RPA - Strategic or Tactical?

RPA is now more mainstream than two years ago. Everyone wants a piece of the action. Most have a plan after asking good questions – what are the processes that are good candidates? where are the quick wins? how will the stakeholders be engaged? Most organisations now have a designated Process Automation Team or a Robotics Team and some of them are beyond the pilot phase with some great experiences and some bad experiences, and everything in between.

Organisations that are beyond the RPA pilot phase are struggling to scale it to a RPA Centre of Excellence. The reasons are

a)      There are no more quick wins they can identify easily

b)     The robots didn’t deliver as well or as much benefit as expected

c)      It has upset the status quo

Dig deeper and you will soon realise these are symptoms and not the root cause. When a RPA program is designed well upfront, it has better chances of sustainable success. To me, a sustainable success is when the Process Automation doesn’t stop with the Centre of Excellence but becomes part of the organisation’s DNA – it becomes everyone’s goal to seek, strive and sustain.

RPA Continuum

In one end of the RPA Continuum, there is the tactical Quick Fix, whilst at the other end there is the strategic Lean/Systems Thinking. Let's look at them.

The Quick Fix RPA Program

We need to do this RPA thing quickly, let's get our Ops Team to prioritise this, let's look at the processes that are good candidates and automate quickly. 'No time to lose'.

The advantages are

a)      Shows quick action

b)     Delivers some quick benefits that keeps the Sponsor happy

c)      Demonstrates proof point to the wider organisation  

The disadvantages are

a)      Runs out of steam when the low hanging fruits are plucked

b)     When you automate an inefficient process, you get more inefficiencies in lesser time! The ineffectiveness is amplified at an exponential rate.

c)      As it is focused on existing processes, the initiative remains tactical

The Lean/Systems Thinking RPA Program

This is a more thought through approach, where the 'process' is a component of a bigger system, so the whole system should be looked at. 'The whole is greater than the sum of parts'.

The advantages

a)      It engages the whole organisation, it weaves into the fabric of the organisation’s culture and becomes everyone’s calling. It rallies all staff to a common cause, a shared goal and brings them all together. It is an ongoing program and a change management initiative that can be sustained

b)     Process Reengineering delivers benefits through Elimination/Simplification/Standardisation even before making investments in technology and tools at the automation stage

c)      As the business case is evident upstream, automation can become ‘Intelligent Automation’ and ‘Ethical Automation’

 The disadvantages

a)      Like with all change management initiatives, it takes time, needs grit and hard work. It happens when senior management embrace, encourage and evangelize across the organisation every day

Strategic or Tactical?

By calling it RPA - Robotic Process Automation, the industry might have unwittingly thrust it as a tactical initiative - a quick fix success story. The word 'robotic' has its own connotations of being scary, technical and outlandish, and 'process automation' brings it down, in one fell swoop, to the here and now. So, as an industry we might have missed the boat to elevate the conversation, get the Board's attention and making it a force for good.

I would much rather call it, well, 'Lean/Systems'.

Right or wrong, we are here, what can be done. Two things - Spot a doomed RPA program and Elevate the conversation

Spotting a doomed RPA program

1) The RPA tool drives the program or you selected the tool even before you figured out the vision and scope

2) The program doesn’t have an organisation-wide mandate or siloed in pockets of excellence

3) It is driven as a technology initiative rather than a change initiative

4) It doesn’t have senior management buyin - early as well as on an ongoing basis

5) It’s in a PoC/Pilot phase, or in Special Projects bucket, for more than a year

What can you do if you are running such a RPA program?

1)      Elevate the conversation within the organisation. More advocates are needed. In most organisations, senior management, even if they are stuck in the old ways, are aware that disruption is around the corner, and would be glad you took the initiative

2)     Sharpen the communications around the benefits of process re-engineering (the whole cake) rather than just automation (a slice of the cake)

3)      When you pitch for PoC/Pilot, share the overall vision and plan, and that the pilot is just the first step in the journey. The journey is not complete with the first step, so get commitments for subsequent funding based on benefits realisation in the pilot.

Would love to hear your perspectives

Do you agree with the strategic argument?

What has been your experiences?

What is your biggest learning from the experience?