Important aspects of Process Automation

“The company has been on a journey of automating processes for last 2 years and now realizes that the benefits from the automation exercise is not as expected.”

Does this sound familiar?

Let’s look at some of the aspects of the automation initiatives that needs attention

Initiating the automation program

In many organizations the automation initiative is started with the expectation of substantial cost savings. These expectations are not based on any calculations but just high-level directive to save X amount. In some cases, the automation initiative is started as IT initiative to bring in advancement of technology to organization. However, if such initiative is not backed up by the benefits it would bring to the organization, it would not suffice.

Any which way the program is envisaged in the organization, expected benefits and timeline to achieve it have to be set. While it is alright to start with a generic target, there has to be further planning and discovery of opportunities to achieve the expected benefits. Please note, the benefits need not be purely of cost savings, it can have any tangible or non-tangible benefits. At the same time, identify methods to measure these benefits for later assessment.

Selection of processes for automation

Once the organization has decided on the automation journey, the obvious next thing to do is selection of processes. There can be multiple strategies that organization chooses from. For example, selection of sample processes from different departments to spread the idea in organization, taking up small processes without much savings as PoC, taking up most cost consuming processes to have highest benefit up front etc.

However, the strategy should not loose focus on the expectations set at the senior management level about the benefits and timelines. It will be helpful to have high level feasibility study of the processes to assess the automatability of the processes and prioritization.

Process Analysis

Redundancy

Many times, overall end-to-end process can be divided into sub-processes, which can be automated independently. Some of these sub-processes make sense in manual execution (mostly for record keeping). However, may not be needed if you consider the preceding and subsequent sub-processes. Such sub-processes can be eliminated from the automation.

Stability

As part of the process selection, detailed study of the process would help in analysis and costing. If the process is “stable and repeatable”, it would be a good candidate for automation. The stability of underlying applications, would also be an important aspect to consider.

Variability

Sometimes the overall process may be stable however has many variations in the data that is processed. This tends to go unnoticed in preliminary analysis and comes up only when automation is tested with live data sets.

It is necessary to have large sample data along with possible variations up front during the process analysis. Also, the time taken for execution of process may vary depending on the steps involved and data volume. This aspect is important from the automation stability and optimization perspective.

Technology selection

Technology for automation is a very crucial piece in overall automation program. It would impact the cost, timelines as well as feasibility. Most of the time, it is observed, the technology is selected as the first thing after initiating the automation program. There is a range of technologies which can help in automating a process. From pure programming/scripting languages to platforms created for Robotic(not Rapid ??) Process Automation (RPA). It can get further enhanced with AI. Organizations can choose one or combination of multiple such technologies to achieve the desired automation. Many times, the marketing pitches done by the technology/platform vendors do not match with the ground level realities of implementation. Such restrictions are often unknown at the onset but surface only at much later stage of program.

One needs to consider the pros and cons for each such technology option and choose the best fit. Please note, the corresponding limitations and cons may have impact on automation of certain processes. This may affect the expectations set at organization level.

Cost-Benefit analysis

Some of major benefits from automation are cost savings, value creation that is expected it to bring to the organization. However, it may not be easy to measure it accurately. Benefits should be compared against the overall cost.

The cost should consider the upfront onetime costs as well as recurring costs that may be involved.

Cost of implementation

The cost of implementation including the technology license and setup cost can be high. This would be the upfront investment that would be required before any benefits can be actually seen. Also, the time for implementing the automation would depend on the technology selected. Time translates to cost. If the organization does not have the required resources or skills, it may need to bring in external help. There can be some costs which are common across processes and some which are specific to processes being automated.

Recurring costs

Apart from the onetime costs, there can be costs which are recurrent like yearly license fees or maintenance costs. If the process is not stable or changes in used application affect the process, it can lead to high cost of maintenance.

Automation is very helpful in optimizing cost and human efforts. Besides tangible benefits such as cost savings, it can give many intangible benefits such are better quality/accuracy, higher productivity, better customer experience etc. Identify measures to quantify such benefits so that it will help in assessing success of automation initiative.

It is beneficial to go through methodical approach to automation to deliver on the expectations.