A successful RPA (robotic process automation) implementation entirely revolves around the development of software that is configured by users to perform repeated, high volume and rule-based tasks. An enhanced cycle time, increased control, insights and analytics, cost savings, 24/7 operations, data accuracy and increased volumes are a few benefits that RPA adds to a business.
Building on the insights from our experts, we have zeroed down critical steps involved in establishing RPA operating model framework for an effective operating model with hassle-free production, maintenance and support.
Build an RPA Center of Excellence
Businesses need to systematically adopt the usage of RPA across all organizational units. An RPA center of excellence (CoE) needs to be set up and staffed with people who will be responsible for making the program efficient and successful. The objective of the CoE is to develop business cases, calculate the potential cost optimization and ROI while measuring the progress around those goals.
The technology and operations teams will need to appoint representatives to facilitate the centralized RPA strategy group to recommend and adopt best practices while framing standards across processes in different business units.
Framework for Project Governance and Change Management
The business can ensure standardization across the enterprise by building foolproof change management and governance framework. This is to prioritize the feasible opportunities and involve all the required stakeholders for the RPA project. The operations team will have to design the framework. However, it is important to loop in the IT team to minimize the time and reduce iterations.
The framework must comprise an enterprise robotics council, a business unit governance council and an RPA technical council to spearhead, prioritize and design standards for the RPA project.
Stakeholder Communication and Management
A properly chalked out communication plan is vital for proper participation from the concerned stakeholders from all the departments involved. Operations must take the lead while coordinating with human resources and the IT team to draft apt communications.
Organizations should set up a committee comprising senior executives and heads of all the participating departments as well as the Chief Information Officer to ensure a fast and smooth rollout of RPA. An interactive RPA awareness workshop should be conducted with videos and illustrations to emphasize on how RPA forges a pathway for employees to partake in the growth of the business and tap into the true skills and expertise of the team.
Need Assessment & Opportunity Identification
In order to identify processes with potential for RPA, process maturity and RPA readiness assessment need to be worked upon. This will ensure that only the processes which yield a high ROI are chosen to automate.
An enterprise-level governance team will need to select and prioritize on feasible projects. The operations team will have to play a pivotal role in the identification of opportunities, while the IT team should take overall responsibility for chalking out a roadmap for the goals. A predefined process governed by a robust standard operating procedure will help the business avoid rework and maintenance.
Design and Development of Pilots
The “Eliminate-Simplify-Standardize -Automate” approach takes businesses a long way in introducing RPA to enhance processes. Firstly, the successful execution of simple pilots can get key stakeholders across the organization on board. This will also help the business decide the processes where there is a scope to experiment and learn. After which, companies can redesign and standardize processes to maximize gains. The operations team, supported by the IT team will have to be entrusted with the task of testing the bots.
Production, Maintenance, and Support
During this stage, organizations focus on monitoring bots to ensure proactive identification and solutions in adverse scenarios. Accordingly, process changes and reprogramming bots will be carried out. Scheduling and monitoring of bots must be centralized within the operations team with the support from the IT team for effective coordination and a smooth rollout.
Stakeholders will need to monitor bot performance after the RPA initiative has entered the production phase. A centralized tracking and reporting tool in the form of a live dashboard will need to be adopted for a transparent undertaking. The RPA CoE will oversee the support operations. The traditional support model of service tickets will have to be replaced with dedicated RPA consultants to fix bugs and outages.
Selecting the Right RPA Software
This the most important step to manage the entire undertaking. The RPA tool software will need to have a bot manager to manage an end-to-end automation life cycle, with a customizable workflow, intuitive design and a real-time dashboard. A software with bot analytics, automation feasibility and a governance automation workflow will be best for project managers to manage the processes in the best way. Be on top of your program’s holistic health and ROI with our expert advice on successfully implementing an RPA process with Botstatz.
Originally posted here.
