Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is a long-term strategic investment with a direct impact on corporate competitive advantage which positively impacts customer and employee experiences, increases accuracy and compliance, and ultimately enables companies to do more with less. The current state of the economy and difficulties attracting and retaining talent render the benefits of RPA more important than ever.
With this in mind, RPA manufacturers designed their platforms and tools to encourage adoption and implementation by non-technical users. In fact, the entire ‘as a service’ market promises acceleration of innovation and overall adoption of new technologies without needing to engage skilled, technical organizations. This approach bypasses the traditional technology consumption model which involves IT departments and experienced partners such as System Integrators (SIs) and Value Add Resellers (VARs). If traditional approaches are no longer necessary, it is valid to ask – what is the role and value of including an RPA partner in the RPA journey?
McKinsey and Company recently released an equation for success[1] which summarizes major approaches and risks to explain how to avoid execution pitfalls that can ultimately derail automation programs. In essence, the equation states that optimal value is obtained by an ideal combination of technologies and techniques. This holistic approach must include all necessary technologies and techniques needed to deliver required business outcomes and successfully apply the technology portfolio. Use of this equation helps companies select and prove processes that are suitable for automation.
Typically, businesses assemble multi-disciplinary teams to assess issues and define solutions, however, most organizations have a static, structural hierarchy that prohibits new ideas and design thinking. In addition, most of these teams include siloed employees who lack practical, cross functional technology experience. This approach could be detrimental to implementation since possible technologies, techniques and risks may be missed. Including an RPA partner in this process exposes the business to all available solutions which challenges groupthink, encourages collaboration, and fosters innovation. Ultimately, the RPA partner can help the business identify the appropriate technology stack and techniques to lead to successful implementation and sustainment.
How do we choose an RPA Partner?
An effective RPA partner has a proven, structured engagement framework to guide clients through all phases of the journey – from inception and prototyping to testing and scaling. It is also crucial to include a healthy pipeline of automation ideas to decrease the risks of RPA program failure or stagnation. This controlled approach will ultimately facilitate partnership with the business and achieve the ROI goals advertised by automation platform vendors.
How do RPA partners encourage adoption?
In addition to cross-functional support, prompt onboarding, building, and implementation of automation workflows is critical for adoption. We recently we worked with a Fortune 100 client who reached out because internal deployment of a single automation workflow was exceeding 90 days. This long lead time created frustration with business users eager to adopt the technology and significantly impeded overall program adoption. When we became involved, the client leveraged our dedicated partner resources and established rapid implementation methodology and accelerated implementation to just 3 weeks. This example proves that engaging the right RPA partner at the start is crucial for overall program adoption and successful automation program scaling.
How do RPA partners assist with ongoing maintenance?
Management of automation is another consideration for long-term success. No matter how mature automation technology is, virtual workforce monitoring is still necessary to manage potential backend system changes and ensure reliability of the overall infrastructure. Clients often spend more time managing current automations rather than onboarding new automation ideas and workflows. Having an RPA partner take on that burden from the businesses allows clients to focus on additional program adoption and scaling.
Engaging an experienced RPA partner early in the RPA journey will help companies design an optimal, scalable automation program, encourage adoption, and obtain peak value for their investment. In addition, RPA partner resources can accelerate implementation and take on long-term program maintenance to allow the business to focus on other improvement opportunities. Even though companies can implement on their own, collaboration with a knowledgeable and experienced RPA partner is essential to the success of any RPA journey.
[1] “How to avoid the three common execution pitfalls that derail automation programs”, McKinsey Digital, https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/how-to-avoid-the-three-common-execution-pitfalls-that-derail-automation-programs
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