Introduction

This document is machine translated and may be inaccurate. Thank you for your patience.

Welcome to use Laiye Automation Platform!

If you are familiar with RPA, you can skip this chapter and start to feel the charm of Laiye Automation Platform directly.

If you haven't heard of RPA, as the saying goes: A beard well lathered is half shaved, you can learn about RPA through this chapter first!

RPA Basics

When we use computer software at ordinary times, we often encounter a lot of mechanical repetitive and cumbersome operations. If you rely on manual operation, you will not only feel tired and bored, but also often make mistakes. For example, for financial staff, it is often necessary to use online banking to transfer money to many customers. It may not be troublesome to transfer one account, but if hundreds of accounts are transferred every day, it is a job that destroys human nature. What's more terrible is that sometimes I feel dizzy and enter an extra zero in the "amount" column... Don't be surprised, this has happened many times.

In order to cope with this simple and repetitive manual labor in the financial field. In 2015, as the absolute authority on finance, the four famous accounting firms (Ernst & young, PwC, Deloitte and KPMG) successively introduced the concept of "financial robot" to try to create a" Software robot " , Or" Digital workforce ", Automatically completing the mechanical repetitive work on these computers.

Later, we gradually found that "software robot" also have great potential in fields other than finance. There are a lot of simple and repetitive manual labor in many work fields, such as logistics, sales, human resources, etc., and laziness is the common nature of mankind. Therefore, these software robot have been widely used in many fields abroad and at home, and they are becoming more and more intense. Of course, at this time, it is not limited to the financial field, and the term "financial robot" seems a bit out of place. Therefore, starting from the United States, people generally regard the manufacturing of various "software robot" as a new industry, which is called Robotic Process Automation , abbreviation RPA .

In fact, software process automation is not a new concept. For example, Microsoft's office software has built-in "macro" function as early as more than 20 years ago, which can automatically operate office to work.

However, RPA is different from earlier software process automation. RPA emphasizes "non-invasive" to existing systems. What does this mean? That is to say, if a software itself does not support automatic functions, RPA can play its part. RPA does not need to modify the software, but automates the software by simulating human reading and operating the software. Moreover, if there are two, three or even more software that need to work together, and if the traditional office "macro" method is used, these software must be modified to achieve a unified interface. If one is not changed, the process cannot be automated, which is obviously a bit difficult. After all, these software may not be developed by the same manufacturer! However, if RPA is adopted, these software All Without any modification, RPA will create a "software robot" to simulate human reading and operation, and let the "software robot" automatically complete this process. This "non-invasive" feature is one of RPA's core charms.

RPA platform introduction

Laiye Automation Platform is an RPA platform, so what is an RPA platform? Let me explain one by one:

In order to realize RPA, that is, the automation of the process of robot operation, and build a "software robot" as mentioned above, the following steps are usually required:

1. Sort out and analyze the existing work process to see where "software robot" can be used to transform and realize automation;
2. Technically realize the "software robot", so that it can read and operate all the software involved in the process;
3. Deploy the "software robot" into the actual working environment, start the robot to work, monitor the operation of the robot, and deal with any problems in time.

The first step is usually done by business experts. For example, in the financial field, financial experts are required to sort out and analyze the process of financial work; The second step is usually done by it experts. For these programmers, it is not difficult to implement a robot that simulates human work with a powerful programming language like Python; The third step is usually done by ordinary staff. As long as you press a button to start the robot, you can drink tea and play with your mobile phone. Everything is beautiful, right?

But this is not the case. Step 1: business experts sort out and analyze the process. No problem. Step 2: the problem comes. The technology industry has a specialty. IT experts often immerse themselves in the digital world and know nothing about the business. They simply don't understand what the process sorted out by the business experts is. They have no way to start! Step 3: the problem is even bigger. Ordinary staff don't understand it. It's OK for them to start the robot. How to solve the problem? Only it experts can be called for emergency support. If the support is not timely, the work may be delayed.

For example, the author himself is an it technician, and when he sees such terms as "standing book" and "transactional financial assets" in the financial field, he has a big head; On the contrary, the familiar concepts of "handle" and "thread" are probably confusing to most financial experts, let alone ordinary staff.

What shall I do? RPA's philosophy is:

• Build RPA platform and make some common RPA functions into semi-finished products, just like instant noodles and other convenient foods;
• Let business experts stand on the shoulders of the giant RPA platform, and they can make robot themselves, which is as difficult as making a bowl of instant noodles;
• Ordinary staff can also understand the general principle of robots, and can modify them when necessary. The difficulty is like adding a little spice to instant noodles. There is no need to turn to it experts at all;
• Since then, the production process of "software robot" no longer requires the participation of IT experts, and the world returns to a better place!

