Introduction To Robotic Process Automation

Introduction To Robotic Process Automation
Introduction
To
Robotic Process Automation

Get Started With RPA
Abhinav Sabharwal
Table of Contents
Digital Transformation 3
Corporate Archeology 4
The Fourth Generation OF Work 5
The Impact OF RPA Today 6
What is robotic process automation (RPA)? 7
A Simplified Definition OF RPA 8
What Is Robotic Desktop Automation? 9
The Automation Spectrum 10
The RPA vendor landscape 11
Differences Between RPA And Other Tools 13
The Importance Of ROI 16
The seven benefit types 17
The Triple Win Model 19
Don’t forget the cost of ownership 21
Identifying Opportunities For Automation 22
Efficiency Drivers For Automation 24
Prime Opportunity Areas For Automation 26
Process Reengineering 28
Key Stakeholders In Your RPA Journey 29
Start Small But Don't Think Small 31
RPA Is Not About The Robot 32
Don’t Forget The Fundamentals 33
leveraging A Center Of Excellence 34
Tips For Success From The Front Lines 36
2
Robotic process automation—software-based robotics that emulate work that people do—is poised to
change the way we work. Using this exciting technology, organizations can digitize and transform an array of
business processes and functions. In this book we takes a deep dive into RPA, explaining what it is, what it's
not, and what to keep in mind when adopting it in your organization. Here, we shares information that can
help a variety of stakeholders—from executives to IT professionals—grasp the key benefits of RPA, as well as
best practices that can help their organization succeed at both the process and enterprise levels. We will
explore real-world context to the concepts covered in this book by providing examples from global companies
that are implementing RPA.
accelerating pace driven by a perfect storm of

Digital Transformation increased customer expectations, more capable
technology platforms, and heightened competitive
dynamics. Like, global competition, wage
Let's get started by looking at how RPA can fit into
inflation, and new market entrance.
the digital transformation of your
organization. These days, it's pretty obvious that
The challenge for many businesses in this
the World is becoming increasingly digital, or
environment is that they are a natural product of
digitized. The largest and most well-known
their history. If they've been around for more than
companies today, like Google, Netflix, and Amazon
a few hours, chances are good their tangled in
owe much of their success to fully capturing the
legacy systems and processes that often
digital trend. In fact, new startups these days are
prevent them from being nimble and adaptable. As
often digitally centered. On the consumer side of
a result, organizations across the World are
things, think of ride-sharing apps like Uber and
looking for ways to adapt and survive. RPA is one
Lyft, which have taken advantage of digital
way to accomplish this. In the last couple of years
platforms to disrupt the taxi industry.
many enterprises have begun to tinker with
If you like travel, you've most likely used RPA. And a few have matured beyond thinking
Airbnb. And are familiar with how their digital about and testing RPA, to implementing and
platform has disrupted the traditional hotel expanding use of it across their organization.
industries. These digital-native companies are
often racing against more traditional firms who are Whether your company has already put RPA to
now scrambling to launch digital transformation work, or if this is the first time you're hearing the
efforts in order to keep pace. So, it's clear that aside term, this book will have valuable information for
from being another buzz word, the digital concept you. Because there's no doubt that RPA will
is absolutely a force that is moving markets and become pervasive in the next three to five years as
transforming the services we use in significant automation and digitization take hold in the
ways. Please note, there is a significant amount of business world. One of the most important things
depth we can go into around the digital concept. you can do for your organization's future and for
But, that's not the prime focus of this book, if you're your career is to learn the basics of RPA. And
interested in exploring further levels of detail, you beyond that, to firmly understand how to
should definitely check out the book titled: Digital succeed in this exciting, new world of work. But
Transformation by Abhinav Sabharwal. So, how before we get into the details, let's put RPA into
does RPA fit into this story? Well, digital context in the bigger digital transformation
transformation of businesses is happening concept.
everywhere you look and happening at an
3
absurd. Depending on the industry and

Corporate Archeology business function, it's not uncommon to come
across mainframes, green screens, fax
As you'll recall, I described organizations as a
machines, COBOL, and a raft of Homegrown
natural product of their history. What I mean
Excel Macros, Access databases, and even
by that is, as organizations naturally grow,
Post-it Notes documenting everything from
expand, acquire and evolve, they inherit
passwords to work procedures.
complexity. They do this in order to support
the business as it grows, often by
To deal with this excitement, enterprises
implementing systems, software, processes,
employ people. Passionate, hard-working
and teams where necessary. What results is
people who do what we call swivel chair
often a spaghetti of systems and processes
integration. Manually receiving and
that consume a great deal of time to maintain
transcribing faxes, executing wrote
and support. What comes to mind are,
transactional processes, and performing
immense enterprise applications that are often
repetitive tasks. But, the fact remains. These
pulling from even older mainframe
tasks have to get done. It's just how businesses
systems, are altered by modular Bolt-On
run. And in the last two decades,
applications, enhanced by necessary
organizations have looked to solutions like
Homegrown plugins and patches, all to
shared services and out-sourcing to handle this
support inefficient workflows that have
work effectively and efficiently.
evolved organically over the years.
Now there's a new disruptive option available.
If any of that sounds familiar, rest assured,
By using a class of automation technologies,
you’re not alone. This is the scene I've
including RPA, the routine, mundane, and
encountered countless times before. As I study
transactional are all ripe candidates for digital
a company's current state, I can't help but
transformation. Enterprises realize there's a
imagine an enterprise archeologist digging
huge opportunity to unleash value by
down layer by layer, uncovering historical
conducting this work a different way. In a way
artifacts and evidence of prior eras as they
sometimes referred to as the fourth generation
go. Working with an organization can bare
of work.
similarities that actually are not so
Why? Many failed to stay relevant and

The Fourth Generation OF Work competitive in the digital economy, and were
phased out. You won't remain a successful
There's a brief story I want to cover before we
company if you can't scale and adapt. More
get into the details of RPA. It's the story of how
companies will likely cease to exist or face
technology has historically upended society
increasing competition as we move deeper
and work as we know it. As a quick note, this is
into the era of digital disruption, or what the
overall a good news story, but one that's
World Economic Forum refers to as the Fourth
predicated on change. If you want to get right
Industrial Revolution.
into the meat of the course on RPA, feel free to
skip the next two chapters, but if you want
So, what are the four revolutions? The First
some cool stats and stories that make you fun
Industrial Revolution was marked by the use of
at cocktail parties, stick around personally find
steam engines, which allowed for the
this topic fascinating. So, what was work like
mechanization of textile and iron factories.
decades ago? Obviously, if you rewind 100
During that time, Europe saw a boom in
years, the workplace was quite a bit different
growth as people migrated away from a rural
than it is today.
lifestyle and moved to cities, where the jobs
were. The Second Revolution was powered by
No computers, no fax machines, no Internet,
electricity and supported by a boom in
and no software running every element of an
manufacturing and production lines. This led to
organization. Fast-forward from 100 years ago
the specialization of work, as tasks could be
to 20 years ago, and you'll find computers, and
split apart and optimized for costs. The Third
those fax machines we talked about, but only
Industrial Revolution began around the 1980s,
just the beginnings of the Internet, email, and
and is known as the beginning of the
Ethernet connecting everything everywhere.
Information Age, in which we shifted from
analog technologies to digital ones.
Fast-forward to today, and you find enterprises
scrambling to adapt to and adopt cloud
That brings us to today. We are now entering
hosting, software as a service, and the
the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution. This
connection of almost everything.
stage of industrial change is predicated on a
new range of technologies that are driven by
As you can imagine, this environment has been
interconnectivity, such as autonomous
a very challenging one to keep up with. In fact,
production, artificial intelligence, analytics, and
since the year 2000, 50% of the traditional
the exciting world of Internet of Things. More
companies on the Fortune 500 have
importantly, everything will produce data, and
disappeared.
data will mean everything
.
from my experience, I'm an optimist. Because

