Robotic Process Automation (RPA) continues to evolve, and all significant analysts are projecting a significant growth level for years to come. There are countless opportunities to justify an investment in an enterprise-wide RPA platform in mid-size and large organizations.
In some cases, even smaller organizations can justify the investment when there is a specific need. Regardless of the size, justification always starts with a needs assessment.
When we sit down with our clients to assess needs, we start with the education of RPA capabilities, walk through use cases, and share stories from other clients. Once there is a foundational understanding of RPA and our services, we evaluate their biggest pain-points and match where RPA can solve these issues.
For organizations investing in RPA for the first time, you need to justify the technology and services expense with a robust set of qualified processes to select impactful processes that will give the organization one or more wins at the onset of their RPA journey. Note that it is essential to choose wisely because projects only become enterprise-wide based upon their initial success.
Here is a sample set of qualifiers to evaluate your processes to share one or more Digital Workers:
- High-Volume
- Repetitive
- Manually Intensive
- Involve Multiple Legacy Systems
- Logic & Rule-Based
- High-FTE Effort
When possible, the justification should have an ROI based on objective data. The traditional ROI is cost or benefit-based. However, it can also take other forms.
For example, we recently worked with a County with a pain-point in the time Sheriff’s Officers spend at the jail to book in new inmates. The officer spent the time rekeying all the information from their car system to the jailhouse system. No system integrations are available. The County utilized a Digital Worker (RPA) to enter the data into the jailhouse system while the officer is en route, eliminating the hour they were previously spending at the jail to handle the data entry task manually. This project’s ROI was to redirect their time to focus on their core mission: to protect and serve.
While the County’s initial project kick-started the justification of their RPA investment, the justification is an enterprise-wide solution rather than just solving one issue. Therefore, more evaluations and considerations are required to fill the organization’s long-term needs.
It is critical to choose the right platform and the right partner.
Organizations must consider the tech stack, admin tools, feature maturity, repeatable use of preconfigured objects, to name a few.
The right partner needs:
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Expertise in your industry.
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Certifications and experience with the specific platform you choose.
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To provide in-depth services such as assessments, consultations, implementation, technical support, and professional services.
Enterprise-wide implementations require long-term partnerships, consistent and experience resources, and a team that is fanatical about your success.
In summary, when attempting to justify an Enterprise-wide RPA solution, here are some key components to include:
- Needs Assessment. Include a list of the processes identified in the initial assessment and priority order. It is also wise to list them by functional area (and notate where they cross-over) so that it is easy to demonstrate the benefit to the Enterprise.
- Business Justification based on ROI. The justification process is recommended for every additional process automation project as well, so that discipline is maintained.
- Software platform recommendation.
- A partner for the quality and level of professional services that make sense for our organization.
