONTROL The last phase is Control, which is designed to verify the assumptions which have been made and to determine whether the specific problem has been solved. The already mentioned PDCA, known as the Deming Cycle, is based on dividing the implementation of an improvement into four stages: Plan – placing the main focus on what is not working properly Do – implementing changes as a test Check – reviewing the results to see if the test has passed Act – implementation into production Methodology circularity is characteristic here, since the end of phase Act should result in starting phase Plan again. However, if the experiment is unsuccessful, you should skip the implementation into production phase and move back to preparing a new plan – until the problem is solved. How can the FMEA be implemented in all of these? FMEA (Failure Mode and Effects Analysis) is an analysis of the types and effects of possible errors and is aimed at taking preventive actions to prevent the effects of defects that may occur at both the design and manufacturing stages. The main assumption is that approx. 75% of errors occur in the production preparation phase. On the other hand, they are detected only at the production phase and during the operation (approx. 80% of errors). How does it work? In the first stage, we first need to set our goal, gather the team, decide what we are going to analyse, break the process down into its constituent parts, and finally collect the data. They in turn will serve us at the time of both the qualitative and quantitative analysis. The final step is to plan corrective actions, implement them, and observe. All the elements which I have written about can be implemented very well both in the deployment of further automations and in the optimisation of already existing processes. Before a programmer begins to work, he or she has to go through the Genichi Genbutsu procedure together with the analyst to get a good understanding of the process to be automated. Then they create a master work plan which is very similar to the way the DMAIC cycle works. The programming itself takes the form of: Plan => Program => Test => Deploy, which is deceptively similar to the PDCA methodology. At the same time, the programmer together with the SME and the analyst prepares the list of potential errors and determine how to handle them in accordance with the FMEA method. Perhaps not everything runs by the book or contains standard documentation, but the hard core of these methods is always the same.

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Part 11. Ed and art: what are the common features of robotization and painting pictures

Today’s episode will be quite unusual. Well, knowing me, it would be possible to say that – on the contrary – it will be as it always is. I recently went to the studio of a certain painter. We were sitting on the veranda and vividly discussed art. Generally speaking, one can say that we are from completely different worlds, but the longer we were talking and the more each of us learned about the secrets of our works, the quicker we came to certain conclusions. But let’s start from the beginning. I have always been intrigued by painting. I remember I once went to an exhibition of works of art by French Impressionists at the National Museum in Krakow. The works of two artists, Claude Monet and Edgar Degas, are most engraved in my memory. Monet’s “Fishing Boats” and “Sunrise” and “The Dance Lesson” by Edgar really impressed me. When the painter started to tell me how a picture is created, I began to see some analogies to creating business process automation. Just see: How is a painting created manually? The first step is to stretch the canvas onto the frame, and the artist always ensures that the canvas is perfectly tight. At the beginning a sketch is created – this is an important and difficult stage, because it will be the basis for what the viewer’s eye can admire later. Then the most interesting and creative process takes place, the actual painting – playing with paints, the brush and even… a spatula! For a good artist, no techniques are secret, and new challenges are welcomed with enthusiasm. After hours of work and drying, the picture is ready. How is an automation created? The first step is to meet the customer, and the developer always ensures that the process is perfectly known and understood. At the beginning a “sketch” is created, that is, in our understanding, the process documentation based on which the developer will create a robot. This is an important and difficult stage, because it is the basis for how the robot will work later. Then the most interesting and creative process takes place – creating the robot. Our developers are familiar with a lot of different techniques, and treat each automation like a new challenge and accept it with a great deal of enthusiasm. After hours of work and testing, the business process automation is ready. Do you see these similarities? There are a lot of similarities, but there is one fundamental difference. The creative process is long and demanding and the automation has to be fast and efficient if it is to meet the expectations. At the end of our conversation, we unanimously concluded that automating business processes is a kind of art of the 21st century. Finally, the painter said to me: “Do you know what, Ed? You’re an artist in the same vein as I and the French Impressionists are.” Author: Edward Robotowski

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Where is my second home? In Prague!