The Impact OF RPA Today I've seen how businesses are using these
technologies to adapt and grow creating more
RPA is one of a number of technologies that's
opportunities for their people to
central to this fourth industrial revolution. And
contribute. I've also seen how jobs have
in the last five years, the concept of RPA has
evolved and have been redesigned to take
become increasingly popular. RPA digitizes
advantage of what people are best at,
manual tasks and transforms legacy
judgment, communication, customer care, and
processes meaning that it will have a big role
critical thinking. Chances are good if you're
in the transition to a digital era of
reading this book, you may work in a shared
business. There have been numerous studies
about this. No matter
where you look, there’s
no doubt RPA will have a
significant impact on
today's enterprises and
the jobs within them. For
example, HFS Research
are reporting that the
RPA market will reach
$1.2 billion in scale by
2021.
While there's no
consensus on whether
RPA will increase or decrease job services or outsourcing environment.
numbers, there's certainly been quite a lot of
research on the topic. In one study by Forrester Having come from this industry myself, there's
Research, it's anticipated that over 500,000 no doubt RPA will have an impact on the
jobs will be replaced or significantly workforces around the world. Today, the size of
augmented by RPA in 2018 alone. McKinsey & the global outsourcing industry is over $365
Company predict that automation billion and it employs over five million
technologies like RPA will have an economic people. A significant portion of these jobs may
impact of around $6.7 trillion by 2025. And a well be automated as businesses turn to tools
widely cited study by Osborne and Frey from like RPA to improve efficiency and cut
Oxford University suggests that 47% of U.S. costs. And make no mistake about it, this trend
jobs could be automated by 2030. is only just beginning. RPA will be a huge
disrupter in the next few years. As I said in the
beginning, change will happen and I think it'll
You'll find optimists and pessimists who be good.
differing their job automation predictions. But
What is robotic process automation (RPA)?

And now let’s discuss, what you've all been means that the completion of tasks is done
waiting for, what is RPA? Well, lucky for us, the independently. Once the rules are
concept's been around long enough and some programmed, the processes are just carried
very good definitions have been developed. I out. Fifth, the definition references operating
myself have used several definitions but for this across different software systems. I'm willing to
course, I've chosen a more comprehensive one to bet that your organization is running on
help illustrate several critical points. Here we thousands of systems. In fact, this is the inside
go! RPA is a configurable software tool that uses joke almost every firm makes to me when I'm
business rules and sequences of actions to supporting them.
automatically complete processes in any number
of different applications the same way a human That's a reality that's not changing anytime
would, with the help of people for exception soon. Teams interact with and integrate across
management. these systems to get work done. The key is that
RPA mostly operates on the front end of
If you understood that, then you're set. But there applications, similar to the way that people use
is a lot covered in that definition so let's unpack them. Like I said, there are thousands of these but
it a bit and take a closer look at some of the for illustration, think of mainframe terminals or
elements. I'll be focusing on the bolded SAP, Oracle, BlackLine,
terms as they're the key to this Internet Explorer,
concept. First, configurable Windows, and so
RPA: A class of software that allows you to
software. Configurable software is out-of- transact in any IT application or website typically on. Finally, exception
the-box software that comes with built-in in the same way a human would, to perform management.
functionality and doesn't involve writing complex Rule-based work.
lines of raw code. Think of Microsoft As capable as RPA is,
Excel. You don't write a spreadsheet there will be times when a person needs to step
application every time you need it, you just build in. Exception management is when
macros and models using the existing features employees are tasked with resolving unforeseen
that come out-of-the-box. events, or contributing their judgment or
discretion. Sometimes this is a full intervention in
Second, business rules. Business rules are the which a person takes over a
decision criteria or constraints that determine transaction. Sometimes this is just a small request
how a process is to be executed. These are the for input, after which the automation continues
bread and butter of getting your complex on its merry way. Okay, we've spent a lot of time
processes done right. For instance, in accounts on this definition but it's time well spent. Now
payable, if the product you ordered is let's revisit the whole definition one more
received, then the firm pays for it. The rules are time and put all the pieces together.
pretty simple. Third, sequences of actions. This
consists of a series of steps taken to complete RPA is a configurable software tool that uses
actions across multiple systems. RPA can handle business rules and sequences of actions to
sequences of actions ranging from simple tasks automatically complete processes in any number
such as creating and updating reports to more of different applications the same way a human
complex tasks such as managing work would, with the help of people for exception
absences or balancing taxes on erroneous management. In summary, RPA is a versatile form
invoices. of software automation that allows businesses to
This concept is fundamental to identifying the relieve teams from many of the repetitive, rule-
right processes to automate. I'll cover this topic in based actions, and processes that might
more detail in a later chapter. Fourth, automatic otherwise exist as pinpoints within the operation.
7
A Simplified Definition OF RPA

The definition presented in the last chapter was same set of skills and procedures has to be
comprehensive, but was also a bit technical. So taught to each new person who joins your
I'd like to introduce a real world analogy that team. In comparison, RPA can be a much better
often helps me to explain RPA to enterprises solution. The same rules and job
just getting started. Imagine you've just hired procedures can be configured into an
someone new to your team. It’s your role to automated agent, or digital laborer, as some
train them on how to perform their new job. On are calling it. This new digital team member is
their first day, you might start by covering the then able to perform a process faithfully and
high level mission of the team. For instance, if accurately every time. And if you need to grow
you run the payroll team, the mission is to pay the team to handle higher transaction
the staff, and to do so accurately and on volumes, you simply replicate the
time. You might, then, move on to teach your configuration, scaling up or down as needed.
new team member which
systems are necessary to Think of RPA like a
perform their job. process flowchart or
something you
Next, you'll teach them might see illustrated
how to log in to the in Visio.
systems. Over time, you
teach them the rules and Just like in work
actions they need to use to procedures, you
complete more complex have a start, actions,
transactions. Depending decisions, and a
on the process, you'll also resolution.
want to train them on
events that happen less All the potential
often. In this case, like outcomes are
bonus payments or final determined by the
paychecks for anyone programmed rules,
leaving the company, or so they won't
other more esoteric deviate by
transactions. Eventually, themselves.
your new hire will have learned their job, and
will be fully self-sufficient. And hopefully they So, a less technical definition of RPA is simply
remember how to do each process as you've this. It's a class of software that allows you to
taught them. transact in any IT application or
website typically in the same way a human
would, to perform complex rule-based work.
But you know that, somehow, everyone starts
to deviate from the proper procedure, and
we've only discussed one team member. The
What Is Robotic Desktop Automation?

At this point, we've been pretty definition says RDA delivers a result or service
comprehensive about defining RPA. But you to assist operator-generated workflows. This is
may have noticed, the type of automation the key to this form of automation. A person is
we’ve been discussing is described as capable an active participant in the initiation of an RDA
of taking over the tasks people have been automation. A person uses their judgment and
doing. What about assisting people, by passes work off to this form of automation, if
handling specific tasks in a larger process? and when needed.
Well, this is also commonly referred to as RPA,
but there's an interesting twist. For software to You'll remember from the RPA definition that
react quickly to a person calling it into action, humans got involved there, too, but it was only
it most often needs to reside on the person's when exception management was
desktop. So as a result, this form of automation required. Humans are always involved in the
is becoming known as robotic desktop RDA scenario. An example of where you might
automation, or RDA for short. see RDA used is in a front office or call center
environment. We've all called to check on a
Our definition for RDA is as follows. RDA is credit card balance or to book a flight with an
configured software that works in real time airline. RDA are at work making the agents we
with a human operator by presenting a speak to more efficient by handling rote tasks
predefined set of information coming from at the command of the agent, so that they may
different systems to assist the operator with tend to us and our needs rather than be
the completion of operator-generated bogged down with chasing up data or
workflows or tasks. If you refer back to your conducting discrete tasks that automation can
notes, you'll notice the RDA definition shares handle instead.
many similarities with the definition of RPA, but
there were a few key differences, so let's So remember, when you hear people discuss
double click on them. RPA, there is a good chance that they're
referring to both RPA and RDA. This distinction
First, RDA works in real-time with a human is useful to keep in mind. Unless you're a
operator. So as mentioned, this is a tool that stickler for absolute nomenclature
presents functionality to a person who is in the accuracy, the RPA term gets the job done, but
act of performing their job. Second, the it's worthwhile to know the difference
9
The Automation Spectrum

