Companies are using RPA more than ever before due to the benefits of improving productivity and quality of data.  According to a Harvard Business Review survey of 523 executives across 26 countries in a range of industries, 58% say they have started their automation journey with 38% piloting solutions, which is twice as many as the year before (HBR, “How Companies are using Intelligent Automation to be more Innovative”, 2019).

Hopes and Dreams

Several years ago, I embarked on a robotic process automation journey with the tenacity and enthusiasm of a kid in a candy store.  There were so many replicable processes that could be automated, it seemed that the cost savings would be easy to attain. A backlog of processes was generated, the initiative was kicked off with the organization, and the processes were prioritized based on which process would get us the biggest bang for our buck. At the same time, we played with the ‘build vs. buy’ notion and assessed various companies, which claimed expertise in RPA implementation.

Pitfall #1: Vendors Who Claim Seamless and Simple Robotic Process Automation Implementation

The vendors my team assessed had various price structures and they all claimed a return on investment within a year or less. The vendors also had meaty price tags. Something didn’t seem right. So we dug a bit into how these vendors implemented the bots and which were the most used RPA software. Some vendors also claimed expertise in our line of business, but we knew we were too much of a niche market for that to be true. To avoid vendors who were clearly ‘stretching the truth’ and avoid the very high front-end investment required, the company decided to test the waters with internal development.

What we found was that the most complicated part of an RPA implementation was within our own control – standardizing the processes we want to automate. Once we realized this, we leveraged our existing development team to learn the automation software. At the same time, we took a hard look at our backlog to thoroughly vet which processes were truly straightforward and which ones required more polishing.

After clearing this initial hurdle, we got to work on our first use case.  We knew it was a big fish to fry, but it would potentially result in a half-million dollars in cost savings by the end of the first year. The process was documented and recorded and the bots were developed and deployed. But a few weeks later, something happened that we weren’t expecting.

Pitfall #2: Relying on Applications outside of your Control

Pitfall #3: Going After the Big Fish Without Practicing on Little Fish

The problem was that we were relying on a 3^rd party website to process our transactions (which was part of the manual process). Once the site realized we began using a bot, they informed us that they discouraged the use of bots on their website. Instead, they suggested we use their application programming interfaces (APIs) instead to accomplish the same task. Unfortunately, several months and thousands of dollars were wasted on a set of bots we could never use again. Now we were several months behind in realizing our cost savings because we had put forth efforts on obtaining the big fish. There was clearly a lot we did not know about RPA. We did not address the unknown unknowns and we did not start with smaller processes to test the waters first. We took these lessons to heart. Going forward we pivoted from automating processes that used external applications and focused on prioritizing processes within our own internal systems.

The People Factor

There are non-technical factors to consider when implementing RPA too. One should plan how to get the buy-in from leadership, as well as how to handle the organizational change management aspects. Especially, when people may fear automation could take away their jobs.

Pitfall #4: Communicating robots as a Cure-All Without Articulating What Makes a Successful RPA Candidate

I did not have a problem communicating the RPA idea to the internal leadership team. Everyone was quickly on board. The question was more around, ‘Where do we start?’. I pitched an approach explaining what RPA can do, example timeframes, and likely ROI. More importantly, I shared what makes a good candidate for RPA: a process must be standardized and not include any subjective decision-making. Being transparent with what RPA cannot do is just as important as sharing what RPA can do.

Pitfall #5: Not Addressing People’s Underlying Fear of Job Security

As we vetted the candidate processes for RPA, we needed to engage the people who performed the daily work that was to be automated and their management. At first, we had a misstep: we were not clear with associates that they were not to be replaced by robots. Without this warning, rumors started, and people began to fear the “Coming of the Bots”. When we clarified that we did not plan to replace anyone, but that we planned to remove the mundane repetitive tasks from their daily workload, we saw more engagement (and relieved workers).

Navigating Forward

Costs were incurred through the learning process to be sure. We learned as we went. We spent the necessary time and resources to thoroughly vet our processes. We made the decision to build internally. All these steps helped us save over $1M in the first year. Most of those savings came from not outsourcing the RPA development work, and development is the easy part.

