Every business in the current economy is required to adapt and transform to fast-moving and rapidly growing digital world. Fast internet, cloud computing, and SAAS applications have made it possible to do many manual tasks in a much faster and efficient way. This has made it imperative for every business to digitally transform all day to day operational tasks to survive in a highly competitive market. Robotics Process Automation (RPA) turns out to be the opening gambit in the digital transformation strategy for most of the organizations.
Robotics Process Automation (RPA) is an application of technology, governed by business logic and structured inputs, aimed at automating business processes. Using RPA tools, a company can configure software, or a robot, to capture and interpret applications for processing a transaction, manipulating data, triggering responses, and communicating with other digital systems. RPA scenarios range from something as simple as generating an automatic response to an email to deploying thousands of scripts or microservices, each programmed to automate routine jobs in a system.
One of the biggest challenges for business stakeholders in determining the right strategy and roadmap for digital transformation is to identify the right process that can be automated. Answer below questions to help you identify processes that can be automated.
Is the process repetitive?
One of the critical requirements for any process to consider for RPA is that the process needs to be repetitive. It performs the same cycle over & over again such that it can operate independently and is cognitive.
Do defined rules govern the process with least exceptions?
A process should be rule-based. These rules are defined to govern the successful execution of the process, meeting expectation. When there are rules, there are always exceptions. However, for a process to be considered eligible for RPA, these exceptions shall be minimal, and it should not drastically impact the overall flow of the process.
Is it a high volume task?
This requirement is simple and straight forward. Low volume task doesn’t make sense to be automated, considering the time & cost factor. So it should be a high volume task which can produce efficiency due to automation and hence provides time & cost savings.
Is the process well defined and structured?
An unstructured process cannot be automated. A process should be well defined and follow an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). If a process is not standardized or centralized in some cases, the first step is to fix the flaws & gaps in the process to get it centralized.
Is the data well structured & organized?
Having structured data is equally important as much as it is to have a structured process to consider a process for automation. Unstructured, broken, and unconnected data cannot lead to successful process automation.
The information shared in this article is just a tip of the iceberg, but it can help you get your thought process started towards defining your strategy and roadmap for the digital transformation of your business.
