13 Feb, 2020 | Blogs
Did you know, 30-50% of initial RPA projects fail in realizing its expected returns (Ernst & Young)? The reason: lack of understanding of the technology and the company’s approach towards RPA deployment. To avoid the fate of these companies, organizations need to understand that RPA implementation requires a strategic approach that focuses on thorough planning, managing resources, and compliance as well as defining proper timelines. In this blog, we’ll focus on five easy steps to start your RPA journey and how you can accelerate it.
Let’s Begin Your RPA Journey
Assess automation opportunities – The first step, and probably the most critical, is to identify a process. Look for processes that involve rule-based, repetitive and structured work. Since RPA has several use cases across organizational functions, it is always advised to select the one that will drive efficiencies and increase savings.
Create a proof of concept – It is natural to have jitters before you take such a massive undertaking. Therefore, building a business case is a must, and what better way to do it than with a proof of concept (POC). A POC is the best method to measure the performance of the changes implemented. It works as a pilot test that gives a learning opportunity to everyone associated with the project. The POC is also your secret weapon to get management buy-in, enhance the understanding and limitations of the technology and discover the key success factors.
Read this blog to learn more about POC and how to make a case for it.
Identify the operating model – The operating model of your RPA implementation will be decided broadly by your goals. The two primary factors are: whether you want to establish strategic automation or achieve efficiencies with the least investment and effort.
Determine automation partner(s) – Once you have ascertained the above steps, it is now time to scout for some reliable automation partners. Whichever company you choose, make sure you approach the selection process the same way as you would do with any other technology vendor. Select an automation partner that best fits your requirements and is aligned with your automation goals in terms of pricing.
Create an RPA roadmap – RPA is a scalable technology, but you need to start slowly, selecting simple processes at first. Once you’ve gained momentum and proved its value, you can then scale up to handle more complex business operations. After all, successful RPA implementation should lead to long-term strategic gains. Therefore, create an automation roadmap that looks beyond the initial steps and clearly states how automation will be deployed across the organization.
While these were the steps to begin your RPA journey, accelerating your automation journey demands commitment, structure, discipline and an organizational culture that is willing to change.
- Commitment: Commitment to automation is a must if you see your organization scale and reap the maximum benefits of RPA. And this commitment has to come from the top management since anything less than that can result in sub-optimal results and stall your RPA journey.
- Structure: A framework should have an action plan that considers the need for automation as well as the resources and capabilities required to meet that demand. Quite frankly, without governance, your RPA journey is bound to meet a dead-end.
- Discipline: Adhere to the road map and encourage everyone to follow them. After all, variations are the biggest enemies of scaling automation projects.
- Change embracing culture: Often, automation is considered a threat by people and organizations alike and, therefore, there is a lot of resistance to embrace it. To remove this obstacle, people should be open to change and understand the benefits of automation and how they will be impacted by it.
RPA Journey on Your Roadmap? Let Nuummite Consulting Help You!
If you are planning to start your RPA journey, then we can help. We at Nuummite Consulting provide end-to-end support from project kick-off to handover to ensure your RPA deployment is as smooth as possible.
Get in touch with one of our RPA experts who will analyze your organizational operations to identify the best process for RPA deployment, suggest the right platform and technology for RPA and run a POC before you decide to do a pilot project for your business.
For your reference, you can also watch a small video on how we helped one of our hospitality clients automate their credit card matching process.