Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has certainly earned its place in the list of technologies that are transforming automation. With companies across all industries adapting to digital transformation and automation, RPA sales are also witnessing tremendous growth. By the end of 2022, the global revenue from RPA is estimated to touch $2.9 billion.
The integration of RPA into a company’s systems begins with the hope of solving existing business problems. RPA is indeed capable of delivering that, but it is also important that executives ensure a smooth transition to automation. Companies cannot yield results overnight by imposing automation on their employees or expect profits by automating every process.
Careful planning and testing need to go into automation. The scope for making a mistake exists from the very first step of deciding to integrate RPA into your business. It is up to the leaders to curate the process of implementing RPA to get the desired results.
Here are 6 things that can ease your journey toward automation –
- Anticipate and Prepare for Entry Barriers to Implementing RPA
Despite RPA being a widely used technology, new entrants might face a few barriers to implementing it. Such companies might find themselves limited due to the lack of a dedicated team of skilled staff. The solution to this is to choose an RPA provider. Given that there is no skilled staff, a low or no-code platform can provide a user-friendly experience.
Lack of enough budget and resources, higher than expected costs, and employee opposition to automation can set the wrong pace. The key is understanding your automation initiative goals and prioritizing what is necessary.
- Choose the Right Processes to Automate using RPA
Achieving business goals through automation is entirely possible if the right processes are automated. For this, consulting employees tasked with repetitive tasks can be helpful.
New York Foundling is an agency dedicated to child welfare. They found themselves with an extremely high attrition rate, and the reason was that employees had to perform tedious tasks. The employees spent very little time close to who they were helping and trying to perform tasks like data entry.
Here, everything could have gone wrong if the clinicians had to spend more not interacting with whom they were serving. Automating the data entry process freed up their employees to do the work they hoped would be the key to retaining them. In the end, implementing RPA freed clinicians to perform more rewarding and productive tasks.
- Educate Yourself about the Complexities of RPA
ABBYY conducted a survey where 38% of 400 surveyed reported that they believe projects fail because of their complexity. The survey also said that the statement is true for 3 out of 10 projects.
If companies can understand the complexities and power through, 40% believe that RPA can enhance customer experience. 35% believe that back office and financial planning tasks will improve with RPA.
The challenge here is to embrace the complexities and welcome the opportunities that automation brings. It is not a setback if you do not understand the process. It is only a setback if proper education is not dedicated to understanding it.
- Avoid Technical Debt
Companies often fail to look at the big picture and automate one process at a time. While this provides an instant solution, it tends to cost them in the future. Technical debt is the cost incurred from taking the easy way and choosing point solutions over sustainable ones.
The solution to technical debt is building a composable enterprise, which is building an automated business using modifiable building blocks. A company is never truly built in the sense that there is always a need to adapt. When point solutions are employed, the adaption will require the company to build another from scratch when change is mandated. But a composable enterprise is adaptable, almost entirely alleviating technical debt.
- Pick the Right Option in a Fragmented RPAVendor Market
As RPA continues to grow, so will the number of options for businesses to choose from as a platform. Companies might take a step in the wrong direction in the spirit of driving their automation.
Choosing a platform that is too simple to handle complex processes can result in disastrous consequences. Similarly, selecting a platform with diverse applications that are in no way applicable to their humble operations is a waste of resources.
Identifying your business goals to understand what is required and what is not is essential. That is the first step in filtering out the overwhelming number of options available in the market.
- Understand what to Expect from RPA and Automation
A company’s existing business problems should lead the way in adapting automation. Otherwise, it is a chaotic progression toward unwarranted waste of resources, piling technical debt, and displeased employees. Expecting results to show overnight or choosing to act only when required is an ingredient to a perfect disaster. Understanding problems followed by identifying goals should precede selecting the right partner or employees to drive digital transformation.