In order to realize the above concept, a general RPA platform will include at least the following three components:

• Development tools: mainly used to make "software robot", of course, these robot can also be run and debugged;
• Running tools: after the development is completed, ordinary users can use the RPA platform to run the built robot and check the running results;
• Control center: when it is necessary to run "software robot" on multiple computers, these "software robot" can be centrally controlled, such as uniform distribution and uniform setting of startup conditions.

After so much wordiness, the concept of "RPA platform" finally came out. The so-called RPA platform is to decompose the "software robot" into many parts, so that business experts who do not understand it can build these parts on their own workbench by building blocks, without the involvement of IT personnel, so that ordinary staff can see the basic principle and implementation of the robot, and can also carry out simple maintenance.

Therefore, the key indicators of RPA platform are:

• Enough powerful , The number of parts should be large, and complex scenarios can be handled;
• Enough simple , Ordinary people can easily master it without the involvement of IT experts;
• Enough quick , Ordinary people can quickly realize their own robot in the most convenient way after they are slightly proficient.

In order to achieve these indicators, various RPA platforms have made a lot of efforts, but the effect is still unsatisfactory. The main reason is that these indicators are often contradictory. It is difficult to be strong and simple when solve one problem only to find another cropping up. It is also difficult to be simple and fast. For example, some RPA platforms directly let people use python programming language to implement RPA, because Python itself is powerful enough, but there are specialties in the art industry, and it is probably not so easy for business experts and ordinary users to master python. Therefore, the RPA platform of "extremely unusual ways" has lost the two indicators of simplicity and quickness, and the result is naturally "goes into the wrong direction".

Laiye Automation Platform is also an RPA platform. In order to balance these three key indicators of the RPA platform, Laiye Automation Platform has made a lot of efforts. Some efforts you can see from the software UI, and some efforts you may not. For example, for some key design concepts, Laiye Automation Platform designers spent half a year on in-depth research and repeated discussions, and finally came up with a relatively perfect scheme after several changes in the draft.

Of course, hard work alone is not enough. In fact, the core team of Laiye Automation Platform has been working on process automation since 2001. It has been more than 20 years since then, so it has accumulated rich experience and mastered the design and R & D of some key points with ease. This is also the capital for Laiye Automation Platform to take the lead in product design and technology realization.

Development history of Laiye Automation Platform

As mentioned above, there are a lot of simple and repeated software operations in many fields such as finance, logistics, sales and human resources, and even to the point of destroying human nature. But in fact, as early as the end of the last century, this kind of software that destroys human nature has appeared in a large number in the field of games. In fact, the game is also a process that needs people to complete. However, many game developers do not have sufficient design level and want players to stay in the game as long as possible. Therefore, they deliberately repeat the simple process countless times, which makes players suffer.

As a result, "software robot" aiming at the game field came into being, and the most famous one was the "Quick Macro" which came out in2001. The Quick Macro was first run on Windows computers and was used to automate Windows client games; Since 2009, a "Quick Macro for web pages" has appeared to automate the operation of web games; Since 2013, a "Quick Macro for mobile phone" has appeared, which aims at automating the operation of games on Android phones. Such a product system can catch all the mainstream games at once, and its profound technical accumulation can be seen.

However, the success of Quick Macro is not due to its technical advantages, but its design concept of "simple and easy to use". The Quick Macro itself is not a software robot, but a manufacturing tool for software robot. This set of tools should be easy to use and can be easily mastered by game players who are not it experts before they can reach the "pass line". In this regard, the Quick Macro has been very successful. At present, tens of thousands of game players can skillfully use the Quick Macro to make their own "software robot" and share it with more people. Most of these players are not proficient in IT technology, or even have not received higher education.

In a sense, the "Quick Macro" produced in2001 can be regarded as the pioneer of domestic RPA. In fact, when the concept of RPA began to take root in China in 2017, there were many articles introducing RPA in China, all of which used Quick Macro as an example. Although the Quick Macro itself is designed for games, which is different from the "software robot" in the fields of Finance and so on, because it is famous and easy to understand, it is most appropriate to explain the concept of RPA.

So, what is the production team of Quick Macro doing now? Have they made any gains in RPA? Of course, they have carefully analyzed the specific needs of RPA, and carried out a major innovation on the Quick Macro that almost knocked it down and started again. They not only retained the accumulation of the team over the past ten years, but also actively met the needs of RPA, creating a powerful, easy-to-use and fast RPA platform. Yes, this is Laiye Automation Platform!

Now, you finally understand why Laiye Automation Platform is qualified to be proud of the heroes?

