7 errors to keep away from when growing RPAs

Automating enterprise processes can take the drudgery out of repeating steps, enhance productiveness, and cut back the variety of human errors. Automations embody filling out types, reworking information between completely different instruments, and looping via duties with an information checklist. Past workflows and integrations, automations may also help extract data from public web sites, SaaS, and enterprise purposes. They will run on a schedule, be triggered primarily based on enterprise guidelines, or be run manually as wanted.

Robotic process automation (RPA) platforms are used to automate enterprise processes. They supply enterprise stakeholders and technologists with instruments to develop, take a look at, deploy, and monitor bots.

Many RPA platforms embody course of mining capabilities for mapping end-to-end enterprise processes, discovery instruments for capturing the steps when utilizing completely different purposes, growth instruments to enhance a bot’s capabilities, and operational environments to run and monitor manufacturing bots. High RPA platforms embody Automation Wherever, Blue Prism, Microsoft Energy Automate, and UiPath.

Raman Sapra, president and international chief development officer at Mastek, says, “Automating with RPAs gives immense potential for effectivity positive factors, however success hinges on studying from widespread errors corresponding to neglecting correct course of evaluation, underestimating change administration, or overcomplicating workflows.”

Like all know-how, robotic course of automation exists on a spectrum of hype, actuality, and finest practices. There are a lot of questions and hard-learned classes in regards to the varieties of issues automation platforms can remedy and the dangers and drawbacks of utilizing them. To get at these points, let’s take a look at seven widespread errors when growing RPAs.

Overpromising what RPAs can ship

RPA offers vital alternatives, however the hype would possibly lead you to imagine that bots can absolutely automate and repair any damaged course of, integration, or information seize. I avoid calling it automation as a result of there’s a notion that bots suggest humanless, absolutely automated processes, which don’t require ongoing upkeep and enhancements.

When growing RPA options, setting cheap expectations with enterprise stakeholders is important. I remind stakeholders that bots aren’t magic workflow simplification tablets, and growing a bot nonetheless includes code, information, and take a look at capabilities, even when the platform offers machine studying, visible growth instruments, and testing capabilities. Supporting bots in manufacturing typically requires making fixes and enhancements. Lastly, most bots nonetheless require individuals to evaluation exceptions and consider after they want enhancements. 

Growing bots with out outlined priorities

Growing RPAs has one widespread attribute with different growth actions—there’s typically extra enterprise demand than the developer expertise required to assist everybody’s priorities. Even when the RPA platform helps citizen development, making a prioritization and governance course of helps organizations keep away from creating bots to meet low-value enterprise capabilities.

Gregory Whiteside, CEO at HumanFirst, recommends reviewing buyer information as a major software for prioritizing bot growth. “One widespread mistake we see shouldn’t be leveraging the voice of the client (VoC) information accessible throughout completely different buyer expertise channels, corresponding to name heart information, stay chat logs, and assist tickets to tell on automation priorities and roadmaps,” he says. “VoC comprises extremely worthwhile quantitative and qualitative data that may inform what wants prioritization and what edge circumstances should be dealt with efficiently by RPA.”

Automating extremely complicated enterprise processes

Let’s say you discover an space the place you imagine RPA will ship vital enterprise impression. Earlier than constructing a bot, how do you consider the feasibility and complexity of the mission?

One straightforward manner is to doc a circulation diagram and depend the variety of individuals, integrations, and steps concerned. Automating a circulation for a couple of individuals, one or two integrations, and several other steps is extra possible and nearer to a enterprise process. Complicated enterprise processes involving many individuals, roles, and integrations could require capabilities past what RPA can do. On this case, you’ll seemingly want individuals to carry out a few of the steps in a semi-automated course of. 

“The most important mistake when utilizing RPA is to fall into the lure of considering it may possibly automate processes, and in actuality, RPA is extra precisely robotic process automation (RTA),” says Aali Qureshi, SVP of Gross sales for the Americas at Kissflow. “RPA bots are nice for automating particular person, repetitive vertical duties, however if you wish to create and automate extra complicated horizontal processes that span a whole enterprise, you want a low-code or no-code automation software that means that you can automate duties and processes as a way to skip hand-coding.”

For example, say you’re automating an bill processing workflow that requires scanning PDF paperwork, pulling information from an ERP, validating the information, and supporting an approval workflow. Many RPAs can automate the primary three steps, however you’ll typically want a separate functionality to develop the approval workflow, corresponding to a low-code or no-code platform.