Recently, I was thinking where I should turn my further steps on my path of automation. I have already known Poland quite well, so why not to make a trip abroad? I was always dreaming to see the country of my origin. Do you know where the word ROBOT came from? From Czechia! The word ‘robot’ was first used to name a fictional humanoid in the 1920 Czech-language play R.U.R. by Karel Čapek. But where to go first? Where would people most appreciate my help? It should be a big city, with a lot of opportunities. I think it is clear, it must be Prague! I heard many stories about Prague. It is one of the safest capitals in the world, it has incredible old architecture with main attractions such as the Prague Castle, the Charles Bridge or the Old Town Square with the Prague Astronomical Clock, and you can get there the best beer in the world! So, let’s call my Czech colleague Michael, have one beer with him and discuss how I can help people in Czechia. My dream came true! Starting from July XELTO DIGITAL CZECHIA is in bussines!    

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Part 10. What is the connection between ServiceNow and a dress code?

During a conversation about the ServiceNow platform, Tomek asked me: ‘Ed, why are you wearing a suit?’ Did I tell you the story about where my wretched dress code came from?  Without it, I can’t imagine being myself today. The whole adventure started with my Curriculum Vitae (I will tell you another time about where the idea for it came from). Well, as I decided to have my own CV, it had to look very professional. After all, a CV is a showcase that indicates what kind of man, pardon, robot, the  candidate is as  a future employee. And, in addition to experience in itself, an important – if not the most important – part of a CV is the photo. Hence, the need to purchase a suit. With the Expert’s eye: A popular platform, which is being used in more and more companies, is undoubtedly ServiceNow. ServiceNow is designed to manage various projects and processes – to operate HR departments, HR processes and financial departments. The implementation of this platform provides companies with the opportunity to standardise and speed up their processes. Thanks to the process standardisation, there is room for automating tasks that appear on the platform. The automation of platforms such as ServiceNow can of course be made in the standard way via the user interface. This is quite effective, but it is not the only way we can create bots. UiPath provides two solutions for the automation of ServiceNow. One of them is to connect to ServiceNow with the UiPath Orchestrator connector, i.e. UiPath Spoke. With this option, you can control the robot by using tasks in ServiceNow. The second option is to use the activity pack, which offers several activities to work with ServiceNow from the robot level. Its main component is ServiceNow Scope where you can connect to ServiceNow using the API. To make a connection, you need to enter parameters such as: clientID, clientSecret, password, and the link to the platform. Within the ServiceNow Scope activity, you can perform operations on tasks, download attachments and update statuses. Sometimes, however, the collection of these activities may not be sufficient, therefore I would also recommend checking the package of activities created by Cristi Negulescu. That package contains up to 90 ServiceNow-related activities. Despite being able to work with the interface, I am a very strong supporter of using all the available means to work outside the user interface. This greatly speeds up the work of robots, and also ensures the high stability of the solution. In addition, you are not exposed to possible errors due to improper unclicking. The application of this method is also a major simplification when working with attachments, where, in a classic approach, we would have to make a few clicks, each carrying the risk of error. By using the API, we download them within a single activity. As an interesting side note, I’d like to add that Ed managed to set the task execution status to the one he invented. A user can only select from the available options, but a robot has no such restrictions. The only problem you may encounter is the knowledge of the relationship between tables. For example, attachments can be scattered between two tables, where the key in one table is the task number, and the key in the second one is the superior task number. To avoid wasting much time searching for relationships, it is worth looking at the structure of objects in the table you want to query. This capability is provided by activities in the UiPathTeam.ServiceNow.Activities package, which also allow SQL queries to be used. In summary, thanks to cooperation with UiPath, ServiceNow can act as a robot control tool, allowing the internal processes existing on the platform to be automated. If ServiceNow is an intermediate portal where you start or end a process, it is even more recommended to use tools that run in the background to reduce the operation of the robot to the minimum. This can be very profitable especially when the rest of the process works in a system that has some processing limitations or is simply lengthy.  I think it is worth familiarizing yourself with each option and choosing the one that best affects the automation in question. Author: Tomasz Sioła – RPA Developer

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Part 9. Einstein and Ed – some digressions on human interaction

