Roadmap to Digital Transformation Automation
RPA, or Robotic Process Automation, is the technology that enables computer software to emulate and integrate actions typically performed by human interacting with digital systems. The computer software that executes the operations is called a “robot.” RPA robots can capture data, run applications, trigger responses, and communicate with other systems. RPA primarily targets processes which are highly manual, repetitive, rule-based, with low exceptions rate and standard electronic readable input.
RPA Platforms and Comparisons
Another Monday, AntWorks, Automation Anywhere, BluePrism, Contextor, EdgeVerve, Kofax, Kryon, NICE, Pegasystems, Redwood Software, Softomotive, Thoughtonomy, UiPath, and WorkFusion.
The graph is made based on evaluation of the 15 vendors with respect to three high-level buckets:
Current offerings
Bot development features, management and reporting, analytics, architecture, use case support, governance, and scalability
Strategy
Evaluated execution on strategy, partnership ecosystem, innovation and market approach, and product road map
Market Presence
Represented as the size of the markers on the graphic reflects each vendor’s enterprise RPA bot deployments, RPA customers, and product revenue.
From the graph, UiPath, Automation Anywhere and BluePrism are the market leaders. WorkFusion, Pegasystems and NICE are amongst the Strong Performers. RedWood, Contextor and Softomotive are amongst the Contenders.
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There is no such RPA vendor service which can excel in every aspect of automation. Each vendor has its strengths and weaknesses. We have considered to show the comparison between few of these of vendors so that company looking for RPA implementation can get to know the strengths and weakness of the RPA platforms vendors.
Stages of Implementation
Robotic process automation (RPA) implementation is a process with defined steps. The industry currently follows an agile methodology to implement RPA, with some customization depending on business needs. Here we describe the critical stages that are recommended for every RPA implementation.
Step 1: Prepare RPA
The processes are defined, assessed, prioritized and the implementation is planned.
In this phase, the requirements of the client are analyzed by the Process Architect. Based on the requirements, given by the client, it is decided whether the process can be automated or not. If the process can be automated, then the complexity of the process is analyzed.
Business Process Evaluation
Which of the Processes are good Candidates for Automation?
We all agree that assessing the complexity and cost of a potential automation can be challenging. To help you priorities your RPA automations and estimate their net financial impact, we have developed the RPA process evaluation tool.
Input worksheets
These are for the input of the data from which the calculation worksheets generate the outputs.
Calculation worksheets
The tool’s ‘intelligence’ resides in these worksheets. The tool uses a combination of weightings and scoring thresholds to determine how many days of development it would take to automate a process.
Output worksheets
These display the ease of automation versus the financial benefit for each process
Step 2: Solution Design
Each process to be automated is documented (“as is” and “to be”), the architecture is created and reviewed, the test scenarios and environments are prepared, and the solution design is created and documented for each process.
In this phase, the solution or the steps to automate a task is designed. The Technical Architect in collaboration with the Process Architect makes a Process Definition Document (PDD) which contains the information about each and every process/step to depth.
Step 3: Build RPA
The processes are automated, the workflow is tested and validated and the UAT prepared. The build RPA Phase is the phase wherein the Automation Developer creates Automation Scripts in the chosen RPA Tool. The tool could be any of the enormous amounts of the tools present in the market, but, the top 3 tools in today’s market are UiPath, Blue Prism & Automation Anywhere.
Step 4: Test RPA
The UAT (User Acceptance Tests) is performed, the workflow is debugged, and the process is signed off.
In this phase of RPA lifecycle, the developed bot is tested either by the Testing team or the Development team itself.
The bot is tested in the pre-production environment to test how the users can use this bot to automate a specific task. If the testing is successful, then it moves forward with the next stage, But, if the testing fails, then the bot goes back to the Development Phase where the errors found in the Testing phase are rectified and are tested again.
Step 5: Stabilize RPA
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The Go-Live is prepared, the process is moved to production, monitored, measured and the lessons learned are documented.
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During the production, maintenance and support stages of RPA initiative, organizations are typically focused on monitoring bots to ensure quick, proactive identification and mitigation of adverse scenarios. It is also important for firms to assign responsibilities for orchestrating process changes, and to reprogram bots in line with updated processes and applications.
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Scheduling, running and monitoring of bots must be centralized within the operations team, with IT provisioning the necessary infrastructure, and providing effective coordination for a smooth rollout. To maximize bot (license) utilization, IT needs to devise ways of scheduling these automated programs across bots for different processes using scheduling, bot profile creation and dynamic task allocations.
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Once the RPA initiative has entered the production phase, it is crucial for key stakeholders to be able to monitor bot performance on demand. This calls for a centralized tracking and reporting tool, with enterprise users being provided with an executive dashboard that delivers a “single version of the truth”.
Step 6: Constant Improvement
The process automation performance is assessed, the benefits tracked, and a team is placed in charge of aligning the RPA with changes in the market and regulation for the future success of RPA.
Several organizations tend to miss this stage by providing a simplistic maintenance/support team that caters to the bots deployed in the previous stage.
Tools and Accelerators to help taking the RPA initiative forward more effectively
With active participation of Professionals from iQ Innovation working on RPA projects, we have developed 3 Tools / Accelerators to help Enterprises evaluate the status/conditions of their Enterprise, Business Processes and Applications in use and also compute RoI to help justifying necessary Investments to proceed with the RPA initiative. Following are the 3 Tools :
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Business Process Evaluation Tool : To identify the ‘Candidate’ Processes
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Readiness Assessment of the Enterprise : What BPR will make your RPA journey smoother?
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RoIComputation : What are the Saving potentials and how fast could it recover the Investments made in this project initiative?
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