6 key automation implementation mistakesAnd how you can avoid them when applying RPA or IPA to your processes

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6 key automation implementation mistakes

Organizations must address challenges ahead of time and properly

prepare for them, or risk wasting company time, effort and money

on automation projects that don’t return the desired ROI.

In this ebook, we list out the most common challenges faced when

implementing robotic process automation (RPA) or intelligent

process automation (IPA) platforms. We then give solutions to

prevent these potential challenges.

KPMG reported last year that most intelligent automation projects underway or in the pipeline at that time would fail.

Forrester claimed that more than half of early digital transformation efforts were stalled in 2018 due to lack of organizational readiness.

Businesses have high expectations for automation and understand

the technology can drastically improve processes and productivity.

However, many face challenges when it’s time to implement.

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6 key automation implementation mistakes

2 Lack of Governance

Challenge

Many automation implementers fail to consider many important factors before

starting their project. They often don’t know to ask important questions such as:

• What is the overall goal of automation implementation?

• Will this project stay in one department or become enterprise-wide?

• Who owns the project and what teams will be involved?

• How quickly does this project need to be done?

• How will success be measured and who owns those metrics?

This is fairly common as most companies are making important decisions with a

variety of unknowns. However, forgetting to create a strategy around these factors

leads to a bumpy implementation journey.

Solution

Avoid this by developing an adoption strategy to utilize the full benefits of process

automation, even if it’s half-baked as the project gains momentum. Moving quickly

with implementation is key to acquiring a first-automator advantage over your

competitors.

Best practices suggest starting small, starting early and staying nimble. Consider

the answers to the above questions when building out this strategy.

Challenge

Similar to a lack of strategy many companies fail to establish automation project

leadership. Many either fail to establish a decision maker or have too many decision

makers on a project; both of which prevent incremental implementation steps from

getting accomplished.

Many also forget to consider post implementation ownership, such as maintenance

and oversight. This can pose major risks to a company should a software robot be

incorrectly set up, an automation misfires or another programming error occurs.

Solution

Identify one decision maker for the overarching automation initiative with the highest

authority to make quick and important decisions to keep the project moving. Create a

1 Lack of Strategy

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6 key automation implementation mistakes

3 ROI Analysis

center of excellence (CoE) that informs and provides feedback to the decision maker.

But keep bureaucracy to a minimum and use the CoE for generating recommendations,

not decisions.

Consider post-implementation governance as a part of your strategy. Prevent speed

bumps down the road by building responsibilities for maintaining, reviewing and

updating your use case processes ahead of time.Challenge

Challenge

Enterprise organizations often have trouble weighing the cost and resources of

implementing automation against the ROI they expect. Many make the mistake of

calculating ROI based solely on cutting costs. This is short sighted and overlooks

some of the more powerful benefits of automation.

However, these other benefits are hard to measure. Consider revenue generation and

risk mitigation that will come from factors such as better customer service, increasing

employee productivity and satisfaction, heightened data security and greater

compliance accuracy. Factoring in these qualitative benefits make it hard to put a

definitive value on an automation solution’s ROI.

Different use cases impact the calculations as well as the type of automation technology

being applied. RPA tends to see faster ROI but IPA endures more savings over time.

Solution

Set realistic expectations by expanding ROI calculations beyond reducing headcount.

Find ways to turn qualitative metrics into quantitative factors such as customer

satisfaction and employee engagement and weigh that into the ROI equation; this

could be measurements of net promoter scores or employee satisfaction rankings.

Accept that initial calculations will be educated guesses and that not every benefit

will be included in primary forecasts. Don’t get stuck on the math and prevent your

project from moving forward.

Perform a proof of concept (PoC) before selecting a tool. Ensure that it produces the

metrics you’re hoping for before implementing it fully within your company. Calculate

ROI after the first PoC use case and then continue to measure ROI at regular intervals.

Use these metrics to decide whether to scale your automation across other areas of

your organization.

6 key automation implementation mistakes

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5 Use Case Selection

Challenge

As innovation continues to accelerate, finding people with the right skills becomes a

major issue for companies implementing any new technology including automation.

Automation projects require people with proper technical skill, understanding of the

business processes, and change management expertise. Assigning people to ongoing

maintenance, support and troubleshooting is also a shortcoming many businesses

run into.

Solution

Should a company lack talent and the ability to hire automation experts, seek a

product without a steep learning curve. These are often called “no code” automation

environments that allow businesses to get the same benefits of automation without too

much overhead on technical talent.

Another opportunity to compact this challenge is upskilling current employees by

offering trainings and certifications that improve their automation abilities. This can

be beneficial for the business and its employees who both utilize these newfound

automation skills and knowledge sets.

For more on how to develop current employees’ skills, sign up for Automation Hero’s

upcoming training series.

Challenge

Many businesses that are implementing automation for the first time make the mistake

of choosing unrealistic or “tough to crack” use cases. Often, decision makers pick the

use cases that cause their business the most pain and try to automate that process as

their trial use case. These may be highly valuable if successful, but they are also high

effort and more likely to be unsuccessful.

Others decide to automate an already bad process. If the process doesn’t work,

applying automation is a waste of time, tools and money when the process may need

to be revised or dismantled altogether.

Solution

Start small and target the highest value for the lowest effort use cases, and automate

these. Over time, build a library of processes to automate and begin working on the

more difficult processes as initial ones see success. Deciding how best to deploy

4Lack of Talent

process automation and which processes will see the most return is challenging and

critical to success.

Host a use case discovery workshop to find high value, low effort use cases with

stakeholders across the organization. Select vendors that offer these use cases and

undergo PoCs with single or multiple vendors to determine which use cases and

vendors deliver the highest ROI.

Challenge

Many companies focus solely on the technology when implementing automation but

fail to consider the people who will be impacted by it. Often employees are afraid of

robots “stealing” their jobs and dislike change.

Without addressing and overcoming these organizational culture problems that come

with implementing new technologies, businesses often see resistance, non-compliance

and upheaval.

While most change resistance comes from the bottom-up, one of the more detrimental

problems is when leadership sponsorship is not acquired. This prevents proper strategy

from ever getting into place and high quality communication on the purpose and

outcome of the project from being shared.

Solution

Address the fear and resistance that may be rising within employees. Explain and

highlight the benefits of automation for everyone in accessible and understandable

terms rather than technical jargon. Have clear and open communication as the change

is occuring.

Ensure leadership sponsorship early on. Have a clear strategy that aligns with executive

goals and create a channel of high-quality communication with them on why automation

is imperative to implement. Leaders’ buy-in throughout implementation sends a strong

signal to the rest of the company and paves the way for successful adoption.

6 Change Management

6 key automation implementation mistakes

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