A lot of material has been written about the features of Robotic Process Automation (RPA) technology and the benefits RPA can provide for a business, which is great but in this edition the aim is to look at the fundamental question – “What problems does Robotic Process Automation (RPA) address?”
“A problem well stated is a problem half-solved.”
Charles Kettering
Automation is not the solution to all business problems, and nobody is forced to automate. For the right situation, automation is an effective solution.
Business Problems?
The problems which can be addressed by RPA have been grouped into few categories.
Capacity and Bottlenecks
- More work than there is man power available to do the activities in the normal working day, resulting in overtime for staff or a backlog of work
- There is a backlog of work which impacts businesses speed of response
- Triage activity is necessary to ensure correct priorities are assigned
- No more office space available for additional staff
Errors
- Human errors in processing work leading to significant costs to fix and recover customer confidence
- Inconsistent processing leading to compliance issues that create an exposure to financial penalties and other constraints
Staffing
- Repetitive nature of work creating demotivated staff with corresponding high turnover, retention issues and difficulty recruiting
- Peaks in workload require temporary staff for additional capacity which takes time to organise
- Temporary reduction in staff (e.g. Sickness, Paternity leave, Jury service) makes it challenging to complete work in required timescale
- Unable to recruit at the pace required by business growth
Operating Cost
- The cost of performing core business administration is high with low productivity which impacts business profitability
- Outsourced admin work has led to a loss of visibility and no direct control
- Reconciliation work performed by exception as too costly to verify everything
Complexity
- Different IT systems have overlapping data requirements which are not always consistently maintained
- Effort is required to enter the same data into multiple IT systems
- Lack of standardisation leading to high costs
This list illustrates the wide range of situations that can exist in a business which are not always recognised as an opportunity for the use of automation.
Beyond the Problem
All of the problems concern Manual work undertaken on computer systems.
Business has continued with the problem, why automate now?
“Failing to recognize problems leaves the door open for tragedies to rush in.”
Paulo Coelho
To consider getting beyond the problem there is usually a trigger or event that brings the problem into focus to start the discovery activity for a solution.
The triggers can be (No particular order):
- A new team member who has experience automation in another department or business
- A team member leaves the business, leaving the same amount of work to be performed by the remaining team
- Several team members will be absent concurrently
- A new compliance requirement is imposed on the business
- Compliance breeches highlight inconsistent processing
- A human error occurs that impacts an important client
- A member of staff reports a Repetitive Strain Injury
- The business imposes a recruitment freeze but the workload continues to grow
- There is a new need to complete work overnight due to achieve better customer service (e.g. Next Day delivery)
- The business sets a budget objective to reduce operational costs
- Hiring staff is challenging as they discover the mix of tasks required
- Another part of the business adopts an RPA solution
- Business processes being reviewed and documented
- Growing business limited by office space for staff
- Change to a new IT system needs data migration and ongoing alignment
Is Automation the only solution?
When the business problem has been recognised, automation may be the solution but there might be other options.
The problem may exist for one or more business processes.
Detailed examination of each process may highlight opportunities to amend / improve the activities to reduce the problem.
It is rare that a process is redundant which means that even after improvements to the processing have been applied there can still be benefit to automating the manual work.
Does Automation create problems?
If an automation has been carefully designed and well implemented, it will create few problems.
The design should include how people work alongside any automation so that any exception scenarios can be addressed.
The use of automation does create:
- A need of automation technology skills to maintain the automations
- Less need for the business staff to know about the details of the automation
- An increased requirement for change control to avoid impact on automations
The scale of such problems is likely to be less than the business problems that the automation resolves.
For more information on Robotic Process Automation (RPA) as well as Agentic Automation and the journey to implement automation please see our website: https://www.ether-solutions.co.uk/.
Manager’s Guide to Automation: https://www.ether-solutions.co.uk/managers-guide-to-automation-using-software-robots/
#businessbeyondautomation
Article Author
David Martin
Managing Director, Ether Solutions
