Good practices in RPA implementation

Enterprises are significantly speeding up their investments in digital transformation initiatives. Despite most enterprises having knowledge of the essential elements of a successful transformation, several fall short of meeting their transformation expectations. The trick as always lies in impeccable execution.

A recent survey by Forbes reported that around 84% of companies fail at digital transformation. Adaptability is the new competitive advantage. Enterprises are beginning to increasingly focus on building capabilities on ‘how do new things’ in order to significantly accelerate competitive advantage. According to a McKinsey report, one of the most critical components in effective digital transformation is “change management” which plays an imperative role in driving successful outcomes. The report also found that most change management efforts fail because of outdated change management practices which are not aligned with today’s dynamic business environment. This could also be a result of business users resisting change. As Philip Crosby says, ”Slowness to change usually means fear of the new.”

Automation technologies like Robotic Process Automation has practical applications in almost all industries including FSI, healthcare, manufacturing among others. However, some research data suggests that most companies do not do a great job with their RPA initiatives. A research by Enterprise Management Associate that covered over 1000 professionals at mid-sized and large firms, stated that those using RPA total 44% in all but even they are not all enthusiastic about it. It is not a lesser known fact that for any automation project to be successful, the single most critical success factor is the way acceptance and adoption is managed. In order to achieve long terms benefits with RPA, enterprises must invest in building strengths in change management practices. Efforts in successfully utilizing and scaling RPA will be in vain until we shift our focus from delivering technology, to leading and delivering change. Enterprises must effectively assess factors such as the business landscape, key stakeholders’ interests, their current operations, their existing resources and senior executive’s willingness to sponsor the change management. In addition to change management, other challenges include:

Disintegrated implementation

RPA implementations requires seamless integration between interdependent automated activities to avoid any kind of inconsistencies. Enterprises deploying RPA in silos struggle to operate processes without any hindrances or delays. Whether or not API versus UI integrations for example are critical decisions to be made to create a more resilient RPA approach.

Unrealistic goals and expectations

RPA implementations bring a great deal of benefits to businesses but expecting a magical turnaround at once would be unrealistic. Vagueness around expected outcomes leads to confusion among employees and negatively impacts the overall RPA implementation project.

Existing IT infrastructure constraints

Existing IT infrastructure issues may also pose challenges to a seamless RPA. Enterprises may encounter several compatibility issues between the RPA systems and the organization’s current infrastructure and architecture such as interconnected systems, synchronized on-premise and cloud infrastructures, and disaster recovery management.

Enterprises conventionally focus on devising the best strategic and tactical plans while thinking of RPA implementations, but to succeed, we must also consider the human element i.e., the alignment of the company’s culture, people, and behaviours to get the desired outcome. Leadership teams that fail to have a meticulous change management plan may find themselves bewildered when the RPA projects fail.

Good Practices in Successful RPA Change Management

Making the change desirable

While there are a lot of myths associated with RPA and automation in general, it is important to understand how RPA can enhance organizational processes. With the right messaging, business departments will understand that there is no need for resistance around automation and will realize that automation can free up their time, which could be better utilized in catering to other value-added activities. It is important to have employees on board and address their questions and concerns very systematically right from initial phases of any RPA initiatives.

Some ways to facilitate change management for example, would be to ensure that the before-after state of processes prior to and after automation is documented with demonstrated tangible benefits and so is the impact on people in terms of reskilling them to deliver better value added outcomes. This will probably set as examples for people be more comfortable with automation and feel more positively about how this might help them deliver their jobs better.

Building a bot-human handover

Enterprises that see success in RPA implementation, focus on building a good mix of bot to human handover in business processes. Typically, processes do have elements of validation and/or decision making before continuing with the automation further. It would be useful to incorporate the right blend of bot to human handover to automate processes.

Getting key stakeholder buy-in

Enterprises are investing in building a culture that encourages human workforce to accept, adopt, and work with the RPA bots seamlessly including working on the following components:

• Continuous messaging and governance

Automation as transformative as it is, must have cultural adoption and support from the executive level. The management views RPA as a strategic business project and provides the financial and human resources required. They communicate clearly on the outcomes expected from automation and how it will benefit the workforce and company. The teams ensure that project structure and governance are in place. Senior management buy-in is imperative for success. The RPA program lead ensures that they facilitate continuous interactions with functional business stakeholders, with IT and training teams to deliver positive and consistent messaging around automation to solicit business buy-in on this initiative. Business buy-in is also required to identify processes for automation, remove redundancies in process prior to automation and to decide the to-be process.

• Getting IT on board early

The IT team may be wary of ‘digital workers’ in their systems due to security and related issues. With the proactive partnership of IT team, several hindrances in the form of internal approvals and tick marks can be handled early, thereby ensuring that these do not become roadblocks at the time of UAT or project go-live.

Program Governance

RPA is a part of the long-term transformation initiative and should be closely knit with a company’s organizational, digital, and IT roadmap. Implementing RPA is an initiative, not a series of individual projects and for this reason having a strong governance framework is critical to success. Such governance should encompass elements of people, process and technology and should be reviewed from time to time to validate relevance and make small amendments as the enterprise matures in its RPA journey.

An internal core team responsible for automation will vary depending on the company goals, organizational resources, and expertise available. In general, this team is comprised of an executive sponsor, an IT representative, and key employees from the line-of-business (LOB).

Establishing RPA Centre of Excellence:

Building an RPA Centre of Excellence provides a better way of gathering, assessing, managing and scaling internal knowledge and capabilities to ensure that the scope, direction, and outcomes are in line with stated expectations at both an organizational and employee level. At the core of your Centre of Excellence lies the Robotic Operating Team which consists of a set of clearly defined roles and responsibilities and is charged with implementing and managing the automation as quickly, as efficiently and as safely as possible. The RPA COE will likely face challenges related to cross-departmental collaboration and will rely on the governance framework that determines participation and interaction among different departments and establishes protocols and prioritization for managing and sharing knowledge.

Successful change management can pave a path to a better future for the duration of your project. Organizations should start with a vision, plan to effectively communicate it with the teams and key stakeholders, and then get started with the project. Change isn’t easy, but those who look only to the past and present are certain to miss the future.

With deployment of the right ingredients for success, RPA could well become a strong lever to deliver outstanding business results.