We've established that RPA, including RDA, is You also may hear it called attended automation. In
software that automates rule-based tasks. To some, this scenario, the automation augments
that can sound a bit simplistic, so why is the entire employees. It assists them in doing their jobs, and
world of work getting so darn excited about does so upon user activation, almost like an
RPA? Well, let's stop and think a moment. If you've extension of their toolset, or like a digital assistant. A
had any exposure to business operations, like person is able to trigger a robot as needed to
human resources, finance and accounting, logistics automatically perform the discrete task it was
and supply chain, programmed
for for. For
example, you'll example, a
know that much customer
of the work that service agent
goes on in an might give a
organization is ticket ID to a
rule-based, robot which
routine, and validates the
defined by work data and
procedures. In closes the
fact, you wouldn't ticket in the
want it to be any other way. database, saving them valuable time and allowing
them to focus on the customer interaction.
People making up their jobs as they go would be
worrying. Many employees spend a good portion of The second form of RPA, unassisted automation, is
their day on procedural tasks, clicking boxes, completely autonomous, meaning that the robot
waiting for the next screen to load, completing does not sit waiting for a person to activate
forms with tens to hundreds to thousands of minute it. Instead, the robot can live on an internal server, or
steps that are almost all rule-based. Some research it can be hosted in the cloud, operating all day if
suggests that as much as 80% of a person's job can need be, except during periods of maintenance and
be described as rule-based. This is exactly the sort update. An unassisted automation can be activated
of work that RPA is fit to perform. Automation of all by a person, but most often, they're scheduled from
types is perfect for those tasks that make you a control room or triggered by a set of priorities set
basically feel like a robot. by the business. In the end, one type is not better
than the other.
Think of routine, monotonous, structured data
entry that requires no creative input. Believe me, Choosing between assisted automation and
when we show teams the power RPA has to relieve unassisted automation will depend on a variety of
them of this drudgery, they're thrilled. But factors, including the type of work, automation
remember, RPA is able to relieve people from goals, the amount of structured data, and the
drudgery in two ways. As was highlighted in the scope. I'll leave the more detailed factors for
differences between RPA and RDA, this class of later. For now, simply understanding the distinction
automation can assist or take on tasks. You'll hear I just outlined is enough to serve you when
this described in several ways. The assist scenario is educating stakeholders in your organization, and
sometimes referred to as assisted automation. for evaluating which RPA tools will best serve your
project needs.
10
The RPA vendor landscape

You'll remember that I mentioned at the simultaneous processing, and listening for
beginning of this course, this is not a technical user-driven events. This would be ideal for
how-to. Part of the reason is, over time the RPA automating routine tasks, like those handled
vendor landscape has expanded and by call-center employees. On the other hand, if
evolved, and it would be impossible to pick you end up needing a tool that autonomously
one, or even a few tools to highlight here. Plus, executes large-scale processes, you may
there are tool-specific trainings and academies consider Blue Prism, or the Thoughtonomy
for this. What I do wanna highlight, is the depth platform. And then, there are some tools that
and breadth of the dynamic RPA-software can handle both assisted and unassisted
industry. The RPA landscape has grown solutions, including Automation Anywhere,
considerably in the last few years, and there are and UiPath.
now over 20 tools that you may come
across, and many more popping up every year. I also wouldn't be surprised to see other tools
I find this both fascinating and encouraging. evolve this dual-state capability in the near
future. Software architecture also determines
The vendor market is a vibrant space, that's how well RPA tools will integrate with certain
sure to play a significant role in the future of applications. For example, UiPath uses the .NET
work for decades. Now, while I won't be framework, which makes configuration
making any tool recommendations, there are a easier for more experienced developers.
few key leaders at the moment. I've provided Thoughtonomy has a modular design, that
with comprehensive list in the exercise files. As easily incorporates cognitive tools with RPA.
the Everest Group PEAK Matrix And most leading RPA tools now give
highlights, you'll most likely consider credence to an ecosystem approach,
Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism, NICE, supplementing their capabilities through close
Thoughtonomy, and UiPath. Similar research partnerships with firms able to handle
by other analysts also places these firms as character recognition, workflow management,
leaders. machine learning, and more.
You may also consider other tools, including As with any software tool that's used
Koufax, Kyron Systems, Pegasystems, and Soft frequently, you want an RPA tool that provides
motive. Which software is right for you, and a good user experience. RPA interfaces vary
your organization, however, isn't as easy as just quite a bit, despite their functional
picking the top of the list. Each software has similarities. Take Blue Prism, for instance. Its
different strengths. There are several development interface is based on workflow
characteristics I use when helping enterprises diagrams, similar to those you might see in
interpret the differences, and relevant features business-process management tools, making it
of a particular tool. The first is software straightforward for non-programmers. Then
architecture. As our definition stated, RPA is there's Automation Anywhere's interface.
preconfigured software. This means that the Their workflow studio resembles a list, where
way the tool is designed influences what sort the steps are sequentially ordered.
of tasks it will be well-suited to handle.
For example, some vendors, like NICE, for

instance, specializes in assisted automation, in
the sense that, their software is built for
UiPath's interface works a bit differently. Its more about the nuances of RPA tools, you'll
development involves a three-layer design, in come across even more considerations. For
which the bottom layer contains specific action instance, aside from the factors I just
items, the middle incorporates sequences of described, subtleties in security, exception
actions, and business rules, and the top layer handling, and license structure, are important
controls the process flow from start to topics that you'll want to have on your list.
end. Notice, I don't suggest that one is better
than another. They just happen to be One note of caution. It is easy to get caught up
different, and it will be up to you, perhaps with in the numerous features found in each RPA
help, to identify the right tool for your firm. You tool. I urge you to take a different
will also want to consider the approach. I've seen this tool fascination lead
available configuration features that come with too many firms down the wrong path. I'll cover
an RPA tool. this more in a later chapter, but for now, just
know that I think you shouldn't start your RPA
While most tools use design-based journey by selecting the tool. Instead, start with
configuration, some also come with a recorder a plan. Focus on the problem you're trying to
feature that copies the user's steps to simplify solve, or the digital operations vision set for
configuration. Other features to consider are your organization, and let this vision inform
version control, collaborative tools, debugging your tool selection.
assistance, and credential vaults. As you learn
12
Differences Between RPA And Other Tools

