How do you scale and manage your RPA portfolio across different customer segments and channels?

Deploy RPA bots in isolation for specific, standalone tasks without a cohesive strategy. Begin documenting all RPA processes to gain visibility. Establish basic governance to manage individual bot deployments. Example: Small Retailer, automates invoice generation but lacks a unified approach, resulting in fragmented automation across customer support and fulfillment channels. Establish a dedicated RPA team with defined governance frameworks and performance metrics. Ensure reliability and standardization across automated processes. Develop a strategic roadmap aligning RPA initiatives with business objectives.

Start with ad hoc deployments by automating isolated tasks. For instance, we automated invoice processing using Blue Prism to handle repetitive tasks. Progress to managed by standardizing processes and establishing governance. Integrate AI for predictive maintenance and reach the optimized level. Finally, transform by redesigning customer journeys with end-to-end automation using Blue Prism’s advanced features.

I view the maturity of an automation program slightly differently. While there are absolutely levels to this, I would measure program maturity through the lens of the factors that make for a successful, scaled automation practice. As part of the Pathfinder program, we've developed a framework that we call the 5 P's of Automation Practice Maturity. Program: Administers, supports, and manages their automation program People: Develops the Roles and People to Drive Scale Pipeline: Capture, assess, and prioritize automation opportunities Production: Effectively design, develop, test, and deliver automations Promotion & Engagement: Communicate program success, align with leadership in their organization, and create a community of practice

Scaling requires a modular approach, using templates for common processes. Assign dedicated RPA managers for different segments, monitor usage metrics, and integrate customer feedback. Automation strategies should be adapted to specific needs, ensuring consistent deployment while aligning with customer-centric goals.

To effectively manage and scale your RPA portfolio, it's crucial to align with four maturity levels: ad hoc, managed, optimized, and transformed. Start by addressing scattered initiatives and vision gaps at the ad hoc level, focusing on quick wins and increasing stakeholder awareness. Progress to the managed stage by establishing an RPA team and governance, standardizing processes, and leveraging advanced tools for improved bot management. At the optimized level, enhance bots with AI and analytics, aiming for continuous improvement. Finally, achieve transformation by reinventing customer journeys and business models, and adopting intelligent automation for comprehensive customer satisfaction and engagement.

Evaluate your strategy and alignment with business goals. We used Blue Prism to integrate RPA with CRM systems, ensuring seamless customer data management. Governance involved setting up compliance checks within Blue Prism, and for innovation, we regularly updated bots to leverage new features.

Assessment criteria also has a direct dependency on the maturity of your automation program and the level of experience of your delivery team. A brand new automation program shouldn't just automatically go for the highest ROI use case - especially if that use case includes significant complexity that the team isn't ready for. Instead, I would simplify things to say how can we assess opportunities in terms of complexity, benefit, and risk (reputational risk to the team or organization - this could also be framed as "risk if we DON'T automate this process). Using this framework, it's pretty obvious that we would always want to look for the highest ROI with the lowest complexity/risk. Put some wins up, and grow from there!

To optimally manage and evolve your RPA portfolio, focus on strategy, alignment, integration, governance, and innovation. Start by crafting a strategic RPA roadmap aligned with your business goals, prioritizing high-value projects and leveraging project management tools. Ensure RPA aligns with customer expectations, utilizing analytics and CRM for deeper insights. Facilitate seamless RPA integration with existing systems via iPaaS platforms. Govern your portfolio emphasizing risk, quality, and compliance, using specialized software. Promote an innovative culture around RPA, encouraging experimentation through collaborative platforms, achieving strategic coherence, robust integration, diligent governance, and continuous innovation.

Assessment criteria for scaling an RPA portfolio include process complexity, automation feasibility, ROI potential, and customer readiness. Evaluate each customer’s current digital infrastructure, the scalability of their processes, and the availability of structured data. It’s important to assess security and compliance requirements across different segments. Regularly reviewing bot performance, cost-benefit analysis, and user feedback also informs which processes are prime for further automation and which customer segments can benefit from scaled, multi-channel RPA solutions.

Define a clear RPA strategy and set up a dedicated team. We started by standardizing processes with Blue Prism, creating reusable components for efficiency. Integrated AI for smarter decision-making. Transition to optimized by using Blue Prism’s analytics to continuously improve bot performance.

