Now more than ever P&L owners are being asked to do more with less.  Consider where fast and effective automation using RPA can help solve the problem. 

The challenging times we face right now have rarely been seen before and the pressure organisations face is very unique with very little confidence in predicting when the COVID crisis may end.  

As automation has been one of our core capabilities for over 10 years we have been providing more frequent advice to our clients in these current times around Robotics Process Automation or ‘RPA’ as its more commonly called.  While doing this we have been simplifying some of the themes and terminology used to assist clients to fast track their RPA journey and advising them on how they should get started.   The terminology around ‘robotics’ has multiple meanings for people and in many cases, it can be a bit daunting.

Ultimately automation is introduced to optimise current practices, reduce costs, create efficiencies, and enhance throughput.  In the vast majority of scenarios, the business case normally equals cost savings but with upfront investment to put the automation in place.  This is an almost identical approach that other industries utilise when automating such as manufacturing and mining operations which have been successfully automating for years. 

A common theme we keep seeing in our corporate automation practice is where operations staff are so stretched with meeting normal workloads and are required to work extended hours to get through it, leaving little time to address the backlog that still needs to be done.   In these situations, we recommend picking something simple to start with, apply the RPA framework, automate, put measurements in place and productionise quickly.    

We see too many examples where the big bang approach to map out everything in an organisation is done first before doing any real automation and it fails as this step is not always required and can be a highly inefficient approach.  The faster you automate accurately the quicker you get to see it with your own eyes and start reaping the benefits. 

It is no use spending months and months or in some cases that we have observed even years debating frameworks and mapping every process first when operations teams are already battling with their workload.  This elongated approach requires a very slow-moving organisation anticipating that the way things are done now will rarely change in the next few years.

IT system integration and straight through processing is not always the solution as some processes are introduced very quickly such as compliance and legislative changes which just does not give the Technology Department adequate time to catch up.  This is where RPA can be used as either an interim solution or for the long haul.

Effective automation should be deployed rapidly and refined as needed.  When spending too much time analysing the solution then the benefit is lost up front.  This then results in an automated solution to be deemed too hard and expensive to address. 

This is the scenario we need to avoid as the company misses the benefits and can fall further behind their competition.  By automating quickly, it does not mean you are taking short cuts and compromising on the accuracy of the solution.

Carefully consider the ‘use case’ that you would like to automate.  In simple terms the use case is something you do every day within your company to allow it to operate.  It could relate to sales, operations, HR or the finance department.  Typically, we see a use case as the cornerstone of solving a problem with automation.

The types of use cases we come across vary from company to company and some of the recent examples include:

• legacy system holding customer information for old clients that still needed to be reported on regularly for compliance purposes where manual reports are generated and emailed out
• a financial services client using online forms that still needs to then re-key the data from the online form into a registry platform
• reading PDF’s for applications that needed to be assessed and allocated to different teams depending on the loan size
• setup of large amounts of users to help onboard new employees
• peak enrolment times in education where form data needs to be input from an application form then into student administration platforms
• Welcome packs for new customers that need to be setup, reviewed, attached to an email and then emailed out

You can imagine then multiplying the above use cases being carried out manually each day, hundreds of times over and for long periods of time.  Then put a time value on each of these, multiple it out and you soon start to see the overhead and cost associated with it.  This will of course help you determine the return on investment (ROI).  Remembering the ROI should also include things like time to market, improved accuracy of system data and customer satisfaction.

It is important to set the RPA journey up for success.  The standard inputs and outputs that apply and require close consideration include identifying:

• Return on investment (ROI)
• Solution Provider to carry out the work
• RPA tools to use and ongoing license costs
• Use Cases
• Level of process documentation currently available
• Complexity of the environment
• Determine if a pilot is needed first
• Training
• Security
• Ongoing support
• Change Management

Keep in mind a number of the areas above can be consolidated and carried out by key members of the team so not all areas require dedicated resources.  The resource mix should include internal subject matter experts as well as support from external providers.