Start Your Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Journey with These 5 Steps
February 18, 2022
How to start the RPA Journey
RPA transforms business – BUT it needs to be done right. The implementation must be correct. RPA adoption is a long-term journey of operational and cultural change. It is a change to empower your workforce to be more productive and creative.
What is RPA in simple terms?
RPA stands for Robotic Process Automation. It refers to software that can be easily programmed to do basic, simple, and repetitive tasks (see below for examples). RPA creates a software robot which can operate other software.
What is RPA used for?
RPA is used to automate various processes such as data entry, billing and invoicing, report generation, predictive maintenance, and after-sales service support, to name only a few among many. It is used across industries to automate high volume, rote tasks. Telecom companies use RPA to configure new services and the associated billing systems for new accounts.
The Cost of RPA An RPA solution's price depends on the number of bots and software components that make up the solution fitting your requirement. On average, a single bot (or unit) costs between $5,000 and $15,000 ; although, of course, it could vary depending on the specifics.
Urgent Business Need /Specific Business Case
RPA can be up and running in weeks. Jumping into RPA may not be ideal but that does not mean it cannot be done effectively. RPA is more than a quick-fix solution to business process inefficiencies—but as getting started is often the largest hurdle, an urgent need can be a helpful catalyst push to get started.
RPA-Ready Processes are a Low-Hanging Fruit
Facing many repetitive, structured business processes that are time consuming but need accuracy ?
RPA is a great step to solve the problem – and a great first step in overall automation. The ease of adopting RPA for structured processes paves the way for more complex and strategic automation next.
Exploring Automation
Discovering the power of RPA is exhilarating—it is the realization that you have the power to overcome age-old limitations and pitfalls of business processes.
Take this opportunity to learn from your first RPA implementation across the scope and scale of work to prepare the best business case and set up your future RPA projects for success.
Strategic initiative/ Digital Transformation
The RPA journey is intimately connected to digital transformation. Creating strategic, enterprise-wide change is the hallmark of successful RPA implementation.
RPA as a core element of digital transformation has the power to strengthen and free up resources, redefine standards of speed and efficiency, and change the way your business operates
Start Your RPA Journey with These 5 Steps Case
Robotic Process Automation will change the way you do business by helping automate your processes in a controlled, flexible, and scalable way.
We have boiled this down to five major steps:
- Assess opportunities for automation.
- Develop proof of concept.
- Determine operating model.
- Identify automation partner(s).
- Plan RPA roadmap.
With RPA, you can expect to see increased revenues, improved client satisfaction rates, reduced costs, and decreased errors and rework.
However, RPA does not provide a one-size-fit-all solution for everyone.
How should you navigate the tricky first steps in adopting intelligent automation? The key to intelligent automation lies in an integrated strategy and agile implementation framework. If you are looking to develop an RPA strategy, the following five steps are a good way to start:
Assess Opportunities for Automation
Begin by assessing your processes to identify the highly rules-based, structured, and repetitive ones. RPA has applications for all organizational functions with a range of potential benefits. Choosing the ‘right areas’ for your organization will drive efficiencies and maximize savings.
Develop Proof of Concept
Build a business case and select 1-2 pilot processes to automate first. Make sure to measure performance changes and use this pilot test as a learning opportunity for everyone involved. Pilots can also help get buy-in from your stakeholders, improve understanding of both the advantages and the limitations of automation, and identify the key success factors across the enterprise.
Determine Operating Model
Decide whether your goal is to establish a larger scale strategic automation capability or to achieve, on a smaller scale, some automation efficiencies with minimal effort and investment. The outcome of this decision will affect your automation operating model and determine sourcing options.
Identify Automation Partner(s)
Approach the selection of automation partner(s) the same way you would with any other technology, considering both current and future needs. Select the partner that best fits your needs and ensure that their pricing models are aligned to your automation objectives.
Plan RPA Roadmap
Start slowly with simple processes to build momentum and demonstrate value. Then scale up to support more complex ones. Successful RPA implementations should result in long-term strategic gains. The roadmap for automation must look beyond the initial deployment and set out how automation will grow across the organization.
RPA has enormous transformative potential. It can be tempting to implement new, exciting technologies quickly. But to ensure your automation journey begins smoothly, take the time to think through your first steps. Be up and running in weeks. And, as mentioned, jumping into RPA may not be ideal but sometimes it may be necessary and therefore better than not jumping in at all!