Various businesses engage in digital activity and Monstar Lab has already helped clients kick start their journey to digital transformation by introducing Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to their operations. These businesses mostly face the challenge of organizing and processing huge amount of data. With the use of automation software, their human forces are able to focus their time in more value-adding tasks as virtual robots take on the data production process.
RPA is an emerging technology that automates human interactions across applications and office software if data is standard and structured. It has a value where tasks are repetitive and rule-based. It stands to be the best option for companies that are looking to venture into automation. It requires minimal upfront investment and is able to leverage a business’ existing structure without disrupting its underlying systems.
In our previous articles regarding RPA, we tackled ways on how to start automation in an organization and discussed the capabilities of automation software. By doing so, we reached the conclusion that investing in robotics is cost-effective if it is implemented at scale. In today’s fast-paced environment, automation robots also need to demonstrate both its adaptability and sustainability.
In order to make the opportunities that these software robots provide accessible and scalable in the long-term, take a look at a step-by-step potential approach to a sustainable RPA implementation.
Step 1: Pilot Testing
A general early step is to identify smaller or simplified processes to be automated. The integration of RPA software into a company’s existing IT architecture can be tested and evaluated in this pilot phase. The interactions between various data sources and the automation of data processing can be illustrated and be used as a proof-of-concept, which will serve as a basis for an easier and more comprehensive communication within the organization. The proof-of-concept could also help in identifying additional and suitable workflow.
Step 2: Implementation
As mentioned, the pilot phase yields valuable experience and allows to better understand and derive RPA use cases within the organization. With this, a business case can be set up, specifying steps and resources needed to start the implementation accordingly. Developing a team – a robotics program – dedicated to carrying out the organization’s automation goals is also vital in this stage. This group of IT experts, analysts, and developers will be the one assigned to deploy automation. These key persons are tasked to assess whether the program delivers value efficiency, anticipate process changes and reflect these changes into virtual assistants. To remedy potential errors, it is advised to first deploy a software robot safely in a separate test environment. This will also allow business leaders to observe and evaluate how open his members are to working with robots.
Step 3: Maintenance and Upgrade
This perhaps is the most challenging phase in scaling RPA which can be managed through proper and consistent governance. On top of appropriate governance and assets, the robotics program should also have resources for maintenance. Maintenance is needed to address changes like application upgrades so that virtual assistants can continue to operate processes that they are built for. RPA tools have their limitations and for a period of time requires additional technological support. This requires the robotics program to aware of technological developments and listen to users’ evolving needs. The robotics team must also be able to provide an impact analysis with the objective to conclude whether the deployed virtual assistant should be updated or decommissioned so that the company can maximize RPA benefits and demonstrate value in the long run.
To keep updated with leading-edge technology, the robotic program has the following options:
Engage with third party RPA software provider. Aside from professional consultations, RPA software companies provide automation solutions that complement their clients’ technological needs.
Set up hackathons. This entails organizing events that gather voluntary developers who collaborate and join their efforts to provide a solution to a business issue.
Join in design thinking workshops and address use cases by integrating RPA tools with other technology add-ins such as Natural Language Processing (NLP) which helps a computer to comprehend, interpret, and manipulate human language to analyze large amounts of data, Machine Learning (ML) which enables a system to automatically learn and improve processes without human interventions, and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) which provides a computer the ability to capture information from a non-structured data such as images in pdf format and automatically feed that information to the business application.
It is important to note that for RPA implementation to be sustainable the areas highlighted above should not be regarded as isolated phases and must be considered as a continuing process. Moreover, change in management and the employees’ acceptance are key in order to successfully implement RPA in an organization in a long scale.
Monstar Lab showcases its RPA solutions – RAX Automation Suite – which highlights RAX EDITOR and RAX MONITOR, and sifts through each task in an organization to address business challenges and obtain high productivity gains.
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