Making Good Decisions About Robotic Processing Automation

Satori consultants have first-hand experience helping our clients evaluate and implement innovative and effective uses of Robotic Process Automation to automate a variety of tasks, including on-demand processes, periodic labor-intensive processes, and short, highly repetitive, temporary processes. RPA is an increasingly necessary technology to improve efficiency and stay competitive and is being aggressively applied to minimize repetitive tasks and processes, allowing talent to focus on value creation. Meaningful and substantial deployment of RPA, especially in back office functions, can have a major impact on costs in terms of time and increased accuracy of data processing. With such benefits, there is no surprise companies are leaping at the chance to leverage this exciting new technology wherever possible.

Before licensing RPA technology, there are a few key considerations that should be evaluated to determine if a process is a good candidate.

1. A cost benefit analysis that takes into account more than just the cost of the software and the headcount being replaced including:

• • Set up costs: How much training, testing, additional documentation and other costs will be incurred to stand up the RPA solution based on the current organizational capabilities, complexity of the process, and impact of a failure. This is especially important for temporary uses of RPA.
  • Time and Volume: How long does each run of the process take and how often or how many total times will it be run. Does the RPA tool reduce defects or rework?
  • Overhead, Security, and Maintenance: Overhead includes the cost of the RPA product as well as infrastructure and tracking needed as RPA increases within an organization. Deployment of RPA technology can also create unique security risks, such as access to secured data or programs, that must be appropriately mitigated. Lastly, maintenance is never zero for RPA which needs to be updated and supported over time.

2. The potential process for automation should also be evaluated to understand how it impacts the costs and benefit from RPA:

• • Complexity: A process can be too costly or unrealistic to automate if it requires higher-level decision making or significant judgement such as evaluating the quality of inputs into the process. A process can also challenge automation software with too many moving parts or inconsistency in variables or operations.
  • Requirements of the RPA Tool: A process for automation may require interaction with specific programs or operations within those programs that limit the types of RPA tools that can be used. Fully understanding the process that is targeted for automation is needed to identify what is required of the software and what challenges are posed.

How Satori can help: Satori has experience standing up RPA for critical and time sensitive initiatives. Most recently, Satori evaluated and utilized RPA to expedite testing of a new cloud-based HR system by entering thousands of transactions over the course of weeks to increase the efficiency and accuracy of the tests. Contact Satori if you are looking for help identifying opportunities to make an impact with RPA.