A 5-Step Strategy For Overcoming Barriers to RPA Implementation

RPA implementation is straightforward if you have a detailed roadmap.  

Despite the scalability and productivity which RPA brings with it, most businesses struggle with a successful RPA implementation.

This could be due to several reasons. For instance, they are either not able to accurately assess the specific processes which require automation or because they fail to get approval for RPA designing and integration.  

While building an RPA strategy is not “one size fits all,” there are some common elements that companies must address. 

Overcoming 5 common barriers of RPA implementation

Even with RPA organizations face barriers on their road to widespread implementation. To help you succeed, we have compiled five of the most common barriers most organizations face and included information to overcome them.

1. Lack of RPA expertise

Leading RPA providers offer online and in-person classes, certifications and workshops.  Another way organizations can solve this problem is by looking for an RPA provider with a no-code/low code platform design. That kind of platform makes it easy for all employees to build their own bots and help scale your automation initiatives faster.

2. Lack of a sufficient budget

Explore every tool your vendor offers. Leverage other customer success stories to highlight what is possible to your leadership if an additional budget is given. You can also significantly reduce your total cost of ownership (TCO) and gain many other benefits by moving your automation to the cloud. At a fraction of the cost, this deployment option delivers on comparable value.

3. Lack of resources

With a user-friendly automation platform, even employees who don’t have a technical background can learn to build bots to handle their processes. As a result, scaling is made easier with more resources. Your busy IT team will not have to squeeze in more work by getting involved in bot development

4. Security concerns

Depending on the provider, you can expect to see a variety of safeguards features like multi-factor authentication and granular role-based access controls (RBAC) ensure that only authorized users get access. As for bot security, consider a provider that offers a program that validates and certifies the bots offered by the company and its partners to adhere to the highest standards for protection. 

5. Lack of employee support

Be transparent about your automation initiatives. Be vocal about how it delivers value. Involve team members in an automation initiative. Use processes discovery tools to document workflows and identify additional automation opportunities. Lastly, make sure to share the successes of each deployment broadly to build trust and get other employees excited about automation initiatives.

A 5-step strategy to a successful RPA implementation

This 5-step guide will assist you in understanding the process of strategizing the implementation, development and launch of Robotic Process Automation within your organization or enterprise.

1. Picking the process

Develop a framework that aligns the primary intent of RPA with the organization’s strategic objectives. This framework should try to examine both the potential risks and the expected value, which can be derived from automation. 

Let’s look at certain attributes that should be considered and scored in a structured way to ascertain the suitability of a process for automation. 

• The total volume of transactions that can be performed without human intervention. 
• The amount of labor or resources required to execute repetitive tasks at regular intervals. 
• The ability of the components and sub-components of a process to be digitalized. 
• The capacity of a process to deliver an excellent customer experience without any manual errors. 
• The possible constraints which might obstruct the harvesting of automation benefits. 
• The capability of the rules that govern a process, to be mechanically defined and programmed. 
• The sensitivity and relevance of a process in the overall organizational workflow. 

In addition, factors like probable impact, compliance requirements, cost-effectiveness, technical complexity and data privacy might also come in handy for identifying the processes, which can yield the most significant rewards after a successful RPA implementation. 

2. Managing the people

To begin with, a compelling case must be built for the company’s leadership to take notice. They must be informed about the need for automation, its essentiality and how it is likely to influence the return on investment (ROI).

Once this is done, the next step is to convince the employees. The unease that accompanies automation is genuine and that is why it needs to be adequately addressed. 

RPA would only filter out redundancy and improve productivity. It would never be allowed to replace jobs. 

For greater confidence, build a cross-functional team to oversee successful RPA implementation. 

Empower the team to deal with operational challenges and grievance redressal while facilitating the proliferation of RPA technologies. 

This would also include coordinating with departments like IT and HR to make sure that the incorporation and configuration of RPA is absolute and complete. 

As the business gets ready to embrace the new, it is now time to focus your attention on the selection of a competent RPA vendor. 

3. Selecting the right vendor

All organizations have unique needs and to fulfill them they need RPA vendors who can offer customized solutions.  

Below is a list of parameters that you must bear in mind while selecting a vendor for RPA so that pitfalls, if any, can be avoided. 

• The cost and time that they would require to deploy software bots. 
• Their ability to provide bots that can be scaled to handle transactional fluctuations and financial complexities. 
• Provisions made for encrypting stored data and ensuring its privacy and confidentiality. 
• Positioning systems to alert the organization in case there is a process error or a data breach. 
• The presence of an audit trail feature that records every action taken by the bot, thus, enabling performance monitoring. 
• The vendor-supplied RPA tool should also be non-intrusive and well-equipped to adapt to changing technologies. 

In addition, the technical prowess of the vendor must be verified. The commitment of a vendor to the RPA domain can be substantiated by their previous associations and development experience. It is only the capability of the vendor to combat automation issues, that can help you implement Robotic Process Automation skillfully.

4. Implementing the plan

At the initial stage, a team that has been tasked with the implementation of RPA, would identify the requisites and provide guiding principles that will help individual business units drive automation. 

Once the framework has been designed, an implementation partner should be chosen which can either be an RPA vendor or an in-house crew.  

The next step is to carve out a comprehensive process map and mark the specific parts you plan to automate.  

Document this map, clarify the exact role that you expect RPA bots to play and program them accordingly.  

The infrastructure, software and other systemic variations can sometimes lead to the cropping up of minor issues. Therefore, iterate the processes repeatedly and resolve any unexpected hindrances that might arise.  

After you have considered all the major scenarios and crafted a fallback plan, get ready to run the pilot. 

Evaluate the results which have been obtained during this test run and use them to rectify glitches, if any. 

 If the bots are working correctly, configure them to handle changes.  

This implies that a mechanism should be put in place, which equips them to continue functioning, even if the processes change.  

It is imperative to inform all the stakeholders of their roles and responsibilities concerning robotic process automation implementation.  

Finally, double-check your contingency plan and go live! 

5. Measuring the performance

Formulate key performance indicators (KPIs) based on which you can find out the success rate of your RPA implementation. 

Although these metrics can vary from one organization to another, they generally tend to have a few metrics in common. 

• Measuring how the deployment of RPA has affected the back-office processes. 
• Finding out if the productivity of employees has increased by comparing the time in which RPA finishes a task with the time in which human workers perform the same function. 
• Calculating the accuracy of the output, which ideally, should have increased to a hundred percent. 
• Analyzing the compliance reports of RPA, i.e., the efficiency with which the bots are adhering to rules and regulations. 

A thorough assessment would identify any discrepancies and give you sufficient time to rectify them.  

After the completion of the incubation period, more such evaluations based on these yardsticks should be carried out, so that any gaps left in the successful RPA implementation plan can be timely identified and corrected.

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