In the past few years, there has been an intensifying interest in Robotics based automation with increasing no. of organizations adopting RPA as a means to increase operational productivity, reduce cost and drive continuous improvement. Hence, not surprisingly both the RPA spent in business/IT budgets and market share of Robotic suppliers market is increasing. While most business owners believe that RPA initiatives deliver value, clear measurement of business benefits remains difficult and scalability a challenge. Maximizing the impact of RPA requires a change in mind-set and implementation approach. 

 

This article explores some non-conventional insights that can help address questions regarding benefit measurement and scalability.

 

Think beyond cost optimization, think Digital:

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Most of the RPA opportunities emerge due to cost pressure and typical use cases include simple repeatable tasks at the back offices such as searching customer data or identification of stuck orders. In such cases, Robotics is used as a tactical solution to reduce cost often resulting in temporary short-term gains while transformation goals are often based on realization of long term IT projects.  Instead, Robotic solutions should be seen as essential digital building block in the To-Be architecture. Most of the modern platforms provide out of the box capabilities such as easy integration via APIs, smart orchestration that can obviate the need for expensive IT suites. Moreover, matured platforms have also invested in partnerships to add AI, cognitive and analytical capabilities.

 

Standardization first and then RPA, not always:

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Conventional approach requires operational processes to be standardized first before they can be automated. Operations that appear standard in the process documentation often differ significantly in reality. This results in limiting the role of RPA. Only simple use cases are identified as candidates for automation and decision making is mostly kept out of RPA scope. On the contrary, RPA initiatives can be used as a means to drive simplification and standardization within operational teams. 

 

Not just delivery, closing the loop is also important:

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Most RPA solutions are perceived to be delivered successfully and handed over to IT operations post go-live to ensure the Robots keep running.  The operational back offices who are the target for automation are also entrusted with checking the Robot performance. But the benefit owners or management stakeholders often struggle to see the benefits on the ground. Translating the automation into clear savings is challenging due to lack of proper monitoring and management dashboards. Therefore, it is important to highlight the value of data and change management. Data points and management reporting templates should be thought of up-front and developed as part of the RPA project. On the other hand, change management is crucial to ensure automation is implemented properly as planned and results in getting rid of the manual work. The performance dashboards also help in socializing the business benefits to stakeholders and getting a formal buy-in on the savings delivered, hence closing the loop.

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To summarize, RPA solutions can be effectively used to achieve broader digital objectives while being utilized for routine automation. But a clear RPA strategy as part of the overall IT roadmap and persistence to implement are critical to success. 

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