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Contributed on April 3, 2020

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Signs RPA Might Be Right for You

Blog: Appian Insight

With the promise of increased productivity and cost savings, it’s no wonder that many organizations are eager to implement Robotic Process Automation (RPA). However, fully understanding if your organization is ready for RPA is an important first step.

Wanting automation for the sake of automation isn’t enough. There are key signs to watch for that will help you know if you’re ready for RPA:

• Your employees are victims of the “swivel-chair effect”.
• You have a substantial backlog of integration needs.
• You require high levels of compliance and auditability.

I’ll dive into each of these in greater detail below, but if you’re already shaking your head ‘yes’ to these and can point to examples throughout your organization, you’re probably already on the right path to RPA.

3 Signs RPA is Right for You

1. Your employees are victims of the “swivel-chair effect”.
   This is a ubiquitous challenge across all organizations – working across multiple systems to do our jobs. You get information from one screen, then swivel your chair to the other screen and pull info from there – screen 1, alt-tab, copy, swivel, screen 2, paste, repeat… again and again. RPA can help streamline and accelerate these steps. Everything from logging into systems, getting data, and performing the task can be done by a software robot. Employees can focus on complex and thought provoking work that will make a greater impact to your organization.
2. You have a substantial backlog of integration needs.
   Building new enterprise applications (or upgrading the ones you have) requires integrations with existing business systems that may or may not have access to APIs. This can be daunting, especially for large organizations that have amassed hundreds (or more) of disparate business systems. RPA can help integrate business systems, enabling you to leverage your existing technology investments and avoid time-consuming, costly integration projects.
3. You require high levels of compliance and auditability.
   Every organization is feeling the increased pressure of laws and regulations with no one industry immune. Many organizations are required to precisely know how a particular task is completed, then record it for audit and compliance purposes. With RPA, a software robot performs a predefined set of actions, without departures from the standard flow of work, further establishing better process accuracy, higher levels of compliance, and reduced risks. Additionally, the bots’ tasks are automatically captured and logged, resulting in easy, accurate auditability.RPA can help serve as a tool to improve compliance, governance, auditability, and risk management.

Next Steps for RPA

So, your organization checks the boxes? What now? Your next priority should be to identify the right use cases and tasks for RPA. In my next blog, I’ll explore what the best use cases for RPA are (hint – RPA can’t solve everything).

I’d also invite you to sign up for our webinar on April 23 with Forrester VP and Principal Analyst, Rob Koplowitz, titled Full-Stack Automation: Utilizing the Right Technology for the Right Use Case. We’ll explore different automation technologies, including RPA, and show you what the right mix of technology should look like.

Do you need automation beyond RPA? Read the Gartner Hyperautomation report to better understand the key technologies needed for end-to-end automation.