Let's wrap this chapter up quickly by operate processes as a human would so it
addressing some of the most commonly asked exists in more of a surface level. As we've
questions I've seen in the market because I'm already covered, it's often faster to
pretty certain you're either thinking them or implement, works with almost any software,
you'll soon be asked them. The first is, isn't RPA and is easily adapted to the changing
the same as screen scraping or just macros on application environment. RPA and BPM are not
steroids? The second is, how is RPA necessarily in conflict with one another.
different from business process management Instead, they share the same goal, just with
tools? And finally, one I'm certain you'll different implementation strategies.
encounter, how is RPA different from artificial
intelligence? The macros on steroids Finally, artificial intelligence. This is a huge
description has been around for a while and topic. For the sake of this course, I'll try to be
even though it sounds negative, I think it's concise. AI is an umbrella term. It's used to
actually somewhat helpful. describe a spectrum of capabilities that
includes machine learning, natural language
First, because people understand what a macro processing, complex pattern recognition,
is. When presented with a task they need to hypothesis generation, and the iteration of
repeat over and over again in an application algorithms as they learn from more data. Think
like Microsoft Excel, they build a macro to of the Netflix Show Recommendation
emulate the actions they've been taking with Algorithm for example which learns from your
their keyboard or mouse. So to that extent, RPA browsing habits over time.
bears a resemblance to macros, but they can
do a heck of a lot more, hence the on You may also hear the term cognitive in your
steroids. RPA is able to control a massive research. It's a subset of AI and the term has
catalog of applications and integrate between been applied to tools we've long known as IVR,
them. And most RPA tools have out-of-the-box Voice Recognition, and OCR, Character
capabilities to handle complex logic, Recognition. It's these cognitive tools you'll
calculations, and sophisticated workflows. most often encounter especially as
supplements to the RPA capabilities you'll get
So yes, to some degree, RPA is like macros on out of the box from most leading vendors. PA
steroids, but if capability, control, and security is not typically labeled as cognitive or AI
are important, I'd choose RPA every time. As because the underlying technology is
for screen scraping, hopefully it's clear that the different. With RPA, a developer creates a rule-
sophistication I had just described also based process that the robot fully conforms to
highlights that RPA can do quite a bit more and follows.
than simple scraping of data from screens.
Next, we have business process management You saw examples of this in the previous
tools. BPM isn't a specific software tool, but chapter. The rules won't be adjusted unless a
more of an approach to streamlining business developer reprograms them. This means that
processes to create efficiency and value. everything RPA does from beginning to end is
It's a deep look at how processes are completely dependent on how it was
operating, highlighting areas for improvement configured. So RPA by itself cannot be
and building solutions usually from the ground considered intelligent. And while it prompts
up. RPA, on the other hand, is designed to some to call RPA robots dumb, I can't disagree
13
more. They're just well-behaved and it's their they're enterprise ready, fit to be part of your
consistency that makes them so incredibly future of work toolkit.
valuable. Plus, the well-behaved RPA is only
just the beginning. So remember, RPA is not macros on steroids,
it’s like it but much more capable. It's a
As you get more advanced, you'll find you can complement, but not a replacement to BPM.
combine RPA with specialized cognitive tools And RPA is not the same as AI, but it will serve
to achieve intelligent digital labor. For example, as an invaluable precursor to applying
RPA lays a foundation for other tools down the cognitive tools to your organization. I'm often
road such as machine learning by creating telling enterprises that to build your cognitive
copious amounts of transactional data to feed castle, you must first lay a digital foundation.
the machine learning algorithms. Having the PA is that digital foundation on which you can
proper outlook can allow you to proactively employ more advanced technologies when the
accommodate these technologies when time is right and if the solution requires.
14
15
The Importance Of ROI

Now that we've gotten a good handle on the
definition of RPA, let's dive into what makes it
so exciting for businesses today. To put it
simply, the return on investment, or ROI, for
automation projects has the potential to be
significant. While I've seen a lot of hyped and
inflated expectations, and frankly, some crazy
ROI claims, the fact still remains. Handling tasks
using digital labor can make a lot of sense, and
save a lot of dollars and cents. What's more,
chances are very good that your executive
leadership is already aware of this.
Recently, I've been fascinated by what I'm

calling the top-down mandate. This is a
situation where CEOs, CFOs, or others from the
C-suite are beginning to set automation
goals for the organization. Big, bold goals that
effectively say, "We must save X, "and we will
any industry. A CEO is likely declaring
achieve this thanks to process automation. “For
automation-oriented mandates in it so they
example, in May of 2017, Wells Fargo, the huge
can survive under increasing operational
US bank, publicly announced a goal to reduce
pressures.
annual expenses by $2 billion by the end of
So, if you find yourself the recipient of such a
2019.
top-down mandate, the first thing you'll need
In the analyst day presentation, the CEO stated
is a plan backed up by a solid business case. As
that this savings would partially be as a direct
you saw from the examples I just cited, the
result of using, quote-unquote, digital
business case will often be heavily oriented to
technology to automate manual processes. In
headcount reduction, because tallying
similar fashion, the CEO of the large European
headcount is a quick way to get to solid
bank Deutsche Bank stated a mandate to bring
estimates of benefits, or what we call cashable
down their cost of revenue ratio from 86%
benefits. However, I mentioned, I'm an optimist
down to 65% by 2020, in part by cutting 15,000
about the impact of automation on jobs. It's
jobs through, you guessed it, automation.
because I actually rarely see headcount
The list goes on. CEOs of Nordea Bank, Lloyds
removal as a result of RPA.
Banking Group, Zurich Insurance Group, and
Instead, forward-thinking businesses are
numerous others have declared bold cost
considering how best to reallocate and
savings mandates for their organizations that
repurpose their qualified staff to perform
are predicated on automation. It's no wonder
higher value-adding tasks. You may hear this
RPA is a popular topic, and if you think this sort
referred to as hours back to the business. The
of strategy is relegated to banking and
actual benefit equation is far more interesting,
financial services, think again. Healthcare,
as there are many more nuanced ways that RPA
manufacturing, logistics, entertainment, pick
adds value. You'll want to know the numerous
types of benefits you should look for if you
plan to make a case for RPA.
16
The seven benefit types

So, we've touched on the major cashable shrink drastically because organizations can
benefit quantified in the hours a business can quickly and easily prove compliance.
save through automation, but I also mentioned
that there's a far richer list of benefit types that On the customer side, RPA can help improve
must be considered. Everyone has their own overall quality of service. There is certainly no
breakdown here. I'll run you through the one harm in reducing the number of service errors
I've most often used. One of the most thanks to efficient automation. Unless of
straightforward benefits is an increase in course you're a customer who enjoys battling
speed. With RPA, process turnaround times are companies over incorrect billing statements.
often significantly reduced because tasks can Another key benefit is operational agility. If an
be completed much more efficiently when organization needs to adapt to new process
digitized. The impacts vary widely depending rules, the reduced overhead of automated
on process complexity, but I've seen processes processes makes it much easier to adjust and
that once took two weeks be completed in less scale compared to traditional hiring and
than two hours thanks to RPA. retraining. And for industries that have high
cyclicality, think Christmas for retail or open
The
next
benefit is better compliance. Since RPA acts enrollment for healthcare.

according to programmed rules and The ability to rapidly scale a digital labor force
conditions, it can faithfully complete tasks that rather than hire temporary workers can save
meet regulatory standards and protocols. literally millions. This agility also extends to
Remember, RPA is not dumb. It's just well- times of uncertainty. For instance, I saw a bank
behaved. For example, internal audits and avoid tremendous operating costs when major
quality checks can be greatly simplified flooding put demands on their home lending
because RPA can have built-in compliance team that would have been solved with
measures. What's more, I've seen audit times people if they had not already had RPA at
work. Importantly, RPA provides better insight I said, the experience benefit is truly
into automated processes. For every action exciting. So note, while some of the
completed, there will be an audit trail of benefits may have very clear cost savings or
important time stamped data that can be used cashable benefits, others are softer or what we
for interrogation and improvement. call non-cashable benefits. Interestingly, while
the cashable benefits are often the ones that
RPA literally gushes forth valuable information feature heavily in a business plan, it's often the
that can be modeled, mined, and interpreted non-cashable benefits that have the greater
for insights into customer behavior, impact in the long run.
operational performance and much, much
more. And finally, one area I find truly exciting When building your own business cases, it's
is the impact RPA can have on experience and important you keep in mind and consider both
the experience of a wide cast of characters. cashable and non-cashable benefits. Also, I
Whether you're a customer, an employee, a urge you to consider other potential areas of
patient, a citizen, a vendor, or a partner, it's benefit like cost avoidance for instance. You'd
clear that service that is better, faster, more be amazed at how much savings I have
accurate and more painless is cause for discovered in this often overlooked
celebration. category. This can include reduction in fees
paid by an airline, avoidance of penalties levied
No matter the recipient of the service on a bank, reduced audit costs, reduced legal
automated, quality of user experience is greatly fees, reduced over payments and more. Now
impacted by RPA. I've seen this materialize as that we've covered the various benefits, next
higher net promoter scores, lower customer we can look at the recipients of the benefits or
churn, lower employee attrition and more. Like the benefactors.
18
The Triple Win Model

