5 Most Important tips for Choosing a Robotic Process Automation Solution

For a smooth Robotic Process Automation, all processes must undergo an in-depth selection process using RPA team, IT, the business, and personnel. The selection criteria include processes with costly errors, processes that require audit ability and regulatory compliance, or where you need to reduce costs as you scale up operations.  Having the relevant approvals and establishing the selection criteria are fundamental for successful robotic process automation solutions.

Get Support from Business Stakeholders

Although the IT department plays a huge role in the automation process, the business team runs the automation. Key stakeholders such as the CEO and key IT personnel need to support the initiative from its early stages. The IT department is important as all robots need access to applications, a PC and a user account to operate.

The IT department applies permissions and roles to robotic user accounts. IT also provides the infrastructure needed for robotic process automation solutions. It is so easy to implement RBA because you do not need the expensive system integration. Unfortunately, the IT team does not enjoy the ease of automation. For the IT team to enjoy the benefits of ease of automation, a number of scenarios should be communicated to the IT team. Some scenarios can ranges from previous projects in transaction processing and service management to transactional, administrative, and resource-intensive work.

Communicate throughout the Automation Process

The RPA is not the only tool which provides all business solution rather it is one of the tools that provide solutions in a business. To manage exceptions, you need a human user so you cannot lock them out of the implementation process. Exceptions are thrown if applications do not respond as expected or if business rules are not followed. Communicate with the user and the IT team throughout the process to avoid problems in the future. The IT team provides real support which helps to limit operational impacts.  As part of their continued communication, they can provide access to testing environments to help in building the process.

Identify the use of RPA in the Business

RPA helps the business to run efficiently and fluidly. The benefits cannot be enjoyed if a clear strategy is lacking on how to utilize and deploy RPA. Identifying a strategy helps in ensuring that the software chosen meets the collective needs in the business. RPA could be linked to strategic imperatives such as ‘increasing agility’ or ‘increasing efficiency’ to meet some collective needs.

Budget for Hidden Costs

Recent developments in RPA have reduced the costs involved in the automation but there is still need for the initial cost. As you make your budget consider the running cost. The buildup phase include providing IT infrastructure like virtual machines and databases and IT resource time which is important to keep the RPA running. Running costs are centered on ongoing maintenance and delivery process and infrastructure maintenance and support. In some cases, you may need to create new roles to help in supporting the automation which means more costs in terms of salary.

Choose the Best Automation Process

RPA is effective where processes are ruled based, repetitive, high volume, and are free from human judgment. Processes which require frequent human intervention or are non-standardized are challenging. Not all process should be automated. A good example is automating a process that is already inefficient: automation speeds up the inefficiency. You should first redesign the process before automating it.