How To Prepare For Robotic Process Automation?

RPA is Robotic Process Automation.

It is the new working model that helps the human workforce to complete mundane, humdrum tasks with the help of software. It is about automating the business processes, back-office tasks, labor-intensive tasks that are regular, structured, and repetitive. It is all cutting down the time spent by humans to increase their productivity, employ their skills more on value-adding business activities, and promote automation on mundane activities. RPA is not a replacement to the human workforce, instead a complement to do the routine tasks faster and with more precision. In addition, freeing up humans will allow them to add more value to the real-business processes which are yet confined to the software bots.

Robotic Process Automation is part of big automation similar to technologies that entail Machine Learning, Robotics, AI, Big Data, and the Internet of Things. The software bots have the ability to converse with your websites, user portals, web forms, in-house software applications, etc., and they can operate on laptops, mobiles, tablets, PCs. Basically, the software bots obey a designated set of commands and a series of rules fed by humans.

According to Forrester, “RPA has proven its value as a strong and direct mechanism to support an enterprise’s tactical and strategic goals.”

RPA is not really an enigmatic process. It is about adding value to the existing business but without a human’s regular interference. They require a very minimal change in the physical infrastructure and are fairly economical to implement. The multitude of benefits provided by the RPA is sure to prevail over the actual expense of RPA implementation. It is one of the significant reasons why RPA has a huge success rate.

But, how does RPA look like in real life? Do you know what simple tasks that you come across daily are using RPA? We witnessed the start of RPA in simple functions like auto-complete forms, however, RPA tools presently have spearheaded into chatbots like helping customers settle petty queries, navigate to the specific web pages on the website, basic troubleshooting, data processing, digital automation like personal digital assistants, SIRI, etc.

A few applications of RPA are:

• Converting text to digital forms
• Data entry into CRMs
• Capturing data and handling insurance claims
• Processing credit card applications
• Organizing and booking appointments, especially in the hospitals
• Responding to simple customer queries as chatbots
• Processing financial transactions
• Fetching information from other digital systems

Why Robotic Process Automation?

We wouldn’t deny agreeing that the business environment has always been new and dynamic, and especially after the pandemic, the fact remains more true than ever. An organization needs to constantly evolve its services, products, sales, and marketing techniques, work on timely strategies, improve overall business processes to grow and stay competitive in the market.

From the back-end perspective, an organization employs several IT systems (mostly, disconnected ones) to perform its daily operations. And every time, a business process is changed, the IT systems must be updated. Updating the IT systems often will overshoot the budget, increase complexities, affect employee work routines, and incur a lot of time. So, most organizations will not immediately map the business processes with the technical processes until there is an urgent need.

To fill this communication gap between the business and the technical elements, a human workforce is required.

For example, let us consider that a company wants to improve their software subscription services by charging a 50% advance, which was not practiced before. To bring this change into effect, the IT system must be coded with syntaxes that would let a user log into their application only after the payment is cleared. Every time an internal process needs to be updated, the IT systems must be fed with information. Staff is required to update the codes in the software, and during his departure, the replacement must be trained to continue this process effectively. It is likely that a few things may get diluted during the handover. Later, when the problem hits the rock bottom, the consequences will be heavy. It is time-consuming, creates productivity issues, and involves huge money.

The problem here is: The Humans!

Solution: Robotic Process Automation [RPA]

With Robotic Process Automation, the company can leverage software bots, a.k.a. virtual workers who simulate humans. During every process change, logical changes in the software codes will be faster, efficient, and productive compared to training humans.

General benefits of Robotic Process Automation

• Robots can work 24 hours a day tirelessly in comparison to humans.
• Robot’s productivity will always be 100% in comparison to a human workforce.
• Robots are excellent multi-taskers when compared to humans.
• Robots can never make mistakes unless the software developer codes them incorrectly.
• Robots are one-time investments that only need upgrading and not a replacement.
• Robots can adapt to any process changes instantly without any training, hand-holding period, etc., unlike humans.

