Effective strategies for intelligent automation can usher in a multitude of benefits in your enterprise. Yet the success of this endeavor depends on several crucial factors. It requires the correct combination of people, process and technology, guided by the right automation strategy.

A well-thought strategy is at the core of every automation project, and though there is no fixed approach to it, there are several critical elements that one needs to address when creating it.

Table of Contents

Before you begin to automate

Before you automate, you must ensure that you have the right people as well as the right culture at the center of your automation vision. RPA requires a shift in working norms to facilitate the effective use of virtual teams, increase trust in technology and embrace innovation.

Put simply, automation transforms how processes are carried out. This might require organizational change, especially the way people get work done.

Begin intelligent automation with a people-first approach

When starting your automation journey, identify functional leaders and champions/influencers. The bottom line is that RPA-led transformation requires dedicated support from your workforce. You must prepare your people to embrace the change.

Design your own intelligent automation path

An EY study found 30 to 50 percent of initial RPA projects fail. This is due to a lack of understanding of the capabilities and realistic benefits of RPA.

Even though there is no shortage of advice available on how to shape your initial RPA strategy. There is also a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding about what RPA bots can and cannot do for an organization, leading to disappointment and missed goals.

Hence, it is important that you find the right partner to help you define and execute the right strategies for intelligent automation.

Pillars of intelligent automation strategy

When talking about automation strategy, we usually identify the six pillars it should rest upon.

Process Excellence, which means the business processes are efficient, effective and undergo regular improvement.
Automation Governance, which prescribes the monitoring, management, and re-architecting of systems under automation.
Data Governance, which includes management principles, access and usage decision rights and securing the data resources.
Automation Applications Governance, or selection of the right tools for the right job.
Technical Skills, including hiring, training and technically supporting the professionals necessary for automation success.
Sustainable Deployment, or maintaining automated applications and documentation to keep applications operating efficiently.

3 Strategies for a fool-proof success

Digital transformation is difficult. The success rate of digital transformation initiatives is low, with only around 30% of such initiatives succeeding, as per a 2020 BCG report. This transformation cannot be successful unless a company has appropriate deployment strategies for intelligent automation in place.

1. Attended RPA for automating tasks

Start with automating tasks where bots work alongside people to increase productivity. This is called attended automation.

With attended automation, your workforce becomes familiar with bots firsthand. Attended bots are simple to implement as they are taking on a repetitive segment of a pre-existing workflow and remain closely supervised.

2. Business process automation

Moving to fully automated business processes is the next step.

To automate business processes end to end, you will implement multiple bots to execute distinct parts of the process, creating touchless automation to optimize entire workflows of business processes.

A few examples include invoice processing automation, intelligent document processing, induction, onboarding and the likes.

The aim here is to introduce the business to the potential of RPA. Automation can now be seen for its potential to shift human work toward value addition through creativity and innovation.

Successful transformation is going to require flexibility and adaptability from your team. Hiring for these attributes as well as for more diversity of skills and experience will set up your journey for success.

3. Incorporating AI

After adopting attended RPA and automating business processes end to end with multiple bots, adding AI-powered RPA to automate where unstructured information is at play will not be a giant leap into the unknown. In fact, phase 2 is likely to push your forward on your journey to intelligent automation of its own momentum.

Now that you have created a culture where people view their work as augmented and improved by automation, you have created unprecedented efficiency gains while delivering time back to teams for value-added work.

With a fully AI-enabled RPA platform, there is no barrier to adopting intelligent tools since native AI-powered bots work seamlessly with all other RPA tools and analytics. Intelligent automation is logically the next step in automation evolution.

Do not believe the hype, believe the results

Intelligent automation is a reality. Leaders in every industry expect to see payoffs in revenue, profit and efficiency from their automation investments. Transforming and digitizing your data and processes isn’t easy, yet it’s necessary and has the potential to deliver big returns.

A combination of powerful software, deep industry expertise and a strong ecosystem of vendors can help drive big results fast, as seen in this example of a client who automatically scrutinized 100% of their claims in real-time and initiated a workflow on high-risk claims.