The benefactors of any RPA program are those whose jobs were affected by RPA were happy
groups who receive the value. One way to to transition to more interesting work and learn
represent this to your organization is through new skills and I've personally seen this in
the Triple-Win Model, this model is discussed projects where, by automating mundane tasks
in a book written by professors Mary Lacity and we've reduced employee attrition rates quite
Leslie Willcocks. Prominent authors in the simply, people like their jobs more so they quit
research of process automation. In this model less.
the benefits of RPA are divided into three
separate benefactor categories, benefits for And then there's the factor of extra time, I like
the organization. Benefits for employees, and to call it the extra hour scenario if you were to
benefits for customers. On an organizational ask a team what would you do with an extra
level, many RPA initiatives aim for baseline hour in your day? I guarantee you no one
improvements in accuracy, process speed and would ever say ehh, nothing we're good. We
output quality as we discussed before. don't need the extra hour you can have it
back. What they actually say is
But further there are often other goodness! If we had an extra hour
benefits that process we could finally do those proactive
transformation and automation calls we wanted to do! Or we could
unlock creating shareholder improve the quality of our data or
value. For example, the rules- work on that customer experience
based nature of RPA can be initiative we keep talking
leveraged to maximize about! The list goes on, and so with
compliance or for operational RPA enterprises are creating and
agility in the face of surging unleashing that extra hour.
demand. Automated processes
can be performed around the With routine tasks out of the
clock and can be scaled against a large and way there are so many more critical and value
flexible workforce. All are good things to tell adding nice to haves that they can attend
investors, shareholders and executive to. You may be asking how big can the benefits
leadership, so keep this in mind when building be? While I tend to shy away from rules of
your business case. thumb and ranges, they're often too specific to
particular companies, industries or process
The impact of RPA also translates to benefits scopes I can say this, it's not uncommon to
for employees who might have had mundane see in-year savings from RPA projects. I've seen
or repetitive tasks simplified. For example, firms achieve anywhere from 300% to 1,200%
employees who find the most time consuming ROI in three years, all because, as we've
and frustrating portions of their work discussed the significant cost reduction and
automated will have more time to dedicate to value creation of process automation creates
high-value work like customer interaction, both cashable and non-cashable savings that
higher quality work can ultimately result in continue to create value long after a project is
benefits like higher employee satisfaction and complete.
lower employee attrition. For those concerned
about the impact of RPA on jobs, take note,
Lacity and Willcocks found that employees
19
So ask yourself, if you could have say, 30% One of the main goals of RPA should be to
more capacity in your team, could you be more translate the advantages of automation and
productive? Could you focus on growing digitization to the improvement of a customer
sales? Emphasize customer journey. As we've discussed faster turnaround
experience? Improve regulatory compliance, or times, improved quality, around the clock
recalibrate to work on getting better insight availability and improved consistency will be a
from the operations and data that you're cornerstone of your defensive strategy to
collecting? In order to transform your compete in an ever-digitizing world.
business. I'm going to chance a guess here that
the answer is yes, yes, yes, and yes and don't
forget the customers.
20
Don’t forget the cost of ownership

We've now covered the potential benefits and the team.Using a partner to help you set up
values of RPA in some detail. Use these your RPA program or run for you, is also
parameters in developing your own business something to consider. More on that
cases. They'll serve you well. But before we later. Third, an area too often overlooked is the
move on from the discussion of benefits and ongoing costs. Without a good grasp of these,
benefit calculations, I wanted to touch on the you won't be able to calculate the total cost of
other side of the business case equation, the ownership of RPA in your organization. Your
costs of an RPA program. Each organization digital workforce needs ongoing monitoring,
will have its own business planning approach maintaining, and retraining when processes
and metrics. So this is meant to be more change, and they do change. This is not set it
directional than prescriptive. But no matter and forget it technology. You'll need to know
your process, you'll want to remember a few how you're going to care for your new digital
important, broad categories. The first is the labor.
technology involved.
And the rules of thumb on exactly how many
You will be purchasing RPA software licenses people you need to do that are not exact. They
that can have terms of up to three years, in often don't consider how to include the costs
which you pay for the software license each of process upkeep, how many bots you have
year. But there are many variations on this running, or what times of day your robots
theme. Some vendors have platform fees. run. For that reason, I don't subscribe to rules
Others have different fees for their different of thumb here. You'll need to figure this out
robots, attended and unattended. And if that's over time or with help from an expert. Finally,
not enough, the space is rapidly evolving. there are other things to consider, as well. If
Expect to see many as is service and utility- you choose to deploy your own RPA, you need
based pricing models in the near future. Now to factor in the cost of basic, advanced, and
that you have the software accounted for, applied tool training for your team. You'll also
you’ll also need to be sure that you have the want to approximate job redesign and
right hardware and IT infrastructure for the tool reskilling costs, if you plan to reassign those
that you're using. who have seen their work automated.
Each tool vendor can help suggest the best And you'll want to think about having a budget
infrastructure for their tool. And finally, don't for a formal communication plan as you roll
forget to account for the time from the out your RPA program. Communication is yet
business partners, IT partners, and perhaps another area that is often forgotten. But rest
service providers to help set up your assured, we'll cover that in a moment. We've
technology environment. The second area to explored a lot of material in this chapter,
include is the operational labor to run your including benefit types, benefactors, and cost
program. You'll need to decide if you're going categories you should consider in your
to fully dedicate resources to implement your business case. We'll make these available to
automation, or will this be quote, unquote, you as a handout in the exercise files. So now
other duties as assigned, for someone in the IT that you've considered all of the parameters
or operations group? You may decide to have you need to calculate the ROI of your RPA
business analysts, continuous improvement initiative, the next step is a crucial one.
professionals, or project managers as part of Picking the right processes to automate.
21
Identifying Opportunities For Automation

Now that you have a good grasp of RPA as a Let's take the nature of work for example, a
technology and the benefits it affords, we can process where employees follow a strict set of
introduce some RPA implementation concepts rules is more automatable than one that has
starting at the process level, after that we'll decisions open to employee discretion and
move on to some of the enterprise level judgment. As I mentioned before RPA is great
concepts. Both are equally important. for automating the routine and rule based
Identifying good candidates for automation is where you have employees doing swivel chair
one of the first steps in your journey and integration to execute those rules. On the other
frankly one of the most important. hand where decisions have to be made in the
In my experience
once you look at the
organization
through an RPA lens
you'll find an
abundance of
potential
opportunity which is
exciting but also
daunting. At this
stage of your
journey, you need a
framework to
measure how good a
particular process is
for automation and
how much impact
the automation
might have on the
business, take note of what I just said. approval of a loan or the treatment of a
particular exception to a rule for instance you’ll
Just because a process may be a spectacular still need people to perform these tasks.
candidate for automation doesn't necessarily Now one quick aside, from my experience
mean that it's worth automating. Given the teams often feel that the work that they do is
chapters you've learned in this course it now special and too complicated to modeled or
becomes your responsibility to rank candidate boiled down to simple rules. While the work
processes with this in mind. So what makes for they do may be important my experience
a good candidate process? I like to imagine suggests that once a task is atomized into its
sliders to visualize the degree to which certain smallest constituent parts you'll find that much
factors contribute to process candidacy. Far of the work in an organization can be classified
right means you have a good process. Far left as highly rule based and therefore highly
not so much. automatable. The next slider is inputs and
outputs involved in a process.
Processes that use structured standardized applications can be maintained and preserved.
inputs are better candidates than processes Effectively, you're not messing with enterprise
that use unstructured inputs. Structured inputs systems this should be a huge selling point to
are things like formatted spreadsheets your IT team. Lastly, the type of data in a
databases, JSON files, CSV files, XML and other process should be considered RPA works best
electronic feeds. Because of their digital and with text and numbers since it can guarantee
structured nature they're a better fit for RPA accuracy when programmed correctly. Image
than unstructured formats like scanned interpretation is possible in rare cases but it's
documents, faxes, handwritten forms or usually not an ideal use case.
emails. In terms of integration options consider
user interface as the lightest form of You might encounter images when a process
integration if you will and APIs as the deepest. calls for signature verification for instance. Or
Processes in which people navigate and control the interpretation of a scanned PDF. RPA is not
applications to perform a task are the sweet the tool you'd use here, instead you'd
spot for RPA. Which simply emulates the set of supplement the solution with some form of
activities. RPA can work with APIs but it's less cognitive image recognition capability. These
common, API integration is often a bit more factors determine how well suited a process is
complex than working directly with the user for RPA, and you'll want the sliders to become
interface but it largely depends on the second nature as you scan your organization.
application. We often say if you have an API, For that reason we've made the sliders
use it. There may be no need to copy its available to you in the exercise files, but you're
functionality using RPA. Although that decision not done yet! Next you'll want to think about
should be made in a case by case basis. the aspects of the process that influence the
degree to which a project might deliver
As a site note, the fact that RPA uses the benefits.
interface is a big deal, it means the underlying
23
Efficiency Drivers For Automation

