Implementing robotic process automation can follow a smooth path towards successful deployment and tangible benefits if you follow some recommendations. The first step is crucial, namely, choosing the business processes that are best suited for automation.
You should then question your company's need to work with a specialised RPA consultant, who can build, implement and manage the automation projects for you. You can find here some relevant suggestions to guide your choice of an RPA partner.
Preparedness with test plans and fallback plans, an 'RPA sponsor', or directly addressing employees' resistance to automation due to understandable fears of job loss, are other ingredients of the RPA 'recipe for success'. We invite you to have a further look at our article in order to equip yourself with a larger set of best practices for maximum gain out of digitisation via RPA.
It's worth noting that the suggestions for a beneficial RPA implementation from the above-mentioned article are still perfectly applicable in the present time, despite significant changes in the automation market.
Two years ago, only 70% of the companies surveyed by the Institute for Robotic Process Automation and Artificial Intelligence were allocating increased funds for investment in RPA in 2018.
This evolution justifies the expression "the automation maturity curve" used in The Economist study to describe the automation dynamics during the last couple of years.
In this article, we will be focusing on operational best practices for implementing RPA, which means that we aim to provide you with some more applied suggestions for making the most out of software robots deployment.
Essential operational best practices for implementing RPA
1. Ensure an integrated, coherent vision of the road towards RPA deployment
A robotic Centre of Excellence (CoE) might be what is needed to provide the realistic forethought that is able to contain the automation journey beyond the first steps of implementing RPA. The RPA CoE is a multidisciplinary team; besides IT leaders, it includes C-suite, marketing, and department representatives.
It centralises the development of the automation project and thereby provides not just short-term process automation but also a coherent longer-term plan, maintaining the automation standards across the implementation stage, and further, towards scaling-oriented deployment.
The CoE is a governance entity that fosters the assimilation of software robots into your company's workflow and into the employees' perception of the workflow. In fact, it is the source for the adoption of operational best practices, helping you to coordinate change management and accountability.
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