5 steps to prepare your company for RPA

– Strategy: Make sure you learn RPA to support your company’s strategic development

Study and learn RPA before you dip your toes into it. Educate yourself enough to understand the concepts of RPA and make strategic decisions around it. Bringing RPA implementation to your organization is a huge transformation and you must be cognizant of how the changes will impact your workforce, your business strategies, and your business overall in the initial days. Sign yourselves up for some courses, understand the advantages and disadvantages for your company, etc.

– Organization: Set a plan of action for who does what

Ideally, you need to assign an owner for the entire RPA transformation and implementation. Assigning an owner will help you streamline your work and not disturb the entire workforce’s productivity. Besides, having a dedicated RPA team can keep the entire process seamless, practice the necessary competence, and will be able to lead the organization through the change. So, set a plan of action, have a dedicated team, and assign individual responsibilities to make the entire transformation to RPA as seamless and informed as possible.

– Business Process: Identify what tasks and processes need to be automated

The main objective of RPA is to avoid mundane repetitive work with software bots. You can select non-productive business processes and daily tasks as the most eligible candidates for RPA. And also, look for other repetitive but essential tasks to automate. See if automation is possible for a certain part and consider RPA implementation for that section alone. Identify the key priorities and establish quick wins to understand that RPA really works, for those who are hesitant about this new technology.

Most importantly, you must understand how to measure the success of RPA implementation.

– Technology: Ensure your organization is technologically immune to RPA

After you are certain about the concepts of RPA, its implementation, and strategies for your organization, you must next start your research for the technologies it would require. Gauge your organization’s technological capacity with RPA’s technological requirements. This step will require you to have calls with your potential RPA technology suppliers.

Your technology infrastructure must include assessing the present infrastructure. Does your present technology allow RPA to override or support it? Will your existing workforce be able to manage during the technological transition without any support? How much will your workforce be affected during the implementation? etc.

– Partnership: Choose your RPA vendor carefully

There are a lot of RPA solution providers available in the market. You need to understand 5 important things:

• Why do you need to implement RPA?
• Does RPA fulfill my business requirements?
• Am I sure about adopting RPA for my organization?
• Am I cognizant of the changes RPA will bring?
• Am I cognizant of RPA’s success rate?

Have top-level answers for all the questions above and start looking for your RPA vendors. You must be very thoughtful and sure about landing the best RPA service provider because they will help you either make or break the entire implementation. So, it is essential that a lot of planning and informed decisions go in this way of landing the best RPA vendor. Some of the things to consider in your RPA vendor are:

• Experience in the industry
• Proven track record
• Consider the reviews about them
• The knowledge they possess about the industry
• Do they suit your needs and requirements
• Are they flexible

If you are looking for an experienced RPA leader, we are there for you: Velan!

How can Velan help you with a smooth transition from human management to software bots’ management?

Achieve a greater degree of productivity, efficiency, and accuracy with Velan’s Robotic Process Automation solution.

RPA is a gamechanger because designing and implementing the RPA technology with your present business infrastructure is a complex endeavor.

At Velan, we have expert RPA Consultants who will help you with

• Identifying the automation pipeline
• Examine the automation’s feasibility and discover different ways on how to implement it in your organization, so the purpose is met
• Align the RPA strategy with your business’s strategy
• Perform an ROI analysis
• Design and implement the RPA automation
• Handhold you throughout the RPA integration
• Measure the returns and the success ratio on an ongoing basis

From offering consulting services to helping your business get maximum returns with RPA, Velan can operate efficiently and help you scale your business. We will help you leverage the maximum capabilities of RPA for your business process management and other important aspects of your company to eliminate inefficiencies, address any gaps and productivity issues, and enable your skilled staff to work on more value-added business processes.

We help you achieve your business goals, just like ours!