Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is the latest technology to mature in the area of digital transformation and cost optimization for companies. Before launching RPA in your organization, it is important to develop a strategy that best leverages the software to deliver tangible results tailored to your organizational priorities. Most organizations prefer to experiment with RPA in contained areas before driving an enterprise-wide launch. When organizations are serious about launching an RPA program, this proof of concept or pilot approach can work best if you model sample areas that model common scenarios across the organization.
Before launching RPA, the best practices the companies can inculcate for the preparation and then operations of RPA include working actively with your IT team to install RPA software successfully and constructing the platform controls for enterprise automation, training human capital for effective adoption of ‘bots, creating a ‘bot “manufacturing process” for defining, configuring, designing and testing automated processes and monitoring the RPA platform for ongoing improvements.
Once you have begun defining how RPA will roll out across the enterprise, it is important to identify the candidate pipeline for automation and, ideally, frame up an intake, prioritization, and governance process to qualify candidates. These days there are many best practices that help define RPA ‘bot success factors – such as processes that are rule-based, well defined with repetitive steps, require minimal human intervention, etc. More on that later, but the goal is to discover all qualified processes to realize the ROI of RPA while avoiding the distraction of those processes that will not deliver comparable value through automation.
To that end, performing an analysis of ROI is an important step in launching RPA. It is advisable to calculate all kinds of costs both non-monetary and monetary along with the time taken for completing processes and compare it with the cost optimization offered by RPA – just as would be required of any company initiative. In addition to creating structured intake and governance, launching RPA also involves putting infrastructure in place and procedures required to develop then support the ‘bot development. Lastly, enabling the tracking the results is also crucial in this new paradigm of “snackable” or bite-size projects called ‘bots. We need to take the investments seriously and realize that the success of RPA in your enterprise requires a system that can systematically identify, approve, deliver, and perform at a high-volume, granular level.
Launching RPA can work efficiently for your enterprise if you take the proper steps to prepare, organize, launch, and then track specific results to the business.