Qureshi recommends, “For creating related processes that depend on each other and may change primarily based on sure guidelines or exceptions, low-code or no-code automation instruments are the higher possibility when in comparison with RPA.”

Automating evolving enterprise processes

Let’s contemplate that you just’re growing a bot for an necessary, high-value enterprise process that requires solely two integrations and some steps. Does that suggest that the enterprise process may be automated simply?

Not so quick, says Esko Hannula, senior vp of product administration at Copado. “One mistake is automating a risky course of, and RPA is finest used for automating the secure enterprise processes on legacy methods that now not change,” he says. “If the underlying methods or something affecting their conduct continues to be evolving, RPA could not survive these adjustments and [could] trigger interruptions in operations.”

Listed below are some examples of a risky course of:

• The enterprise guidelines are evolving or have many exceptions.
• The SaaS platforms or web sites being built-in change their person interfaces steadily.
• Many information or doc codecs aren’t constant, and constructions change steadily.
• The underlying methods are unreliable.
• Rules across the course of and information are evolving.

Automating a bot in opposition to risky and inconsistent supply situations and necessities may be difficult. Even when a bot is constructed, it should seemingly require greater upkeep to assist the adjustments.

Hannula shared one other complexity issue: “If the enterprise course of is vulnerable to exceptions that require human involvement, RPA could fail to ship the specified return on funding,” he says.

Deploying a bot with out error detection

It’s not solely exceptions that may be problematic, particularly when deploying bots to assist vital enterprise processes. The following mistake to keep away from is deploying bots to manufacturing with out information validation, error detection, monitoring, and alerting.

“RPA is comparatively straightforward so long as one can assume it really works accurately, or if it doesn’t, no injury will likely be accomplished. However malfunctioning RPA could make an enormous variety of errors in a really quick time,” says Hannula.

One finest observe is centralizing bot monitoring and alerting with the devops or IT ops groups liable for monitoring purposes and infrastructure. When there are points, their operational playbooks ought to account for assist for bots as in the event that they had been simply one other software, integration, or information pipeline.

A second finest observe is to teach citizen developers on easy methods to make their bots observable by implementing error detection and logging course of steps, making use of naming conventions, and documenting the implementation. 

No plan for ongoing assist

Bots are software program, and software program requires ongoing upkeep. Really, bots could require extra frequent fixes than purposes do, particularly if the underlying methods they join to vary steadily.

Take into account a bot that extracts information from an internet site utilizing CSS identifiers or different weak strategies to pick information from the DOM. These bots are error-prone, particularly when the underlying web site updates pages steadily.

One other situation is when bots coordinate flows throughout many integration factors. One small change in a SaaS software’s inputs or payloads means the bot will seemingly require assist to deal with the adjustments.

“RPAs often is the proper strategy for older methods with out APIs, however they require fixed handbook updating,” says Harrison Hersch, director of product at Quickbase. “Nearly all of companies right now use a wide range of SaaS options, and you’ll’t depend on RPAs to automate, streamline, and sew collectively that complicated portfolio in a scalable manner.”

Hersch recommends mapping out the total enterprise course of and the required integrations. “Use RPAs sparingly, if in any respect, regardless of the rise in AI-based self-healing RPAs. As a substitute of RPAs, contemplate an iPaaS strategy; it’s a confirmed future-proof method to remedy these points.”

Hersch mentions iPaaS or integration platforms as a service, an possibility for companies that need to combine many SaaS and enterprise options into sturdy enterprise processes.

Treating bots because the endgame

A number of years in the past, I used to be at a convention moderating a panel on the advantages and dangers of large-scale RPA deployments. I’ve forgotten who stated it, however his phrases caught with me: “Keep in mind that bots are band-aids overlaying up legacy platforms and enterprise processes. They’re code on high of code. Ultimately, you’ll have to spend money on app and enterprise course of modernization.”

I imagine bots can present vital enterprise worth, particularly for organizations that keep away from the widespread errors on this article. Bots may also help cut back prices and enhance high quality—primarily shopping for time and saving cash that may be utilized to decreasing technical debt and sunsetting legacy methods. RPAs at their finest supply a excessive ROI. However digital trailblazers acknowledge they’re finest deployed as a part of an total modernization and digital transformation technique—and never because the endgame for legacy methods.