Robotic Process Automation provides a wide range of industries with software bots that take over repetitive and rule-based tasks. What it additionally offers to the industries is its own share of challenges. Needless to say, RPA implementation challenges often go unnoticed until RPA comes uncontrollably close to failure. The bad news is that RPA fails, the good news is that the failure can be avoided. There are multiple factors in the design and execution of Robotic Process Automation, which can affect the overall success of the effort.
Today, businesses are craving for having this technology for automation and efficiency of various processes in their organization. However, some of them miss critical steps on the RPA implementation roadmap, which often proves to be a deciding factor for the success or failure of RPA.
While RPA implementation challenges can be overcome by streamlining processes that require minimal emotional intelligence and reasoning, it can produce unfavorable effects on your business if you don’t consider the problems with RPA and the best ways to keep them at bay. Let’s have a look at why RPA fails:
Lack of Clarity
Anyone who is working in the technology domain is aware of tech dynamics. Things change quickly, which suggests companies should take their time well before jumping into RPA. Lack of clarity and enough share of leadership buy-in can hinder the progress of RPA implementation. It’s important for business users working with software robots to have a clear idea of the complexity of processes, RPA use cases, and methodology.
Unrealistic Expectations
There are certain things organizations need to consider about RPA. For instance, businesses often think the deployment of RPA will automate complex processes end to end, this is not the case. The robotic workforce demands acute attention and care for proper functioning. In other words, RPA does require human intervention for ensuring that the processes are executed smoothly.
Furthermore, the complexity of processes also plays a vital role in RPA implementation failure. Just to remind you, RPA is meant to accept rule-based, monotonous processes. The processes that require intense human intervention, reasoning, and decision-making skills are unlikely to work well under RPA.
Lack of Governance:
Communication is the key to getting things done. Whether it is a digital workforce or a human workforce, it makes little to no difference. Miscommunication and lack of collaboration among departments can easily turn into a point of failure. Without smooth communication, even minor issues can result in hazardous challenges, impacting the efficiency of RPA.
Bad Design
While most businesses focus mainly on fast implementation, the design usually doesn’t receive enough attention or importance. It leads to hindering RPA progress at some point in time in the future. Companies must consider the design and aspects associated with it offhand so that the complications remain to the minimum while RPA is in action. In brief, the design is one of the most critical yet often overlooked parts of the RPA roadmap. Insufficient attention towards design can create potential threats for RPA.
Wrong Selection of Processes
RPA produces the best results when applied to pre-optimized processes. Automating unoptimized or ineligible processes is another pitfall in the RPA implementation. It majorly applies to businesses that are deploying RPA for the first time. Where do these businesses go wrong? Instead of automating simple, mundane, and repetitive tasks, they start with processes that are too complex and subject to human intervention. Remember that RPA is basically meant to be used for automation. Thus, it’s important to check whether it fits the use case you are deploying it for.
How can you change the potential failure into success?
We have covered major factors that cause the RPA projects to fail. Now, let’s see what you can do to push your RPA model past obstacles.
Make a Smart Move by Gaining Clarity
Though it seems obvious, clarity is one of the crucial factors that contribute to the success of RPA. Businesses must evaluate what goals they are trying to achieve by implementing RPA. They must find answers to question like, is RPA the right technology to combat issues they are fighting with? Have they selected the right processes to automate? Will RPA improve productivity and minimize costs? Answering these questions helps organizations to gain a clear vision for RPA.
Considering Various Costs Involved
RPA can help businesses save money by cutting down the number of hours they spend on labor-intensive tasks. However, the costs can shoot up if RPA implementation goes wrong. Thus, organizations need to consider costs associated with a successful RPA implementation. If this issue is addressed with enough care and the right business strategy, RPA can be very cost-effective for companies.
Efficient Roadmap
As discussed earlier, the lack of proper planning and unavailability of efficient tools are among the most common pitfalls of RPA. For instance, design. A stable and scalable design enables RPA to function as intended and produce the desired results. Simply put, companies must have an efficient roadmap and a clear understanding of possible roadblocks while starting with RPA implementation.
Collaboration & Coordination
While we were discussing major factors behind RPA implementation failure, lack of collaboration between different areas of the business was among the top factors. Robotic Process Automation requires an excellent communication flow among departments, teams, and even executives within the organization. Effective collaboration among the teams and executives involved can ensure to keep obstacles to a minimum. Furthermore, it also ensures that every user is on the same note and works collaboratively to meet short- and long-term goals.
Careful Project Maintenance
Even though RPA has tremendous potential to automate tons of processes, RPA implementation itself demands time-to-time human intervention. To produce expected effects, RPA requires continued project management and maintenance. Businesses must have an eye on tools and technology and find ways to keep themselves abreast of the updates. In addition to that, RPA might also require maintenance and care on the process level so that everything functions as intended.
Wrapping Up
The integration of RPA can relieve the human workforce from labor-intensive and repetitive tasks. Also, it reduces human errors in the end results. While it can be a cost-effective solution to a large number of processes, it comes with its own set of challenges. Businesses need to acquire clarity and vision for successful implementation. Businesses that have poor collaboration and communication among the decisive business areas and executives may also be a wrong fit for RPA. In addition to a well-analyzed strategy and a roadmap with a clear idea of obstacles can be a key to successful RPA implementation.
