The Automa­tion Roadmap: The Keys to Suc­cess in Robot­ic Process Automation

Robot­ic process automa­tion (RPA) is among the most rapid­ly devel­op­ing trends across all indus­tries. Its solu­tions allow com­pa­nies to remain com­pet­i­tive and resilient in a rapid­ly chang­ing landscape.

Automat­ing busi­ness process­es helps reduce costs, improve effi­cien­cy, and accel­er­ate oper­a­tions. How­ev­er, suc­cess­ful­ly exe­cut­ing such an automa­tion strat­e­gy requires the right approach and roadmap.

Why Should Com­pa­nies Choose Busi­ness Process Automation?

Auto­mat­ed busi­ness sys­tems already pro­vide a wide range of ben­e­fits for organ­i­sa­tions around the world. With the right strat­e­gy and imple­men­ta­tion, com­pa­nies will be able to:

1. Reduce labour require­ments and effi­cient­ly use valu­able human resources with­in the organisation.
2. Ensure oper­a­tional con­ti­nu­ity due to a reduced reliance on man­u­al tasks, even dur­ing labour shortages.
3. Keep process­es func­tion­ing 24/7/365 with­out breaks, inter­rup­tions & down­time due to shifts.
4. Scale oper­a­tions with agili­ty in response to shift­ing demands and spe­cif­ic busi­ness requests.
5. Achieve the high­est lev­el of cus­tomer ser­vice and improve the over­all effi­cien­cy of cus­tomer interactions.
6. Main­tain seam­less work­flow inte­gra­tion between dif­fer­ent appli­ca­tions and soft­ware solu­tions, includ­ing lega­cy systems.
7. Auto­mate decision-making where pos­si­ble while still main­tain­ing full trans­paren­cy, vis­i­bil­i­ty, and control.

These are just some of the rea­sons why more and more com­pa­nies are choos­ing robot­ic process automa­tion. Your unique busi­ness process­es and oper­a­tions could pro­vide even more oppor­tu­ni­ties for an RPA project to deliv­er excep­tion­al results.

Chal­lenges With RPA Implementation

While the ben­e­fits of RPA imple­men­ta­tion dri­ve many busi­ness­es to attempt RPA projects, 30% to 50% of those projects fail. We often see that busi­ness­es lose time and mon­ey due to a mis­match between their automa­tion roadmap and their RPA strat­e­gy, allow­ing their com­peti­tors to get ahead.

RPA pro­grams can only be suc­cess­ful if you tru­ly under­stand your busi­ness and its process­es, and build on that foun­da­tion. By com­bin­ing this deep under­stand­ing with the right strat­e­gy and sup­port, you can be more con­fi­dent to secure the intend­ed ben­e­fits for your company.

The involve­ment of the right stake­hold­ers is also vital. Due to the detailed nature of RPA process­es, projects require a col­lab­o­ra­tive effort that rely on the involve­ment and feed­back of employ­ees at every lev­el of the organisation.

Your Automa­tion Roadmap

There are sev­er­al steps that you’ll need to go through when work­ing with an RPA ser­vice provider to suc­cess­ful­ly imple­ment busi­ness process automa­tion. Each of these steps is vital and pro­vide a sol­id foun­da­tion for the next steps to come. By atten­tive­ly nav­i­gat­ing this jour­ney, your busi­ness can suc­cess­ful­ly reap the rewards of process automation.

1. Iden­ti­fy­ing Busi­ness­es Process­es to Automate

Not every process with­in your orga­ni­za­tion is suit­able for automa­tion. You must first iden­ti­fy appro­pri­ate process­es for which RPA would be both fea­si­ble and ben­e­fi­cial. Key points to look for include:

• Process­es with pre­de­fined rules or steps
• Repet­i­tive tasks that con­sume man­u­al resources
• Tasks with stan­dard­ized inputs, dig­i­tal or physical
• Process­es that are sta­ble and do not devi­ate from key steps

Such tasks present an ide­al case for RPA. Automat­ing them will save time, where the repeata­bil­i­ty and stan­dard­i­s­a­tion will allow for the best use of RPA technology.

