Steps to Enterprise Automation through Robotic Process Automation {RPA} – By Veejay Jadhaw



Some Perspective:

The business world is on the cusp of big change. This happens every so often as technology advances. One major transformation was in the 1960s when computing power first became capable of supporting business operations. Then in the early 1970s, computer programming moved from punch cards to online data entry systems. These two events changed the world.
Since then we have seen the advent of transformative technology like the internet, cloud computing, IoT and business process management system (BPMS) tools. And now robotic process automation (RPA) and AI are on the near horizon.

Robotic process automation (RPA) is the use of software with artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to handle high-volume, repeatable tasks that previously required a human to perform.

Impacts on the organization

RPA Bots {short of robots) – whether for automating processes or self-learning to solve problems, will change the organizations, businesses models and competitive landscape. An intelligent enterprise will not be created just by implementing RPA technologies. It will include a combination of many technologies, e.g. Cloud, Machine Learning, BPM, Orchestration, Cognitive Analytics, Big Data and “The Internet of Things (IoT)”.  I CALL THEM THE DIGITAL STACK
Organizations must progressively work towards full Enterprise Automation to be competitive in the marketplace. They should do an assessment of how their business are run today, and aspire to achieve a seamless and self-serving digitized offering. This will not only yield cost savings, it will have an impact on the top line revenue and, most importantly, it will have a significant impact on customer experience.
Enterprise Automation Framework
Just as automation fueled the industrial revolution in the early part of the 20th century, today automation is a cornerstone capability of modern digital business.
The challenge is that while automation is intuitively valuable, automation strategies that only address one infrastructure or domain or one-use case often come up short, with executives’ and professionals scratching their heads, struggling to show its value.
Six pillars to Craft an Enterprise Automation Strategy.
Assessment - Don’t try to boil the ocean – use a pragmatic approach. Start by creating an inventory of core business processes, and develop a heatmap that will highlight opportunities for automation and map it with measurable business value. Then prioritize, focusing first on low hanging fruits.
Automate a Complete Business Services - Many organizations will automate small pieces of work but will stop short of delivering full services. Look for opportunities to tie together multiple automation jobs that target complete business services. Think like a service consumer and ask yourself, “What are the common use cases for my consumers and how can I make each of them a fully-automated, self-service experience?”
Once you have identified the use cases and prioritized them according to business value:
  • Identify existing automation at the stovepipe level. You’ll want to leverage whatever already exists, if possible, rather than recreate it from scratch.
  • Use orchestration and process management to tie things together. If you can fully automate a process, use orchestration. If your end-to-end process still requires some number of non-automated steps, consider using process automation to help bridge the gap.
  • Identify a method for users to invoke these business-level automation jobs.
Simplify by reducing the number of tool - Tasks are automated bottom-up: First, you automate two or three subtasks and then you string those subtasks together using more automation. The new, main task calls the automation for the subtasks recursively.
The more automation tools you have, the more likely you’ll face an integration problem. A combination of a BPM and RPA tool is a good starting point. Then as you start tackling more complex processes and integrate BOTs with BOTs on other systems, you can progressively introduce more tools. Standardizing on the tool is critical.
Orchestration - As you progress on your enterprise automation journey, you will have more than one tool, look to process orchestration to help you out. Use orchestration tools that is specifically targeted at linking together different process across various automation tools, with specific features to make integration easier.
Orchestration tools are often the fastest way to link together previously-automated subtasks into larger, macro-tasks. Orchestration tools simplify the process by supporting a wide variety of subtask interface methods (including but not limited to), Operating system script execution, SSH to command line interfaces, APIs, Web services, REST interfaces.
Some orchestration tools provide user-friendly interfaces from which to invoke these larger automation jobs. A user can simply select an action from a list without having to understand all the underlying complexity which allows automation generalists to manage the process and reduces the need for advanced automation skills.
Make sure your orchestration tool supports the standard set of automation tools you already selected.
Measure - Whenever you identify an opportunity for automation, make sure you benchmark the existing process before you develop the automation. This will help you articulate the value of the automation to the organization of the total savings every time they use them. Make sure you are creating metrics that the business will understand and appreciate.
Once you have your measurements, make sure you track them over time. Are people using automation as much as you thought? Are they really saving the company the time and money you thought they would? Any deviation between expected outcomes and post-project reality might be highlighting a deviation between the true business needs of your user base and your automation work. Take whatever you learn and roll it into your future strategy planning.
Continuous Improvement - Finally, start a process of continuous improvement. Use the numbers to help you look for areas where you can:
·      Make your automation more efficient, saving additional time or reducing resources used during the execution of the automation. Perhaps you initially automated an inefficient process and you can simplify the process itself.
·      Use orchestration to link multiple automation jobs together into high-level business service automation. You’re never done until everything in your organization is fully automated.


Bibliography
·      BCM
·      CIO.COM

Popular posts from this blog

Framework to Build Digitally Connected Software Platforms, by Veejay Jadhaw

Image
Building blocks for transitioning from Product to a Digitally Connected Platform across any industry vertical While  Cloud ,  SaaS ,  PaaS ,  Machine Learning ,  IoT , Social Network,  OpenApi’s , Big Data etc. are the underpins to building a connected digital platform, the intent of this article to share the underlying framework and how to approach building a digital platform. Successful businesses are those that evolve rapidly and effectively. Yet innovative businesses can’t evolve in a vacuum. They must attract resources of all sorts, drawing in capital, partners, suppliers, and customers to create cooperative networks. Much has been written about such networks, under the rubric of strategic alliances, virtual organizations, and the like. But these frameworks provide little systematic assistance for managers who seek to understand the underlying strategic logic of change. Even fewer of these theories help executives anticipate the managerial ch...
Read more

4 Steps to Innovate Faster by Building a World-Class Technology Organization - Veejay Jadhaw

Image
Welcome! Throughout this article you will find embedded links referencing my previous articles, on various topics such as Robotic Process Automation, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Cloud, SaaS , and how to approach building a Digitally Connected Software Platform.   Please do take a moment to read those, as they would provide more context. Below is my point of view on how to enable businesses to improve speed to market by building a world-class technology organization.  I have prioritized a 4 Key Step Framework 1 - Lead by Example, build a great team, culture and Implement Key Metrics: As a leader, it is important to lead by example and foster a culture of innovation. Secondly, as the saying goes, " if you don’t measure it you can’t manage or improve it".   Leveraging metrics and making decisions based on data driven hypotheses is a very critical component of building a world-class engineering organization. In today’s enterprises, tools and technolo...
Read more