Let's explore what makes for a highly impactful Next is speed. I'm absolutely certain you've had
automated process. First, stability, some a customer experience situation in which the
processors depend on applications and agent says, I'm sorry, the computer is slow
systems that are constantly updating, or today. Well, sadly, the computer is slow every
changing, or frankly, just aren't that stable. This day. An RPA uses the system in the same way
requires the automation solution to be the person does so system latency will slow
continually updated and maintained. As a down your digital labor just as it slows down
result, it is often more efficient to automate your teams today. So plan ahead for this and
processes that change in minor, or predictable manage expectations as it relates to underlying
ways. Second is connectivity. You should constraints that are not related to the RPA
consider the type of connectivity involved, solution.
whether the applications being controlled are
remote or on premise, can affect what RPA And you'll want to take note of this. I guarantee
features are applicable. you, as you work through debugging and
testing your automations, you’ll need to tweak
And does your organization use virtualization wait times and slow down certain steps the
methods like Citrix? Tools like Citrix are good robot takes in order to account for slow
at securing applications when used by underlying systems. Finally, complexity, as I
someone outside of your organization, but mentioned earlier, no matter how complex a
they present the applications as a flat image team feels its work is, chances are good, the
making it harder to automate the controls in work can be defined in rules. So complexity is
the application. But note, it's not impossible. not a bad thing. In fact, as you progress, you'll
Some RPA tools are quite capable of handling want to find highly complex processes because
Citrix. This was a necessary feature when I got these are where the untapped value lies.
started with RPA since so many of the systems
being automated in the outsourcing industry
sat behind Citrix.
24
I've seen automations that incorporate just described are by no means binary. We use
thousands of business rules and thousands of sliders for a reason. Real-world processes can't
exceptions. The configuration work took many all be perfect for RPA. But if you do your
months but the ROI was significant and more homework, you can certainly find ones that will
than justified the project. Basically, RPA eats net greater benefits than others.
complexity for breakfast as long as it's rule-
based. Now remember, all of the factors I've
25
Prime Opportunity Areas For Automation

Now that you know the key drivers of and pay integration are also great candidates
automation potential, you might ask yourself, for automation.
“Are there functional areas I should focus on”
“where RPA will make the most impact?" and, They're often full of rote calculations on legacy
"Do opportunities for automation vary by systems like mainframes. There are also vast
industry?" These are great opportunities in finance and
questions which I help accounting where the
enterprises answer all the processes are also rule based,
time, but not knowing requiring high degrees of
which function or industry accuracy and speed, which RPA
you're from, I'll provide is designed for. Some common
more general answers that F and A areas are order
you can use as a launching management, billing,
point. First, what sort of regulatory
functional areas are best compliance, accounting, and
suited for RPA? If you've reconciliation. Finally,
been paying attention, you procurement is a prime
probably already know, but area thanks to the abundance
the short answer is, that of structured documents and
RPA can be applied to pretty much any data.
transactional process.
Think of work like invoice processing, spend
Some examples of where I've seen RPA data management, purchase order
implemented are, customer service, human management, and contract management,
resources, procurement, finance and which often involve communicating and
accounting, data management, and internal validating data across different databases and
auditing. In each of these areas there are ordering systems. I'll stop there, but I hope you
repetitive and transactional tasks that are get the point. If you understand RPA well, you’ll
prime opportunities for RPA. To expand on see opportunities everywhere. On to the
that, the functional areas in which I've seen the second topic of this chapter. How do
most RPA opportunities are, human resources, opportunities vary by industry? As I described
finance and accounting, and procurement. To earlier, all companies today are part
start, HR and payroll processes are prime technology companies in the sense that they
candidates for RPA. rely on technology to compete and survive.
In fact, the entire hire to retire spectrum is ripe This means that opportunities for RPA are
with opportunity. This is because HR tends to abundant. To give an example, I've seen RPA
require information management and campaigns flourish in the banking and financial
standardization across a large variety of services industries, where a bulk of
systems and applications. Think of a talent transactional back office processes are ripe for
acquisition process, for example, which might automation. Some of the largest banks in the
involve several applications itself, ranging from world are using RPA to automate account
personnel databases and file managers to opening and closure, reconciliations and report
salary and compensation analysis tools. Payroll generation. I've also seen RPA pay dividends
26
and regulatory compliance, where automation need to be crosschecked and referenced when
solutions help them meet deadlines and avoid working with patient data and this is to say
fines. nothing of revenue cycle management,
insurance claim processing, and account
And in anti-money laundering and know your reconciliation.
customer checks to validate customer data. All are ripe for RPA. In addition to healthcare
The healthcare industry is also a large adopter and finance, I've seen RPA add significant
of RPA. Many of the largest hospital systems value in supply chain verticals, travel
are using automation to simply information companies, logistics firms, entertainment
management and payment cycles, which studios, police forces, and many, many more.
translates well to the overall patient Again, not knowing the industry and functional
experience. For example, there are many use area you're from, I hope I shared enough
cases of RPA around care delivery support, examples to inform you and inspire you to go
such as the automation of patient reports and hunting for opportunities in your own
information management for clinicians. If organization.
you've worked in the back office of a
healthcare organization, you know there's tons
of different applications and databases that
27
Process Reengineering
And now it's time to share a secret with you. could be implemented with RPA software. On
You're not taking this course to learn how to the face of it, this was a great candidate.
deploy robots. You're taking this course to However, this only addressed the structured
learn how to redesign your organization. When input, which was a subset of the incoming
enterprises go full-robot crazy, it creates requests that included telephone calls, faxes,
myopic thinking and tunnel vision as everyone and snail mail.
scurries about trying to figure out where they
can plug in bots. Instead, use this as a chance Rather than dismiss the as-is process as not a
to redesign process, to take advantage of the good end-to-end candidate because of the
full capabilities of your team, and of your new unstructured inputs, we approached this a
digital labor. Now remember when I said that different way. In order to structure a larger
an RPA lens would reveal an abundance of percentage of the input, there was the
potential opportunity? Be prepared for this. opportunity to build and deploy a web-based
portal to capture different case formats and
Some of the potential candidates you'll convert them into structured digital data. This
unearth may at first seem like great approach significantly improved customer
candidates, but will end up failing some of our experience, speeding up the turnaround time
slider tests. Others will truly be great for requests from two days to 30 minutes. This
candidates. And then you'll have a third example demonstrates how businesses
category in the middle, or potentially great benefit from reimagining the overall process,
candidates. These will be processes that could rather than simply automated that which they
be good but need some work first. For could.
example, I work for the financial services firm
where we identified a secured lending To sum it up, don't just use RPA to speed up
processes an ideal target. your mess for less. Take it as an opportunity to
rethink processes from the top down.
There was a large volume of thousands of
requests per week worked on by a large back-
office team. Many of the requests were
received through digital means, which meant
that the data was relatively structured. Closing
the requests was a rule-based procedure that
28
Key Stakeholders In Your RPA Journey

