The Institute for Robotics Process Automation & Artificial Intelligence defines “robotic process automation (or RPA) is a rapidly emerging technology that will fundamentally change how SSCs (Shared Service Centre’s) operate, slashing the effort for routine tasks and enabling advanced cognitive applications that augment or replace human judgment in knowledge-based processes”.
Definition vs expectations
The Deloitte report, The robots are ready. Are you?, defined robotic process automation (RPA) as the automation of rules-based processes with software that utilises the user interface and which can run on any software, including web-based applications, ERP systems and mainframe systems.
For Tim Hurman, head of digital transformation at Tricor Group, RPA is only one of several in a spectrum of technologies geared towards automating processes. He conceded that RPA is a key technology that allows them to interact with some of the Tricor’s core technologies, allowing them to very quickly integrate with the other systems that it needed to deliver those services.
Prevailing RPA misconceptions
Over the years some of the most successfully marketed technologies have garnered positive and negative comments – RPA is no exemption.
Among the most common misconceptions attributed to RPA include:
- RPA can be applied to all processes, from A to Z, within an organisation
- RPA will complete replace existing solutions
- RPA will replace employees
- A backoffice tool RPA has no influence on customer satisfaction
- RPA can be used for complex processes and immediately throughout the entire company
Tricor’s Hurman adds three more to the list including:
- RPA is no silver bullet to the company’s problems
- No new skills are needed to use RPA
- Start your RPA journey small with a proof of concept
[Watch the video as Hurman explains each of the above]
Who to blame for these misconceptions may be up for debate but certainly media, together with vendors and analysts, should own up for their share in fuelling the confusion.
Build Your Own RPA strategy
Drawing from his own experience at Tricor, Hurman lists several elements that would make up a workable RPA strategy. These include:
- Ensure you have commitment from the people in your organization both at a leadership level and from the people who will be benefiting from the automation
- Make sure that you’ve got the right skill sets to be able to develop and support these solutions to your organisation
[Watch the video as Hurman explains each of the above]
Vendor strategy
Vendors have honed their skills at marketing their solutions. It is important to drive the discussion, and not let someone else lead the discussion as to what technologies best fits your organisation, where you will be buying it from, and how you want it deployed.
Hurman stressed the importance of inviting vendors to respond to an RFP. He also suggests having an RFI process to get information, including one that will allow vendors to come into your organization and show you their solution. By inviting vendors to come to your organisation, they are able to see how your organisation operates.
“You may discover that your needs will require solutions from more than one vendor to complete your digital transformation. Be open to the possibility that your RPA solution will need to be integrated with other systems you have in place, for instance Office365. While this integration with legacy systems is important, be mindful of managing costs as introducing a lot of products and services for RPA into an organization means that potentially you might have multiple licenses,” warned Hurman.
He further cautioned on investing too quickly on any one particular RPA platform as soft robots built with one vendor potentially means committing to one particular solution.
“Obviously if you make the incorrect decision at the start it’s much harder to rectify later there’s a financial commitment or even made so understanding that that product meets your needs at the beginning is critical to keeping going in the right direction,” he elaborated.
How to stay on top of RPA projects
Hurman said it is important to make sure that people in the organisation are on board the programme. Building a centre of excellence, including holding hackathons, also helps to reinforce the adoption as well as encourage on-going development of the new robots.
Finally, asked how to handle the aggressive selling tactics of vendors, Hurman suggested taking a pragmatic approach to listening to vendors market their solution.
“Don’t believe the salesman. Get the vendors to do an on-site proof-of-concept to prove the technology works in your environment and is collaborative with your other systems. When it comes down to the number of licenses you will need, start small. Vendors are always interested to sell you more,” he warned.
Closing arguments
The latest ResearchAndMarkets.com report, 2019 – 2020 Robotic Process Automation Product and Market Report, suggests RPA is helping organizations improve productivit1y, reduce costs, mitigate risk, improve operational efficiency, oversee internal processes, and improve regulatory compliance. These automated tools can also help to reduce systems and IT development costs and extend the life of applications throughout the enterprise.
That is the market text you will read in RPA brochures. The road to reaping the rewards of RPA and other automation tools – intelligent and otherwise – is lined with mistakes, misread assumptions, and missteps.
In the report, Robotic Process Automation Game Changers Advance Financial Services Institutions Toward Intelligent Digital Workforce, Sneeha Kapoor, research manager, IDC Financial Insights Asia-Pacific, noted that among early RPA adopters by financial institutions, many have failed to scale automation deployments, and have not gotten the value they expected from their intelligent automation initiatives.
The Deloitte study of 400 global firms revealed that 63% of surveyed organisations did not meet delivery deadlines for RPA projects, and among those that do succeed longer-than-anticipated bot implementations have delayed ROI. EY attributes the 30 to 50% RPA failure rate at lack of planning.
The lesson to be learned: plan well, plan in detail, and do your homework!