I recently had a rather unusual dream. Of course, I don’t normally sleep because I work 24/7, but I used a temporary time window because of a forced technical break in the operation of my customer’s major ERP program and took a nap for a moment. I dreamed about a conversation with a wonderful man, the Nobel Prize winner – Albert Einstein. Initially, I felt a bit strange because the dream took place in 1950s and, in  the café where we met, I looked as if I were from outer space. After waking up, before returning to work, I quickly called Monika and told her what we had been talking about with Albert. With the Expert’s eye: “I fear the day technology will surpass human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.” – Albert Einstein I don’t know whether it is a so-called urban legend or the professor did indeed say this. If so, he said it no later than in the 1950s. Now, we are technologically light years away from that moment. But the fear is still relevant. Has technology created a generation of idiots? I would not risk such a thesis. Does ubiquitous technology impede human interaction? Yes, absolutely. Perhaps this is because we are living in the age of technological innovations which are so frequent and so intense that we have no time to distance ourselves from them. We are so immersed in them that it does not occur to us to reflect on whether we actually need them all? We used to ask ourselves if one can live without a television. Today we are asking if we could do without social media. Of course, we could, but it requires effort and determination. And we are becoming lazier. Well, we are talking about an addiction as well. There is not yet a generation of idiots, but technology, that was supposed to be subordinate to us, is taking control of our time, and the roles are reversed. It is us that are becoming its subjects. The business process automation technology is also, for the time being, an innovation. What does it mean in a simple way? To make a robot that will do a boring, tedious job for you so that you have more time for… Well, it is worth considering for a moment what this extra time is for? For losing ourselves, for example, in a slavish devotion to social media, or for creative development? A robot will do a lot of work for us, but it is up to us how we make use of the time it has saved for us. Whether we use it for customer relationships, our own development, better task organisation, interactions with colleagues. Or whether we waste it. Good automation helps build and develop new human interaction in business. And this philosophy drives us in our XELTO DIGITAL team, because as long as there are ties among team members, within the group, in controlling business, etc., technology has its useful role. Where technology replaces this interaction, the world “gains” a generation of recluses, not to say misanthropes. Author: Monika Stawicka – Business Analyst

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Part 8. Ed in the clouds – NetSuite as an example of the automation of cloud-based ERP systems

Today, I and Przemek would like to tell you about the automation of ERP systems other than JD Edwards or SAP, meaning those based on cloud solutions. One such system is NetSuite, probably the best cloud-based production management system. As an interesting fact, I can tell you that the article on NS has been “ripening” for a very long time. And all in all, when it came to being, I don’t know why we worked on it with Przemek so long. After all, this subject is so amazing. The Expert’s eye: NetSuite from Oracle is a complete, fully scalable solution designed for fast-growing businesses. It is one of the products that is rapidly increasing their share in the cloud-based ERP market. This solution uses a cloud to store data, so its automation is slightly different. By using  an example of a process we have implemented for one of our customers, which was the updating of the Bill of Materials (BOM) version, I will tell you about the differences. At the beginning, I’d like to add that dedicated solutions for backend automation had already been introduced by UiPath, but… not everyone can use them for configuration or access reasons. In our case, the solution did not allow changes to be made in the entire NS, but only in part of the application. Therefore, we decided on classic UI automation. The first difference between a classic ERP and NS is that there is no database, which prevents the required information, such as the Work Order List or BOM Revision components, from being extracted at the SQL level. To solve this problem, we used Web Scraping – reading data directly from the screen. Then, when using the mechanism for moving to the next Work Order (next ‘transaction’), in a cloud-based ERP you are not able, for example, to enter the WO number in the application, but you have to go to the WO with a unique link. The same applies to other tabs/applications. By using the Internal ID field (hidden by default, but optional in NS) and the fixed part of the address, we have managed to create a mechanism that allows you to navigate within the NetSuite system without the nuisance of clicking on the screen for a lengthy period – i.e., direct navigation. One of the last discrepancies was the selectors. While in classic ERPs a field has one fixed selector, in NetSuite we have encountered cases of fields with two (or sometimes even three) different selectors, depending on whether it was active (clicked) or not. In addition, the allure of a web application is that sometimes an internal window/button is visible for the robot searching for a selector even though it does not appear on the screen (visible/active parameter disabled on the page). The last problem we encountered was related to the unambiguous selection of a component (product) name if there were several items starting with the same characters in the Field Values list. This was strictly due to the nature of NS and its manner of displaying lists. Despite the initial difficulties, we have managed to develop a mechanism to check whether the selection is ambiguous or not, and for this we used an extended search with the option to set searching for a specific text. You may ask if it was not better to use it from the beginning? The answer is no – this search requires the opening of a new window, checking several boxes and waiting for the result, which means it takes  a few seconds more for processing a single component (product). It doesn’t seem much, but in the context of the entire process, it extends it significantly. In summary, the automation of cloud-based ERP systems has pros and cons. In some cases, it will certainly be faster than automating traditional ERP systems, but it requires finding the appropriate solutions. Author: Przemysław Wal – RPA Developer Foto: iStock

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