2. Select­ing the Right Process­es for RPA

Once the can­di­dates have been iden­ti­fied, you must select the spe­cif­ic process­es that should be auto­mat­ed. This entails a clos­er eval­u­a­tion of the steps in the process. These steps must be stream­lined as much as pos­si­ble to unlock the full ben­e­fits of RPA.

Choos­ing inef­fi­cient process­es for RPA can con­sume exces­sive amounts of resources and lead to project fail­ure. These process­es can be suc­cess­ful can­di­dates only if they are opti­mised pri­or to automa­tion, The key to suc­cess is ensur­ing that every process select­ed brings some real ben­e­fit to the orga­ni­za­tion through its automation.

3. Cre­at­ing a Proof of Concept

Before imple­ment­ing actu­al RPA for the select­ed process, estab­lish the poten­tial val­ue of the project. At this point, ask your RPA part­ner to help demon­strate the busi­ness case for automat­ing that process.

Once you estab­lish the ben­e­fits of RPA for a spe­cif­ic process, you are ready to make a case to man­age­ment to expand the project and begin work­ing on expand­ed RPA implementation.

4. Estab­lish­ing Your RPA Cen­tre of Excellence

It is cru­cial to gath­er and doc­u­ment your knowl­edge and insights sys­tem­at­i­cal­ly, prefer­ably by estab­lish­ing an RPA Cen­tre of excel­lence (CoE). The CoE will estab­lish stan­dards and best prac­tices, mea­sure suc­cess, man­age gov­er­nance and train­ing, and facil­i­tate collaboration.

Depend­ing on the size of your orga­ni­za­tion and the extent of the planned automa­tion, there might be a need to estab­lish an inter­nal team. Alter­na­tive­ly, your RPA part­ner will pro­vide the guid­ance and tech­ni­cal exper­tise embod­ied in the CoE.

5. Instill­ing Change Management

Effec­tive change man­age­ment is crit­i­cal to the full adop­tion and suc­cess of any project. Good plan­ning is crit­i­cal. It enables stake­hold­ers to under­stand, accept, and adapt to new RPA process­es and its tech­nol­o­gy, and reduces resis­tance to change. Open and trans­par­ent com­mu­ni­ca­tion is key here and there should be fre­quent con­sul­ta­tion and dis­cus­sion both before and dur­ing the RPA implementation.

6. Design­ing Your RPA Roadmap

Mov­ing for­ward with your RPA project, you can now put in place a detailed roadmap high­light­ing which process­es are to be auto­mat­ed and when. The roadmap should iden­ti­fy the key resources, tools, tech­nolo­gies, and skill sets need­ed to com­plete your RPA project.

In most cas­es, address­ing process­es that are eas­i­er to auto­mate is the best first step. Let your team secure a series of quick wins and devel­op expe­ri­ence before tack­ling more chal­leng­ing and com­plex process­es that are more crit­i­cal to your operations.

Make the Most of Your Automa­tion Strategy

Renoir pro­vides robot­ic process automa­tion solu­tions for com­pa­nies across many indus­tries world­wide. We help you lay the foun­da­tion to attain the ben­e­fits that come with effec­tive robot­ic process automation.

We can accom­pa­ny you through­out the entire automa­tion jour­ney. We will iden­ti­fy key oppor­tu­ni­ties for process automa­tion in your orga­ni­za­tion and pro­vide the expert team you need to imple­ment that strategy.

Our change man­age­ment exper­tise ensures a smooth adop­tion of your automa­tion strat­e­gy to deliv­er long-term ben­e­fits to your orga­ni­za­tion, espe­cial­ly through the build­ing of capa­bil­i­ty with­in your busi­ness to tack­le future projects your­self. Talk with one of our con­sul­tants today to see how Renoir can address your unique busi­ness automa­tion needs.