The Business behind RPA

RPA is gaining much popularity nowadays and is considered to be the "Silver bullet" for all the process inefficiencies. This results in stakeholders getting set up unrealistic expectations which can prove to be disastrous when results get shown up post-implementation.

To begin with, this quote from Mr.Bill Gates struck my mind

Automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.

Now don't get me wrong, RPA implemented in an inefficient process will still result in good improvements. But there is still space left for tremendous growth. In simpler words, it's like driving a car with the handbrakes engaged. The potential growth could be a reduction in process exception rate, speed of the process, etc.

This is often the result of jumping into RPA implementation without doing a proper selection of process followed by a thorough study and proper solution creation. This is often driven by the promise of quick ROI realization.

Doing these will result in getting a stronger Business case which will prove to be a strong point when convincing the stakeholders for the same.

So what's your view? Graceful all-round optimization or just mere Brute Force in automation?