The history of RPA is not long at all. In May 2013, a McKinsey report included ‘advanced robotics’ among the disruptive technologies, those expected to “transform life, business, and the global economy”. According to UiPath, 2014 was the moment when robotic process automation started to be a significant competitor to business process outsourcing. Afterwards, it took only two more years until it started to be institutionalized by business companies. Where are we today? We are at a point where both adoption and scaling have advanced tremendously, and RPA has reached new levels of maturity, becoming a must for companies determined to pursue a real competitive advantage. You can read the full article on our blog https://www.cigen.com.au/cigenblog/7-challenges-implementing-rpa-how-overcome-them

1. 7 Challenges to Implementing
Robotic Process Automation
& How to Overcome Them
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2. According to McKinsey, RPA can
bring about a quick and robust ROI,
i.e., up to 200% in the first year of
deployment, and 20-25% cost savings.
RPA
AUTOMATION HAS EVOLVED
INTO A CORE TECHNOLOGY.

3. 01STARTING WITH
REASONABLE
EXPECTATIONS
Given the RPA hype, it is easy to fall prey to an
over-enthusiastic perspective. But keeping your
feet on the ground is crucial because of the
large-scale impact on the assessment of the
outcomes of automation, and hence, on
subsequent decisions regarding scaling up to
enterprise level. A helpful way to do this is to
start with a clear hierarchy of business
objectives, and then figure out how exactly RPA
can help to attain them.

4. 02MANAGING
EMPLOYEES’
RESISTANCE
The “robots will steal our jobs” narrative, often
used as a typical RPA objection, is the core
reason for the staff’s lack of willingness to
accept new technologies. Prior to engaging in
automation projects, you should educate your
team regarding what software robots can and
cannot do, and help them see the bots as
helping, not hindering, the current work roles.
Moreover, you should invest in training
employees regularly, as the ‘automation era’ will
require them to acquire new skills.

5. 03You should identify processes with clear processing
instructions (template driven), based on
standardised and predictive rules. Processes that
require a high degree of manual input, structured
and repetitive input involve activities that are more
susceptible to human error; this is why they are also
good candidates for automation.
Another idea to be considered in the selection
process is that the more stable a business task, the
more smooth and effective (and thus cost-efficient)
its automated version. Relatedly, processes with
measurable savings will make it easier to evaluate
realistically the impact of RPA on your company.
SELECT PROCESSES
PRONE TO
SUCCESS

6. 04INABILITY TO
AUTOMATE
END-TO-END
PROCESSES
For the more complex processes, RPA tools may be
insufficient for directly automating all the process
steps. “Divide and conquer” is our recommended
way to go about this. Redesign these sophisticated
tasks, break them into simpler parts, and start
automation here.
Additionally, try to leverage the joint work of RPA
and other digital technologies like machine
learning or optical character recognition. Keep in
mind though the extra costs involved by this, so do
not strive for end-to-end intelligent automation
when cost-efficiency becomes questionable.

7. 05INSUFFICIENT
ASSISTANCE FROM
THE BUSINESS
DEPARTMENT
Relying solely on the IT department is among the
common RPA challenges that should be actively avoided.
According to RPA expert Nicole Schultz, “finance
cannot depend on IT for RPA; it needs to be owned by
the business side.”
Business processes require a Process Design Document
for the pilot phase, including workflow diagrams, data-
specific business rules (for various types of data), a
comprehensive list of technical exceptions that the
operations unit may face during manual processing, etc.
It is more likely that the pilot paves the way for
successful long-term development if the business team
gives feedback for bots’ performance.

8. 06LACK OF
STRUCTURED RPA
IMPLEMENTATION
TEAMS
As always, lack of structure is a pitfall. But the
good news is that it is not too difficult to be
fixed. “Effective structure” arises out of clearly
specified roles for the team members, sufficient
knowledge about the processes selected for
automation, as well as not allowing resources to
be shared among multiple ongoing projects.

9. 07
Given that the ease of configuration is a core
feature of RPA, it can be easy to forget asking for,
and acting out the suggestions of the technical staff
regarding technical and operational issues. The
solution is easy though, and it amounts to following
RPA maintenance protocols after the implementation
phase.
TECHNICAL AND
OPERATIONAL
ISSUES

10. CONCLUSION
Functionality is a core feature of RPA;
software robots can be seen as tools for
cutting down costs and enhancing
productivity. To these ends, however, you
must be able, first, to acknowledge, and
second, to overcome the challenges of RPA
implementation. By going through the list
above, we believe you will be one step
closer to meeting your efficiency standards.

11. THANK YOU!
Blog
You can read more RPA articles on our blog:
https://www.cigen.com.au/cigenblog/
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Email Address
contact@cigen.com.au
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