The key to success in any venture is getting the learn an RPA tool and then automate their own
right people aligned and on board. It's the processes. This individual do-it-yourself
same with RPA programs. In fact in my approach much like the era of Excel macros is
experience, RPA requires a greater level of not something I generally suggest unless the
cooperation than usual so heed this call. The initiative is highly structured and governed and
key to RPA success is collaboration and closely managed. When working at the
communication. If there's one area where I granular level of complex processes, validation
spend a lion's share of my time, it's here, from all parties involved is crucial. This is why
helping firms design their teams, select the team leads or similar roles like process owners
right players, develop the capabilities and are important.
organize centers of excellence. Let's review the Team leads are the people who manage the
key stakeholders you'll want involved. SMEs. They often provide a higher level of
At the highest level, we'll discuss business process validation. Team leads also support by
stakeholders and IT stakeholders. Let's look helping collect process metrics using their
first at the business and process side. One role expertise to ensure that the needs of the
you'll always see is the Subject Matter Expert or business are met. Then we have your project
SME. SMEs are the employees who are managers. Like any other business project,
experts at the process you're automating. They these stakeholders help interface and
know the process inside and out and it's their communicate all things project-related. Project
job to teach the RPA team what each step managers are essential to facilitate
is and then validate that all the relevant progress during development and to handle
information has been captured faithfully. The important issues when they're raised.
SME also plays a critical role later on in user Now as I mentioned, your IT team is another
acceptance testing. critical set of stakeholders. I always emphasize
Now in some deployment scenarios, the SMEs the importance of early IT involvement and it's
are the RPA team. Enterprises have the SMEs for a good reason. You don't want to surprise
29
your IT team here. From my experience, senior

IT managers can be skeptical of RPA and will Whether this is handled by an internal center
have lots of questions about how it interfaces of excellence or you choose to outsource this
with the existing technology and complies with to an external service provider, looping them in
their security standards and protocols. So I is conducive to a smooth handoff of
repeat, IT stakeholders must be involved at the responsibilities. Of course, don't forget to keep
earliest stages of an RPA program. There are project sponsors and executives in the loop.
several roles that may be relevant to your After all, it's probably their budgets you're
initiative. spending. So they'll want to know its being
One is infrastructure support staff. This team is spent well. With all of these different
responsible for running the servers and stakeholders in mind, it's even more important
machines that RPA requires, making sure that for each person to have a good understanding
the automated solution has a stable of RPA and ensure that stakeholders
environment in which to operate. Similarly, understand the benefits of RPA and how it can
application-specific personnel are responsible help to streamline processes and control
for the upkeep and development of individual costs. One way to accomplish this might be to
software applications in play. Information get them to watch this course. It's what we
security personnel are always good to have in designed it for and remember, your primary
the loop as well. RPA often requires role is education. While robotic process
interactions between user accounts and the automation has been a brilliant a name to gain
transfer of potentially sensitive data. the attention of a massive global market, it
As a result, including them in discussions can does still confuse people into thinking
help the RPA team align to security protocols of robotic arms on shop floors or see C-3PO
and minimize risks. Then you need to consider handling your accounting.
who will maintain the RPA solution once live.
30
Start Small But Don't Think Small

Let's now take a look at several best automates what they initially found as the SME
practices at the enterprise level. At this stage, dictated to them, hoping for the best. After the
some companies have done meaningful and process is, hopefully, up and running
productive automation of their operations, quote/unquote technical person in the
achieving real transformation thanks to group is assigned to care of it in their free time.
RPAand a huge number have done something And that's how the company's first RPA
with robots. In fact at this point, I assume every solution is created, without regard for future
global enterprise has RPA somewhere inside improvements, maintenance, or ongoing
it, but few have a lot of it and there's a reason upkeep. The result? They got RPA, but very
for that. They started small and they thought small amounts of it because they thought
small. What do I mean by that? Let me paint a small.
picture for you.
So how do you avoid this and think big? First,
For many early adopters of RPA, the beginning you take time to match the features and
of the journey began when a manager came capabilities of RPA tools to your needs before
back from a conference, having just heard simply picking one. You'll want something with
about RPA. This manager calls up her robust capabilities and a good track
operational lead and says, "I just learned about record that can last well into the future.
RPA." "We need it, go figure it out." The
operational lead, having never heard of RPA Then, you pick a process that matters to the
before, hits Google to figure out what to do goals your business has set out to achieve. One
next. With the knowledge they gleaned they that scores high on all of our sliders. In both
pick a tool. They then find a quick process to scenarios, you've created a small test
automate, one that's really close to them, and deployment and in both scenarios, you may
they hope they can deliver an easy win. well have proved the value of RPA to the
organization, but one set you up for success
What ends up happening is that the RPA and the other forces you to redesign every
solution is hosted on their desktop because step if you hope to scale it in the future. So start
that's the simplest way to get it up and small, but please, don't think small.
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
31
RPA Is Not About The Robot

RPA has robot in its name. You've got to admit us who's accomplished automating more
that's cool, and it's no doubt one of the complexity, nor whose added more value to
reasons the RPA concept has caught the their firm. Stating a goal about how many
attention of so many. But I want to share a few robots you want to deploy in the next year is
thoughts as it relates to the concept of the not very useful, yet the number of robots that
robot. First, the tool is important, but it's not you have seems to be the unit of measure that
the central player. You've heard me say this people are wielding as their credibility badge.
before, but I say it for a reason. I was lucky It shouldn't be about how many robots you
enough to be in the right place at the right have. In fact, it should almost be the opposite.
time, and have enjoyed being part of the RPA If you can transform and digitize an operation
community since its earliest days. I've watched on a small footprint of technology, then you
with fascination as enterprise after enterprise may be in a better place then somebody who's
begins their RPA journey by seeking proposals deployed thousands of robots. The point is, it's
for software. about realizing the benefits we covered
earlier. Finally, while the robot concept sets you
Many have not yet thought through who will up to buy cool clip art, fun T-shirts, and lots of
own the initiative, where they'll house it, what desk toys, it can have the effect of scaring the
processes they'll prioritize, not even what the wits out of the enterprise delivery teams.
success criteria are. I liken this to buying a
hammer before you're clear on the task at In the early days of RPA, we would hide the
hand. The coolest and shiniest hammer won't name in fear of raising the ire of HR or labor
do you any good if your task ends up requiring unions. RPA is somewhat more accepted today,
screws. Next, while picking a good tool is but tread carefully, and be conscious of the
certainly important, a great RPA tool deployed fact that people are sensitive about
without solid communication, change automation impacting them. Be aware of this
management, stakeholder management, and when branding and announcing your efforts.
change control is destined to fail. I’ll finish this topic with one final point. Perhaps
one of the most interesting things I’ve seen in
Trust me, I've seen this happen too often. Don’t organizations that adopt RPA is how they treat
miss the forest for the trees. Now, this next one their new digital labor colleagues.
might shock you, but robot is a meaningless
measure of scale, scope, and transactional Without fail, every single organization that I've
capability. You might have 50 assisted robots helped adopt RPA does one thing in common.
on desktops, and I might have two unassisted They name their robots. So start brainstorming
robots hosted in the cloud. That doesn't tell names now, and yes, Rosie is already taken.
32
Don’t Forget The Fundamentals

Just because you can automate it doesn't The critical chapter here is that we often get
necessarily mean you should. Elon Musk, the bogged down with the buzz words, hype, and
founder of Tesla, is the poster child for opportunities of automation and we forget to
automation and innovation, yet he showed us focus on the business fundamentals. This is
that even for the most forward thinking when I see if businesses make the mistake of
companies, automation's not always the looking for symptoms of underlying problems
answer. Tesla over-automated, which helped to tackle, relying on the technology itself to
speed up a cash crunch in production delays. miraculously fix their problems. Continuous
Musk admitted this in a tweet in which he said, improvement, change management, strong
quote, "Yes, excessive automation at Tesla was program management, talent acquisition,
a mistake." employee development, and much more.
He went on to say, quote, "Humans are The fundamentals are still the fundamentals.
underrated," end quote. This chapter applies to Respect the mechanisms that have kept the
RPA in spades, after all it is but one tool in your business running this long and don't forget to
tool belt. Don't try to shoe horn RPA into loop in the black belts, data scientists, and
solving problems it's not built to solve, project managers who have been on the front
especially when they might be other solutions lines of change across your organization for
available, like cognitive technologies, workflow decades.
tools, or the most miraculous of all,
humans. I've long asserted that the future of
work is actually an optimal orchestration of a
hybrid ecosystem of tools and people working
together.
33
LEVERAGING A CENTER OF EXCELLENCE

