How To Get Started With Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

Robotic process automation (RPA): Everyone’s been discussing it for a while. But now with evolving automation technologies, we’re seeing more organizations look to intelligent automation (IA), which combines RPA with artificial intelligence (AI) and business process management (BPM) to not only automate time-consuming, repetitive tasks with RPA bots but end-to-end business processes.

Whether you’re new to the world of automation or just want to get your RPA ducks in a row, this quick guide will help you sort out your priorities and determine a strategic path for how to implement RPA effectively.

Where Do You Start With RPA?

After working with thousands of customers on their IA and RPA journeys, we’re pretty confident we can help you make the most of your RPA technology investment. Like any good routine, we’ve split this journey into three phases: the setup, the punchline and the payoff.

Why did the RPA bot cross the road?

Because it detected an inefficient task on the other side and couldn’t resist optimizing it!

What steps can you take to get started with RPA?

Setup

Prove to your organization why and how RPA or IA will help the business. For this, you’ll need to create a strategy for implementing and optimizing your RPA project.

1. Write a proof of concept (PoC) or RPA business case: Tell management and stakeholders exactly what investment, resources, training and systems your RPA solution will require. Dig into RPA’s benefits and calculate your potential return on investment (ROI).
2. Gather your team: Establish roles and responsibilities across the business for people involved in your RPA initiative. This can include RPA developers, process controllers, technical leads, etc. Here’s where you can also create a Center of Excellence (CoE) to ensure governance and consistency in your approach. Your CoE will help you select an RPA methodology or operating model to guide you.
3. Find the rightautomation toolsfor the job: Select the RPA tools that align with your business goals. This will help you implement RPA in a way that will achieve the most value across your enterprise.
4. Create a pipeline of priorities: Once you know which automation software fits your requirements, identify a good candidate for your first automation. Ideal first automated processes tend to be high-volume, rule-based and manual, such as data entry or moving files from one system to another.
5. Test and deploy your digital workforce: Once your bots or digital workers have gone through the testing ring, you can launch them into your selected processes. During this phase, and throughout your automation journey, monitor how your bots perform and make tweaks as they run.
6. Measure your success: Keep track of how your program is running throughout the journey. This will help you optimize and address issues where needed, and also allow you to more easily scale IA across your business.

Punchline

Once you’ve had success from your first few automated processes, start looking at the long-term, wider approach. This is scaling your automation. It’s about taking an enterprise-wide look at how you can optimize workflows and streamline tasks. As your automation abilities grow, you’ll increase throughput and expand your capabilities.

Here’s how you punch up your smaller successes:

1. Take a top-down approach: Find opportunities where you can use automation to transform core enterprise processes.
2. Expand your capabilities: Find people from across the business who can help you find more opportunities and discover new ways to utilize intelligent automation.
3. Bigger and more: Build out your capabilities, find more complex processes to automate and expand your digital workers to handle numerous projects.
4. Keep getting better: At the end of the day, your automation success comes with continuously testing, monitoring, tweaking and finding new opportunities. Watch your digital workforce’s performance with an eye for innovation.

Payoff

The big finale is digital transformation. That’s taking your small gains to complete, revolutionary change. It’s not just getting rid of those boring, manual tasks; it’s about changing how your organization gets things done.

1. Empower everyone to use the technology: Tons of RPA software is accessible to non-tech people. Utilizing tools with no-code, drag-and-drop features is going to help people from across your business get involved.
2. Crowdsource inventive new ways of working: Great ideas can be sourced from every part of your enterprise, not just your IT team. Encourage your people to brainstorm ideas of how automation can do more for them and for the entire organization.
3. Keep an eye on the sky: The benefits of automation are continuously expanding with evolving technologies like generative AI, predictive analytics – and who knows what’s next! Be ready to challenge old ideas and ways of doing things. As with any evolution, those who are stagnant get left behind.

The Applause

Knock, knock. Who’s there? Your intelligent digital workforce, ready and excited to help you make your work better!

With the right implementation method, you can take your automation to the next level and make the most of your IA/RPA investment. The key to better processes starts here, with SS&C Blue Prism’s intelligent automation platform – taking you beyond simple task automation to total, enterprise-level control and orchestration.

About the Author

Alexis Veenendaal

Alexis Veenendaal is an Associate Content Writer and Editor at SS&C Blue Prism. She’ll tell you all the cool tips and tricks for implementing intelligent automation into your workplace. She has lived and worked internationally as a professional writer and designer for nearly a decade after graduating from the University of Lethbridge for English Literature. Her personal pursuits include authoring books and digital cartography.