How to deploy RPA successfully

Robotic process automation (RPA) uses rules-based processes to perform repetitive tasks more quickly, accurately and tirelessly than humans. RPA bots save time and enable people to focus on value-added work. It's an emerging technology and learning from those who have tackled RPA before you is a key to your success. Based on real user reviews of Automation Anywhere RPA product, IT Central Station's  PeerPaper explores how to deploy RPA successfully.

[ Related: 4 steps to RPA success  | RPA and AI: Business process automation gets smart | Robotic process automation is on the rise ]

Users with hands-on experience explain that the key factors contributing to a successful RPA deployment are ease of use, ease of administration, versatility, customer support, a scalablability, and focus on TCO and ROI.

Ease of use spreads the work

When a product is easy to use, nonspecialists can become involved in the creation of the bots. This lightens the workload of specialized developers, helping budgets and recruiting efforts.

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Ease of administration: the difference between success and failure

Ease of administration is about avoiding excessive burdens that can drag an RPA project into a failure zone in favor of ease of implementation, ease of installation, security and role-based access controls (credentials security). An automation manager at a financial services firm with more than 1,000 employees said, “MetaBot reusable code makes development much quicker and role-based access gives us security control.”

Versatility

Running both attended and unattended bots with cognitive capabilities that can integrate with multiple systems covers a wide-range of RPA possibilities. For a senior RPA developer at a financial services firm, “Looking at a company like ours, with so many different departments and processes and policies, and so many manual tasks, the use cases that we can have for both attended and unattended bots are pretty much countless.”

Customer support

For RPA to work right, an RPA product needs to provide outstanding customer support. Excellent technical support needs to address all inquiries in an accurate, fast and knowledgeable manner. In this context, a manufacturing company finance head said he values his platform RPA vendor’s global and local support, customer service and technical support.

Scalability is key

Processes automated through RPA can expand quickly in an enterprise. The ability to scale bots and overall platform functionality is essential to avoid costly slowdowns or outright project failure. The automation manager at the financial services firm said, “We’re planning on moving the infrastructure into the cloud and it’s then a very interesting prospect to be able to scale up from 100 bots to 1,000 bots with just the click of a button.”

TCO and ROI

Deploying RPA in an enterprise environment takes a well-crafted mix of people, process and technology. This can be achieved by selecting the right solution to lower the total cost of ownership (TCO) and show return on investment (ROI). According to a digital expert at a consultancy with over 10,000 employees, “If you implement it (Automation Anywhere) right, the ROI can start within one year. It delivers quick benefits in terms of ROI.”

RPA is a key component of digital transformation is. IT Central Station members say they are using Automation Anywhere to handle large digital workloads while increasing productivity and reducing costs, changing their companies’ strategic landscapes.

Learn more by reading IT Central Station’s PeerPaper titled "Why do RPA projects fail? and how to avoid it."