Currently manual and prone to human error.When you’ve defined your RPA criteria and lower-scale objectives, then you can easily create a systematic framework to follow and evaluate any process that’s an automation candidate.Ī combination of your RPA criteria and objectives gives you the qualifiers to validate any process that’s a candidate for automation and can be as simple as defining a checklist resembling the following: Have operations suffered from error-prone data entry?.Are parts of your talented, knowledgeable workforce executing tasks that require no critical thinking skills that consume their time?.Are there processes that need more resources in order to be scaled?.Are there any processes creating bottlenecks?.To get there, it’s important to whittle down your objectives by being a bit more granular and again, asking some key questions: Define your RPA objectivesĮveryone has the same RPA objectives: to eliminate mundane, repetitive tasks so your workforce can focus on higher-value efforts, while making those mundane tasks more reliable, efficient, and with higher-quality results, to deliver business objectives and customer satisfaction. It may seem simple, but asking these questions is fundamental to identifying the right processes to automate and set a foundation for scale. Is it a standard universal process or are there variations of it across the organization?.Does it involve tasks that are mechanical and require very little critical thought?.Is the process tied to regulatory guidelines and constraints (like the handling of personal information which is better suited to bots because compliance can be ensured and never under risk due to human error-a common challenge and reality for heavily regulated industries like healthcare, insurance, and financial services who stand to benefit the most from RPA).Is the process executed digitally by an employee using applications?.But even then, it’s important to do some due diligence and ensure the process is a right fit for RPA by posing some further questions: If a process fits every element on that list, odds are it’s an excellent candidate to be automated. Is it manually executed and therefore error-prone?.Is it repetitive and mechanical? Are the same steps completed every time the process is executed?.Is it a common process? Is it executed repeatedly (at least once a week) and in some cases daily?.Define your RPA criteria When defining automation candidates, you should ask yourself the following questions when considering any business process: Understanding your processes is the first step to standardization and then optimization, which lends itself beautifully to automation. Automating the same process six times in six different ways is a waste of resources and will only add barriers in any attempt to scale. If you take something as simple as processing an invoice, I’d wager there are several different ways your organization processes invoices. Most large organizations don’t have clearly defined, standard processes. A basic principle of process automation is that only clearly defined, standard, and precise processes are fit for automation. That means fully understanding every step of the process, the process’s objective, and most importantly, its business context or how it fits into the big picture.Ī common mistake many large enterprises make when implementing RPA is to hasten their approach and automate processes that are flawed to start with.
Understand your processesĬompletely understanding any process that you’re thinking about automating is paramount. We’ve continually advocated that one of the keys to scaling RPA, is choosing the right processes to automate.īelow are ways to identify the optimal use cases for RPA at your organization, helping you to not only drive scale, but also time-to-value and your return on investment.
Even though the opportunities and candidates for Robotic Process Automation are ample, the truth is, RPA isn’t right for every process. The business processes they choose to automate may be part of the problem. Large enterprises are still struggling to scale RPA ( only 3% of bot deployments reach scale). With such stark benefits, it’s hard not to become overzealous with automation, but jumping in blindly can pose significant consequences when trying to scale or evaluate your ROI. As is the benefit of making those mundane tasks more reliable, faster, and with higher-quality results. The potential for Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to eliminate mundane, repetitive tasks so enterprise talent can focus on higher-value deliverables is undeniable.