It’s no surprise that robotic process automation (RPA) is rapidly growing and will continue to grow in 2021. While digital transformation and digital technology continue to develop at a rapid pace, aligning technology with an organization’s overall business strategy is a smart long term play. Before going through the steps on how to align business strategy with RPA, we must first understand what is RPA.
What is Robotic Process Automation?
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is defined as the use of software to automate and handle a high volume of repetitive tasks that are historically completed by a human. RPA is a tool to create specialized agents that can automate clerical tasks as defined by AImultiple. Multiple industries are trying to automate the process of clerical tasks thus the adoption of RPA.
The Build Process
There are three primary components to RPA: the “Designer,” the “Controller,” and the “Bot.” These elements are necessary to define the actions and schedule the automated process. These three pieces must work together in order to allow the end piece, the Bot, to do its required task.
Designer: The platform where all tasks and processes that the bot will execute are built.
Controller: The component for controlling, monitoring, executing, and scheduling automated processes to the bots.
Bot: The digital worker that will execute the processes built in the Designer and defined by the controller.
The Bot is following a sequence of steps as if a human would but is simply more efficient. Bots can be run 24/7, they do not get sick and they certainly do not take a vacation. A Bot can only conduct and complete a single task before moving on to the next. For simultaneous process handling, additional bots are required.
53%
Of Entreprises Have Already Started Their RPA Journey
8 Steps to Align Robotic Process Automation with Business Strategy
1. Identify objectives
Identify if the implementation of RPA can fit your organization’s needs? It is important to assess if RPA is right for your business needs. Wasting time, effort and money is the last thing you want to do only to find out RPA isn’t needed. Consider the business impact RPA will have on an organization overall, on both a micro and macro scale. You don’t know what you don’t know, consult with a professional to know how and where you can leverage RPA in your organization. Click Here.
2. RPA Vendor choice
Start looking into companies that can adhere and help you with your RPA questions and needs. Select the right RPA vendor for the business objectives your organization is trying to achieve. Consider short term and long term goals, scalability, price, and security. RPA on a mass scale is far more difficult than implementing a bot for one or two tasks.
3. Ready for implementation
Find where RPA will be implemented and define what would be considered a successful implementation. This is where documentation and metrics of automation need to be at the forefront in order to gauge success.
4. Communicate with employees
Occasionally, organizations will implement RPA without letting other departments know. Not only can RPA disrupt the level of comfort employees have when it comes to job security but it may disrupt workflows altogether. This is especially important to employees that will be directly impacted by RPA implementation (their job or department).
38%
Compliance
53%
Productivity
Compliance & Productivity
Improvements Are The Most Commonly Observed RPA Benefits
5. Proof of concept
Don’t jump the gun and start replacing anything and everything with RPA. Doing tests runs in a designated area of your business is vital. It is possible that RPA may not work as well as you’d like or it is not as applicable in the department your organization has chosen. Test and validate in real business situations.
6. Test period
Put the RPA into full operation for a certain period of time. The predetermined criteria for success will determine whether or not this test period is successful or not.
7. Tweaks and Fixes
With any project after a test period it is time for reflection and then action. After viewing the data and performance from the full length of time the robotic process automation was in place, it is time to fine-tune any issues and or discrepancies that have been noticed. For example, a chatbot may have to have the language or the bot appearance tweaked when looking at the data after a test period.
8. Expand
Once one RPA system has been implemented it will make expansion easier. The price for implementation, the infrastructure around RPA, and employee adoption are just a few points that have already been established throughout this process. Identify additional places where RPA can be implemented and help an organization’s overall business strategy.
4X
Top Performers Earned Nearly 4X On Their RPA Investments, While Other Enterprises Earned 2X
Impact of Robotic Process Automation
Aligning RPA with an organization’s overall business strategy is a necessary evolution. It’s no surprise that robotic process automation is rapidly growing due to the current state of world affairs. It is important to remember that RPA is not implemented to replace jobs in the workforce but to free up time that would’ve been spent doing meaningless tasks. RPA will start to become part of your organization’s infrastructure. But, for RPA to be a successful part of an organization it needs to align with the overall business strategy. If the RPA Growth Trend Continues, RPA Will Achieve “Near Universal Adoption” In 5 Years, it is something that should be adopted and not ignored.
Sources For All Statistics, Deloitte Global RPA Survey, Everest Group, NICE
