Whether you're interested in the productivity improvements or the lower costs, you've already made the decision to implement robotic process automation (RPA) within your organisation. The good news is that by streamlining and automating your processes, RPA can unlock a significant amount of hidden insights and potential.
But what exactly does an RPA deployment look like? This blog will go over the complete lifecycle of a successful RPA implementation, from brainstorming to roll-out.
1. Create Goals and Find Opportunities
Even the most well-intentioned RPA deployment is doomed for failure if you don't understand why you need it. To begin with, figure out the most important reasons that you want to use RPA. Do you perhaps want processes to complete faster, or to free up human employees for higher-level activities?
Once you've identified one or two primary goals, find ways to achieve them by leveraging RPA to improve your processes. Some of the best candidates for RPA are processes that are repetitive, that handle large amounts of data, and that require a great deal of accuracy.
2. Get Advice and Move Forward
After identifying the most likely processes to automate, consult with a team of experts who can evaluate the suitability for RPA. You should have a high-level discussion about the implementation and the business value that you would obtain by doing so.
In addition, understand how RPA will fit into other parts of your IT strategy and with your broader business goals and requirements. Who will be responsible for overseeing the RPA solution when it goes live: the IT department, the project management office, or someone else?
3. Deploy a Proof of Concept, Then Launch
Before stepping into the deep end, start with a small pilot program or proof of concept that will validate your assumptions about RPA. If your choice of solution doesn't turn out the way you expected it to, you can simply stop the trial before you invest more time, money, and effort into it.
If the proof of concept is successful, then it's time to start rolling out a larger solution. You can do this all at once or in stages, depending on what makes the most sense for the processes you've chosen to optimise. In addition, you may choose to do this yourself if you have the in-house technical expertise, or you could choose to work with an experienced RPA provider.
4. Evaluate Progress and Optimise
Your responsibilities aren't over once your RPA deployment has successfully been rolled out. Even after the installation, you should still actively monitor your processes to make sure that they're performing up to expectations. In the early stages of RPA deployment, you should define a few metrics and key performance indicators (KPIs) that you'll track over time to evaluate the new system's success.
You should remain open to changing your RPA solution, so building in flexibility from the very beginning will be key. For example, you may wish to make further improvements in response to developments like lagging metrics, user feedback, or changes to your business processes.
Final Thoughts
RPA can unlock major benefits for your organisation, but you need to be sure that you implement it correctly. If you have questions or concerns about deploying RPA, speak with a knowledgeable RPA partner who can provide advice and help you along the way. Even better, speak to us or send an email to
info@convedo.com and we can arrange a free demo to showcase the key benefits of Appian RPA with Blue Prism.