3 ways to ensure positive ROI from your Process Automation
I wrote this piece on request from some of my readers, attendees of web casts and folk in client companies. Clearly this is something important for organizations starting to take the first few steps towards RPA[1] implementation.
Without much ado, here are the three mechanisms.
Consider Process Automation as part of overall Digital Transformation (DX)
The misconception is that RPA is the silver bullet which will solve all problems, cause growth and bring in world peace all in the same implementation. We wish.
The time to implement and break even might be the lowest but, it is unfair to compare RPA with BPM tools or EAI tools. All three are different, and have their own roles (often in tandem) in an enterprise. It is also imprudent to consider RPA in silos without considering the entire eco-system which comprises Customers, Vendors, People, Process and Technology. That is why DX, and the need to consider RPA as one arrow in the DX quiver with many tools.
Revisit the business processes to simplify, standardize and industrialize them before automation
Trying to put a band-aid on a gash won’t stop the bleeding. Similarly, slapping macros and robots on top of poorly designed or poorly implemented processes will continue to yield poor results; just faster. It is important to eliminate multiple handoffs, re-position QC, recast the process to be business objective focused etc. for it to work well. Experience shows that fixing the processes using basic simplification, standardization and industrialization provide immediate results with minimal investment. RPA, on top of that, is gravy.
Start with pilots in appropriate operational process areas
Interestingly, there was an online survey conducted by IRPAAI on pre-implementation challenges that organizations face. Of five areas identified, most people (a whopping 30%) ticked “Identifying Right Processes”.
Let us divide an organization’s processes in three buckets (as in the diagram below),
The core business processes: these are IT systems, ERP, CRM or HCM type of processes. Automating these processes, though the least in number, bring the most value; but also involve higher cost and risks.
Vital-for-business processes: these are the business platforms on which your business runs. This likely, is the bunch which earns revenue and thus critical in nature.
Operational processes: smaller, transactional processes; often run manually and with multiple integration points. Most enterprises have many of these processes running across the organization. These processes are short. Risk of failing here is low, but the value achieved from automating a single process is low as well. The trick is to automate this long-tail en-masse thus giving a large value in its entirety. The operational processes form the perfect pilot bed for your RPA implementation.
An Automation journey is complex. We have started and run automation journeys will keeping it tied to business cases and aligned to strategy. Visit the 3nayan web site or write to us.
[1] I am referring to all kinds of Process Automation with a catch call RPA as the term; and should perhaps be writing Process Automation instead.
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