Intelligent Automation - Innovation

Many organizations in their embrace of more digitized ways of working are accelerating the strategies to automate repetitive processes along with scaling these solutions with artificial intelligence to go beyond the routine to the innovative. Organizations believe they can now transform their business processes, achieving higher speed and accuracy by automating decisions based on structured and unstructured inputs.

How can the business and IT come together to get it right and optimize the intelligent automation potential?

From improved customer experience to operational efficiencies, global examples of how automation can transform a business are emerging. Organizations now have strategic decisions to make about how and where they deploy this within the business – but it is not an easy road to benefits realization. IT readiness and process fragmentation are the two main barriers to the adoption of intelligent automation.

Key consideration from leaders that have successfully implemented automation within their business:

?? Why automate: does the case stack up for your business?

?? Who to work with: choosing the right partners and providers?

?? How to implement: getting the pilot right and identifying what capabilities are needed.

?? Roadblocks to success: what are the risks, how has it gone wrong and what can be learned?

?? Managing change: understanding impact to the workforce.

?? Measuring the impact: are we realizing the desired business value?

Getting started – Priorities and Opportunities

?? Identify which business functions may benefit most from automation.

?? Drive towards understanding what is possible now & what are the roadblocks standing on the way of a better functional model.

?? Assess where current approaches aren’t meeting needs & sketch out a plan to address these opportunities.

?? Identify the “burning platforms” among the organization’s business processes that can become the vehicles for change.

?? Assess the business architecture capability & start discussions on its evolution, focusing on elements of business processes that are differentiating.

?? Begin listing opportunities to provide new value-added to automation.

?? What is next? How do we prioritize backlogs?

Developing an Automation Strategy

?? Why – Build your business Case: Why does automation support your business needs? What are the benefits? What are the pain points being alleviated? What are the metrics to determine whether automation is valuable? What is the strategy for re-deploying existing resources after automation?

?? What – Assess for automation Opportunities. Which processes are good candidates for automation? Which processes would be suitable to pilot? How should the process owners be engaged? What are the impacts of proceeding with the pilot?

?? How – Determine the optimal operating model. Which operating model works best for your organization? Do you have the right team to support the solution and carry out responsibilities (e.g., assessing new processes for automation and testing the automated jobs)? Who will manage and monitor these bots?

?? Who – Identify your automation partner(s). Who are the main vendors in this space? Who are the providers who cater to your business needs the most? Which sourcing option do you want? How should you compare the pricing models in order to understand what you are paying for?

?? When – Plan the automation Roadmap. How long should your pilot be? What are the stages after the pilot? What is your strategy for scale? How will you ensure impacted stakeholders understand the what, why, and how of automation?

How mature is your service automation practice within your organization? Consider the following characteristics:

Level 0 – Manual: Labor is used to perform work or tasks, varying levels of efficiency.

Level 1 – Scripted: Tasks with repeatable steps are run in a single script program. Foundational building block of automation. Scripts are made by individuals. Trigger based.

Level 2 – Tooled: Automation task is available to others. Scripting is standardized for others. Rules based.

Level 3 – Orchestrated: Orchestration organizes and leverages a library of scripts to complete more complex workflows or process that requires more than one script.

Level 4 - Auto-Triggered: Asynchronous autonomous operations via Virtual workforce. Industrialization of tasks. Automaton as a code.

Level 5 – Assisted: Virtual Assistant - Remote control interact with Virtual workforce via GUI or CU. Synchronous.

Level 6 – Intelligent: Intelligent Automation (Contextual) - Machine Learning. System behavior & Stats. Artificial Intelligence (Self-Aware) Learn and Adapt in order to act as human.

The “Experimentation” Journey

(1) Identify key line of business that would be willing to participate on further automation discussions & how they benefit from this effort.

(2) Form a pilot team that blends user experience specialists with data scientists to experiment with new and emerging automation technologies services, aiming to better understand the user perspective.

(3) Establish an environment that enables experimentation—rapid development, planning, & deployment.

(4) Forge closer partnerships with the business to allow blended teams with fast turn experiments in mind.

(5) Engage with strategic vendor & solution providers to get an idea of what is working & what is not working & what are the possible gaps to be addressed and Draft / review a formal SLA and OLA to be leveraged.

Critical elements to a successful journey

Key considerations:

?? People: What skills are needed to deliver efficient solutions. Develop a RACI Matrix for roles and resources. What methodologies will be leveraged to understand the business needs. How will the business be involved to ensure that value is achieved? What is currently in place to ensure that that decisions are made rapidly, and the accountability is in place.

?? Standards: What standards are in place that needs to be taken into consideration? What frameworks/template is in place when a line of business is engaged on an automation effort? Understand how data will be consumed. Drive towards maximizing using data gathered – this helps not to have to go back to the line of business for data that was already gathered in prior steps.

?? Tools/Technology: Define the what architecture standards should be in place to ensure the maximum re-usability. Define the development standards to be in place to ensure consistency & re-usability. Data & Information – What is needed to ensure a high-quality / highly reliable information is used throughout the process transformation. Platform standards – what is needed to ensure stability, scalability & re-usability and lower maintenance costs? What are the native & supported integrations to the tool(s)? How much “custom” code is typically required to deliver solutions? What is the typical impact to “custom” solutions when core systems are upgraded?

