How can you identify RPA opportunities with business stakeholders and subject matter experts?

Initiating this crucial step is vital as automation holds the potential to revolutionize multiple facets of an organization. Understanding the business goals, success metrics, and key processes is pivotal. It's the starting point to explore automation opportunities, urging us not to limit ourselves to existing methods but also consider new avenues. For example, when launching new products or revenue streams, integrating automation from the start can streamline operations significantly.

Identifying Robotic Process Automation (RPA) opportunities requires collaboration between business stakeholders, subject matter experts (SMEs), and the IT team. 1. Understand Business Processes: Engage with business stakeholders and SMEs to gain a deep understanding of existing business processes. Identify repetitive, rule-based, and time-consuming tasks that can be automated 2. Conduct Process Assessments 3. Evaluate Rule-Based Tasks 4. Assess Volume and Frequency 5. Engage Stakeholders in Workshops 6. Evaluate Regulatory Compliance 7. Prioritize Processes for Automation 8. Assess Integration Possibilities 9. Identify Quick Wins 10. Quantify Benefits and ROI 11. Create a Roadmap for Implementation 12. Continuous Communication and Feedback

This is not as easy as it sounds. RPA needs to fit into a practical overall digital transformation strategy for its application to be purposeful. Without it you will continuously have to defend the value of RPA vs other automation tools and the cost to maintain it...

Engage stakeholders and subject matter experts through collaborative workshops to understand current processes, pain points, and inefficiencies. Utilize process mining tools for data-driven insights. Identify repetitive, rule-based tasks suitable for automation. Prioritize based on ROI and strategic goals. Demonstrate quick wins to build confidence. Establish clear communication channels for ongoing collaboration.

Many hold the view that you should start with initial automations and then expand. I think your strategy should inform the "why" you are automating and why RPA need to fulfill that role. It will save time and avoid competition with other automation technology with the organization. RPA have the means to be non-intrusive and can bride integration challenges and as a workhorse that can do the heavy lifting, but the value and benefits realization conversations are easier when it's purposefully applied. Secondly, your CoE should be positioned to get the traction and business buy-in. Remember this is trust-based and the more rpa can be trusted with the work, with quick response, the more opportunities would come your way!

Honestly, I feel like a strong RPA Center of Excellence, Change Management, Governance, Maintenance Aspects, etc should all be its own number and is a priority for a successful RPA Program. I see RPA customers jump straight into multiple people/departments creating bots and it can get messy really quickly and become unsustainable for the program overall.

Communication is key in any successful business transformation with automation. Far too may times, I see automation champions within the business and IT, change roles, leaving the automation program to languish due to lack of support. Continuously monitoring, highlighting and communicating the value to the stakeholders, sponsors and c-suite helps to ensure better understanding of the benefits and positive impact on the business.