My advice is to spend the time doing your homework on which processes will be the best candidates and start off with small fish robotic process automation candidate processes. Use a quick sprint method to prevent costly throwaway work if a bot does not prove to be successful. Be clear and transparent with both leadership and the individuals impacted by RPA. On top of this, be sure to explain how RPA is not something to be feared, but something to embrace. After all, improved productivity means more time to focus on higher-level activities.  

About the author: Alyssa Moy is a Senior Director, Product Strategy & Management at Option Care Health and a member of TSI’s Leaders’ Forum.

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Marvin the Robot – (Douglas Adams, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”)

Robots have captured our imaginations for a long time. Many movies, such as the 1951 classic “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” featuring Gort, the laser wielding protector of Klaatu, or the 2008 blockbuster “WALL-E,” the roving trash compactor left behind to clean up a future polluted planet Earth, entertain us with far-out depictions of robots and their superhuman abilities.

These fictional robots, like Marvin quoted above, can perform human tasks with superior accuracy in fractions of the time it takes mere mortals. Looking around today’s corporate landscape, one might not know we have been quietly invaded by a new generation of robots. Namely, software, written to automate repeatable, mundane human tasks, and referred to as Robotic Process Automation (RPA). And, fortunately or unfortunately depending on your point of view, their capabilities are no longer far-fetched science fiction fantasies. Think of an RPA software robot as a digital employee, one that doesn’t sleep, eat lunch or take holidays.

RPA has created quite a stir recently in terms of the potential impact on real people and their jobs. McKinsey estimates that 49% of time spent on work activities, or the equivalent of 1.1 billion jobs, could be automated using current technology. Forrester predicts that by 2019, “one-quarter of all job tasks will be offloaded to software robots, physical robots, or customer self-service automation.”

What does this all mean for workers and companies who want to thrive and stay competitive?

Here are 5 things you should know about RPA:

1.   RPA does not spell doomsday for us mere mortals. Yes, workers and their jobs will be impacted in a major way by RPA. The silver lining in the above referenced McKinsey study is that “only 5% of all jobs can be automated entirely.” This means human workers still have opportunities to move up the value chain and focus more on strategic and value-added activities. Take the opportunity and embrace automation as an opportunity to eliminate dull, tedious data gathering and repetitive tasks. Redesign your work flows with the end customer in mind and eliminate as much as you can from the human work stream.

2.   Having created some hope for us regular humans above in item 1, remember the ROI for pursuing RPA is still a no-brainer. Most studies suggest that 40-50% of all knowledge worker activity is spent gathering and moving data around. Investing in automation and redeployment of people will not only pay big dividends, but will most likely help your business survive to the next round in a ruthless world of innovative disruption. Engage teams to simultaneously pursue operational excellence and breakthrough technology enabled innovation. What is the solution after next and how can you get there now? You can no longer think and operate sequentially.

3.   The best candidate processes for RPA are those that are repeatable, rules-based and reliant on structured data. The RPA software can help manage these standard end-to-end processes. Evaluate your business from the top down and identify processes that consume the most time and resources and consider targeting those first.

4.   RPA operates at the presentation and UI level and can span multiple systems and applications. There are many new and emerging players in this space. The software is easier to configure than conventional systems. Consider engaging specialists experienced in identifying your requirements and helping you select software and an integration approach that meets your needs. Be careful to assure your software is secure and scalable like any other software you would design or acquire.

5.   Whatever you do, do not ignore the people impact. Take the opportunity to define your communication strategy, engage sponsors and advocates, gather feedback, refine the strategy and involve everyone in the positive business case for change. Acknowledge the risks (of taking and not taking action) and reward the results. Research shows that most initiatives fail for lack of focus on people. Rest assured, an effort around automation will only increase your odds of failure if you do not engage in robust organizational change management.

In closing, RPA and related technologies are still in early stages of development and deployment. But don’t be passive and complacent, change continues to accelerate at unprecedented rates. Be ready and be proactive. Use the above as a starting point for moving ahead. Here comes the digital workforce, full speed ahead.

TSI’s expert consultants offer a wide range of services that can help your organization Transform in 2017 and beyond.

See below to learn more about the author, Dan Spaeth. You can also read his January 2017 article, titled: 3 Quality Metrics You Can’t Ignore.

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