?? Process: Ensure that an appropriate methodology is leveraged & aimed to deliver value in increments. Establish processes that make robust, flexible security a priority when IT systems are being designed & developed. What are the documentation & deliverables in a typical deployment? Defined how code will be managed. What is the hand-off and training provided? How much of past deliverable could be reused? If low percentage, what could be done different? Review or perform a Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) assessment for the different components of automation. SWOT Analysis for key components and functional areas – identify gaps by category (i.e. people, process and technology)

Define your business use cases. Exemplary use cases:

Reporting – Data Extraction from SAP and publishing internal updates (via email).

Expense Statement – Check against scanned receipts to approve expenses.

Payment Dispute Resolution – Review manual customer letters & capture data to support dispute resolution.

Payment Repairs – Correct Payment information based on specific error code.

Standards – Practices to consistently manage automation activities: Exception Management and Logging. Coding standards. Documentation Standards. Deployment and Readiness Checklist.

Controls – Standards and practices to consistently manage automation activities: Exception Management and Logging. Coding standards. Documentation Standards. Deployment and Readiness Checklist.

Metrics – Measures to cover different aspects of the automation solution: Process Performance metrics / dashboards. Productivity metrics / dashboards.

Methods – Frameworks/approach to ensure consistence of approach across functions: Process Evaluation Framework. Process Prioritization Framework. Business Case Framework. Change Request Framework. Exception Management

Governance – Tools to ensure right decision making by the right people at the right time: Decision Matrix/RACI Framework. Reporting Cadence.

A Center of Excellence (CoE) approach

Define: Governance Framework for evaluating proposed processes. Process Definition and Alignment. Management Metrics and Dashboard. Communications Plan.

Evaluate, Review & Approve: Research (PoCs) & Recommend. Tools and Automation Solutions. Identify Implementation Partners. Enterprise level Automation. Solution Architecture and Integration Approach. Security Model. Automation Orchestration and Management Platform & Svc Portfolio.

Implement /Innovate:  Maintaining Automation Framework. Build Reference Robots and other shell. Identify Reuse Opportunities. Internal Utilities to improve Automation Delivery, Deployment, Testing, Maintenance.

Support, Consult, and Educate: Provide Expertise, Documentation and ongoing training. Evaluate and Recommend latest Automation trends and Technology. Support Change Management. Focus on Skills and Competencies.

Conclusions

Reframe your strategy & business model: Embracing Intelligent automation is not just about taking out cost. It’s about creating - or protecting-your advantage. Rather than squeezing another nickel out of linear, people-centric processes, your core objective should be to leverage emerging automation platforms to digitize business processes, eliminate manual activities, & drive greater cost efficiency, responsiveness, and productivity. To transform strategically and sustainably, leverage a comprehensive digital strategy and a deep understanding of what social, political, or regulatory barriers to adoption stand in your way.

Define the business value: What outcomes will intelligent automation bring to the business – they may include: New service and product offerings. Productivity increases. Service quality and delivery is being improved. Accelerated, innovation and opportunity generation. Operational transformation.

 Reevaluate Outsourcing Contracts: Look forward. What do you expect from your outsourcing relationships in this new, digitized world? If you’re a service provider, ta buyer of outsourcing, ask your provider what they’re bringing to the table in terms of automation. If you’re Think about how you can digitize your business process knowledge and talk to your clients about ways to collaborate.

Redeploy Your Resources: With automation, many manual activities will be eliminated and free up skilled labor. How will you manage widespread workforce change? Think about how you can use these skilled labors to do something else for your business. Could those resources take on higher value roles, becoming experts who resolve issues that technology cannot? For example, will you need to train more engineers and coders to develop and maintain the technologies that now do your business’ manual tasks? Organizations have targeted low-value opportunities for task-based automation and will increasingly seek to incorporate more advanced analytical and AI technologies as part of their solutions.

Leaders – Leaders start with the Work, Not the “Job” or the Technology: “Technology is changing, and the ramifications of this evolution will be felt in every aspect of life. How we interact is going to change in ways many people just can’t imagine right now. One thing is certainly clear: Breakthrough technologies will continue to transform experiences for businesses and consumers alike. Leaders must be willing to embrace their civic duty—the actions of an individual must benefit the society as a whole. The new leaders of tomorrow must be ready to face a complex set of unknowns never faced before.” – Hyacinth, Brigette Tasha. The Future of Leadership: Rise of Automation, Robotics and Artificial Intelligence.

?The following materials were leveraged while preparing the material here referenced: Accenture - High Efficiency IT, Robotic Process Automation. Capgemini - Robotic Process Automation. Deloitte - RPA and Cognitive Automation. Automation with Intelligence. Everest Group - RPA Technology Vendor Landscape. EY - Insights on Robotic Process Automation. Forrester - Wave Robotic Process Automation. HFS Research - Intelligent Automation. KPMG - Robotic Process Automation; Digital Transformation; From Human to Digital Labor.