What Do You Need to Know Before Starting an RPA Project?

Do you know what RPA stands for? It is enough for business leaders to know that this technology will automate internal and external processes. Thus, the company speeds up and clarifies service, logistics, and management. As an economic effect, the owner of the company receives a reduction in costs and an increase in profits. RPA services usually pay off in less than a year for small and medium-sized companies.

What is a typical RPA use-case?

RPA is ultimately a way to improve the process with little or no impact. RPA builds robots that replace low-skilled labor while assuming the process remains the same. Typical RPA scenarios:

• Filling in tables;

• Testing and quality control of software;

• Manual data entry;

• data correction and consolidation.

For example, often in banks to connect new customers, employees must enter the same data into several different systems. Diceus helps you implement RPA for customer data entry without changing the process. Unlike BPM and DPA-wide, RPA does not require API-based software integration, corporate system changes, and large-scale employee retraining. The same can be applied to other areas of business.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Implementing Robotic Processes

The potential benefits of RPA are numerous. Companies are promised tremendous cost savings and improved quality. RPA is also synonymous with the word “fast”: fast development, fast implementation, and fast return on investment. However, experience proves that this is not always the case. Not all companies that have implemented RPA can declare the successful completion of the project and the achievement of the set goals. This is a consequence of incorrect calculations at the preparation stage. Therefore, it is recommended to involve third-party IT auditors already at the planning stage.

Some clients report that they expected more from robotic business processes. Customer survey shows that in 86% of cases, RPA implementation resulted in expected performance gains or even exceeded expectations. However, automation falls short of expectations of 40% cost savings, in part because development and implementation are taking longer than expected. Thus, it can be concluded that the preparation and planning of RPA projects should be treated more carefully, taking into account the factors that can lead to project delay.

It should be noted that in robotic automation of business processes, general benefits, disadvantages and costs can be distinguished. The main benefits of introducing robotization include increasing the efficiency of processes while reducing the time for their implementation, and improving the quality of work. For many clients, an important factor is the ability to work 24/7, which allows some processes to be performed at night. There are other benefits to automation as well. For example, it reduces the number of errors to zero, excluding the human factor. In some cases, such mistakes can be very costly for the company. Another important plus is a reduction in the overall cost of performing a business process, namely, reducing the number of employees involved in a business process, or freeing up employees’ working time to perform other tasks.

However, you should also consider the costs that the client will incur when deciding to implement RPA. These costs include the development and implementation of RPA. “Bots” must be installed, tested, and, if necessary, made changes. Further, within a certain period of time, it is necessary to check and analyze its work. Resources must also be planned for this. Another type of cost that customers expect is the cost of an RPA platform license. This subscription may be billed monthly or yearly, depending on the provider and license type.

Other issues

In addition to costs, there are other disadvantages to consider before starting an RPA project. The security issue is one of the most difficult and controversial at the moment. The question of sensitive data such as accounts remains open. The next question to be answered is the question of who will be responsible for the mistake made by the robot. Resistance from staff or management is also a significant disadvantage when introducing robotic automation. For the successful implementation of RPA, competitive analysis of the business process is required, which can only be carried out with the support of staff and company management. This requires that everyone understands the goals of automation and contributes to the development of this project.