Automation is transforming businesses like never before. Embracing advanced technologies such as robotic process automation (RPA) is enabling organizations to boost productivity and efficiency and save costs. Partnering with a robotic process automation company is the best way to implement disruptive technologies that can take your business to the next level. However, automation is not the solution for all processes and there are certain mistakes you should watch out for when implementing RPA.
Mistakes You Should Watch out for When Implementing RPA
- Not having a proper plan: RPA implementation would not succeed without a proper strategy. This is because the project will require a skilled team of business analysts, project managers, operating staff, and RPA developers. You also need to factor in costs of additional software development and maintenance. Having a clearcut plan and goals are critical for implementing something as complex as automation.
- Not identifying the right tasks to automate: Implementing RPA just for the sake of it is a big mistake. RPA improves efficiency, but you have to identify which tasks to automate. Investing in the in the wrong ones can be disastrous. For instance, don’t automate tasks that involve judgment or decision-making in such changing circumstances as they are best left to humans. On the other hand, automating repetitive, mundane processes is recommended as such tasks can hinder human workers’ concentration and result in errors. Carefully evaluate which processes your company can benefit from automating and take your employees’ opinions into account.
- Not using a data-driven approach: Not basing your decisions on proper data can lead to failure. Collect data about the workflow you want to automate and how it is managed. Find out how employees feel about deploying RPA across this process, their challenges, its impact on other workflows, number of people involved and how much time it requires to complete. After obtaining the data, consider all possible challenges people might face following automation of the process.
- Automating too much too soon: Also, don’t automate several processes simultaneously and too soon. Rather than deploy multiple RPA tools across the organization, automate select processes and proceed further after proving their success. Implementing RPA in stages will allow people to make the most of automation capabilities.
- Not having a clear understanding of the costs and benefits involved: It’s important to calculate what the long-term benefits for your business will be in order to get an idea about your ROI. Automation of older technologies could consume too many resources. Investing in the right tools and technologies is important to boost ROI. Open source automation tools are reliable, secure, and free to use, andeasy to implement, configure, and support. It’s also important to choose tools that can easily blend with native tools.
- Automating complex processes first: Don’t try to automate complex processes first. While automating complex processes may have a greater impact, they are not easy to automate and need more time and effort. Best practice is to start with simpler processes and make sure your operations team is comfortable with RPA. For instance, automating document scanning workflows with the help of document scanning services may be a good place to start.
- Not considering the human element: Don’t overlook the importance of the human factor when implementing RPA. Automation requires planning, optimization and training and people are crucial for the success of these processes. Make sure your workforce is qualified and ready to handle automation and get their opinion on planned workflow changes. Build the right culture, and organize training sessions to equip people with the required skills and knowledge for automation.
- Lack of governance: Not investing in appropriate management and supervision for the RPA program is a common reason for failure. While there are a plethora of user-friendly automation tools, ROI-generating automations depend on having a professional automation team.
- Having unrealistic expectations: RPA is not a silver bullet, does not hold the key to digital transformation success and cannot provide instant gratification. There are many instances of failures with automated processes and RPA implementations. For instance, a process that generates automated reports will fail if the reports generated are inaccurate. Unrealistic expectations at the start of the project can cause faulty infrastructure setups, poor assessment of requirements and design, and failures.
RPA adoption success should be measured in terms of the quality of the deployment, overall increase in productivity it brings about and, most importantly, its impact on people. The key benefits of successful RPA implementation include:
- Improves and eases the user experience
- Reduced human errors
- Saves time, resources and money
- Allows employees to focus on challenging tasks requiring critical human skills
- Motivates employees to improve their performance
- Leads to better use of unique competencies
- Boosts financial performance
A robotic process automation company can help organizations automate time-consuming labor-intensive tasks using smart technology, and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the tasks and their workforce. However, simply automating all manual processes will not provide the solution. The goal should be to leverage automation to support and complement human resources rather than replacing them.
