In recent times, RPA has become a mandatory strategy lever for achieving digital transformation. RPA adoption has increased tremendously in the last couple of years and it is the fastest-growing software sub-segment with a year on year growth of more than 60% as per recent Gartner Magic Quadrant 2019 RPA report.
Despite this growth, the market is still nascent, has not peaked yet and consumerization of RPA is still a long way to go. If RPA can be seen in the same light as how Cloud has evolved since its inception by Eric Schmidt in 2006 – it took almost 10 years for Cloud to be adopted by the street and now it is the heart of every software product and business model. Just as Cloud evolution, RPA evolution for true digital value addition also needs many industry & consumer forces to be aligned and also, the body of knowledge on RPA has to grow.
While the interest in exploring RPA has grown, the principles of starting RPA journey is still uncharted to many. Here are some of the principles to embark on the RPA Journey.
- RPA is for business enablement, hence understanding the need of business and drivers for adopting RPA is key for a successful journey
- Automation is not to reduce head count; it is for enabling operational efficiencies
- ROI for RPA is not always with dollar savings but with many intangible benefits
- RPA is not a traditional enterprise package like ERP or CRM, rather it’s a tool set to further automate ERP and processes executed across an enterprise
- RPA is the steppingstone to achieve AI enabled enterprise
- There may be a need of more than one RPA platforms for tackling automation and in some cases, it can be an interim solution
The journey to RPA and achieving enterprise level automation can take almost 3yrs. It depends on current technology landscape, business process execution styles and intent to change along with funding appetite. These principles may not be effective to all, but they are practical and helpful guidelines to get on to a journey with RPA.
POST WRITTEN BY
Gopi Krishna V Akella
Vice President – Sales & Business Development Sage IT Inc.
