Implementing RPA - 5 Ultimate Prerequisite
Indra Hidayatullah, Data Management & Analytics Division Head, Pt. Bank Tabungan Negara
Indra Hidayatullah, Data Management & Analytics Division Head, Pt. Bank Tabungan Negara
In the last few years, Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has become one of the most fundamental efforts contributing to companies enhancing their productivity for long-term success. RPA can be used to automate a multitude of repeatable and mundane rules-based business processes, allowing companies to boost the efficiency of all operations, accelerate time to value, increase accuracy with reliable consistency, produce data for important analytics, create a better customer experience and a lot more benefits to come.
Although the idea behind this technology is quite simple, to leverage automated software bots to replicate human tasks, the implementation is a lot more intricate than that. Deciding to move forward with RPA can be exhaustive and the results of RPA integration from company to company can vary significantly, depending on how they approach this process. In order to avoid the RPA projects failing at every stage, here are some challenges that need to be overcome and how to solve them.
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The company needs to enlighten employees on the benefit of upskilling and job shifting for those who do the repeated work.
1. Employees Upskilling & Job Shifting- Although RPA bots don’t always displace workers, it is a possibility. RPA is often used to reduce employees’ workloads by providing automation on repeated works and has the potential of errors if done manually. On the other hand, RPA can trigger an automation paranoia for some employees because they might think RPA can affect their jobs and be replaced by machines. The company needs to enlighten employees on the benefit of upskilling and job shifting for those who do the repeated work. They will be given training in new skills to shift their attention from low-value tasks to higher-value ones that deliver better customer experience and ultimately support revenue growth.
2. Evaluating Company’s Business- The benefits of RPA make it clear that this technology has an essential role in business and becomes one of the most important investments for a company. In addition, the precautionary principle is required when determining the automation process to minimize a high-cost value whenever an error occurs. With that in mind, companies need to evaluate their business and work area from the very beginning. Before embarking on a mission to incorporate RPA in business, they must be able to determine which processes to automate by paying attention to the value it could generate for the business.
3. Business Requirement Document of RPA- Connecting RPA with the system requires quite complex requirements for its assembly and design. It sometimes becomes an issue when RPA is trying to integrate unstructured data that requires a high level of accuracy. It is necessary to make documentation for each RPA project and preceded by the formation of a BRD, which consists of a review of the project to be made, requirements, cost and benefits, project timeline, and so on. That all requirements should be documented clearly to avoid misunderstandings in the future. When it’s not effectively documented, managed and governed, RPA can create layers upon layers of software. It creates complexity that could make business improvements harder to achieve.
4. Establish a Special Unit to Handle the RPA Documentation- The complexity of the RPA architecture in the company raises the need to document the flow process from start to the end. Although it sounds simple, documentation can be crucial and can form the basis of enhancement processes. Without documentation, it will require a greater effort for the company to be able to understand which parts are affected by the RPA. It is necessary to form a special unit that handles the flow process of RPA so there are no errors in the RPA when being implemented. This special unit is formed to make sure that every process run by RPA can be traced.
5. RPA Governance Regulations- The more bots interact with the system, the greater the chance for hackers to find loopholes in the access permissions. Introducing new technologies to companies always comes with certain vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers. In implementing RPA, its security is very vulnerable to data leaks. Therefore, it is necessary to have regulations and policies regarding the use of RPA, starting from what can be accessed by the bots, determining the access rights and what kind of encryption needs to be used. By doing so, hopefully companies can minimize the security risks of using RPA.
To sum it up, the rapidly growing adoption of robotic process automation solutions isn’t surprising. It’s one of the most accessible digital transformation technologies available to companies today. When implemented correctly, it can provide many benefits across various levels of business operations. Therefore, many companies today choose to prioritize robotic process automation over other types of digital transformation and modernization projects. But to reap the benefits of RPA, companies need to approach such projects with caution.
Like any other technologies, RPA has limitations as well. It’s not suitable for automating every type of task, and many companies will discover that they need additional support for more advanced solutions. Ensure you have appropriate expertise to deliver the project while still at its initial stages.
