- Let's now take a look at several best practices
at the enterprise level.
At this stage, some companies have done meaningful
and productive automation of their operations,
achieving real transformation thanks to RPA
and a huge number have done something with robots.
In fact at this point,
I assume every global enterprise has RPA
somewhere inside it,
but few have a lot of it
and there's a reason for that.
They started small and they thought small.
What do I mean by that?
Let me paint a picture for you.
For many early adopters of RPA,
the beginning of the journey began
when a manager came back from a conference,
having just heard about RPA.
This manager calls up her operational lead
and says, "I just learned about RPA."
"We need it, go figure it out."
The operational lead, having never heard of RPA before,
hits Google to figure out what to do next.
With the knowledge they gleaned they pick a tool.
They then find a quick process to automate,
one that's really close to them,
and they hope they can deliver an easy win.
What ends up happening
is that the RPA solution is hosted on their desktop
because that's the simplest way to get it up and running.
The initiative is probably hidden from IT
this whole time
because who wants to jump through all the technical hoops
just to get a simple automation running.
In addition, the team skips process documentation
and just automates what they initially found
as the SME dictated to them,
hoping for the best.
After the process is, hopefully, up and running
a quote/unquote technical person in the group
is assigned to care of it in their free time.
And that's how the company's first RPA solution
is created, without regard for future improvements,
maintenance, or ongoing upkeep.
The result?
They got RPA,
but very small amounts of it
because they thought small.
So how do you avoid this and think big?
First, you take time to match
the features and capabilities of RPA tools
to your needs before simply picking one.
You'll want something with robust capabilities
and a good track record
that can last well into the future.
Then, you pick a process that matters
to the goals your business has set out to achieve.
One that scores high on all of our sliders.
In both scenarios, you've created a small test deployment
and in both scenarios, you may well have proved
the value of RPA to the organization,
but one set you up for success
and the other forces you to redesign every step
if you hope to scale it in the future.
So start small, but please, don't think small.