Top 5 Tips for Selecting the Most Valuable Workflows for RPA
This is part two of a 3-part series. If you missed the first part in which I explained what Robotic Process Automation (RPA) is, and delved into its many benefits, please take a look here.
Now that we’re all convinced of the many benefits of RPA, the next steps are choosing the best workflows — and getting started!
If you’re thinking that this all must be so complicated and technical — you’re mistaken. Implementing RPA has never been easier! RPA has come a long way, with most tools on the market designed for business users rather than developers. They are typically no/low code, and include automated wizards, recorders, and drag-and-drop features.
Once you decide which workflows to automate (I’ll walk you through that below), implementation is simple. You don’t need to undertake complex automation projects to tackle all your business processes at once. Rather, best practice is to begin with a single automated workflow, enabling you to learn how to use the RPA tool and test it. Then, phase in additional automations and scale up in complexity and quantity, as needed.
At this point, you might be wondering: Which processes can be automated? How do I determine the most suitable use cases for automation — my low-hanging fruit?
To identify the best workflows for automation, use this helpful checklist:
- Choose the most valuable workflow: There are different approaches for determining the most valuable workflows for RPA. Some believe that the most valuable workflows are repetitive tasks performed by the most expensive employees. Others suggest identifying the processes with the highest repetition, regardless of who is doing them. We suggest using the following measure:
Value = Cost of the process X the number of repetitions in a certain period
- Choose a process that has clear rules, or a fixed decision point: RPA bots need clear parameters. Optimal flows for automation are those that don’t require decision-making and have defined rules. This route creates components that can be reused easily.
- Choose a flow that has a consistent, repeatable pattern: Automation works best when outcomes are predictable and consistent. Some applications present different pages for different situations, resulting in dynamic workflows. A more challenging situation is an application with dynamic exceptions that needs event handling. In most cases, these kinds of applications open a pop-up window and change behavior based on dynamic responses from the end-user. Such cases will be difficult for a bot and would require that automations be captured for all possible responses.
- Choose flows with a clear and accurate input and response: The more clear, accurate, and consistent the data is, the more smoothly the automation will run. When data is inconsistent it may affect the flow and the automation complexity.
- Choose flows that involve several systems or applications: A huge advantage of RPA is its ability to synchronize between different systems, and this can bring tremendous value by eliminating manual integration. However, don’t forget the golden rule — choose only high-value workflows!
Download the printable checklist here.
Identifying the most suitable and valuable workflows to automate is essential for achieving ROI from your Oracle RPA strategy. RPA should be used to optimize existing processes; don’t automate a process just for the sake of automating it. Organizations need to think critically about which tasks to automate. Tasks that are not ideal for automation are actions that are one-off or very infrequent, unpredictable, decision-laden, or able to be done quickly and easily by employees. Automating these types of tasks would not bring the same value as those outlined in the checklist above.
While it can be tempting to begin with automating processes that are exciting and ambitious, being practical really is the best way to lay the groundwork and begin building your RPA infrastructure. Jubilee Life Insurance is a great example; they used Oracle RPA to create a virtual DBA after discovering that 60% of their DBAs’ time was spent on internal processes, such as unlocking users’ accounts and changing passwords. Their virtual DBA now handles all of these back-end requests and more — freeing up employees and enabling requests to be handled without delays, 24/7. (Read more about Jubilee Life’s success with RPA here).
I hope that I’ve convinced you by now that it’s not worth biting off more than you can chew; select one or two simple and routine workflows to start with. Once you have a bot in place, focus on mastering and testing it before scaling automation. Keep in mind that automated workflows should bring you a lot of bang for your buck. Successful automation of high-value use cases can really make an impact on your business, and bring transformational results to an entire organization.
Stay tuned for part 3: How to Choose the Right RPA Tool
Want to learn more about RPA and its benefits? Here’s a good place to start.
