Successful companies employing RPA take a structured approach.
Here are five tips to help your company get started.
ROBOTIC PROCESS AUTOMATION (RPA) is emerging as one of the most popular buzzwords in business today. In fact, Gartner reports that by 2020, over 85% of enterprises will have RPA in place. So why are so many companies rapidly adopting RPA? Simply put, they want to improve their business operations.
There can be several challenges to putting effective processes in place for automation, however. For example, a lack of skilled labor may cause your staff to doubt the value of automation as a way to grow. Then there’s the fact that RPA is such a new method of automating business processes that companies may not know where to begin when it comes to implementation.
All this can create doubt among decision-makers and their teams. So what can these companies do?
Here are five tips for implementing RPA in your own company:
1. Start small
To get the most value out of your RPA strategy, begin by automating just one low-volume process using a single bot. This will help you easily identify processes where automation could provide the biggest benefit. Then, narrow down the list to one or two processes that are relatively easy to automate and can make a quick impact on key business metrics like speed and accuracy.
For instance, one process your company could automate is the management of email requests for company time off. Using software that can instantaneously read emails and transfer data between systems; you can automate this manual process to save your managers time and reduce errors in payroll processing due to human error. Not only will the business see an immediate improvement to productivity, RPA can also help you reduce costs associated with processing time-off requests.
2. Put the right people in place
RPA is not about simply automating business process or hiring robots (although that part is pretty cool). Your company needs human expertise to steer the implementation of your RPA plan and ensure it has a positive impact on your business goals. So be sure to bring together the right IT, finance, compliance and HR professionals for your project.
3. Explore different technologies available
There are dozens of software providers specializing in bots able to imitate human behavior so they can automate processes across applications and technologies. And there are many open source resources freely available online, too! These can help companies get started with RPA in no time.
4. Stick to your strategy
An effective RPA implementation plan will have clear goals so everyone knows exactly what they are trying to achieve. It also needs to be flexible enough to grow and adapt as the company progresses with digital transformation initiatives. A structured approach will ensure you map out your processes for success, beginning with key business metrics that demonstrate the value of automation. For instance, getting a return on investment (ROI) report after just one or two bots can help you see how much you stand to gain from further automation efforts. Then you can expand upon these initial successes and move toward automating more complex and higher-volume processes across other departments and operations throughout your business.
5. Ensure automated processes are sustainable
Once you’ve implemented bots in your company, make sure to set up a clear governance structure to oversee the ongoing management of the process. It’s also important to prioritize activities around continuous improvement so you can refine bots continuously for optimal performance. This way, your company will continuously reap the benefits of RPA and it won’t be considered just another fad for business leaders.
Conclusion:
Robotic process automation (RPA) is technologies that can help businesses automate repeatable tasks across their operations. But to get the most out of it, companies need to know exactly what they’re trying to achieve and who will oversee the ongoing management of automated processes.
A consultant is an RPA software platform, delivering digital workers for enterprises in finance, healthcare, insurance and more. The company helps companies transform how work gets done with a scalable platform that integrates easily into existing IT infrastructure, from any cloud or on-premise environment.
RPA is a new and very powerful technology which can help companies streamline operations, reduce costs and improve productivity. While some may fear RPA as something that’s going to replace humans, it’s about making processes more efficient— not replacing the workforce. In fact, you’ll need human expertise to steer the implementation of your plan as well as ensure its success for business goals.
If you follow these tips you should be able to implement RPA in your company with confidence!
