5 Most Common Causes that RPA Implementations Can Fail and How To Overcome Them
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has become the perfect illustration of disruptive technology.
In Australia alone, 84% of organisations believe that RPA is vital to:
- deliver a superior customer experience
- achieve sustainable business excellence and
- gain more success in today’s competitive business landscape.
Not only does it provide noticeable financial benefits, RPA also offers qualitative advantages like increased job satisfaction for employees who can finally ditch the monotonous, repetitive duties for more exciting projects.
But as is usually the case with innovative technologies, implementing RPA can be challenging. Despite the hype, RPA implementations still can fail.
Being aware of the potential causes, however, can help you prevent them from happening to your business.
So, here are the 5 most common reasons RPA fail.
5 reasons RPA implementations fail and how to overcome them
RPA automates rule-based, routine, tedious, high-frequency and high-volume processes – the ones that everybody in your company dreads.
Administrative activities in sales, marketing, online queries, data extraction, finance, management and simple customer service operations are among the most typical RPA application areas.
But according to Ernst & Young, 30-50% of initial RPA projects do not succeed.
What can be the reasons, then?
At CiGen, we have compiled the most common potential causes for RPA implementation failure and how to overcome them:
- Embarking on the automation journey with unrealistic expectations
It’s a mistake to assume that the RPA solution will be ready to run from the very beginning, with little to no adjustment or customisation.
In fact, professional services are required along the roll-out journey for RPA’s deployment, onboarding and further scaling.
So, what should you do?
Start with a crystal-clear set of objectives that you aim to attain. Setting specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound (SMART) business goals will enable you to have more realistic expectations.
- Moving too fast
When you are excited and can’t wait to see the benefits that people praise RPA for, it is rather tempting to rush into speeding through the implementation of RPA. But without a proper evaluation of how automation can specifically assist your business, you might not be able to make the most out of it.
So, what should you do?
Our recommendation is that, prior to RPA’s implementation, you should thoroughly consider:
- your business priorities
- the areas that are most likely to benefit from RPA implementation
- how you can operationalise these benefits
In doing so, you will be able to more effectively assess the extent to which RPA should be implemented in your company and how best to roll it out.
- Inappropriately choosing what processes to automate
Choosing what business processes to automate is crucial when designing an intelligent automation plan.
Selecting excessively complex, non-standardised and unpredictable processes, which typically require human intervention and have irregular labour requirements can be a poor choice, especially if it’s the first time you’ve implemented RPA.
So, what should you do?
To avoid this potential implementation pitfall, both your business analysts and IT staff should actively take part in the process selection and optimisation. These teams must establish a shared understanding of all potential processes, particularly of what their end goal is.
- Leaving the IT team on the outside
No one can deny the crucial roles that business operations teams play in the success of RPA implementation, especially IT.
Their ideas about the automation journey, as well as how they monitor its costs, accuracy, application and standards all make a difference.
However, often the IT team is not actively included in the RPA roll-out plan, to the project’s detriment.
So, what should you do?
Keep in mind: efficiently meeting the right standards also requires the participation of the IT team.
Their technical expertise, data security competence, procedural knowledge of the current IT infrastructure and testing and maintenance capabilities are just some of the reasons why they ought to be part of the implementation process.
After all, RPA implementation is a collaborative process between business and IT departments, each with their own vital contribution.
- Lacking a coherent long-term plan supported by strong governance
The phrase “automation journey” should be taken seriously because the adoption of RPA should not be seen as a one-time event only.
There is a need for a clear-cut strategy that takes into account the impact of the process over time, including the wide perspective of RPA’s effects at the company level.
So, what should you do?
To avoid RPA failures, you should plan realistically for months (not merely days!) and share these plans with all those affected within your company.
An effective approach is to let a trusted partner like CiGen manage your automation program. As professionals with years of experience, we can make the whole journey simple and effective – simply because we’ve done RPA implementations so many times.
With us, you’ll have full peace of mind knowing that we won’t miss any critical detail.
For more information, read 6 Robotic Process Automation Best Practices for Maximum Gain.
Don’t let these potential failures hinder the success of your RPA projects
Robotic Process Automation (RPA) offers every business a long list of benefits.
However, if the rollout is not implemented carefully, you can run into challenges. As the list above shows, most reasons for automation failure are due to human errors.
Nevertheless, being aware of these potential causes of mistakes is the first step towards trying different, more successful approaches in the future.
Guidance from subject matter experts throughout your journey also increases the likelihood of successful outcomes.
At CiGen, we partner with organisations like yours to help you achieve the full business benefits of digital automation and establish a flexible operational environment for your future growth.
Our ultimate goal is to energise organisations and the workforce of tomorrow as digital technologies increasingly evolve toward Artificial Intelligence (AI), Computational Intelligence (CI) and Robotic Process Automation (RPA).
Harness the true power of automation with CiGen On Demand
Our team of RPA specialists are here to ensure you reap all of the rewards of business automation, while we address all of the potential risks.
We even provide an affordable automation service to small and medium-sized businesses through our CiGen On Demand subscription solution, making it even easier for your business to harness the true power of automation and earn back your valuable time.
Contact us today for more information on how we can help your business to succeed through robotic process automation.
