Gartner predicts that by 2020, end-user spending on robotic process automation software is set to reach $1 billion.
Digital disruption and the changing nature of customer preferences have made it imperative for traditional businesses to reinvent their tectonic business processes. In this pursuit, robotic process automation acquires the driver’s seat.
RPA has the potential to address “digital gaps” in any business. It automates manual processes and infuses agility. It can empower the frontline staff to focus on other value-added tasks by automating “long-tail” of low-volume or low-value processes.
Businesses process across several industries such as Human Resource, Logistics, Finance, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Customer Support, and others are leveraging RPA to reduce costs, slash processing time and outrival competitors.
Although many organizations have adopted some level of RPA, many processes still fall through the cracks. The reason could be legacy systems, a melange of traditional practices, cost of integrating systems and lack of governance in business processes.
In the previous article, we already understood the true transformative power of RPA to achieve sustainable success with RPA driven digital transformation. Yet, getting the best out of RPA adoption requires a carefully crafted strategy and best practices to achieve automation at scale.
“RPA is a technology that is easy to use, but things take time, and so does an RPA implementation. A sound foundation must be created for the purpose of further scaling, and this requires a solid basis with a defined strategy, communication plans and change management, trained RPA experts and a stable IT infrastructure – just to mention some examples.” – Zeeshan Rajan, Senior Manager, PwC
Cygnet Infotech outlines these six best practices that businesses should consider while banking on RPA.
Creating the RPA Centre of Excellence
A Center of Excellence (CoE) is essential to embed RPA strategically and effectively into the organization. It is essential to define a robotic operating team with a set of clearly defined roles and responsibilities for all business functions. In addition, a configured and fine-tuned development environment is crucial to run, manage and implement automation efficiently throughout the enterprise. RPA Center of Excellence must lay down and monitor key performance indicators and should get the best out of bots.
Select the Right Process for Automation
Certain business processes may require cognitive automation, while others need standalone automation. However, processes that require high manual intervention are the best candidates for automation.
Following processes are ideal for RPA implementation.
- Labour-intensive: Processes that require a high number of employees
- Rule-based: Processes driven by simple rules & logic with minimal exceptions
- Standardized/structured data: RPA tools can process standardized, structured, and digitized data
- Data-entry workflow processes: Entering data from claims documents into a claims management system and invoice-processing functions
- Data extraction from standard databases: For example – extracting customer information to file tax claims and data migration activities from one system to another
- Routine processes: Insurance claims processing and banking transactions
Process assessment is an ongoing activity to identify more opportunities for automation through RPA.
Gain IT Buy-In
It is essential to have an expert technology partner on your side to integrate RPA solutions successfully. Reason being, security, scalability, bot implementation, quality assurance, incident management and effective training for user acceptance. Although, RPA is process friendly, an agile IT partner having digital mindset can help you seamlessly navigate through the RPA adoption journey.
At Cygnet, we advocate a new method of deploying RPA— we call it the ‘Technology-first’ approach. Our expert tech-architects democratize RPA solutions with a scalable architecture that augments digital operations and reduces handling time while providing superior user experience.
Design and Deploy First Use Case
Each RPA journey is unique. Before considering an enterprise-wide scope, deploy your first use case within a small functional area where automation can extract the expected value. Then roll out RPA step-by-step to other parts of the organization. Measure the success of your first use case to build interest in implementing RPA across the organization.
Ensuring Right Governance for Automation at Scale
Enterprises need to establish an automation governance mechanism to ensure that robotic processes comply with regulatory controls and standards. While defining the governance structure, it is important to understand the organization’s value chain to ensure RPA will enhance the end-to-end flow of value. To implement governance carefully and correctly, an agile approach with the right leadership can drive high-velocity RPA implementation.
Robotics Require A Transformation Program
Organizations achieving scale in RPA implementation need to recognize the potential of adopting approaches and techniques associated with large-scale change programs. Moving beyond the evaluation stage to RPA transformation leads to the development or acquisition of new skills. To fully leverage the potential of robots and cognitive automation, businesses need to augment their workforce to build internal RPA-delivery capability and enable them to deliver high-value performance.
At Cygnet Infotech, our automation engineers and process analysts have deep domain knowledge and high-velocity engineering prowess to develop RPA solutions with scalable architecture and a 100% agile approach. We have already delivered 55+ software bots that are saving a significant number of man-hours for clients. Contact us to find out which bot best fits your business process.