The 3 Rs of robotic process automation
Admittedly, when I think of a bot, my mind wanders to the TV series The Mandalorian, where robots, humans and other species coexist and fly around together on everything from land speeders to full-blown star destroyers. Followed by that thought is, how do humans and bots join forces to transform work in our quest for digital transformation?
The answer: Robotic process automation (RPA). Robotic process automation offers bots as a way to change the way we work, much as the technology in The Mandalorian, and the Star Wars franchise as a whole, changes so many things about the worlds the show offers.
Let’s take a look at how you can use RPA to change your world for the better, albeit without Baby Yoda.
The 3 Rs
While the ”R” in RPA stands for robotic, if you are considering RPA to help your organization automate manual and repetitive tasks, there are some other Rs that can help you evaluate the potential and value of RPA for your organization.
They are:
1. Reimagine
To get started, we need to mine our processes. If we are willing to consider different ways of working, we can use process tools to examine our current procedures and identify opportunities for RPA.
One way to do so is to evaluate the volume and time per task. For example, if you are targeting IT back office work – such as setting up end user access and privileges – how much time per task (every single click and step) does that take?
Ultimately, there is a lot of organizational complexity when we dive into our processes, but by determining the time, volume and cost of a task, we can begin to understand where we can increase efficiency through process automation.
2. Rework
If we are reimagining tasks to identify the mundane and repetitive work, we now live in a time where technology has provided an opportunity to banish the busywork. We now have the tools to refocus our staff expertise on the higher-value tasks important to your organization.
Leveraging robotic process automation also means reworking the tasks for various roles and imagining a high-value focus on excellent customer care and efficient business operations.
3. Return
Reimaging and reworking your tasks and processes are great brainstorming exercises, but now you need to build the business case to support moving forward with RPA.
The next step is to consider your organization’s workload. As your task lists increase, consider capacity issues and infrastructure, as you need to make sure you have the ability to support the needs of your users and organizational goals. Perhaps the right move at this point is to look into the cloud and find experts to help you scale up.
So what is your return on investment?
First, delegating tasks that are routine and don’t require human intervention allows profitable operations. You accomplish this by focusing employees on the important tasks you’ve already identified (e.g., employee development and training, better user experience, proactive customer service, improved service level, etc.).
Second, beyond keeping your edge by using innovative technology, you also create an opportunity to focus on tasks and projects you sometimes have to put by the wayside (e.g., product development, strategic planning, building a roadmap, etc.). By knowing the tasks that are most challenging and time consuming, you make room for a new way of doing business. A less manual, more efficient and more profitable way.
Strategic vision (robots included)
We can count on RPA to give us some of our time back. It empowers us to create efficiencies and raise the bar in how we serve the communities in which we do business.
And bots will be a lead in that story. The Star Wars franchise was decades ahead of its time when it comes to portraying the interactions of humans and robots (aka Droids). Whether we realize it or not, we already live in an age where robotics plays an integral part in our day-to-day existence. And in the pursuit of digitization, we are only scratching the surface with what is possible through RPA.
If you are looking for guidance on RPA, or how it fits into your strategic vision, the Hyland team is here to help!
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