Set up a central system to oversee RPA operations, while allowing teams the flexibility to adapt to local needs, ensuring compliance and security. Make sure RPA works smoothly across platforms like web, mobile, and desktop, and connects with channels like email, chat, and voice. Customize automation for different customer groups by adjusting workflows and triggers based on their preferences. Use real-time tools to track and manage bots, and rely on analytics to keep improving performance

Standardizing RPA processes and creating reusable components facilitate easy replication across multiple customers, ensuring efficiency and consistency. Comprehensive training and support at different levels empower customers to effectively utilize RPA, maximizing its benefits. Communicating the impact of RPA, such as improved efficiency and cost savings, fosters a culture of innovation within the organization, encouraging employees to explore new possibilities. By integrating these strategies, organizations can drive innovation in RPA initiatives.

To effectively scale and manage your RPA portfolio, transitioning through maturity levels from Ad hoc to Transformed is crucial. Begin by defining a clear RPA vision and strategy, aligning it with business objectives, and establish a dedicated team for RPA implementation. Standardize deployment through a governance framework and measure success with KPIs. Enhance capabilities by integrating RPA with technologies like AI, chatbots and customizing solutions for diverse customer needs. Finally, reinvent customer experiences and explore new business models with RPA, supported by tools like Jira, Zapier, and RPA platforms such as UiPath or Blue Prism.

To manage and grow your RPA projects across different customers, it's important to set up a standard system that uses reusable automation parts, templates, and frameworks. This makes it easier to adjust the solutions for different clients, saving time and effort. Grouping customers by industry or complexity helps you create more tailored solutions that fit their specific needs.

A mature automation practice becomes a key component to an organization's digital transformation strategy. The maturity of your automation program means that your organization, its leaders, and your program stakeholders can trust the delivery of your automation practice, and they know that your team can help to shape the future of the organization's "future of work" strategy. I also wouldn't limit this to RPA alone - the automation practice of tomorrow includes the integration of Generative AI/Large Language Models, services, and embedded user experiences across applications. Mature your program, take on those new "types" of automation opportunities, and drive for success at scale - a winning combination.

Maturity in RPA reduces costs and increases efficiency. We used Blue Prism to automate customer support tasks, significantly reducing response times. This resulted in higher customer satisfaction and retention. A mature RPA program also allows for rapid scaling and innovation.

Adopting a customer experience maturity model in robotic process automation (RPA) offers strategic advantages, enhancing RPA portfolio optimization across customer segments and channels. Maturity in RPA boosts customer satisfaction and loyalty through personalized experiences, increases operational efficiency by automating repetitive tasks, reduces errors and costs via improved accuracy, and secures a competitive edge through faster market response and innovation. Achieving RPA maturity involves regular assessment, training, and ensuring scalability and integration of RPA solutions, utilizing frameworks, process analysis tools like Process Mining, and platforms like UiPath, Blue Prism for comprehensive management and growth.

The Customer experience maturity model is critical for Strategic alignment and Value realization. It serves as a roadmap for organizations to systematically enhance their automation capabilities, ensuring they deliver a superior customer experience while also achieving operational excellence and innovation.

The RPA customer experience maturity model helps improve customer satisfaction, loyalty, and efficiency. It reduces errors, costs, and risks while increasing productivity and quality. This model enables scaling and managing RPA across diverse customer segments and channels, fostering innovation and gaining a competitive edge.

Understand each customer segment's needs before deploying RPA. With Blue Prism, we tailored solutions for different departments, ensuring relevance and effectiveness. Regular training for the team ensured smooth bot operations. Anticipate project complexities by involving stakeholders early and planning meticulously.

I can think of two things which can really help scale RPA across segments:- 1. Citizen Developement Program - Organization wide initiative to build awarness and train motivated people to automate simple tasks on their own. 2. Reusable components - Identify and create reusable components like Reconciliation, MIS, On-boarding etc and showcase to each segments.

Leverage predictive analytics to anticipate the future needs of various customer segments, enabling proactive scaling of automation efforts. Integrate analytics tools with RPA to gain insights into performance across different segments, supporting data-driven decisions for scaling initiatives.

In managing a Robotic Process Automation (RPA) portfolio, the importance of practical tools cannot be overstated. Platforms such as UiPath, Blue Prism, and Automation Anywhere provide robust environments for developing and managing RPA bots, streamlining business process automation. Complementing these, process analysis tools like Process Mining and Task Mining are crucial for identifying and refining automation opportunities. Additionally, adopting governance frameworks like COBIT or ITIL ensures RPA initiatives align with IT best practices, fostering a structured, efficient, and effective approach to automation.

Create a scalable and adaptable solution that can meet the customer’s immediate needs, whether it’s deploying a few bots for basic tasks or developing a comprehensive automation framework. Ensure the design is flexible, allowing it to evolve alongside their business. Implement strong governance and monitoring to keep operations smooth as the automation scales. Prioritize quick wins to demonstrate value early on, while also planning a long-term strategy for tackling more advanced automations over time.