Due to different fields, Quick Macro and Laiye Automation Platform have many differences in basic concepts, and the technical differences are even more earth shaking:

• Quick Macro has made many optimizations for the needs of individual users, such as making user UI, setting hot keys, and even supporting the automatic operation of mobile app. These functions have been deleted in Laiye Automation Platform;
• Laiye Automation Platform has made many optimizations for enterprise users, supports SAP automation operations, can display automated process in the form of process diagrams, and supports distributed control centers, which are not available to Quick Macro;
• The main indicator of the Quick Macro is its fast running speed, because the game screen changes rapidly, and it will not keep up with the rhythm of the game if it is slow; The software is small in size, because the download bandwidth of individual users is limited, these indicators are not important in Laiye Automation Platform;
• The main indicators of Laiye Automation Platform are good operation stability and strong fault tolerance. In case of special conditions, it is better to stop rather than operate blindly. In addition, there are traces to follow every time. These indicators are far beyond the Quick Macro.

Therefore, whether to use Quick Macro or Laiye Automation Platform depends on your specific needs: if it is in the game field, it is recommended that you still use Quick Macro; If it is RPA, choose Laiye Automation Platform decisively.

RPA and AI

RPA can help us do a lot of things. We can consider using RPA to replace simple and repeated operations on computers. However, there are some repetitive but not so simple operations that RPA can't help but still have to be completed manually. For example, we can rely on RPA to automatically receive and reply to emails, but it can only response to emails with fixed content. If you want to judge the other party's intent and response to different emails according to the intent, RPA can't do it.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has developed rapidly in recent years. For example, many mobile apps in the market support relying on face recognition for identity authentication, or giving orders to mobile phones in the form of dialogue, and so on. These are the classic use scenarios of artificial intelligence. Then, can we combine AI and RPA, let AI identify the general intent of the email content, then tell RPA, and then let RPA response to emails with different contents according to different intent?

The answer is yes! It goes even further, allowing RPA and AI to do more and more interesting things together in addition to receiving and replying to emails.

With the development of RPA, people have come to realize that RPA itself can do a lot of work, but it is "brainless". If it is combined with AI, RPA can simulate human hands and AI can simulate human brain. The "software robot" formed by the combination of the two is like the one shown in the figure below. It has both brain and hands, and its application scenarios are naturally broader.

Compared with Quick Macro, Laiye Automation Platform has also added a large number of AI functions, from identifying invoices and ID cards to Category of text information and text content extraction, which are Laiye Automation Platform's specialties. In the following chapters, we will teach you how to use these AI functions one by one. Are you still a little excited!

Follow up:

As mentioned above, the general RPA platform will include at least three components: development tools, operation tools and control center.

Laiye Automation Platform is no exception. In Laiye Automation Platform, these three components are named Laiye Automation Creator , Laiye Automation Worker and Laiye Automation Commander .

Compared with general RPA platforms, Laiye Automation Platform also provides AI Capability specially designed for RPA. These AI Capability also constitute the fourth component of Laiye Automation Platform, which is called Laiye Intelligent Document Processing (formerly known as Laiye Automation Platform mage).

The four components of Laiye Automation Platform and their relationships are shown in the figure:

If only a small number of computers are needed to run the process, the "Laiye Automation Creator" can directly package and distribute the process to the "Laiye Automation Worker" for use, and the "Laiye Automation Commander" does not need to participate; If a large number of computers are needed to run the process, the more appropriate way is for the "Laiye Automation Creator" to upload the process to the "Laiye Automation Commander" first, and then the "Laiye Automation Commander" will uniformly distribute it to all the "Laiye Automation Worker" and command them to run the process.

Of course, this article is the developer's Guide for Laiye Automation Platform. Therefore, the main content of this article is to introduce how to use the "Laiye Automation Creator" to create process, and how to use the AI Capability provided by the "Laiye Intelligent Document Processing" platform to complete more and more interesting Task. In addition, a chapter will be devoted to how to use "Laiye Automation Worker" and "Laiye Automation Commander" to manage and run process.

While reading this article, I suggest you go to the official website of Beijing laiye Network Technology Co., Ltd http://www.laiye.com Download and install a community version of Laiye Automation Platform. The community version is permanently free, and contains four components of Laiye Automation Platform. You can use it indefinitely just by logging in online.

If you have a little programming experience before, no matter what programming language, as long as you know what is variable and what is conditional judgment, you will read this article more smoothly. If not, it doesn't matter. In this tutorial Last chapter In, the basic programming concepts involved in Laiye Automation Platform are briefly introduced, which is easy to understand. Please learn them in advance before reading the follow-up content.

Are you ready? Let's start our Laiye Automation Platform journey, let's go!