You may have heard of the concept of a Center example, one organization might use their
of Excellence, or COE, before. It's an in-house COE for demand generation, in which the aim
entity that provides capabilities for a specific is to educate other business units on RPA and
area of focus. And now, many businesses are how it can be applied.
applying the concept to RPA so they can create
standards and scale their transformation Another organization might want to be self-
efforts. Leveraging a COE is how many reliant in RPA development as it scales up its
businesses aim to squeeze the most value out digital transformation efforts. In this case, they
of their RPA initiatives. As I hope I've impressed would use a COE for internal training and
upon you, getting an RPA program right can be solution design. For many large enterprises,
a complex initiative that requires careful every RPA solution is handed off to a COE for
planning and research. But if you're able to get continual maintenance, administration, and
a capable COE up and running, it can help you risk management, making upkeep as efficient
achieve success and can provide as possible. Of course, if your organization is an
advantages, like economies of scales, reusable overachiever, you could feasibly build a
components, and the power of group COE that does all of these functions. But no
purchasing for automation products and matter what capability you decide to focus on,
services. a COE brings scalability and reusability to the
equation. To coordinate all these
As you can see, having an internal capability functions, governance is a key factor that must
can be a useful launching point for large-scale be carefully planned. For example, you'll have
development and support. The COE topic is a to decide on an organizational structure for
rich and detailed one, but for this course, I just your COE. In my experience, COEs tend to
want to touch on the highlights. The functions be either centralized or federated. Centralized
in a COE are centered on the needs of the models, which are the most
business, so their focus areas can vary. For common, concentrate the RPA capability at
34
one point in the organization, which means helping enterprises think through their COE
that all business functions defer to the COE for strategy, my first question to any firm is, tell me
support and resources. about the last successful COE your
organization stood up? If you can answer the
Federated models are also quite common. This question, that's great. You're equipped to
is when a central COE provides the champion, fund, measure, and enable this
framework for different business divisions to capability. If you've struggled to establish COEs
build their own COEs, rather than having one in the past, chances are good that now isn't the
COE for the whole organization. This is helpful time you're going to crack this nut, be
for more complex organizations, where honest about your organizational DNA.
business units are more distinct in culture and
processes. There are also, in my experience, In this case, instead of developing your own
less common models like divisional COEs, but Center of Excellence, you might choose to
I'll save those for another course. You'll also leverage a managed Center of Excellence, in
have to consider the point of control. which a third party runs those services for
youth benefits are that a managed COE
Do you want your COE to be owned and provides cost certainty for the project while
governed by a business or IT, or maybe a mix ensuring a high standard of service quality. In
of both? This will influence the degree of addition, businesses are able to leverage the
control over development standards, change expertise of the firm they're working
management, and IT requirements. Let me with, especially if the firm is a specialist in
emphasize that there isn't really a clear, RPA. So if that fits the bill of your
winning combination of the considerations I organizational DNA better than internally built
described. And in a sense, they aren't even the COEs, then it might just be the most logical
most important part of planning a COE. The option.
truth is that a COE won't work well unless it
matches the DNA of your organization. Either way, if you're keen on developing a
COE, I encourage you to ask around and learn
It takes a good understanding of your own from others' successes and failures. A COE is a
organizational structure to know which COE complicated initiative, but when carried out
model will be the best fit. For that reason, when thoughtfully, it can be very rewarding.
35
Tips For Success From The Front Lines

I hope you've enjoyed this book so far. Before points. A lot of this information will come from
we wrap up, I thought I'd share some valuable the subject matter experts.
tips that you might not find anywhere So you can count on them to be more
else. They've been collected over my many accurate than basic assumptions would be. But
years of exposure to RPA projects across the sometimes, as we all know, one person might
globe. While we don't have time for all of have a different way of doing things than
them, I'll go over some of the most prominent another. Meaning that you should probably
ones that come to mind. If you have completed crosscheck the information if the process is
the course, you'll know that IT stakeholders are complex enough. Again, the data you collect
a critical part of any RPA initiative. This is why will be referenced countless times during and
I'll emphasize again that it's essential to after development. So being meticulous is a
engage relevant IT functions as early as good idea. Lastly, when developing your RPA
possible in the RPA timeline. In any business, IT solution, test everything. PA will follow the
is responsible for provisioned access to internal rules exactly how you tell it to.
networks, applications, and infrastructure as
well as ensuring data integrity and security. This doesn't necessarily mean that there won't
be any errors. RPA can involve many
These are tasks that are better discussed and interconnected systems across various
set in place earlier than later. You don't want to environments, which means unknown errors or
end up building an RPA solution that violates interactions can creep up now and again. To
IT protocol and gets you in trouble down the make sure you've covered as many bases as
line. Often, the challenge with getting IT on possible, you'll need to prepare for and
board, is that approvals and infrastructure conduct comprehensive solution testing. This
preparation take time to complete. Sometimes course is meant to be introductory so I won't
servers need to be set up, sometimes new user go into all of the various testing strategies I've
accounts need to be made and seen. But one guiding principle I'll say, is to
permissioned. Unfortunately, I have seen align your test and production environments as
projects stall to the point of frustration because closely as possible.
communication with IT functions was
delayed and important IT needs were held up. Having test cases and test systems that are
identical to production ones will make
So I urge you to keep communications with deployment smoother and reduce risk. That's
stakeholders tight and especially so with IT all from me for this chapter. If you want a full
early on. Next, when you're getting into list of chapters learned from the front lines, feel
process design, make sure the existing free to download the full list form the Exercise
process down to the step-by-step level is Files. Many organizations don't embrace and
clearly understood. I'm talking full process defend these tenants until they've learned the
documentation, written assumptions, and hard way. But I'm sharing them with you
metric collection. The more the merrier anyway, may they help avoid even a few
because this information will come in handy for potholes along the way.
benchmarking improvements and finding pain
36
Key Takeaways
Thanks so much for joining me on this course. sets you and your organization up for a successful
RPA journey. You have the benefit of starting at a
I sincerely appreciate you spending your valuable
time when there are far more RPA resources than
time with me. We covered a lot of ground together,
when I got started. This course, for instance, is the
from definitions and benefits to opportunities and
culmination of over five years of experiences,
best practices. I hope you now feel more prepared
anecdotes, and hard work
and confident to get started, and that this course
.
37

Introduction To Robotic Process Automation

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Introduction To Robotic Process Automation

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Introduction To Robotic Process Automation

Robotic Process Automation

accelerating pace driven by a perfect storm of

absurd. Depending on the industry and

Why? Many failed to stay relevant and

from my experience, I'm an optimist. Because

What is robotic process automation (RPA)?

A Simplified Definition OF RPA

What Is Robotic Desktop Automation?

The Automation Spectrum

The RPA vendor landscape

For example, some vendors, like NICE, for

Differences Between RPA And Other Tools

The Importance Of ROI

Recently, I've been fascinated by what I'm

The seven benefit types

benefit is better compliance. Since RPA acts enrollment for healthcare.

The Triple Win Model

Don’t forget the cost of ownership

Identifying Opportunities For Automation

Efficiency Drivers For Automation

Prime Opportunity Areas For Automation

Key Stakeholders In Your RPA Journey

your IT team here. From my experience, senior

Start Small But Don't Think Small

RPA Is Not About The Robot

Don’t Forget The Fundamentals

LEVERAGING A CENTER OF EXCELLENCE

Tips For Success From The Front Lines

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