Buying a Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solution is like a Christmas present that you can't wait to open. The idea of automating tasks and processes is very exciting and can't wait to get started. You could use just one robot from your RPA solution, and choose a specific test case to show the ROI to management. Once you have completed your test case and management asks how you will implement it company-wide, that's where the big challenge comes in.
How can RPA be scaled across the organization?
A single robot works great for a test case if automating a task, but it does not represent a digital workforce.
To create a truly digital workforce, you need to be able to scale and manage hundreds or thousands of robots. You need a strategy and the right tools to manage these new digital workers over the long term as your business grows.
What is your automation strategy?
As Ovum Research points out, “We have seen companies that have implemented between 5,000 and 35,000 software robots and have achieved the main objectives of RPA, but there are cases where RPA has been adopted without further consideration and without a clear strategy...”. RPA is implemented here and there, bit by bit, in different departments - with no one leading the operation. A Deloitte survey of more than 1,500 finance professionals found that “responsibility for owning and managing digital technologies, such as robotic process automation, is either located within information technology (IT) departments (38.9%) or is highly divided within each of the departments that used digital technology (15%).”.
Everest Group points out: “Expectations feed results,” or in other words, you only get what you plan to get. If RPA is implemented in a piecemeal fashion, the results are likely to be less than satisfactory, affecting at best only one area of the business. When time is not taken to establish an organizational strategy, efforts can be frustrated and, with it, internal support for further transformation efforts.
And when the focus is too narrow, it's hard to see the big picture and the gains that can be made on a larger scale. “If RPA is viewed as a series of disconnected technical projects, separate implementers will sacrifice opportunities,” Everest Group explains. “They overlook the potential to redesign processes to optimize RPA and to design their human workforce to better engage with their digital workforce. By conducting their work in separate groups, they are unable to anticipate and manage the organizational impact of RPA.”.
To prevent your organization from falling into this trap, it's critical to start with a cross-departmental strategy and put the right tools in place to scale and manage your new digital workforce. It all comes down to this: Scale or Fail:
Where are you on your path to automation?
Are your business operations fully automated? If your answer is “no,” you are not alone. Even in the case of business process management (BPM), which has been around for more than twenty years, automation has not yet been possible. The main reason: User tasks are not automated with RPA.
In accordance with the Partnership for Intelligent Information Management (AIIM), only 3 percent of organizations have successfully scaled RPA to a scale of 50 or more robots. One of the challenges is finding a robust software tool that can manage multiple robots and RPA projects across the enterprise and allow you to grow. Just as important, the technology must integrate with your current systems; otherwise, it's another hurdle to overcome.
The incorporation of the robot life cycle management. This requires a more process-centric approach to RPA that goes beyond simple task automation. Lifecycle management encompasses all business processes as part of a broader enterprise automation roadmap. It is the best way to manage robots and their activities across multiple teams, processes and activities.
Creating an infrastructure that drives growth and complexity
As you move along the road to RPA, things can get out of control if you don't have a structured version control system (VCS) to help you keep track of your work and the changes you have made. Robots fail when code changes, websites evolve or humans update a spreadsheet.
When selecting an RPA software, make sure to use Git, Git, the open source version control system for tracking programming changes. The Git system simplifies the management of robots across the enterprise in a single management console so that it is easier to deploy and manage. In addition, it also manages RPA bots, extracts, resources and programs, while synchronizing between different source control repositories, such as development, test and production environments.
In addition to lifecycle management, it is essential to form a cross-functional RPA team, typically with an Center of Excellence (COE). Teams should consist of business users, IT managers and users working on specific use cases. The goal of a COE is to focus on high productivity gains and demonstrate a rapid return on investment for each identified use case to prove its success across multiple lines of business.
The best thing about RPA is that it is an easy success. No training or complete system overhaul is required because it works with your current systems, making it easy to implement and quickly proving successful. But the chances of success don't translate into a digital workforce. By following best practices and implementing a strategy that encompasses people, process and technology, it's easier to scale across the enterprise and work now as you will in the future.
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